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Though people may start with clear orientations either inwardly or outwardly, or more directive than receptive, or more oriented to relationships than rational logic, with individuation, each of these orientations gains strength.<\/p>\n
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The aim of individuation is \u201cwholeness\u201d\u2014the integration of conscious and unconscious orientations in one unique individual.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As wholeness relates to type dynamics, it means that those type orientations most well developed in ego consciousness are united with the less conscious type orientations in the comparative unconscious. As long as only a few select type orientations are developed, the individual remains what Jung called \u201cprimitive\u201d and \u201cone-sided.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is the paradox:<\/strong> How can the integration of all eight orientations, common to every normal person, result in the fuller expression of unique personality? It seems that \u201cwholeness\u201d means becoming more like everybody else!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We can look to nature to address that paradox. Consider snow flakes:<\/strong> The pattern of each snowflake is unique, yet each is essentially a hexagram. Using that metaphor, we could imagine someone with a full octagon of Jung\u2019s eight orientations to consciousness, enabling the underlying unique personality to be fully expressed. If only two of the orientations are engaged, the unique pattern, the full \u201csnow flake\u201d of personality, is only partially expressed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With individuation a person is less reliant on the earliest two or three type dispositions and becomes capable of a much wider range of expression. With progressive individuation, the individual person could become rationally decisive and poetically idealistic; grandly visionary and precisely practical; highly sociable and deeply intellectual; intensely reflective and boldly innovative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In \u201cbecoming whole,\u201d the unique individual personality becomes more fully expressed.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a future article<\/strong> we will consider the birth of personality using another metaphor from nature, the butterfly,<\/strong> noting that individuation is not born from exercising the multiple strengths of the caterpillar, but by submitting to the transformative processes of the figurative chrysalis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n J G Johnston<\/strong> Though people may start with clear orientations either inwardly or outwardly, or more directive than receptive, or more oriented to relationships than rational logic, with<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAuthor of Jung\u2019s Indispensable Compass<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"book](\"https:\/\/yourlifeatlas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Jungs-Compass-Cov-er-200x300-1.png\")
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