Autonomous

1. Etymology

Autonomous means independent of the conscious will—associated in general with the nature of the unconscious and in particular with activated complexes. Related: autonomous complex; ego; possession.

2. Plain summary

What is autonomous does not wait for permission. Activated complexes behave on their own—intruding, projecting, seizing the scene—because they are not yoked to the conscious will. The unconscious as such has this independent character; complexes show it dramatically when charged.

Related to inferior-function behaving like an autonomous complex, and to abaissement-du-niveau-mental when ego tonus drops and autonomous contents break through.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common autonomous motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
independent of conscious will; nature of the unconscious; activated complexes; autonomous complex; projection; intrusion into ego field; possession risk; inferior-function kinship; affect as complex sign.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology autonomous names will-independence of psychic contents—especially complexes. §5 holds sample dual-stamps on complex-theory leaves and a belief-in-spirits locus naming “autonomous complexes”; it does not use an unverified CW 9i ¶285 pointer.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Autonomous. Independent of the conscious will, associated in general with the nature of the unconscious and in particular with activated complexes.

(Sharp, 1991)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

Everyone knows nowadays that people “have complexes.” What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us. The existence of complexes throws serious doubt on the naïve assumption of the unity of consciousness…
(Jung, 1934/1969, CW 8, p. 134, ¶200)

What then, scientifically speaking, is a “feeling-toned complex”? It is the image of a certain psychic situation which is strongly accentuated emotionally and is, moreover, incompatible with the habitual attitude of consciousness. This image has a powerful inner coherence, it has its own wholeness and, in addition, a relatively high degree of autonomy, so that it is subject to the control of the conscious mind to only a limited extent, and therefore behaves like an animated foreign body in the sphere of consciousness.
(Jung, 1934/1969, CW 8, p. 135, ¶201)

Autonomous complexes appear most clearly in dreams, visions, pathological hallucinations, and delusional ideas. Because the ego is unconscious of them, they always appear first in projected form. … Spirits, therefore, viewed from the psychological angle, are unconscious autonomous complexes which appear…
(Jung, 1920/1969, CW 8, p. 399, ¶¶584–585)

See also: complex; unconscious; ego; projection; inferior-function; affect; abaissement-du-niveau-mental; spirit.

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). A review of the complex theory. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, pp. 134–135, ¶¶200–201). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1934)

Jung, C. G. (1969). The psychological foundations of belief in spirits. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, p. 399, ¶¶584–585). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1920)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.