Meaning & Individuation: Modern Research through Positive Psychology

This essay is a continuation of the ideas explored in my earlier essay about Ego Strength and Ego Flexibility. (Cover art is “Tomb Door,” China, 25-220 | Treasures Rediscovered: Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia).

“For both Jung and James the only truth that would suffice is a subjective response to life’s meaninglessness.” 

– Steven Herrmann, William James and C.G. Jung

Individuation, or the theory of psychological wholeness proposed by Carl Jung, can be seen in two parts. The first stage deals with engaging the world around us; with the ultimate goal of developing ego strength and ego flexibility, discussed previously (Headrick, 2023). The second stage is about “a revaluation of [internal] values” (Jung & Shamdasani, 2012). Although Jung frequently points to these two stages of psychological development with somewhat different goals; his theory of individuation is ultimately aimed at the discovery of meaning. Jungian scholar Steven Herrmann says that “meaning took on absolute significance in his hypothesis of individuation” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 115). In his own words, Jung said that, “man cannot stand a meaningless life” (Jung, 2020). This paper aspires to review and map the theories submitted by Jung in these later stages of psychological development with research findings and ideas from Positive Psychology.

With meaning as a primary objective of the individuation process, there is an opportunity to integrate these Jungian ideas into the research areas of Positive Psychology; especially with regards to an eudaimonic perspective that is “characterized by reflectiveness and reason…, expressions of the self rather than products of external control” (Ryan, et al., 2008). Indeed, Martin Seligman, one of the founders of Positive Psychology, suggests meaning as one of three pathways to well-being (Seligman, 2002). Defining meaning, Roy Baumeister proposes a framework that comprises four psychological needs: the need for purpose, the need for values, the need for a sense of efficacy, and the need for self worth (Baumeister, 2002). With regards to Jung’s framework, it could be hypothesized that the need for efficacy and the need for self-worth are primarily developed in the “first half of life” or the earlier stages of psychological development that deals with ego strength and ego flexibility. Positive Psychology adds to the conceptualization of these developments through research into resilience, character strengths, positive affect, grit and mindfulness (Headrick, 2023). The other needs identified by Baumeister, needs for values and purpose, can be mapped to the second stage of Jung’s framework. Although the two phases of development are often discussed sequentially, Positive Psychology research shows that self-worth and efficacy influence the needs for values and purpose in a bidirectional nature. Self-worth and efficacy can be developed independently, but as an individual develops purpose and internal values (meaning); the feeling of positive emotion and well-being are further bolstered (Gander, et al., 2016; Fredrickson, 2003).

There is great value in finding meaning in life, but there is also danger in the lack of meaning. Positive Psychology research seems to support Jung’s claims about this lack of meaning when he says that “meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness” (Jung, et al., 1963). Preliminary research links lack of meaning with addiction: individuals who lose the resilience to cope with challenges in life (Carreno & Pérez-Escobar, 2019); and research on trauma and life stressors has found that meaning-making mitigates both through resilience (Park, 2016) and better adjustment to stressors (Park, et al., 2008). The research into resilience seems to confirm what Jung hypothesized, saying that “meaning makes a great many things endurable—perhaps everything” (Jung, et al., 1963). Through this paradigm Jung also supports the overall supposition of Positive Psychology: instead of focusing on deficiencies and illness, we must focus on the additive benefits of “building positive qualities” (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Internal Values & Purpose 

Carl Jung says that the process of individuation calls for the definition of the “internal values.” For thousands of years, groups of humans developed tribal, societal and cultural values that helped to inform an individual’s meaning. The rise of modernism has rapidly changed this paradigm, Jung posits that modern “people lose the meaning of their lives, their social organization disintegrates, and they themselves morally decay” (Jung, et al., 1964). Baumeister echoes this sentiment in his definition, when discussing the need for internal values or what he calls “value bases” (2002). He discovered that the biggest challenge to finding meaning was the difficulty in defining personal values (Baumeister, 1991); and says that, “the transition to modern society is inherently destructive of certain value bases, and once a value base is lost, it is difficult to revive or replace” (Baumeister, 2002). 

Expanding upon these internal values, Carl Jung points to another imperative for defining meaning in the individuation process: the discovery of purpose or “vocation” that rises from these internal values (Jung, 2014a). Baumeister also agrees with Jung that a core component to meaning is the need for purpose. On one hand Baumeister says that in our modern era, there is infinitely more variation of purpose that can be achieved through “endless hierarchy or sequence of goals” (2002); but he also concedes that purpose and fulfillment have been “plagued” by secular ideas that necessitate endless and sustained improvement to be happy. It seems that just because there are more options, we do not necessarily automatically find fulfillment among the multitudes of choice. Steven Herrmann describes Jung’s position in a similar way when he said, “adaptation to inner conditions leads to raise the Self and its values to a new function: the transpersonal calling, or vocation that requires a sacrifice to the generality” (Herrmann, 2021, p.  136). Purpose and values need to originate from within the individual to generate meaning.

