Spiritual aspects in Jungian psychotherapy

Abstract

C. G. Jung saw religious experiences as a fundamental part of human nature and by this he meant moving, emotional experiences, which make important connections with the unconscious. Without such experiences, people feel an absence of meaning in their lives, leading to major psychological disorders. One goal of psychotherapy is therefore to establish a connection to emotionally important symbols, especially archetypal symbols that facilitate integration and greater psychic wholeness. This is how he described the individuation process as allowing emotionally moving experiences, or meaningful experiences, leading to greater creativity. What Jung meant by “religious” is not religious “dogma”, it is the numinous experience behind the tradition, the longing for meaning, the experience of symbols full of life, which in turn can lead to tradition. We would call this nowadays a spiritual experience. Traditions need to undergo critical reflection. As the religious need is a basic need, it remains in the human being, even if the traditional religion does not work or is repressed. Human beings have the tendency to project what they used to call “God” onto different aspects of life - and they make it an absolute. This is how fundamentalism and fanaticism are established. Even in the search for moving emotions and symbols, which have to be connected to everyday life (as it is in an individuation process), the need to question what seems to be so convincing, is a necessary requisite to avoid fundamentalism.

Keywords Religious experiences; Symbols; Emotion; Lack ofmean-ing; Individuation process; Archetype of the self; Processes of integration; Religious experiences and psychotherapy; Cultural aspects of religion; Ideology