The term ‘Assumption’ bifurcates sharply within the depth-psychology corpus, operating along two distinct but occasionally intersecting axes. The first, and most theologically charged, is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary — the bodily ascent of Mary into heaven, dogmatized by Pope Pius XII in 1950. For Jung and his commentators, principally Edinger, this event is not merely doctrinal but psychologically momentous: it is read as the collective unconscious registering the coniunctio archetype, the sacred marriage of opposites, the feminine principle ascending to co-equal status with the masculine God-image. Jung famously declared it ‘the most important religious event since the Reformation,’ a judgment Edinger returns to repeatedly as evidence of synchronicity between papal proclamation and analytical psychology’s discovery of the coniunctio. The second axis concerns epistemological and group-psychological ‘assumptions’ — the unexamined presuppositions governing scientific inquiry (McGilchrist), the proto-mental ‘basic assumptions’ that covertly organize group behavior according to Bion’s foundational theory, and the tacit assumptions undergirding coping processes (Pargament). These usages are not incidental: in each case, ‘assumption’ designates something operative beneath conscious articulation — a conviction taken for granted that nonetheless shapes all subsequent thought or behavior. The Bionian basic assumption — dependency, fight-flight, pairing — has proven especially generative, anchoring an entire tradition of group-analytic interpretation.
the Assumption of Mary can be considered as the comprehensive, summarizing image that expresses the fruit of the incarnation cycle taken as a whole, namely, the coniunctio.
Edinger argues that the Assumption of Mary is the definitive symbol of the coniunctio archetype, made historically legible by its synchronistic co-emergence with Jung’s empirical discovery of that same archetype.
, The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, 1987thesis
Jung considered the dogma of the Assumption of Mary to be ‘the most important religious event since the Reformation.’ It’s an astonishing remark.
Edinger foregrounds Jung’s radical evaluation of the 1950 dogmatization of the Assumption as a psychologically transformative event, then presents the papal proclamation itself to substantiate its symbolic weight.
, Transformation of the God-Image: An Elucidation of Jung’s Answer to Job, 1992thesis
The most widely known aspect of Bion’s work is his basic assumption theory. Bion drew a distinction between the basic assumption group and the work group.
Flores summarizes Bion’s foundational distinction: every group harbors a covert ‘basic assumption’ layer of primitive emotional functioning that operates beneath and against the declared work task.
, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997thesis
the group is often used to achieve a sense of vitality by total submergence in the group, or a sense of individual independence by total repudiation of the group
Bion identifies the basic assumption as the unconscious emotional inheritance of group membership, which drives individuals to oscillate between merger and repudiation rather than genuine work.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959thesis
it seems to be a basic assumption, held both by the group and the pair concerned, that the relationship is a sexual one. It is as if there could be no possible reason for two people’s coming together except sex.
Bion illustrates the pairing basic assumption as an unconscious group axiom that attributes an exclusively sexual motive to any dyadic encounter within the group.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959thesis
It is only when a group begins to act on a basic assumption that difficulties arise. Action inevitably means contact with reality, and contact with reality compels regard for truth.
Bion argues that basic assumptions resist reality contact, and that the moment a group attempts to act on them, the work group — with its demand for truth and scientific method — is necessarily evoked.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959supporting
All basic assumptions include the existence of a leader, although in the pairing group, as I have said, the leader is ‘non-existent’, i.e. unborn.
Bion shows that each basic assumption configures a characteristic leadership structure, with the pairing group uniquely projecting its leader into the future as an unborn, messianic figure.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959supporting
Basic assumption states owe their existence, therefore, in large part, to the conditions imposed by the group leader him or herself upon the group.
Flores, citing Kernberg, extends Bion’s theory by locating the activation of basic assumption states partly in the leader’s own passivity or inactivity, not solely in the group’s inherent regression.
, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997supporting
all paths to knowledge whatever have to involve assumptions
McGilchrist argues that the scientific claim to freedom from presupposition is itself untenable — every epistemic path, including science, necessarily rests upon assumptions that cannot be internally validated.
, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
a materialist view of total reality is a metaphysics, not a scientific theory. There is no possibility whatever of scientifically proving, or disproving, it.
McGilchrist exposes the foundational assumption of scientific materialism as an unverifiable metaphysical commitment rather than a scientific conclusion, paralleling depth psychology’s critique of reductive epistemology.
, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
Implicit in this dense summary are eight assumptions about the coping process
Pargament makes explicit the foundational assumptions undergirding his theory of religious coping, treating them as theoretically accountable propositions rather than hidden axioms.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
before acting on the assumption that a case for further investigation is established, it may be as well to check our speculations by bringing them into closer relationship with fact.
Bion reflexively cautions against acting prematurely on theoretical assumptions about proto-mental systems, insisting on empirical verification before extending the basic assumption framework.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959supporting
few things in history have aroused a group’s feelings more powerfully than controversy about the characteristics of the deity whose cult is at the time flourishing
Bion observes, in an aside relevant to the dependent basic assumption, that theological controversy functions as a historical paradigm case of the group’s primitive emotional investment in its deity-figure.
, Experiences in Groups and Other Papers, 1959aside
It has been implicitly assumed that psychological change occurs, primarily, through the vehicle of insight and understanding or through behavior modification.
Levine challenges the dominant assumption in psychotherapy that change is primarily a top-down, insight-driven process, arguing instead for the primacy of somatic, bottom-up transformation.
, In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, 2010aside