The term ‘process’ occupies a constitutive position across depth-psychological discourse, functioning simultaneously as a descriptive category for observable therapeutic sequences and as a quasi-ontological claim about the nature of psychic life itself. In group-psychotherapeutic literature, particularly Yalom’s, process designates the relational and meta-communicative dimension of group interaction — what is happening between persons as distinct from the content of what is said. Flores, following Yalom, specifies this duality as content versus the reflective sequential illumination of events, locating process as the ‘power cell’ of therapeutic work in the here-and-now. A wholly different register appears in Roesler’s and Stein’s analytical-psychological writing, where ‘process’ names the transformative itinerary of the psyche — a staged, purposive movement from unconscious matrix toward individuation and Self-emergence, whose archetypal grammar Jung drew from alchemy. Edinger’s readings of alchemical operations (calcinatio, mortificatio, separatio) map process as sequential psychic ordeal. Bulkeley, drawing on Freud, distinguishes primary from secondary process as two fundamental modes of mental functioning, grounding the concept neuropsychologically. The central tension in the corpus lies between process as technique — a therapist’s interventional skill — and process as autonomous teleological movement of the psyche itself, a tension that mirrors the broader dialectic between agency and surrender running through depth-psychological thought.
process-the reflective examination and clarification or process illumination of what has occurred sequentially. Consequently, Yalom’s model requires two steps.
This passage provides the canonical group-psychotherapeutic definition of process as the second, reflective layer of here-and-now experience, distinguished from content and identified as the mechanism of curative group work.
, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997thesis
the therapist has two discrete functions in the here-and-now: to steer the group into the here-and-now and to facilitate the self-reflective loop (or process commentary).
Yalom defines the therapist’s dual function as activating here-and-now content and then sustaining the process commentary loop, identifying the latter as the distinctive professional responsibility of the therapist.
, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, 2008thesis
the idea of this process contains a model of a sequence of stages which are clearly defined (the shadow, anima and animus, the wise old man/the great mother, etc.).
Roesler articulates Jung’s transformation process as a structured sequential model with named archetypal stages, while critically assessing the nomothetic weight that architecture must bear.
, The Process of Transformation — The Core of Analytical Psychology and How it Can Be Investigated, 2025thesis
Process: as apparent in group; beginning of; content v.; definition of; examples in groups; as power source of group; recognizing; review of; therapist recognition of
This index entry maps the full conceptual architecture of ‘process’ in Yalom’s system, explicitly opposing it to content and identifying it as the power source of the group.
, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, 2008supporting
Freud calls them the primary process (generally unconscious) and the secondary process (generally preconscious and conscious). Primary process thought is instinctual
Bulkeley summarizes Freud’s foundational distinction between primary and secondary process as two irreducibly different modes of mental functioning, grounding the term in metapsychology rather than technique.
, An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming, 2017thesis
at the centre of the architecture of The Process of Transformation 357 the entire theory. The debate is not only about the existence or nonexistence of certain archetypes, but about the validity of Jung’s ideas forming a coherent explanatory system
Roesler argues that Jung’s transformation process is not a peripheral concept but the architectural centre of analytical psychology, and that critiques of archetype theory strike at the entire system.
, The Process of Transformation — The Core of Analytical Psychology and How it Can Be Investigated, 2025thesis
at a deeper level, there is a single process of becoming; major but perhaps hidden continuities exist between latent structures from the past and prominent structures of the present.
Stein presents individuation as a unified, continuous process of becoming beneath apparent discontinuities in a life, linking latent past structures to emergent adult imagos.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998supporting
In my book In MidLife, I write about three phases of this process and refer to this one—the middle one—as liminality. It transpires ‘betwixt and between’ the more fixed structures of normal life
Stein maps the transformation process onto three phases, centering on liminality as the disintegrative middle stage in which established hierarchies dissolve before new structures form.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998supporting
judgment is chiefly concerned with the conscious motivation of the psychic process, while perception registers the process itself.
Jung distinguishes two cognitive orientations toward process — judgement, which attends to motivation, and perception, which registers the process as it occurs — linking the concept to typological theory.
, Psychological Types, 1921supporting
The planning process is not a different form of MI. There is the same attention to change talk, the same collaborative spirit, plenty of OARS, and a clear direction toward change.
Miller defines the planning process in MI as continuous with the broader therapeutic process rather than a discrete departure, emphasizing its dependence on the same relational and linguistic skills.
, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, Third Edition, 2013supporting
these men have in common vividly limned adult imagos which both defined them and freed them to express their psychic potential.
Stein grounds the transformation process in biographical evidence, showing that differing life trajectories converge on the emergence of individuated imagos as the telos of the process.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998supporting
what aspects of the process had helped the client realize those benefits. The clinical debriefing focused on the inherent phases of the program and asked the treatment team to reflect on key periods of the treatment process
Russell operationalizes process within wilderness therapy as identifiable phases of treatment, subjecting it to clinical debriefing and outcome research.
, Perspectives on the Wilderness Therapy Process and Its Relation to Outcome, 2002supporting
I also believe this material can be helpful to sponsors, addictions counselors, psychoanalysts, and mental health practitioners in general in their work with people in recovery.
Schoen situates the healing process in recovery from addiction within a framework that includes dreams as diagnostic and prognostic instruments across sequential stages.
, The War of the Gods in Addiction: C.G. Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous and Archetypal Evil, 2020aside
the sequence of operations (with one or two exceptions) does not seem to be psychologically significant. Any operation may be the initiating one, and the others may follow in any order.
Edinger qualifies the alchemical process by denying it a fixed sequential order at the psychic level, suggesting that transformation follows organic rather than linear logic.
, Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, 1985aside
unless astrology is put to use as a revealer of vital significances and of patterns of organic (or generally, holistic) relationships… as a technique of personality-integration—it remains a merely intellectual speculation
Rudhyar implicitly invokes process by insisting that astrological symbolism must serve the living integrative process of personality development rather than abstract intellectual construction.