“The way is not without danger. Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things” C.G. Jung

Shall we begin with the full quote:

“One man will now take chiefly what comes to him from the outside, and the other what comes from the inside. Moreover, the law of life demands that what they take from outside and inside will be the very things that were always excluded before. This reversal of one’s nature brings an enlargement, a heightening and enrichment of the personality, if the previous values are retained alongside the change – provided that these values are not mere illusions. If they are not held fast, the individual will swing too far to the other side, slipping from fitness into unfitness, from adaptedness into unadaptedness, and even from rationality into insanity. The way is not without danger. Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yes to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one’s eyes in all its dubious aspects – truly a task that taxes us to the utmost”. (Encounters With The Soul, Barbara Hannah quoting Jung, p. 18)

The idea of uniting the opposites is extremely well known in the Jungian Real, but what it really entails?

Jung’s typological method seems to always be forgotten when discussing “shadow integration”, or the unconscious assimilation. Although, it’s one of his most important contributions to Psychology in general. 

Knowing typology is so crucial that Jung says, one can not discuss psychology without first recognizing their own personal equation, I.e. his own typology.

(I’m an introverted Intuitive, with thinking as an auxiliary function, in case you were wondering).

So the first step in our self-knowledge journey is to first recognize our Conscious Attitude. One needs to have absolute clarity about their own psychological tendencies.

Are you an extravert or an introvert? Are you mainly guided by Thinking, Feeling, Sensation, or Intuition?

Once that’s established, everything will become easier. Well, sort of, it’ll be easier to intellectualize it, although the journey, as Jung said: “Is truly a task that taxes us the utmost”. 

And why is that?

First, because we spend many years establishing our Ego Complex, this means that it takes a long time to develop our Conscious Attitude in a functional and adapted way.

And in order to accomplish this task, invariably, we’ll have to suppress our counterparts. For instance, as an intuitive, I had to suppress my sensation side in order to develop my intuition well enough. 

Our Consciousness is always one-sided, and it has to be that way because the opposites are constantly clashing. So you can’t use a function properly without suppressing its counterpart.

However, this one-sided quality is exactly what brings conflicts later on, because it’s constantly excluding our other half. And the contents of our counterparts possess exactly what we need to be balanced, and develop our personality.

And here we face a major problem… These contents lie in the unconscious, therefore they have a psychological possessive quality. And what Jung calls, a numinous effect over our conscious mind. A mix of inebriating fascination and absolute terror. 

(I’m just remembering the countless times I heard thinking types telling me how terrifying it is getting in touch with their feelings, extraverts saying that they can’t be alone, or introverts being terrified of other people, lol)

So, the more one-sided we are, the greater the tension between the opposites. And the more we try to suppress our counterpart, the more it’ll try to be seen by our conscious mind.

And that’s precisely when this becomes problematic, and if this is taken too far, it turns into a neurosis.

For instance, if a thinking type is constantly suppressing their feelings, eventually they will turn against them. Because they aren’t allowing feeling to be a part of their conscious attitude, the only way it has to express itself is by “possessing” them from time to time in a ruthless manner. In that way, they have to face their other side.

We have to remember that “The way is not without danger”. 

Getting in touch with the unconscious is not a task for the faint of heart. And we’re constantly dealing with our mortal enemy, Enantiodromia. This means becoming our opposite, “the individual will swing too far to the other side, slipping from fitness into unfitness, from adaptedness into unadaptedness, and even from rationality into insanity”.

This process always needs to be conducted with absolute care, and the solution lies in opening yourself enough so you can integrate small portions of the unconscious at a time.

Jung says that the best way to do it is by interpreting your dreams, and with more advanced analysands, by using Active Imagination. In that way, we can experience “an enlargement, a heightening, and enrichment of the personality”.

The first step is to recognize one’s psychological tendencies and develop them to the utmost. The second is to sacrifice part of it so the unconscious can continue to propel the development of our personality.

And I must say that Jung wasn’t Joking when he said that “the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things”. You have to constantly face your fears, and sacrifice your vanities if you seek to realize the Self.

As an introvert, truly putting myself out there, and especially here, has been a great part of my journey. Experiencing our counterpart is also where we can find the most joy and inspiration. And I can honestly say that paying the price is worth it.

Read this one next – How To Do Shadow Work

Rafael Krüger

Engage with this post on Reddit

Learn about Jungian Psychology and the Art of Dream Interpretation: