Opening: A Spiritual Perspective on Individuation

Abstract

The journey to psychological well-being was described by Carl Jung, one of the founders of depth psychology, as a journey towards wholeness, which he referred to as individuation. This journey involves integrating unconscious material into consciousness. This thesis, which utilizes a heuristic methodology, explores individuation from the spiritual perspective of opening. Opening is not a process of integration but rather of letting go of obstacles to wholeness, including one’s fears, ideas, beliefs, and expectations. The work of Jung, Brene Brown, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Osho are considered along with the author’s personal experiences. Opening provides a simplified model of psyche as whole, along with a roadmap in which awareness plays a key role in uncovering one’s true self. One issue that emerges from this perspective is the importance of conceptualizing psyche as whole rather than as parts like ego and shadow, because the idea of fragmentation causes fragmentation.