Why Are People So Selfish? Carl Jung’s Writing Invites Us to Ponder This Question
Although the critique of human self-centeredness is not a novel claim, the world is still flooded with selfishness. Regardless of their cultural, geographical, or physical differences, humans have been selfish for as long as they have inhabited this globe, filling the history of existence with records of competition, conflict, dehumanization, and inequality. There has always been a dim voice calling for love and peace, but the situation seems as if it has never changed.
The psychoanalyst Carl Jung, himself witnessed two World Wars and the dehumanizations inflicted upon the people and being a scholar of the human mind, also pondered on this pervasive and perpetual phenomenon of self-centeredness. After thorough contemplation, Jung concluded that egotism is a natural element of human existence, yet he also invites people to examine themselves internally in order to understand and potentially address external problems.
Jung categorized the structure of the human mind into two elements—conscious and unconscious—which duality was first recognized by Sigmund Freud, the predecessor and the founder of psychoanalysis. The first part, consciousness, relates to the known and controllable experiences and strives to expand its domain. Human endeavors to acquire more knowledge and manipulate their surroundings for their benefit can be attributed to the inclination of consciousness.
The center of consciousness is called the ego, which in Latin means self, and is characterized by its individuating tendency. The ego discriminates I from not I, which binary division gives a concrete sense of identity. Preserving and advancing oneself is the ego’s utmost priority, yet this quest is hindered by the second part of the human psyche: the unconscious.
Before Jung, the first person to recognize the unconscious was Freud, who is acclaimed to be one of the most influential thinkers in history thanks to his discovery indicated the transition from the modern to the postmodern era. Since the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, people believed in humans’ innate ability for purely rational thought and action. Faith lost its position as a superior source of knowledge, which diminished the religious authorities and accompanied the separation of politics and religion. The rapid technological innovation, the expansion of knowledge, and the political reforms mutually reinforced the propagation of conviction in human rationality and free will.
However, Freud from his psychiatric practices observed the pattern of irrational thoughts and behaviors, which led him to question the commonly held view of the human mind. He came to conclude that humans do not always think and choose knowingly and freely, but rather are always influenced if not determined by unknown and uncontrollable impulses, which he later named the unconscious.
For Freud, while the consciousness was the self, the unconscious was the internal other; hence the prefix un-, indicating not self. As much as a person cannot understand other people, one’s consciousness is detached from the unconscious which acts autonomously by itself and sometimes conflicts with the ego’s agenda. The unconscious humbled the people’s pride in consciousness by putting limits on their ability to know and control not only their surroundings but also themselves.
However, because Freud’s theory still emphasized the ego as the self, its recognition of the unconscious only painted the dreadful future of ceaseless struggle, externally between oneself and others and internally between the ego and the unconscious. While Jung agrees with Freud on the autonomy and the otherness of the unconscious, he suggests a possibility to escape the tension by casting a different light on the nature of the unconscious and its relation to the consciousness.
Jung viewed the unconscious not merely as an erratic and uncooperative roommate for the ego but as a resource to be tapped into. His investigations of neurotic images, hallucinations, artistic works, dreams, and imaginations from his patients and his own, along with his explorations in mythologies and mysticism, revealed to him universal motifs, symbols, and narratives. Jung’s ultimate theory, which encompasses everything from the mythology before written history to his dreams, is that the source of universality must not lie in the distinct and varied consciousness but in the unconscious.
The collective unconscious, as Jung named it, exists in all humans and surrounds them all, including those who have lived in the past and who will live in the future. With its vastness and eternality, the collective unconscious possesses an energy incomparable to that of a confined ego. After all, the gut feeling frequently compels what is reasonable.
In addition to its rich vitality, Jung believes in the complementary character of the unconscious that can allow one to live more fully and wholly. If the ego is divisive, the collective unconscious encompassing all individual consciousnesses is unifying. The unconscious does not express itself in binary but in a nuanced and ambiguous manner which is well exemplified by the mythology and the dream—they never have only one interpretation. The comprehensive perspective of the unconscious can be valuable when one can be caught up in one small detail or part and miss out on looking at the big picture. When solving puzzles, instead of holding onto the one piece sometimes one has to take a step back and look at the whole image.
In today’s world, Freud’s legacy of the precarious ego position rather has made people cling ever more to it. As evidence for the predominance of ego-personality, Jung points to science and society. He saw the divisive and controlling tendencies of the ego in the reductionist and rationalist thinking of science. The methodology of reducing data into the smallest parts that can be known and controlled, assembling them into a coherent logical sequence, and measuring and quantifying those parts was an expression of the ego. The ego’s desire for control and quantifiable good also drives materialism and an obsession with hierarchies—a prevalent phenomenon at a college preparatory school. The growing division and polarization everywhere is unsurprising when the binary attitude of ego prevails. Everything ought to be either good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, us or them, and I or you—there is no harmony in between.
Despite his critical attitude toward the ego, Jung still affirms the individuating function of the ego to be necessary for one to exist as a unique and independent individual. He believes that it is the differentiating force of the ego that drives the consciousness to emerge out of the collective unconscious as if an island would appear out of a boundless ocean. Without the ego, there would be no individuality or diversity. He even suggests that the essential and primary purpose of living is individuation, which he defines as “the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual, a separate indivisible unity or whole, recognizing his innermost uniqueness.”
However, in pursuing individuation, Jung clearly states that the self is not the ego. Identity, reason, and material goods are essential in life, yet they do not represent everything. See where selfishness, competition, and materialism have led humanity today—conflict, distrust, fear, and hatred. To live as fully as one can be, they must learn to channel the energy of the unconscious. The complete and whole personhood can only be accomplished through the totality of the conscious and the unconscious.
June Singer, the author of the book “Boundaries of the Soul,” described the individuation as sailing: “You learn to take into account the structure of the boat itself, how it is made and how it responds to the water and the wind. The boat is comparable to your personality. You learn about the currents in the lake; these correspond to the realities of life in which you are situated and who are somewhat predictable. You learn about the winds, which are invisible and less predictable, and these correspond to those spiritual forces which seem to give direction to life without ever showing themselves. In learning to sail you do not change the current of the water nor do you have any effect on the wind, but you learn to hoist your sail and turn it this way and that to utilize the greater forces which surround you. By understanding them, you become one with them, and in doing so are able to find your own direction—so long as it is in harmony with, and does not try to oppose, the greater forces in being.”
Jung’s criticism of ego personality and human selfishness is not new. So why should one listen to him? Why should he be any different from other thinkers? The answer is that Jung does not believe in tramsforming other people. Imposing one’s ideas on others and forcing them to be more selfless would be the manner of ego. Jung simply invites people to reflect within themselves, inviting them to recognize the internal other, the unconscious; to acknowledge the limited existence of their ego that ceaselessly endeavors to grasp and control its surroundings. After shifting their attention from the ego to the totality of ego and the unconscious, Jung asks people: should they continue to otherize and try to control their unconscious, or should they accept it and learn to coexist? All potentials for change is within, the conscious and the unconscious. According to Jung, the one and only agent of transformation is not Jung, his ideas, or other people, but the person themself.
