Apperception

1. Etymology

Apperception names a psychic process by which a new conscious content is articulated with similar, already existing contents so that it is understood. Compare assimilation. Related: consciousness; ego; sensation; rational / irrational.

2. Plain summary

Sense-perception says that something is; apperception says what it is—by linking the new bit to what the psyche already holds. The result mixes reality and fantasy, personal experience and archetypal imago.

Active apperception: the ego chooses to grasp something new. Passive: the new content forces itself in—from the senses or from the unconscious (as in dreams). Directed apperception is attention (rational); undirected is fantasy or dreaming (irrational). Either way, reflection is demanded.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common apperception motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
articulate new content with existing; understand / apprehend / clear; vs bare sense-perception; psychic not merely physiological complexity; active vs passive; directed (attention) vs undirected (fantasy/dreaming); rational vs irrational modes; reality–fantasy blend; imago / archetype mix; ego initiative or intrusion; dreams as passive case.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology apperception is psychic articulation of the new—the bridge from “something is” to “what it is.” Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4; §5 holds sample CW stamps. Prefer CW 8; Definitions ¶683 supplies active/passive.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Apperception. A psychic process by which a new conscious content is articulated with similar, already existing contents in such a way that it is understood. (Compare assimilation.) Sense-perceptions tell us that something is. But they do not tell us what it is. … Jung distinguishes active from passive apperception. … directed or undirected. In the former case we speak of “attention,” in the latter case of “fantasy” or “dreaming.”

(Sharp, 1991)

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — pp. 25–26:

apperception A process by which a new psychic content… is articulated in such a way that it becomes understood… always a mixture of reality and fantasy… Jung distinguished between two modes… active and passive… directed and undirected apperception…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, pp. 25–26)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

Sense-perceptions tell us that something is. But they do not tell us what it is. This is told us not by the process of perception but by the process of apperception, and this has a highly complex structure. Not that sense-perception is anything simple; only, its complex nature is not so much psychic as physiological. The complexity of apperception, on the other hand, is psychic.
(Jung, 1927/1969, CW 8, pp. 187–188, ¶¶288–289)

Apperceptive processes may be either directed or undirected. In the former case we speak of “attention,” in the latter case of “fantasy” or “dreaming.” The directed processes are rational, the undirected irrational.
(Jung, 1927/1969, CW 8, p. 190, ¶294)

APPERCEPTION is a psychic process by which a new content is articulated with similar, already existing contents in such a way that it becomes understood, apprehended, or “clear.” We distinguish active from passive apperception. The first is a process by which the subject, of his own accord… consciously apprehends a new content with attention…; the second is a process by which a new content forces itself upon consciousness either from without (through the senses) or from within (from the unconscious)…
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 575, ¶683)

See also: consciousness; ego; sensation; dreams; imago; archetype; rational; irrational.

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). The structure of the psyche. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 8, pp. 187–190, ¶¶288–289, 294). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1927)

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, p. 575, ¶683). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

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.