Depotentiate

1. Etymology

Depotentiate names the process of removing energy from an unconscious content by assimilating its meaning. Related: assimilation; abreaction; complex; affect.

2. Plain summary

To depotentiate is not to blast a content away—it is to take the charge out of it by understanding what it means, so the complex no longer runs the scene with the same force. Related to assimilation of meaning into consciousness, and to the way abreaction literature sometimes speaks of depotentiating the affectivity of trauma until it no longer disturbs (Jung’s critique of abreaction-alone still stands on that lemma).

Kinship with apotropaic depotentiating of object-power is metaphorical only—different mechanism (magical ward vs meaning-assimilation).

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common depotentiate motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
remove energy from unconscious content; assimilate meaning; reduce complex charge; affect no longer disturbing; vs mere discharge; kinship with assimilation; abreaction body usage (verify); distinct from apotropaic ward.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology depotentiate is energy-reduction-by-meaning—short Sharp definition with CW sample under abreaction. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels has no dedicated head (verb under abreaction). §5 holds sample CW stamps at CW 16 ¶¶262–263.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Depotentiate. The process of removing energy from an unconscious content by assimilating its meaning.

(Sharp, 1991)

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated depotentiate head; verb under abreaction p. 8

… a retelling that ‘depotentiates the affectivity of the traumatic experience until it no longer has a disturbing influence’ (CW 16, para. 262).

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. 8)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

… the trauma is either a single, definite, violent impact, or a complex of ideas and emotions which may be likened to a psychic wound. … one can accordingly postulate a therapy whose aim is the complete release of this charge. … abreaction—i.e., the dramatic rehearsal of the traumatic moment, its emotional recapitulation in the waking or in the hypnotic state—often has a beneficial therapeutic effect. … The unbosoming gradually depotentiates the affectivity of the traumatic experience until it no longer has a disturbing influence.
(Jung, 1921/1966, CW 16, pp. 130–131, ¶¶262–263)

See also: assimilation; abreaction; complex; affect; consciousness; apotropaic; unconscious.

References

Jung, C. G. (1966). The therapeutic value of abreaction. 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. 16, pp. 130–131, ¶¶262–263). 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.