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  • Essay / The Ego Self: Psychic Energy - 1261

    Based on Schultz and Schultz (2004), Jung considered psychic energy to be a vital energy, libido, for which it had two meanings, another being energy divided generalized vitality, and another being a narrow energy that fuels the psyche. Psychic energy functions in three ways according to the principles of opposites, equivalence and entropy. The principle of opposites means that every aspect of the psyche has its opposite which creates energy. The principle of equivalence means that energy created in the opposite is moved from one part to another to achieve balance. The principle of entropy means that an equal distribution of energy creates balance in the personality. According to Friedman and Schustack (2012), Jung called the mind for psyche and divided it into three different parts which are the conscious ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The conscious ego is the part of the psyche that deals with perceiving, thinking, feeling, and remembering, and it is responsible for managing the usual activities of waking life (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). It is also responsible for our continued sense of identity, such that we feel like the same person regardless of our age (Anthony, 2001). The personal unconscious contains thoughts and feelings that were forgotten or repressed because they were random or distracting (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). It also contains future material and balances the attitudes and ideas that the conscious ego presents (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). The conscious ego and the personal unconscious communicate with each other in such a way that the latter provides a storage space into which the conscious ego can extract and deliver information (Schultz and Schultz, 2004). The collective unconscious is the deep center of the article. Synchronicity is defined as “the simultaneous appearance of a certain psychological state with one or more external events that appear as significant parallels to the momentary subjective state.” (Main, 2000, para. 6). As noted in Nikula (n.d.), Jung was so enthusiastic about synchronicity that he believed it could explain many mystical, parapsychological, and astrological phenomena that interested him until his death, in addition to alchemy and Gnosticism . Based on Schultz and Schultz (2004), Jung used symbols, myths and rituals from ancient cultures in his therapies which included the Word Association Test, which he used to reveal complex, free association for analyze symptoms and dream analysis. Jung believed that dreams tell of something that is likely to happen and that they help us achieve balance between opposing energies in the psyche (Schultz & Schultz, 2004).