Psychic Totality stands as one of the axial concepts in Jungian depth psychology, designating the encompassing whole of the psyche — conscious and unconscious alike — as distinct from the ego, which commands only the conscious portion. Jung’s formal definition, articulated in ‘Psychology and Religion: West and East,’ is precise: ‘The self is defined psychologically as the psychic totality of the individual.’ This formulation carries enormous theoretical weight, since it displaces the ego from its assumed sovereignty and installs the Self as the true center and circumference of psychic life. The concept emerges in tension with several competing positions: Hillman’s polytheistic critique challenges the totalizing, monotheistic pull implicit in the notion of wholeness; Neumann’s developmental account locates totality first in the uroboric undifferentiated state before ego formation; and von Franz examines the symbol of totality in fairy tales and alchemy, noting that such symbols can be structurally deficient — present but lacking a feminine or quaternary element. Edinger and Stein elaborate the concept’s structural and dynamic dimensions, while Spiegelman underscores that the Self is simultaneously center and circumference. Across these voices, psychic totality functions not as a static possession but as a telos — the asymptotic goal of individuation — and its symbols (mandala, quaternio, Self-archetype) pervade the corpus as indices of the whole person striving toward conscious realization of its own depth.
The self is defined psychologically as the psychic totality of the individual. Anything that a m
This passage contains Jung’s canonical definition of the Self as psychic totality, establishing the term’s formal meaning within the Jungian system.
, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis
If unconscious processes exist at all, they must surely belong to the totality of the individual, even though they are not components of the conscious ego.
Jung argues that unconscious processes are constitutive of psychic totality, demonstrating why the ego cannot be equated with the whole individual.
, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959thesis
the self is not only the center but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of the totality, just as the ego is the centre of the conscious mind.
This passage explicates the structural formula of psychic totality by distinguishing the Self as center-and-circumference of the whole psyche from the ego as center only of consciousness.
, Buddhism and Jungian Psychology, 1985thesis
The self of psychological wholeness, briefly, more clearly reflects the God of monotheism and the senex archetype. Unity and totalit
Hillman critically locates the concept of psychic totality within a monotheistic psychological framework, contrasting it with a polytheistic alternative that resists the drive toward unity.
, Archetypal Psychology: A Brief Account, 1983thesis
The self of psychological wholeness, briefly, more clearly reflects the God of monotheism and the senex archetype. Unity and totalit
A parallel formulation to Hillman’s critique in the Brief Account, associating psychological wholeness with monotheistic unity and raising the question of whether totality is an adequate organizing principle.
, Archetypal Psychology, 1983thesis
the self is a complexio oppositorum precisely because there can be no reality without polarity.
Jung argues that psychic totality necessarily includes opposing qualities — good and evil, light and dark — establishing that wholeness is not a purified state but a union of contraries.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951thesis
a new centering of the total personality, a virtual centre. (Jung 1928: pars. 364–365) Clearly, this refers to Jung’s own experiences of mandalas such as the ‘Pool of Life’ in which the total figure is organised round a centre
Papadopoulos documents Jung’s evolving formulation of a center of the total personality that transcends ego-consciousness, showing the developmental trajectory toward the concept of psychic totality.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006supporting
eight is a double of four points to the inner totality, to psychic completeness. So we can say that in the beginning there is a symbol of totality but in it the feminine element, is lacking.
Von Franz demonstrates that a symbol of psychic totality can be structurally present yet functionally deficient, here through the absence of the feminine principle in an otherwise complete numerical configuration.
, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, 1974supporting
This work was published in 1951 and is, according to the editors of the volume, ‘a long monograph on the archetype of the self.’ Its subtitle, ‘Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,’ makes the same point.
Stein situates Aion as the primary systematic treatment of the Self archetype in Jung’s corpus, providing context for understanding where the concept of psychic totality receives its fullest theoretical elaboration.
, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, 1998supporting
the original Christian conception of the imago Dei embodied in Christ meant an all-embracing totality that even includes the animal side of man. Nevertheless the Christ-symbol lacks wholeness in the modern psychological sense
Jung argues that the Christ symbol approaches but fails to achieve full psychic totality because it excludes the dark principle, revealing the distinctly psychological demand that totality incorporate evil as well as good.
, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951supporting
the God-image … is, from the psychological point of view, a symbol of the self, of psychic wholeness.
Jung’s glossary entry in Memories, Dreams, Reflections identifies the spontaneously produced God-image as a symbol of psychic wholeness, establishing the functional equivalence of Self and God-image within depth psychology.
, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 1963supporting
she struggled to unite the opposites within her psychic matrix. She was able to disidentify with the animus and to reunite with the feminine core of herself. Here ego became relativized vis-a-vis the self
Stein illustrates the clinical movement toward psychic totality as a process in which the ego is relativized and the opposing elements of the psyche are progressively united through individuation.
, Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, 1998supporting
the complete, circular state with the threefold triangular state … an attitude emphasizing static completeness must be complemented by the trinitarian dynamic principle.
Edinger argues that psychic totality must integrate dynamic, temporal process rather than remaining a static circular completeness, thus qualifying the mandala symbolism associated with psychic wholeness.
, Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche, 1972supporting
When enough individuals are carriers of the ‘consciousness of wholeness,’ the world itself will
Edinger extends the concept of psychic totality from the individual to a collective and cultural level, arguing that the individuation of enough persons carries civilizational and even political consequences.
, The Creation of Consciousness Jung’s Myth for Modern Man, 1984supporting
Psychic existence is the only category of existence of which we have immediate knowledge, since nothing can be known unless it first appears as a psychic image.
Jung’s epistemological argument that psychic existence is the primary category of all knowing provides the philosophical foundation for treating psychic totality as the encompassing horizon of human reality.
, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958supporting
since we are persuaded that the unconscious processes also belong to psychology … we are obliged to put our concept of energy on a rather broader
Jung’s insistence that unconscious processes belong to the full psychological domain is a foundational move that necessitates an expanded, total conception of the psyche beyond the merely conscious.
, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960aside
in the uroboric phase, when ego consciousness has not yet been differentiated into a separate system, centroversion is still identified with the functioning of the body as a whole and with the unity of its organs.
Neumann locates an archaic, pre-individuated form of psychic totality in the uroboric phase, where body and psyche are undifferentiated — the developmental baseline from which the self’s totality is later consciously recovered.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019aside