Sign in Subscribe

Individualism

>

Jae Botávn

• 1 min read
Share
Individualism

1. Etymology

Individualism names a belief in the supremacy of individual interests over those of the collective—not to be confused with individuality or individuation.

2. Plain summary

Individualism deliberately stresses some supposed peculiarity over collective considerations and obligations. Individuation, by contrast, means better and more complete fulfilment of the collective qualities of the human being—because adequate consideration of the individual’s peculiarity better serves social performance than neglecting or suppressing it. Universal factors appear only in individual form; full consideration of them produces an individual effect that individualism cannot surpass.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common individualism motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
supremacy of individual interests; vs individuation; stress peculiarity over obligations; individuation fulfils collective qualities better; universal-in-individual form; not = individuality; not = individual.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology individualism is anti-collective posture mistaken for individuation—Function of the Unconscious territory. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels has no dedicated head. Prefer CW 7 ¶¶267f.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Individualism. A belief in the supremacy of individual interests over those of the collective, not to be confused with individuality or individuation. Individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations. But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfilment of the collective qualities of the human being…

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 7 ¶¶267f in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated individualism head

(No dedicated Samuels head.) Related under individuation / collective

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

See also: individuation; individual; individuality; collective; persona.

References

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.

} } } } } }