Psyche

1. Etymology

Psyche (Greek ψυχή; German Seele—no single English equivalent) names the totality of all psychological processes, conscious and unconscious. Related: objective-psyche / collective-unconscious; consciousness; unconscious; psychoid; libido / psychic-energy.

2. Plain summary

Jung’s basic definition: psyche = all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious (CW 6 ¶797). It is not a homogenous unit—Sharp quotes the boiling cauldron of contradictory impulses—but a living system that slides between instinct and spirit, personal and collective, structure and dynamic. Samuels stresses plurality, imagery, associative leaps, and the psyche’s struggle to keep balance even when that throws up symptoms.

Psyche is both subject and object of psychology: every observation passes through a personal equation. Descent Press keeps Seele/soul language for depth and intensity (experience vs mere event), not for conventional theology. Related hubs: objective-psyche → collective-unconscious; partner relation to body via psychoid.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common psyche motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology psyche is the field-definition that distinguishes the discipline from biology, theology, and behaviorist or exclusively instinctual psychologies. Lexica (Sharp Psyche; Samuels psyche pp. 114–116) supply paraphrase Do not invent loci.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Psyche. The totality of all psychological processes, both conscious and unconscious. … The psyche is far from being a homogenous unit—on the contrary, it is a boiling cauldron of contradictory impulses… Psychic processes … behave like a scale along which consciousness “slides.” … The psyche is the starting-point of all human experience… It is not only the object of its science, but the subject also.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 9i ¶190; CW 8 ¶408; CW 8 ¶261.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — psyche pp. 114–116

psyche Used by Jung interchangeably with the German word Seele which has no single English equivalent… By his basic definition of the psyche as the 'totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious' (CW 6, para. 797), Jung intended to delineate the area of interest for ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986/2013, pp. 114–116)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

By psyche I understand the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a "personality."
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 640, ¶797)

Western man has sunk to such a low level spiritually that he even has to deny the apotheosis of untamed and untameable psychic power—the divinity itself—so that, after swallowing evil, he may possess himself of the good as well.
(Jung, 1938/1968, CW 9i, p. 104, ¶190)

Psychic processes therefore behave like a scale along which consciousness "slides." At one moment it finds itself in the vicinity of instinct, and falls under its influence; at another, it slides along to the other end where spirit predominates and even assimilates the instinctual processes…
(Jung, 1947/1969, CW 8, p. 269, ¶408)

The psyche is the starting-point of all human experience, and all the knowledge we have gained eventually leads back to it. The psyche is the beginning and end of all cognition. It is not only the object of its science, but the subject also.
(Jung, 1936/1969, CW 8, p. 172, ¶261)

See also: objective-psyche; collective-unconscious; consciousness; unconscious; psychoid; libido; psychic-energy; psychization; instinct; self.

References

Jung, C. G. (1968). Psychological aspects of the mother archetype. 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. 9, Pt. 1, p. 104, ¶190). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1938)

Jung, C. G. (1969). On the nature of the psyche. 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, p. 269, ¶408). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1947)

Jung, C. G. (1969). Psychological factors determining human behaviour. 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, p. 172, ¶261). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1936)

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, p. 640, ¶797). 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.