Tuesday 8 November 2011

Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries. -- Carl Gustav Jung

The desire to write has departed me unexpectedly and is instead substituted with an eagerness to draw as an alternative mode for self expression. Unprecedentedly, I felt impelled to sketch out these diagrams without having had a central theme in mind at that time, so now, a story must be constructed to conceive the meanings behind them in order to fill the void. (<- This could be all just a subconscious denial of an addiction to stick figures!)


I presuppose that we are not entirely unfamiliar with the concept and classification of the four elements, being FIRE, AIR, WATER and EARTH. Each element represents a certain type of consciousness and consequently an attunement to a specific field of life experience. In a nutshell, the elements symbolise different realms of being and experience: 


Fire is connected with enthusiasm, motivation and spirituality
Air is correlated with abstract thought patterns of the universal mind 
Water is dominated by intense yearnings, feeling reactions and compelling desires  
Earth is concerned with physical senses and material forms   


If a keyword is to be assigned to each of the elements, then Fire would be associated with inspiration, Air would correspond to rationalisation, Water would exemplify emotion and lastly Earth would be motivated by sensation. And please don't think of these in terms of which one being better or worse than the other as there are only neutral connotations and ramifications linked to them. The elements simply indicate distinctly separate orientations.


To elaborate further using astrology, the twelve zodiac signs can be divided precisely amongst the four elements:
Fire - Aries, Leo and Sagittarius
Air - Gemini, Libra and Aquarius
Water - Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces
Earth - Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn


Carl Jung was one of the pioneers to recognise the value of applying astrology in the field of psychology and psychoanalysis, and in association with the principal of archetypes proposed by him, Jung attributed each of the above elements respectively to the following psychological types: Intuition, Thinking, Feeling and Sensation. Each of the types is also modified by the two attitude types: extraversion and introversion. 


Is this all beginning to sound too familiar? Yes, Jung established the earlier foundation for the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (a world-wide renowned psychometric questionnaire used for the assessment of a person's psychological perception). The different preferences and combinations from MBTI were extrapolated from the typological theories purported by Carl Jung. 


Based on each individual's predisposition and predominant emphasis, they tend to have an inclination towards one or two preferred elements for exhibiting the effects of spontaneous manifestations. In Jung's terminology, each of us therefore is inherently adept with certain qualities which we can always rely on, and these contribute to superior functions. In contrast, the qualities which we feel less comfortable with are suggested to be our inferior functions but are equally crucial if not more in the sense that they operate as a hidden drive towards attaining full consciousness and integration.


Without further adieu, let me summarise (excuse me for generalising) how each element naturally demonstrates care and nurturing by introducing back our favourite Stick Figures:


FIRE: displays affection through grand gestures 




AIR: driven by communication and the need to understand and make sense of things




WATER: values building emotional rapport and creating intimacy




EARTH: displays affection by being reliable and offering material support




If Jung is correct in postulating that the drive for human development is the process of individuation through striving for unity and wholeness, then we can understand why we both attract people who bring out the best and the worst in us. We will continue to meet people and circumstances that push us to realise our unique identities through the experiences they provide for us,    until we are able to comprehend and merge the opposite polarities.


It is not hard to see that we are all different in our own ways and sometime we run into conflicts and distress because other people are 'incompatible' with us. So what can be the best method to reconcile these differences?


We say: "It is not about WHAT you say, but HOW you say it." But sometimes if we are willing to perceive beyond the facade, we may realise in the end that we do all have one thing at least in common


So maybe it is important to share with an open heart, and maybe intentions should be looked at with the most interest. If we all somehow learn to skew more towards the WHAT and less towards the HOW, we may truly begin to apprehend and appreciate the essence of our seemingly different languages.

1 comments:

AmberCat said...

Where exactly did Dr. Jung ever say: "“Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.”

Thank you

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