The Self
In Jungian psychology, the Self is the archetype of wholeness: the organising centre of the entire psyche, conscious and unconscious together. It is not the same as the ego. The ego is the centre of our conscious awareness, the “I” we take ourselves to be. The Self is far larger, and it includes everything we are not yet aware of.
The Self and the ego
Much of ordinary life is run by the ego, and necessarily so. But the ego is only a small part of the whole. Jung described the Self as both the centre and the circumference of the psyche: the point around which everything is organised, and the totality that contains it. One way to put it: the ego is who we think we are; the Self is who we actually are, most of which is still unknown to us.
The ego-Self axis
Psychological health, in this view, depends less on a strong ego alone than on a living relationship between the ego and the Self. When that connection is lost, life can feel empty, inflated, or driven. When it is restored, there is a sense of meaning and of being grounded in something larger than conscious will. Jung saw symbols of wholeness, the circle, the mandala, the reconciling third, as expressions of the Self at work.
“We do not create the Self. At most we stop standing in its way, and let it begin to organise a life that has been running on the ego alone.”
Philippe Jacquet
In analysis
Much of Jungian analysis is concerned with this relationship: helping the ego loosen its grip enough to hear the Self, through dreams, symbols and individuation. The aim is not to dissolve the ego but to set it in right relation to the larger whole it serves.
Book a consultation with Philippe Jacquet, psychotherapist and Jungian analyst, London.