Depth Psychology

Carl Jung, founder of the field of analytical psychology, is best known for developing the concepts of introversion and extroversion, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. He wrote extensively about the connection between psychology and spirituality.

“The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. The fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology.” (C.G. Jung. Letters)

Numinous is defined as that which is spiritual or supernatural.

According to Jung, ascending  to the spiritual levels of our mind enables us to be released from pathology and neuroses.

“Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is to say, over thirty-five—there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost what the living religions of every age have given their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing whatever to do with a particular creed or membership of a church.” (Jung)

Note that Jung does not advocate any particular religion. What aspects of a ‘religious outlook’ aid in psychological healing? And why is it more effective in the second half of life? Perhaps a certain amount of life experience is necessary before one can attain a spiritual perspective.

“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance… The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. … If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change. In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted…. (Jung)

Many of us make the mistake of ‘fixing our interest upon futilities’ and then leaping to the conclusion that everything is futile. However, if and when our spiritual senses are awakened, we seek out the infinite and incorporate the essential into our lives.

When asked about his faith at the age of 80, Jung responded:

“All that I have learned has led me step by step to an unshakable conviction of the existence of God. I only believe in what I know. And that eliminates believing. Therefore I do not take his existence on belief – I know that he exists” (Sands 1955, p. 6)

May we all know God rather than merely believe in His existence. May we develop spiritual sensitivity. May we recognize God’s essence in everything.