stages of life

• Childhood

  Jung divided childhood into three substages: (1) the anarchic, (2) the monarchic, and (3) the dualistic.
• anarchic phase is characterized by chaotic and sporadic consciousness. “Islands of consciousness” may exist, but there is little or no connection among these islands. Experiences of the anarchic phase sometimes enter consciousness as primitive images, incapable of being accurately verbalized.
• monarchic phase of childhood is characterized by the development of the ego and by the beginning of logical and verbal thinking. During this time children see themselves objectively and often refer to themselves in the third person. The islands of consciousness become larger, more numerous, and inhabited by a primitive ego. Although the ego is perceived as an object, it is not yet aware of itself as perceiver.
• The ego as perceiver arises during the dualistic phase of childhood when the ego is divided into the objective and subjective.
• Youth

  The period from puberty until middle life is called youth. Young people strive to gain psychic and physical independence from their parents, find a mate, raise a family, and make a place in the world. According to Jung (1931/1960a), youth is, or should be, a period of increased activity, maturing sexuality, growing consciousness, and recognition that the problem-free era of childhood is gone forever.
• Middle Life

  Jung believed that middle life begins at approximately age 35 or 40, by which time the sun has passed its zenith and begins its downward descent. Although this decline can present middle-aged people with increasing anxieties, middle life is also a period of tremendous potential.
• Old Age

  As the evening of life approaches, people experience a diminution of consciousness just as the light and warmth of the sun diminish at dusk. If people fear life during the early years, then they will almost certainly fear death during the later ones. Fear of death is often taken as normal, but Jung believed that death is the goal of life and that life can be fulfilling only when death is seen in this light.
• Jung was not the first to use the word association test, but he can be credited with helping develop and refine it. He originally used the technique as early as 1903 when he was a young psychiatric assistant at Burghöltzli, and he lectured on the word association test during his trip with Freud to the United States in 1909. However, he seldom employed it in his later career. In spite of this inattention, the test continues to be closely linked with Jung’s name.
• dream analysis

  Jung (1964) believed that people used

  symbols to represent a variety of concepts—not merely sexual ones—to try to

  comprehend the “innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding”

  (p. 21). Dreams are our unconscious and spontaneous attempt to know the unknow-

  able, to comprehend a reality that can only be expressed symbolically.
• active imagination. This method requires a person to begin with any impression a dream image, vision, picture, or fantasy and to concentrate until the impression begins to “move.” The person must follow these images to wherever they lead and

  then courageously face these autonomous images and freely communicate with them.
• To go beyond these three approaches, Jung suggested a fourth stage, transformation. By transformation, he meant that the therapist must first be transformed into a healthy human being, preferably by undergoing psychotherapy.