Jungian Psychotherapy & Sexual Issues
October 26th, 2011 · Jungian, Jungian psychotherapy, Psychotherapy
Ancient Fertility Symbol
Sexual issues are often part of Jungian psychotherapy and of any form of depth psychotherapy that takes human life seriously. Sexuality is a matter of vital importance to us, and is directly connected to other essential areas of our life, like the aesthetic and the spiritual.
Sexual issues of one kind or another will almost certainly appear in the course of the normal development of any life.
Freud was Wrong — but Freud was Right
Freud wrongly thought that sexuality and aggression are the only two human drives. Actually, there are many. Nonetheless, Freud was not wrong to think that sexuality is a very important drive for humans, with incredible emotional and feeling power. It’s a key element in many aspects of our personal being and growth.
Sexuality is Incredibly Diverse and Individual
We humans are very intricate beings, and our sexuality both embodies and expresses our uniqueness. We are often at our most vulnerable — and our most wounded — in the areas of our life that touch on sexuality.
Sexuality is Deeply Connected with the Unconscious
Sexuality takes us deep into parts of ourselves of which we are only dimly aware, which clash with the way we’d like to present ourselves to the world. This is the part of the personality that Jung referred to as the shadow. For almost all of us, some aspects of our sexual identity are in the shadow and the unconscious.
But that doesn’t mean that those aspects in our shadow are necessarily bad or evil. Far from it. What we truly yearn for sexually may be fundamentally connected with our yearnings for wholeness, often expressed in music, poetry, art, or religious or spiritual impulses.
Sexuality as the Bearer of Conflict
Issues around sexual identity, unacceptable sexual impulses, shame, guilt — and ecstasy — ensure that sexual issues will be matters of importance to people. These same issues also ensure that sexuality will very often produces deep conflict in the personality, and, as a result, deepened consciousness.
Yet, Accepting Our Sexual Nature is a Key Part of the Journey to Wholeness
This is a very easy thing to say, but, for many people, for a variety of reasons, this acceptance may be something that is not so easily acheived. It often forms a key element in that process of individual soul-making that Jung called individuation.
