JUNGIAN.DIRECTORY
The fullest possible expression of all aspects of the personality,
both in itself and in relation to other people and the environment.
According to lung, wholeness is to be equated with health. As
such, it is both a potential and a capacity. We are born possessing
fundamental wholeness but, as we grow, this breaks down and reforms
into something more differentiated (see SELF). Expressed in this
way, the achievement of conscious wholeness may be regarded as the
goal or purpose of life. Interaction with others or the environment
mayor may not facilitate this, as the case may be. Wholeness, however,
is to be seen in all its aspects as individually relevant and,
hence, a qualitative rather than a quantitative achievement.
While wholeness cannot be actively sought or pursued per se,
it is possible to see how often life’s experience has that end as its
secret goal. The connection with creativity underlines that wholeness
(and health) are relative terms, distinguishable from normality or
conformism (see ADAPTATION; HEALING; INDIVIDUATION). As lung
used the word, ‘wholeness’ speaks more of ‘completeness’ than of
‘perfection’ .
The idea of wholeness is linked to the theory of OPPOSITES. If two
conflicting opposites come together and synthesise, the result partakes
of a greater wholeness (see CONJUNCT/O; MANDALA). lung was
concerned that Western culture in general, and Christianity in particular,
have ignored two elements which are vital to wholeness: the
feminine (see ANIMA AND ANIMUS; ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY;
GENDER) and EVIL or man’s destructiveness (see SHADOW).
lung was aware that a person can acquire a patina of wholeness
which is spurious (CW 7, para. 188) and that a too-eager devotee
will confuse his wish with his actual state. A greed for wholeness can
be an escape from psychological conflict.
lung’s ideas, in common with many developments in twentiethcentury
thought, show a holistic cast of mind (though lung does not use the word). See PLEROMA; PSYCHIC REALITY; PSYCHOID UNCONSCIOUS;
SYNCHRONICITY; UNUS MUNDUS.
A state in which consciousness and the unconscious work together in harmony. (See also self.)
Although “wholeness” seems at first sight to be nothing but an abstract idea (like anima and animus), it is nevertheless empirical in so far as it is anticipated by the psyche in the form of spontaneous or autonomous symbols. These are the quaternity or mandala symbols, which occur not only in the dreams of modern people who have never heard of them, but are widely disseminated in the historical records of many peoples and many epochs. Their significance as symbols of unity and totality is amply confirmed by history as well as by empirical psychology.[The Self,” ibid., par. 59.]
In terms of individuation, where the goal is a vital connection with the self, Jung contrasted wholeness with the conflicting desire to become perfect.
The realization of the self, which would logically follow from a recognition of its supremacy, leads to a fundamental conflict, to a real suspension between opposites (reminiscent of the crucified Christ hanging between two thieves), and to an approximate state of wholeness that lacks perfection. . . . The individual may strive after perfection . . . but must suffer from the opposite of his intentions for the sake of his completeness.[“Christ, A Symbol of the Self,” ibid., par. 123.]