theoretically achieved self-realization or individuation would have all four functions highly developed.
Childhood
Jung divided childhood into three substages: (1) the anarchic, (2) the monarchic, and (3) the dualistic. The anarchic phaseis characterized by chaotic and sporadic con- sciousness. “Islands of consciousness” may exist, but there is little or no connection among these islands. Experiences of the anarchic phase sometimes enter conscious- ness as primitive images, incapable of being accurately verbalized.
The monarchic phaseof childhood is characterized by the development of the ego and by the beginning of logical and verbal thinking. During this time children see themselves objectively and often refer to themselves in the third person. The is- lands of consciousness become larger, more numerous, and inhabited by a primitive ego. Although the ego is perceived as an object, it is not yet aware of itself as per- ceiver.
The ego as perceiver arises during the dualistic phaseof childhood when the ego is divided into the objective and subjective. Children now refer to themselves in the first person and are aware of their existence as separate individuals. Dur- ing the dualistic period, the islands of consciousness become continuous land, inhab- ited by an ego-complex that recognizes itself as both object and subject (Jung, 1931/1960a).
Youth
The period from puberty until middle life is called youth. Young people strive to gain psychic and physical independence from their parents, find a mate, raise a family, and make a place in the world. According to Jung (1931/1960a), youth is, or should be, a period of increased activity, maturing sexuality, growing consciousness, and recognition that the problem-free era of childhood is gone forever. The major diffi- culty facing youth is to overcome the natural tendency (found also in middle and later years) to cling to the narrow consciousness of childhood, thus avoiding prob- lems pertinent to the present time of life. This desire to live in the past is called the conservative principle.
A middle-aged or elderly person who attempts to hold on to youthful values faces a crippled second half of life, handicapped in the capacity to achieve self-realization and impaired in the ability to establish new goals and seek new meaning to life (Jung, 1931/1960a).
FIGURE 4.4 Jung Compares the Stages of Life to the Sun’s Journey through the Sky, with the Brilliance of the Sun Representing Consciousness.
Childhood
Youth Middle life
Old age
Middle Life
Jung believed that middle life begins at approximately age 35 or 40, by which time the sun has passed its zenith and begins its downward descent. Although this decline can present middle-aged people with increasing anxieties, middle life is also a pe- riod of tremendous potential.
If middle-aged people retain the social and moral values of their early life, they become rigid and fanatical in trying to hold on to their physical attractiveness and agility. Finding their ideals shifting, they may fight desperately to maintain their youthful appearance and lifestyle. Most of us, wrote Jung (1931/1960a), are unpre- pared to “take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. . . . We can- not live in the afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie” (p. 399).
How can middle life be lived to its fullest? People who have lived youth by nei- ther childish nor middle-aged values are well prepared to advance to middle life and to live fully during that stage. They are capable of giving up the extraverted goals of youth and moving in the introverted direction of expanded consciousness. Their psy- chological health is not enhanced by success in business, prestige in society, or sat- isfaction with family life. They must look forward to the future with hope and an- ticipation, surrender the lifestyle of youth, and discover new meaning in middle life.
This step often, but not always, involves a mature religious orientation, especially a belief in some sort of life after death (Jung, 1931/1960a).
Old Age
As the evening of life approaches, people experience a diminution of consciousness just as the light and warmth of the sun diminish at dusk. If people fear life during the early years, then they will almost certainly fear death during the later ones. Fear of death is often taken as normal, but Jung believed that death is the goal of life and that life can be fulfilling only when death is seen in this light. In 1934, during his 60th year, Jung wrote:
Ordinarily we cling to our past and remain stuck in the illusion of youthfulness.
Being old is highly unpopular. Nobody seems to consider that not being able to grow old is just as absurd as not being able to outgrow child’s-size shoes. A still infantile man of thirty is surely to be deplored, but a youthful septuagenarian—
isn’t that delightful? And yet both are perverse, lacking in style, psychological monstrosities. A young man who does not fight and conquer has missed the best part of his youth, and an old man who does not know how to listen to the secrets of the brooks, as they tumble down from the peaks to the valleys, makes no sense;
he is a spiritual mummy who is nothing but a rigid relic of the past. (Jung, 1934/1960, p. 407)
Most of Jung’s patients were middle aged or older, and many of them suffered from a backward orientation, clinging desperately to goals and lifestyles of the past and going through the motions of life aimlessly. Jung treated these people by help- ing them establish new goals and find meaning in living by first finding meaning in death. He accomplished this treatment through dream interpretation, because the dreams of elderly people are often filled with symbols of rebirth, such as long jour-
neys or changes in location. Jung used these and other symbols to determine pa- tients’ unconscious attitudes toward death and to help them discover a meaningful philosophy of life (Jung, 1934/1960).