Transition occupies a structurally pivotal position in the depth-psychological corpus, functioning simultaneously as a phenomenological reality, a ritual category, and an intrapsychic event. Victor Turner’s foundational work establishes transition as the liminal phase proper — the threshold state set in binary opposition to fixed status — giving it sociological precision that later writers absorb and psychologize. Murray Stein extends the biological metaphor of metamorphosis (pupation, diapause) into a three-phase model of psychological transformation in which liminality names the transitional middle ground where established hierarchies dissolve before new forms consolidate. Marie-Louise von Franz insists that transition across psychological thresholds requires confrontation with the opposites, making the inner encounter a necessary condition rather than mere accompaniment. Edinger charts transition as a discrete step within the coniunctio sequence, locating it precisely within the architecture of individuation. Janusz and Walkiewicz bring empirical developmental psychology into dialogue with van Gennep and Turner, demonstrating that failure to complete transitions — remaining ‘frozen’ in a phase — generates psychopathological symptoms. Across the corpus, a central tension persists between transition as natural process (metamorphic, sequential, biologically grounded) and transition as requiring active psychological work: confrontation, suffering, symbolic recognition, and the willingness to relinquish prior form. The term thus bridges biological, ritual, clinical, and philosophical registers without settling comfortably in any one of them.
Transition/state Totality/partiality Homogeneity/heterogeneity Communitas/structure Equality/inequality Anonymity/systems of nomenclature
Turner defines transition as the primary binary opposite of fixed ‘state,’ positioning it as the structural foundation of liminality in his systematic taxonomy of ritual properties.
, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966thesis
Without that awareness, you can’t cross into a new life. There’s no transition without a confrontation of the opposites.
Von Franz argues that psychological transition is ontologically impossible without the conscious encounter with one’s own contrary, making shadow-work a structural prerequisite for genuine change.
, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales, 1997thesis
We can think of the sequence as having four stages and three steps of transition. The original condition, stage 1, would be represented by that single little pebble at the top, which would signify the state of original wholeness before any consciousness enters the picture.
Edinger formalizes transition as a discrete structural step within the individuation sequence, mapping it precisely onto the coniunctio’s movement from original wholeness through ego-development toward reintegration.
, The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey Through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, 1995thesis
In liminality, a person feels at a loss for steady points of reference. When the established hierarchies of the past have dissolved and before new images and
Stein defines the liminal middle phase of transformation as a transitional suspension ‘betwixt and between,’ drawing on Turner to articulate the disorienting phenomenology of psychological metamorphosis.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998thesis
the contribution of concept of rites of passage and theory of liminality to the understanding of transformations in the course of a person’s life… the three fundamental processes that govern the attainment of transformation and transgression into a new phase of life
Janusz and Walkiewicz synthesize van Gennep’s rites-of-passage framework with empirical life-course research to identify the structural conditions — sequential preservation, liminality, and integration — required for successful psychosocial transition.
, The Rites of Passage Framework as a Matrix of Transgression Processes in the Life Course, 2018thesis
remaining ‘frozen’ in a particular phase of the life cycle that does not correspond to socio-cultural norms leads to the emergence of psychopathological symptoms
Failure to complete a transition — stasis within a phase — is identified as a direct etiological factor in psychopathology, linking disrupted transition to clinical outcomes including depression and family dysfunction.
, The Rites of Passage Framework as a Matrix of Transgression Processes in the Life Course, 2018supporting
the ways in which individuals make sense of transition narratives in their lives are linked to their stage of ego development
Singer’s review demonstrates that how adults narratively process life transitions correlates with ego development level, linking subjective meaning-making to the structural outcome of transitions.
, Narrative Identity and Meaning Making Across the Adult Lifespan: An Introduction, 2004supporting
Transformation of the larva into the mushy disintegrated pupa does not always occur immediately after entering into the cocoon. The larva can live intact inside the cocoon in a state of profound introversion for weeks or months
Stein uses the biological phenomenon of larval diapause as a precise analogy for the protracted, inward quality of psychological transition, emphasizing that transformation has its own timing beyond conscious control.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998supporting
not medium but transition, a mode of passage, makes it become, this beauty, the ve
Lacan reframes beauty in Diotima’s discourse as a mode of passage rather than a fixed medium, inscribing transition within the movement of desire itself as the operative mechanism of psychic ascent.
, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VIII: Transference, 2015supporting
according to Hegel, ‘the finite is not, i.e., is not the truth, but merely a transition (Übergang) and an emergence (Übersichhinausgehen: a transgression of itself)’
Derrida, citing Hegel, grounds transition philosophically as the ontological status of the finite — constitutively self-exceeding, structurally incomplete — a formulation that resonates with depth-psychological models of psychic development.
, Margins of Philosophy, 1982supporting
social life is a type of dialectical process that involves successive experience of high
Turner frames transition within a dialectical model of social life in which alternation between high and low, structure and communitas, constitutes the generative rhythm of human community.
, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966supporting
To transition to Stage 2, a person must develop the capacity to discern between ‘what is real and what only seems to be.’
Mathieu applies stage-developmental logic to spiritual recovery, treating transition between faith stages as contingent upon a specific cognitive-perceptual capacity rather than occurring automatically.
, Recovering Spirituality: Achieving Emotional Sobriety in Your Spiritual Practice, 2011supporting
we have seen something of the nature and law of the transition from intellectual to spiritual mind; from that achieved starting-point we can begin to trace the passage to a higher dynamic degree
Aurobindo treats transition between levels of consciousness as lawful and traceable, using it as the key operative concept in mapping the ascent from mental to supramental awareness.
, The Life Divine, 1939supporting
Compared to the lengthy period of pupation, which may have extended over weeks or months, or in some cases even years, the final emergence of the adult is lightning fast.
Stein contrasts the prolonged duration of the transitional phase with the rapidity of emergence, arguing that transformation concentrates its intensity in the liminal interval rather than the moment of resolution.
, Transformation Emergence of the Self (Volume 7) (Carolyn, 1998supporting
Aristotle’s general doctrine of sense given in the De Anima as passing through a transition between two positions, whose latent mutual incompatibility is only perhaps half realized by Aristotle
Hamlyn’s reading of Aristotle identifies an unacknowledged internal transition within the De Anima’s theory of perception, using the term to describe conceptual movement between incompatible philosophical positions.
, De Anima (On the Soul), -350aside
the resumption of sexual relations is usually a ceremonial mark of the return to society as a structure of statuses
Turner specifies ritual markers that signal the closure of the transitional phase, identifying the resumption of sexuality as a ceremonial sign of reintegration into structural social life.
, The Ritual Process Structure and Anti-Structure, 1966aside