Who is Carl G. Jung, Depth Psychologist

Carl G. Jung was an analytical psychiatrist. He began his studies as a student of Freud. As he matured, Dr. Jung realized he disagreed with Freud and his concept of the unconscious.

Jung believed that we have a collective unconscious. In other words, as a species human beings share a realm of symbols that have meanings which are important for the species and not just the individual.

Dr. Jung believed that our unconscious minds connected us to the soul and that the mythology of cultures from around the world demonstrated this. He said the heroes and heroines of mythology are symbols that represented the archetypes of our collective unconscious. He also believed that people who had lost perspective by identifying with the archetypes acted out of balance with their true nature.

As an analytical psychiatrist, Carl G. Jung also believed dreams are lenses into the soul. Through dream work which involved a therapeutic process called "active imagination" his patients became familiar with their "shadow" side and put their inner lives into a balanced perspective.

Carl G. Jung also believed in the animus, the male aspect in females and the anima, the female aspect in males. He said that men and women disown these aspects of themselves and misunderstand each other because they mistakenly attribute the thoughts and feelings they have to the other gender through a process known as projection. In other words, men who disowned the feminine aspects of themselves tended to stereotype women and deny thoughts and feelings of their own which are similar to those of the women in their lives.

Carl G. Jung believed in the creative unconscious. For him, the unconscious mind held solutions for us as individuals and as cultures.