Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

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Developing a Personality
Personality is the supreme realization of the
innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. 53
Personality develops by slow stages in life. It is the fruit of activity
coupled with introspection, and confidence tempered by a healthy
dose of self-doubt. On the one hand it is an act of courage flung in
the face of life’s adversities, the affirmation of who one is and what
one believes. On the other hand it involves accepting the immediate
conditions of our existence, such as where one finds oneself on this
earth and having a physical body.
The twin running mates of personality are individuality and individuation.
Individuality refers to the qualities or characteristics that
distinguish one person from another. Individuation is a process of
differentiation and integration, the aim being to become conscious
of one’s unique psychological make-up. This is quite different from
individualism, which is simply me-first and leads inexorably to alienation
from others. The individuating person may be obliged to
deviate from collective norms, but all the same retains a healthy
respect for them. In Jung’s felicitous phrase,
Individuation does not shut one out from the world, but gathers the
world to itself. 54
What motivates a person to individuate, to develop personality
instead of settling for persona? Jung’s answer is that it doesn’t happen
by an act of will, or because others (including Jungian analysts)
53 “The Development of Personality,” The Development of Personality, CW 17,
par. 289.
54 “On the Nature of the Psyche,” The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, CW
8, par. 432.
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