The therapeutic work on meaning: a way to strengthen an individual’s self-healing capacity exemplified by the psychology of C.G. Jung

Abstract

The ability to determine the place and significance of events relative to the context of one's development is, in analytical psychotherapy, central to the re-establishment of health. It serves to further the formation of the total personality or the integration mechanisms which reanimate the development process. In the case of mental illness, the self-organization and developmental capabilities of the psyche are blocked. Their fusion is equivalent to the restoration of the individual's sense of coherence. In therapy, one searches for a means to access the inner resources via, among other ways, the creative process, which is itself a requirement for selfrenewal and psychic coherence. The origin of creativity resides in the unconscious and its messages can be deciphered, for example, by fantasy or dream work. As a result, a connection is established between the ego and the unconscious, accompanied by an increase in self-awareness. This is an essential step for the re-establishment of health. Using introspection, patients discover the role and significance of their suffering, which leads to autonomy and their ability to access the healing powers in themselves. These are the optimal requirements for a positive therapeutic relationship in which the patients feel themselves positively accepted because the therapist exposes the value of their inner impulses. In order to experience meaning.