An Archetypal Model of the Self in Dialogue

Abstract

From the standpoint of Jung's analytical psychology, the empirical, ego-aligned `self is always in dialogue with an ego-alien `other'. By carefully attending to what a client experiences as self and as other, a Jungian analyst can identify various subpersonalities in dialogue. The valuations expressed by subpersonalities can be further differentiated through the use of Jung's theory of psychological type to reveal a definite pattern, which can be represented through an archetypal model that consists of a fourfold self shadowed by a fourfold other. This template is illustrated with an analysis of Woody Allen's movie Husbands and Wives, seen as the film-maker's active imagination of various subpersonalities attempting to establish dialogue with each other through gestures of marriage, separation and remarriage. It is argued that the patterning of subpersonality `complexes' provides a structural basis in the psyche for H.J.M. Hermans's notion of movement within the `dialogical self.