Both Jung and Baumeister point out the incredible loss of internal values, resulting in a loss of meaning for the modern man; and at the same time Positive Psychology points to the incredible benefit that these internally-derived values can have on an individual’s life. In the framing of an eudaimonic life with a self-determination theory approach, there is great importance placed on “attainment of intrinsic aspirations” that leads to wellbeing, a “sense of meaning and purpose in life” (Ryan, et al., 2008, p. 161). In the research around harmonious (internally syntonic) passion, Vallerand and Verner-Fillon show that individuals not only have increased wellbeing with harmonious passion, but also gain a feeling of freedom and agency (2013). Jung agrees, saying that “it is only meaning that liberates,” (Jung, et al., 2014b; Herrmann, 2021, p. 311). These two examples, harmonious passion and intrinsic aspirations, show the power of internally-derived forces to generate a sense of purpose and internal values in the psyche.

Ju Chao | Silkworm | China | Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Meaning-Making & Consciousness

While all of this is descriptive of the outcomes of meaning in life, we haven’t yet explored the mechanisms for meaning-making as conceptualized by the researchers in Positive Psychology. Crystal Park has conducted important research into meaning-making and the impact of meaning in life. Park has found that “violations” or confrontations to an individual’s “global beliefs and goals” will lead to meaning making (George & Park, 2022). She also found that meaning in life has a “buffer” effect to both life stressors and religious or spiritual struggles (Appel, et al. 2020). This framing is also supported by the work of Bonanno on Post-Traumatic Growth, showing that growth is created by resilience after traumatic events occur (2004). Tripplet and others share a similar finding: growth and resilience after trauma is achieved when individuals apply “deliberate rumination” to find meaning in their experience (2012). Park confirms that even without distress people default to meaning making: “…discrepancy in itself leads people to make meaning” (George & Park, 2022). Jung would say that these mechanisms reflect the individual’s effort to discover their internal values and define purpose or fulfillment in relation to confronting events or beliefs. In essence, meaning making is about increasing consciousness. The active pursuit of consciousness seems to be beneficial, Park and others found that “higher emotional processing predicted lower intrusions in individuals high in meaning made” (Lachnit, Park & George, 2020). This meaning-making mechanism proposed by Crystal Park illuminates the process by which the individual discovers internal values and their intrinsic purpose by way of deliberate rumination or confrontation of belief violations. This leads us to Jung’s idea of the confrontation with the unconscious.

Jung is famous for his insistence on increasing consciousness, saying that “when we are unconscious, life has no meaning” (Jung, 1958). Through both the theoretical framework of Jung and Baumeister as well as the Positive Psychology research, we can see that meaning is not merely an end state, but a reinforcing process that spirals upwards to both protect the individual from distress and attain resilience in the future. This journey becomes a continuous search for meaning through consciousness of internal values and purpose. Crystal Park highlights this in her research on meaning-making after violations of belief systems (2008). The only way for an individual to reconcile disparities is to make meaning, increasing conscious awareness of the impacts of both external and internal confrontations to current values.

Jung spoke frequently about the process of gaining awareness and consciousness in the search for meaning. He specifically focused on the process of confronting what he called “shadow,” or unconscious material, that could be rich with opportunity for meaning-making. Jung believed that the unconscious contained personal shadow material that stemmed from experiences in childhood or parental complexes, as well as collective shadow content that contained dynamics inherited over the long process of human evolution (Thompson, 1996). It can be easy to think of shadow as evil or darkness, but it is merely that which has yet not been brought into conscious awareness (Zweig & Abrams, 1991, p. 165). Our conscious attitude could consist of what Crystal Park calls the “global beliefs system,” and the unconscious contains the views that are confronting and demand deliberate rumination to become integrated. 

Individuation calls for active engagement to sort through what belongs to the individual, versus what is an adopted value. Vallerand and Verner-Filion speak about how harmonious passion can be observed when an individual feels free and does not feel compelled in thought or action (2013). Whether compelled into action, or merely choosing the pre-existing patterns we’ve adopted; our current beliefs are what helped us to survive in the world. Discovering internal values that conflict with this paradigm can be experienced as a challenging confrontation; maybe this is why Crystal park uses the term “belief violation.” Jung said that “the meeting with ourselves belongs to the more unpleasant things, that can be avoided so long as we can project everything negative into the environment” (Jung, 2014c). Ego strength and ego flexibility become critical skills that allow us to tolerate this confrontation without psychologically breaking apart (Headrick, 2023).

Tomb Door | China, 25-220 | Treasures Rediscovered: Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia

Individuation as a Doorway to Spirituality

Shadow is not all negative, and much of the material in the unconscious can be transformed into what Jung described as “alchemical gold.” Indeed, the positive aspects of the unconscious have rich information to guide the individual. Steven Herrmann says that Jung’s individuation is “the way to meaning through the living out of our personal destiny in close relationship to the inner voice” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 316). Jung believed internal values are as powerful as ethical or moral stances. While previous generations adopted collective values, modern people must find ways to define their own values, or what Baumeister called value bases. Herrmann goes as far as to say that “meaning and religion were synonymous in Jung’s lexicon” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 309). Baumeister agrees with this in his framing of value bases, saying that they are values that feel “supremely right” to the individual and supersedes all other logic (Baumeister, 2002). Here we might look to the positive psychology research around spirituality to understand the ways that intrinsically-oriented spiritual beliefs or experiences might impact the life and meaning of an individual.

Internal values can emerge to feel so true to an individual that Jung spoke of the many encounters with the unconscious as numinous and spiritually valenced. In a similar way, David Yaden and Andrew Newberg admit that in regards to vocation, or what they define as “callings,” there is a question of “who, or what is doing the calling” (2015). Regardless of the source, Positive Psychology has found that spiritual practices or belief in something bigger than oneself has incredible protective benefits as well as impact on meaning. Lisa Miller found that spirituality has protective benefits against depression and anxiety (Miller, et al. 2013; Portnoff, et al. 2017); and spirituality is also shown to have incredible meaning making influence, providing “a deep sense of purpose and mattering” (Park, 2013). 

Jung focused on a denominationally agnostic view of these numinous or spiritual experiences, most likely inspired by William James (Evers-Fahey, 2017; Herrmann, 2021). This is what Yaden and Newberg would call a “Supernatural/Internal” interpretation of the inner voice; essentially that the unconscious is a teleological force in each individual (2015).  Rather than proposing or adhering to a specific religion or spiritual path to wholeness, Jung instead insisted on the “discovery of a religious outlook on life” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 314). Throughout his life, Jung worked to develop ways to listen to this inner voice and increase conscious engagement with it.

Jung explored modalities which he believed helped individuals to observe and experience these dynamics in the unconscious: active imagination and dreams emerged as important sources. He believed that this unconscious content must be tolerated, observed and then integrated. Psychoanalytic process became the primary tool to integrate these contents and co-create meaning with patients. Jung, and many of his close collaborators, believed that creative expression also helped to integrate the unconscious, especially in non-cognitive ways. Herrmann says that Jung believed “God communicates to humans through speech, art, dance and poetry;” beyond just a cognitive understanding of meaning, he “thought patients needed to feel meaning deeply in an embodied sense” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 312). Researchers in Positive Psychology have investigated some of the benefits of Jung’s strategies like active imagination (Mayer & Oosthuizen, 2019), the psychoanalytical process (du Toit & du Toit, 2019), dream awareness (Gilchrist, 2007) and creativity (Kaufman, 2018); however, there has not yet been research conducted to evaluate these specific strategies as a causal relationship in the discovery of meaning. While Park’s meaning-making framework fits with the way Jung speaks about confronting, examining and integrating the unconscious, there is an opportunity for Positive Psychology to investigate Jung’s specific strategies.

Conclusion

Carl Jung charts a path for the discovery of meaning through engagement with the unconscious. His own life experiences (Jung, 1963) and expressions of unconscious material through the Red Book (Jung & Shamdasani, 2012) as well as his home at Bollingen points to the powerful process of meaning making. Positive Psychology research and theory supports Jung’s two phases of psychological development through ego strength and ego flexibility development (Headrick, 2023); and the discovery of meaning through internal values and intrinsic purpose. In addition, the meaning-making theory put forth by Crystal Park seems to provide evidence for Jung’s ideas around confrontation with the unconscious. The search for meaning, through increasing consciousness, is experienced with a spiritual or numinous feeling tone; supported by Positive Psychology research in showing the protective benefits of a spiritual practice or belief in something beyond the ego. Jung believed that one of the most meaningful aspects of life is one’s relationship with the Self: at once something inside and also beyond the individual. Ultimately, like the founders of Positive Psychology, Jung searches for wholeness, insisting that we “return to the personal wisdom of our own revelations to uncover the truths in our own individual Selfhood” (Herrmann, 2021, p. 319). 

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