Self

The Swiss psychoanalyst and psychologist Karl Jung regarded the "self" as a primary image, an archetype, a complex that exists in the collective unconscious. The archetype is a trace left in each of us from the distant past of humanity; it is a psychic content that does not have its source in a separate individual: “... an archetype, there is a figure - be it a demon, person, or event - repeating throughout history wherever creative imagination freely operates ^[1] ." The Jungian self is an archetype of integrity, a symbol of the fullness of human potential and the unity of the individual; it occupies a central place in the management of mental life and is the supreme power in the fate of an individual: “From an intellectual point of view, the self is nothing more than a psychological concept, a design that must express an entity that is indistinguishable by us, which is incomprehensible to us ... its success can be called "God in us." The beginnings of our whole spiritual life, it seems, to the mind in an incomprehensible way originate at this point, and all the higher and last goals seem to converge on it ^[2] . ” In Jung's theory, selfhood manifests itself in a person’s life in the process of individuation, which is understood as a process of psychological differentiation, carried out with the aim of forming a single, indivisible psyche from complexes and insular, “insular” consciousness: “... at noon in life our amazing human nature makes the transition from the first half life in the second. From a state in which a person is only an instrument of instinctive nature to another state where he is no longer someone else’s instrument, but becomes himself: there is a transformation of nature - into culture, of instinct - into spirit ^[3] . ”

The main difference between the theories of the self of Jung and Freud is their understanding of the relationship between the self and the ego. Thus, Freud believed that the ego develops from Ono (the German “das Es” (Latin “Id”), according to Jung - its basis is the unconscious. Freud saw in “Id” a constant threat to the ego, although he noted that “Cooperation” is one of the ways in which the unconscious builds relationships with consciousness, while Freud did not believe that the unconscious is able to bring something useful to the consciousness; in his opinion, the ego's task is to “tame” “Id” (“It”) : “Subjugate” him, “bring him under control”, “manage” him ^[4] . Jung held a different point of view: he had sex gal, that the unconscious can enrich the ego, unless it overflows it. He wrote about a “dialogue” between the ego and the unconscious / self, in which both participants have “equal rights.” According to Jung, the goal of mental development is not to the ego “subjugated” the unconscious to itself, and that it recognized the power of the self and got along with it, adapting its actions to the needs and desires of its unconscious partner.He argued that the self has wisdom that exceeds the individual's understanding of himself, since self One person is connected with the selves of all other human beings.

According to Freud, in a state of mental health, the ego is the main acting force of the psyche. The activity of the unconscious, inculcating in the consciousness, says Freud, “reinforces” the activity conceived by the ego. Such cooperation is possible only when the energy coming from the unconscious can be transformed into the ego-synton. Jung views this relationship in exactly the opposite way. In his opinion, the analysis is based on such an effect on the consciousness from the side of the unconscious, in which consciousness is enriched and improved. The settings of the ego are not reinforced, but are modified in such a way that its errors are compensated by the settings of the unconscious. Moreover, while in Freud the initiative always belongs to the ego, even if it is not realized by him, in Jung the initiator is a self that “wants” to realize itself. For Jung, the self is primary: it comes into the world first and the ego arises on its basis; in his opinion, the self is a broader concept than the ego, it constantly, throughout life, feeds the creative powers of the psyche, which are manifested in dreams with their nightly-updated images, in verses or in the resolution of scientific puzzles. It seems inexhaustible - because only the part of it that penetrates our consciousness becomes known to us, and we will never be able to appreciate the full range of its capabilities. Freud compares the analyst with a detective who is trying to solve the riddle of the crime, using the manifestations of the unconscious as a key. Jung’s approach is fundamentally different: he considers all the clinical material — dreams, psychosomatic symptoms, behavioral characteristics, neurotic or psychotic manifestations, transfer or countertransference phenomena — as “angels,” that is, messengers of the unconscious who are trying to convey news to consciousness. Jung believed that the task of the psychoanalyst is to help the patient realize these messages, with all their contents and meanings; "Messengers" will be able to free themselves from watch only when the "letter" is delivered.

Harry Stack Sullivan

Unlike Jung, who claims that the self is something innate, originally existing in the person, the American psychologist and psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan believed that the self is some current result achieved by learning, characterized by a mastered repertoire of role-playing behavior and speech practices. This is the result of experiencing an educational process based on our ability to play the roles of others. The self is a system aimed at implementing the concept of “I am good” and receiving satisfaction in this regard while minimizing anxiety. The system of self, according to Sullivan, is a functional system and can transform under the influence of experience. In any case, the self is the maximum possible, mastered repertoire of behavior and speech practices.

Burres Frederick Skinner

Another American psychologist of the 20th century, Burres Frederick Skinner , used the “Bohr principle” in his definition of self: “we have the right to consider only what is observable or can be done as such”. Skinner considers it “more scientific” to talk about “patterns of behavior”: “Self, personality, freedom, creativity are only explanatory fictions used in cases where there is no rational, positive explanation of behavior, or the structure of reinforcing this behavior is unknown ^[5] ” . Skinner considers the use of these fictions to be dangerous, as they can create a false sense of satisfaction and make it deemed unnecessary to thoroughly research the real, genuine causes of behavior. As a result, certain elements of the structure of behavior, in his opinion, remain outside the scope of effective control.

Gestalt Representatives

Representatives of gestalt therapy , primarily Frederick Perls, tried to simplify Jung's theory of selfhood as much as possible. They did not include in this concept anything but everyday, ordinary manifestations of what and who we are: “We are what we are; maturity and psychological health presuppose the ability to confirm this, rather than being caught in the sense that we are what we should be. ” And the self and I, according to Perls, are not something that can be statistically objectified, but simply symbols for the identification function.

Representatives of Transpersonal Psychology

Representatives of transpersonal psychology (S. Grof, C. Wilber, T. Macken), criticizing Jung's theory, stated that the concept of self in itself is harmful. They believed that the world is a parallel and simultaneous existence of many different realities with equal ontological status. The boundaries between these realities are the culturally conditioned fiction imposed by bad education in the consciousness of a person who is in ignorance and suffers only as a result of ignorance. The concept of self and theories of personality of an individual are harmful, because they mislead a person regarding his true nature. The world of reality is interpreted as the arena of the action of the “supermundane” forces that constrain oneself in time and space for the purpose of self-knowledge. The person in this concept is not considered as a subject of activity, rather, it is a temporary form, which a certain “spirit” takes, indulging in space and time for research purposes to self-restriction; the experience and experiences of the individual are fragments of the experience of this "spirit".

The concept of self in modern psychology

The main problems in the study of the concepts of I (I are concepts) and the Self in modern psychology are theoretically related to the complexity of distinguishing psychological processes, their contents and results. Today, there is no satisfactory generally accepted concept and a language of theoretical concepts based on it that allows us to describe the processes of thinking that proceeds in the context of various forms and states of consciousness and self-consciousness.

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• Clark M. Relations between the Ego and the Self in Clinical Practice: The Path to Individuation. M., 2013.
• Wilber K. No boundaries. Eastern and western ways of personal growth. M.: Publishing House of the Transpersonal Institute, 1998.
• Sullivan G.S. Interpersonal theory in psychiatry. M .: "KSP +", 1999.
• Perls F. The practice of gestalt therapy. M .: Institute for Humanitarian Research, 2000.