Constellate

1. Etymology

Constellate means to activate, usually with reference to a complex and an accompanying pattern of emotional reactions. Related: constellation (noun); complex; affect.

2. Plain summary

When something constellates, an outward situation releases a psychic process—certain contents gather and prepare for action. A person who is “constellated” has taken a position from which a definite reaction can be expected. The constellated contents are definite complexes with their own specific energy.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common constellate motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
activate a complex; accompanying emotional pattern; outward situation releases psychic process; contents gather for action; person “constellated” = definite reaction expected; complexes with specific energy; spontaneous unconscious activity + momentary conscious situation; kinship with affect / abaissement-du-niveau-mental.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology constellate is activation-verb for complexes—Review of the Complex Theory territory. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels has no dedicated head (verb appears in body). §5 holds sample CW stamps at CW 8 ¶198.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Constellate. To activate, usually used with reference to a complex and an accompanying pattern of emotional reactions. This term simply expresses the fact that the outward situation releases a psychic process in which certain contents gather together and prepare for action. When we say that a person is “constellated” we mean that he has taken up a position from which he can be expected to react in a quite definite way. … The constellated contents are definite complexes possessing their own specific energy.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 8 ¶198 in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated constellate / constellation head (list); verb appears in body:

(No dedicated Samuels head.) Related under complex / archetype / personification.

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

… unlimited possibilities emerge, and these sometimes give rise right at the beginning to an experimental situation which we call a “constellation.” This term simply expresses the fact that the outward situation releases a psychic process in which certain contents gather together and prepare for action. When we say that a person is “constellated” we mean that he has taken up a position from which he can be expected to react in a quite definite way. But the constellation is an automatic process which happens involuntarily and which no one can stop…
(Jung, 1934/1969, CW 8, p. 132, ¶198)

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

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, p. 132, ¶198). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1934)

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.