Compensation

Compensation is, in carl-jung‘s formulation, the fundamental relation between conscious and unconscious, and in murray-stein‘s systematic presentation, the mechanism by which individuation proceeds. It is the load-bearing hypothesis of Jungian dreamwork and the formal expression of the claim that the psyche is a self-regulating system. “The general rule for the normal individual living under normal inner and outer conditions” is that “the meaning of the dream will be confined simply to its compensatory function”; “the compensation theory provides the right formula and fits the facts by giving dreams a compensatory function in the self-regulation of the psychic organism” (Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, CW 8, §494–495).

Compensation is not simple contradiction. It is the supplying of the side that the conscious attitude has neglected, which may involve counter-balance, correction, reduction of an inflated attitude, or — “the principle of like curing like” — a deepening of the dreamer’s character along its already-chosen line (CW 8, §490). The compensation bears “always closely bound up with the whole nature of the individual”; “the possibilities of compensation are without number and inexhaustible” (CW 8, §491). Where the conscious attitude is deviant enough that mere compensation is insufficient, compensation extends into the prospective-function — the dream does not merely balance but guides.

“The fundamental relation between conscious and unconscious is compensatory,” Stein writes. “The growth of the ego out of the unconscious — driven by a powerful instinct to become separated from the surrounding world in order to adapt more effectively to the ambient environment — results in a separation between ego-consciousness and the unconscious matrix from which it comes. The tendency of the ego is to become onesided, to become excessively self-reliant… When this happens, the unconscious begins to compensate for this onesidedness” (Stein 1998, Jung’s Map, ch. 8).

Compensations classically occur in dreams, which are “tuned precisely to the present moment, and their timing is governed strictly by what consciousness is doing or not doing, by the onesided attitudes and developments of ego-consciousness.” They also appear in slips, forgetfulness, accidents, windfalls, and inspirations — the unconscious correcting conscious imbalance by whatever means available.

Crucially, compensation is not merely a local corrective. Over time “these many small daily compensations add up to patterns, and these patterns lay down the groundwork for the spiral of development toward wholeness that Jung terms individuation.” Jung himself, as Stein quotes, saw that “these apparently separate acts of compensation arrange themselves into a kind of plan… subordinated to a common goal” (Jung, quoted in Stein 1998).

Compensation is therefore the mechanism both of ordinary psychic balance and of the entire individuation process. The self drives this process; compensation is the means by which the self acts on the ego.

Relationships

Primary sources

jungs-map-of-the-soul (Stein 1998)
jung-structure-dynamics-psyche (Jung 1960, §490–495)