Progression

1. Etymology

Progression names the daily advance of psychological adaptation, the opposite of regression. Related: forward movement of life / libido; not identical with individuation.

2. Plain summary

Progression is life moving forward as time does—extraverted (objects/environment) or introverted (ego / subjective factor). Normal easy flow of libido can be directed more or less at will; it is continuous current, not development or individuation. Interrupted by conflict or failed adaptation, opposites stop uniting; scales balance; regression then compensates the conscious attitude, depotentiating conscious opposites and raising unconscious processes that show as neurosis symptoms—persona, anima/animus, shadow.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common progression motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
forward adaptation; vs regression; extraverted/introverted lines; libido current ≠ individuation; stoppage / balanced opposites; compensatory regression; neurosis symptoms; dual-stamp libido / adaptation.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology progression is forward libido/adaptation flow—CW 8 On Psychic Energy. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels: no dedicated head this pass. Prefer CW 8 ¶¶77, 61, 62.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Progression. The daily advance of the process of psychological adaptation, the opposite of regression. … Progression refers simply to the continuous flow or current of life. … This is not the same as psychological development or individuation.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 8 ¶¶77, 61, 62 in Sharp’s lemma.

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

(No dedicated Samuels head.) Occasional in-body mentions

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

The progression of libido might therefore be said to consist in a continual satisfaction of the demands of environmental conditions. This is possible only by means of an attitude, which as such is necessarily directed and therefore characterized by a certain one-sidedness. … the progression of libido also ceases. The vital feeling that was present before disappears…
(Jung, 1928/1969, CW 8, p. 51, ¶61)

The struggle between the opposites would persist in this fruitless way if the process of regression, the backward movement of libido, did not set in with the outbreak of the conflict. … This loss of value steadily increases and is the only thing perceived by consciousness. It is synonymous with regression…
(Jung, 1928/1969, CW 8, p. 53, ¶62)

Progression and regression can be brought into relationship with extraversion and introversion: progression, as adaptation to outer conditions, could be regarded as extraversion; regression, as adaptation to inner conditions, could be regarded as introversion. But this parallel would give rise to a great deal of conceptual confusion… Progression is a forwards movement of life in the same sense that time moves forwards.
(Jung, 1928/1969, CW 8, pp. 61–62, ¶77)

See also: adaptation; libido; neurosis; individuation; shadow; persona; regression (no polished leaf — prose).

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). On psychic energy. 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, pp. 51–53, 61–62, ¶61, ¶62, ¶77). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928)

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.