Self-regulation of the psyche

1. Etymology

Self-regulation of the psyche names the psyche’s ongoing compensatory relationship between consciousness and the unconscious—not mere reaction to outer events. Related: compensation; adaptation; neurosis; opposites; transcendent-function; self.

2. Plain summary

The psyche answers; it does not only react. Self-regulation runs continuously and becomes noticeable when ego-consciousness struggles to adapt—often starting a path toward individuation. Sharp’s house chart: difficulty of adaptation → regression of energy → activation of unconscious contents (compensation) → neurotic symptoms → ego–unconscious conflict → transcendent-function / self patterns → symbols → energy transfer / progression → assimilation / individuation.

Dreams, fantasies, and synchronicities attempt to correct significant imbalance. Sharp lists reasons: threshold intensity; directed consciousness’s inhibition of incompatible material; consciousness as momentary adaptation vs unconscious’s past and archetypal structure; fantasy combinations not yet at threshold.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common self-regulation motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
compensatory consciousness ↔ unconscious; psyche’s specific answer; continuous process; nine-step chart (adaptation difficulty → individuation); dreams / fantasies / synchronicity as regulators; kinship with compensation / transcendent-function / self / progression / regression.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology self-regulation is the homeostatic–teleological dynamic of the psyche under compensation. Lexica (Sharp dedicated head; Samuels via compensation) supply paraphrase Do not invent loci.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Self-regulation of the psyche. A concept based on the compensatory relationship between consciousness and the unconscious. … The psyche does not merely react, it gives its own specific answer to the influences at work upon it. … The process of self-regulation is going on all the time within the psyche. … Consciousness and the unconscious seldom agree… The self-regulating activities of the psyche, manifest in dreams, fantasies and synchronistic experiences, attempt to correct any significant imbalance.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 4 ¶665; CW 8 ¶132; chart of nine stages.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — no dedicated self-regulation head; route via compensation pp. 32–33

compensation … Normally, compensation is an unconscious regulator of conscious activity… The objective of the compensatory process seems to be to link, as with a bridge, two psychological worlds…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986/2013, pp. 32–33)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

External causes can account for at most half the reaction, the other half is due to the peculiar attributes of living matter itself… We have to apply this principle also in psychology. The psyche does not merely react, it gives its own specific answer to the influences at work upon it, and at least half the resulting formation is entirely due to the psyche and the determinants inherent within it.
(Jung, 1914/1961, CW 4, pp. 287–288, ¶665) Dual compensation untouched.

Experience in analytical psychology has amply shown that the conscious and the unconscious seldom agree as to their contents and their tendencies. This lack of parallelism is not just accidental or purposeless, but is due to the fact that the unconscious behaves in a compensatory or complementary manner towards the conscious… Consciousness possesses a threshold intensity… Consciousness, because of its directed functions, exercises an inhibition… Consciousness constitutes the momentary process of adaptation, whereas the unconscious contains not only all the forgotten material of the individual’s own past, but all the inherited behaviour traces…
(Jung, 1958/1969, CW 8, pp. 97–98, ¶132) Dual transcendent-function TF-1–3 untouched.

See also: compensation; self; transcendent-function; adaptation; progression; regression; neurosis; opposites; schizophrenia.

References

Jung, C. G. (1961). Some crucial points in psychoanalysis (Jung–Loy correspondence). In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 4, pp. 287–288, ¶665). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1914)

Jung, C. G. (1969). The transcendent function. 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. 97–98, ¶132). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1958)

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.