Analysis, Jungian

1. Etymology

Jungian analysis (also analytic therapy) names a form of therapy specializing in neurosis, aimed at bringing unconscious contents to consciousness, based on the school Jung called analytical (or complex) psychology. Related: individuation; transference; unconscious; distinct from Freudian psychoanalysis as a dogmatic sexual theory.

2. Plain summary

Jungian analysis is not a temporary “cure” you take and leave healed. It is a long-term dialectical relationship between analyst and patient that investigates the unconscious so living can breathe again—whether the disturbance is neurotic or deeper. Analysis clears stones from the path of development; it does not stuff the patient with what was never there. Authority’s leftovers keep people infantile; what lasts is what the person acquires.

Jung preferred “analysis of the unconscious” / analytical psychology over “psychoanalysis” once Freud welded that name to sexual theory. Early practice also distinguished anamnestic work (history and ego support) from analysis that engages the unconscious more directly. Readjustment of psychological attitude with a doctor’s help is real—and no change stays unconditionally valid forever.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common Jungian-analysis motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
bring unconscious to consciousness; neurosis specialty; clear path not implant content; follow patient’s erring ways; not a dischargeable “cure”; readjustment of attitude; no permanently valid change; vs Freudian psychoanalysis label; anamnestic vs unconscious analysis; dialectical analyst–patient bond; intensity/depth/frequency vs psychotherapy; individuation may or may not unfold; transference field; stages of life.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology Jungian analysis is method and relationship—symbolic depth work that refuses to be reduced to a technique bolted to one dogma. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4; §5 holds sample CW stamps. Prefer CW 4 / 8 / 17.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Analysis, Jungian. A form of therapy specializing in neurosis, aimed at bringing unconscious contents to consciousness; also called analytic therapy, based on the school of thought developed by C.G. Jung called analytical (or complex) psychology. … [Analysis] is only a means for removing the stones from the path of development… The art of analysis lies in following the patient on all his erring ways…

(Sharp, 1991)

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — analysis p. 17; analytical psychology p. 21:

analysis Jungian analysis is a long-term dialectical relationship between two people, ANALYST AND PATIENT… directed toward an investigation of the patient’s UNCONSCIOUS… Distinguishing between analysis and PSYCHOTHERAPY… intensity, depth, frequency… duration…

analytical psychology In 1913… Jung used the term ‘analytical psychology’ to identify what he called a new psychological science… preferred to call his own approach ‘analytical psychology’…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, pp. 17, 21)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

Psychoanalysis is only a means for removing the stones from the path of development, and not a method (as hypnotism often claims to be) of putting things into the patient that were not there before. … Anything he has not acquired himself he will not believe in the long run, and what he takes over from authority merely keeps him infantile. … The art of analysis lies in following the patient on all his erring ways and so gathering his strayed sheep together.
(Jung, 1914/1961, CW 4, p. 278, ¶643)

There is a widespread prejudice that analysis is something like a “cure,” to which one submits for a time and is then discharged healed. That is a layman’s error left over from the early days of psychoanalysis. Analytical treatment could be described as a readjustment of psychological attitude achieved with the help of the doctor. Naturally this newly won attitude… can last a considerable time, but there are very few cases where a single “cure” is permanently successful.
(Jung, 1958/1969, CW 8, p. 102, ¶142)

The fourth method is the ANALYSIS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS. … I beg to point out that I do not call this fourth method “psychoanalysis,” as I wish to leave that term entirely to the Freudians. What they understand by psychoanalysis is no mere technique, but a method which is dogmatically bound up with and based upon Freud’s sexual theory.
(Jung, 1946/1954, CW 17, pp. 96–97, ¶180)

See also: individuation; transference; unconscious; attitude; complex; dreams; active imagination; abreaction.

References

Jung, C. G. (1954). Analytical psychology and education. In H. Read, M. Fordham, & G. Adler (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 17, pp. 96–97, ¶180). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1946)

Jung, C. G. (1961). Some crucial points in psychoanalysis: A correspondence between Dr. Jung and Dr. Loy. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 4, p. 278, ¶643). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1914)

Jung, C. G. (1969). The transcendent function. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 8, p. 102, ¶142). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1958)

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.