Restless hearts : a thomistic analysis of Jung’s theory of individuation

Abstract

A burning bush. A voice on a mountain. A mountain itself. A ‘man’ whose face has been lost to time, subsisting only in the minds and hearts of some, in a tatter of rags and in a polyphony of carvings, illustrations, etches and sketches, of which the only common theme seems to be an adherence to a principle of holiness. Indeed, there is an apparent facelessness to God. And so, God becomes a thing so much like the self, something to be unpackaged, explored, related to, the sum of which broadly and very simplistically emerges for us in four questions: "Who am I?”, “Who is God, does He exist, and, what has He to do with me?” Their significance may be evident, their complementarity less so. What does self-knowledge have to do with God? And, what does God have to do with self-knowledge? What exactly, if any, is the relationship between personal flourishing and God? Both Carl Jung and Thomas Aquinas may be regarded as grappling with questions featuring the nature of the self, self-knowledge, and the self’s relation to God. In this paper we shall attempt to explore and unpack the manner in which both thinkers, in their own way, address such questions, paying specific attention to Jung’s notion of individuation and Thomas’ view of human flourishing in a manner that will hopefully outline the differences and similarities that subsist between the two.