A Breakthrough Holistic Healing Method Using Carl Jung’s Philosophy

With the transition towards the new age, people have begun exploring new forms of spirituality. Deviating away from the major traditional religions, this eclectic approach to spirituality mixed both western and eastern concepts. For instance, we’ve had new interpretations of energy healing and chakra gates which strongly stemmed from a western approach. Even the idea of Feng Shui had a western approach to it.

As such, people have gained a new understanding of healing and spirituality. Whereas the modern sciences had a purely physiological approach, the new age pinpointed how the mind is connected to the body. For instance, there have been recorded cases where individuals utilized spirituality as a form of healing to cure the terminally ill. While still not accepted by the general public, stern believers continue to show proof of such. Just google up some miracle healing, and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

But in this article, the point that I’d like to make isn’t about whether or not such spiritual forms of healing are real. After all, conflicting proofs show that much of the discussion on this topic is still in limbo. Instead, what I’d like to show is the fact of this transition of perspectives. Instead of purely relying on science to cure illnesses, people have begun searching elsewhere. Why so?

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Behind the transition of perspectives

Perhaps, one answer to this is the presupposition that the free-market has invaded the sphere of values. Instead of curing patients, big pharma is being accused of going for long-term treatment of diseases such as cancer. In general, some defectors to the modern approach of healing pinpoints this and justifies why their children should not be vaccinated.

But more than that, there is clearly a shift of perspective. Instead of employing a palliative type of approach to illnesses, people are now looking for alternative yet holistic ways of doing so. The same idea also applies to problems of depression, lack of focus, anxiety, and all the other psychological issues. Instead of merely taking meds to regulate the chemicals in our brain, individuals have sought spiritual forms of healing such as meditation, chakra healing, and yoga.

With that, as one of the ways to go for a holistic approach in healing, the Jungian archetypes present to us a breakthrough solution. By looking deep into our psyche, Jung suggests that we’ll find the concept of archetypes.

The collective unconscious

To support this claim, Jung presents the concept of the collective unconscious. As one of the ways to understand the human psyche, the collective unconscious contains information and responses that precede us. Meaning, as we are born into this world, Jung argues that we are never a tabula rasa or a blank slate. Instead, much like Plato’s theory about the world of forms, Jung believes that we have innate ideas within us. As the human species evolves, he argues that our psyche is also evolving. And as it grows, we as a species passes on this knowledge whenever a new child is born. This explains why people have knowledge about things they haven’t experienced, as they already have this built-in within them.

And so, if ever we indeed do have this knowledge, how does it help us achieve a holistic kind of healing?

Holistic healing

Most of our negative experiences as individuals are drawn from fragmented cases of pain and suffering. For instance, when we commit mistakes, we know that when we made a choice back then, we thought it was for the best. Regardless of the reason, our choices are almost always backed by this idea that we’re selecting what we think should be.

To further elaborate, consider your love life choices. They say that as you learn more about love, you’ll realize how to put yourself first. Because we can make faulty choices, we dedicate ourselves fully to the other person, only to find out that they’ve fallen out of love already. And so, when we begin learning from this, we realize that we should be more careful next time. Because we are unable to see the bigger picture, we almost always commit mistakes due to a lack of perspective. That’s why we always say that “I should have known better.” As Socrates would answer, our moral mistakes are caused by a lack of knowledge since man always chooses what’s best for him or at least what he thinks is best for him.

As such, we realize that the real question is about why we are leading ourselves to these problems.

This points to a specific answer: that healing can be a matter of perspective building. By understanding more about ourselves, we are taking a holistic approach to healing. As a matter of fact, we are preventing ourselves from experiencing psychological trauma, confusion, anxiety, and even depression when we fortify our minds. With that, the concept of archetypes affords us with such. By giving us a deeper understanding of ourselves, the Jungian archetypes present knowledge that is rooted in the collective unconscious.

Being a holistic approach, the archetypes provides us with a primordial way of understanding ourselves by laying out our shadows, goals, weaknesses, fears, gifts, desires, etc. Thus, instead of blindly left alone in the face of all the complexity the world has to offer, we are empowered by the Jungian archetypes to find our own meaning and value in life.