Hexagram 4 of the I Ching: Analytical Psychology and Jung's Developmental Process

• Published in: Journal of analytical psychology Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 167 - 180
• Main Author: Douglas, Claire
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.01.1998; Wiley InterScience; Published for the Society of Analytical Psychology Ltd. by Academic Press [etc.]
• Subjects: analytic development and training; Carl Gustav Jung; Child development; childhood development; complex; History; I-Ching; masculine and feminine principles; Psychoanalysis; Psychology; Puer Aeternus; synchronicity
• ISSN: 0021-8774; 1468-5922
• DOI: 10.1111/1465-5922.00015

Theories, as well as history itself, are subject to their archetypal underpinnings, as well as to synchronicity, cyclic and sequential change. Some of Jung's early life experiences, his theories, and their permutations in his followers are considered in relation to Hexagram 4 of the I‐Ching. Jung's infantile wounds, his lack of adequately mirroring and metabolizing parents gave rise to a Puer Aeternus complex. This complex is explored as it is brought out through the lines of Hexagram 4 in the I‐Ching. The complex is considered as pertinent to some problematical parts of Jung's theory and its impact on analytic history and behavior. Jung's genius and adaptive healing use of the building blocks of this complex are also discussed. It is proposed that the descendants of Freud and Jung internalize the problems of their forefathers in much the same way that patients internalize the problems of their parents. Particular theories suggest similar personal affinities (and even histories) in their followers. Jung's childhood problems are considered for the way they may reverberate in Jungian practice today.