The Map of Stage One in the Individuation Process: A Jungian Analyst’s Four Key Landmarks of Psychological Transformation
In Becoming Whole: A Jungian Guide to Individuation, Jungian analyst Bud Harris outlines four key landmarks in the early stages of individuation.
While psychological transformation is not a linear process, each point on the map informs the others, serving as a useful guide if you’re looking to make true change.
They are:
1. Freedom from your parents
You're defined by the complexes you inherit from your parents.
Freedom means transforming and being transformed by these complexes – not overcoming them.
You'll likely feel resistance in your fear of change, but the felt sense of something deeper inside you will ignite the process of transformation.
2. Freedom from your dependency needs
Dependency needs include any need to be accepted, liked, understood, and so on.
3. Transform major complexes
Your major complexes form as offshoots from your parental complexes, and dwell in your shadow.
4. Freedom from world parents
In Jungian discourse, 'world parents' refers to the influences of the culture you grew up in. World parent complexes include:
More dependency needs, such as the need to derive value and direction from the culture
Cultural obligations that function as defences and complexes (defences are psychological mechanisms that protect you from uncomfortable emotions, while complexes are unconscious structures that affect attitudes and behaviours)
How you define a good life
How you define religiosity (the religious is still applicable in more secular societies, for it encapsulates what you see as moral, sacred, beyond human capacity, and so on)
Other complexes or doctrines you've internalised from your culture
As you advance in the individuation process, you explore deeper layers of your spiritual and psychological capacities.