> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.descentpress.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Individuality
- URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuality/
- Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T01:41:56.000Z
- Description: >
- Author: Jae Botávn
- Tags: #index

## 1\. Etymology

**Individuality** names the **qualities or characteristics that distinguish one person from another**. Related: personality; [individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/); vs [collective](https://www.descentpress.com/index/collective/).

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## 2\. Plain summary

By **individuality** Jung means the peculiarity and singularity of the [individual](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individual/) in every psychological respect—everything not collective, everything pertaining only to one person. It has an a priori unconscious existence and becomes conscious only so far as awareness of peculiar nature is present; a conscious process of differentiation—[individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/)—raises it out of identity with the object.

In the undifferentiated psyche, individuality is subjectively identified with the [persona](https://www.descentpress.com/index/persona/) but actually possessed by an unrecognized inner aspect—commonly experienced in another through [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/). When intolerable, compensating images appear: psychic pregnancy / hero’s birth—the child to be born signifying individuality present but not yet conscious.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common individuality motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**  
distinguishing qualities; peculiarity / singularity; not collective; a priori unconscious; conscious via [individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/); vs identity with object; [persona](https://www.descentpress.com/index/persona/) false identification; [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/) of individuality; psychic pregnancy / child symbol; distinct from [individualism](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individualism/).

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## 3\. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology individuality is **singularity-to-be-made-conscious**—Definitions territory. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels has no dedicated head. Prefer CW 6 ¶¶755–756, 806.

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## 4\. Lexicon

**Sharp (1991)**

> Individuality. The qualities or characteristics that distinguish one person from another. (See also personality.) By individuality I mean the peculiarity and singularity of the individual in every psychological respect. … A conscious process of differentiation, or individuation, is needed to bring the individuality to consciousness… The child that is to be born signifies the individuality, which, though present, is not yet conscious.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶¶756, 755, 806 in Sharp’s lemma.

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

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

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## 5\. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

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**See also:** [individual](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individual/); [individualism](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individualism/); [individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/); [persona](https://www.descentpress.com/index/persona/); [collective](https://www.descentpress.com/index/collective/); [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); [child](https://www.descentpress.com/index/child/); [hero](https://www.descentpress.com/index/hero/).

## 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.

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