The Paradox of Pursuing Happiness: Insights from Depth Psychology

Jung differentiates the first and second halves of life, with the first being largely focused on developing an identity to succeed in the world. As adolescents we explore different social groups and activities, internalizing aspects of these things to form an identity. Our identity often relates to what music we listen to, how we dress, our hobbies

Jung called this process Individuation, which is really a great word for it. We move from a social and cultural identity to a truly individual sense of self. While in the first half of life we internalize aspects of our environment, in the second half we explore and express the truths which arise from within, individuating ourselves from group iden

Jung explained that our shadow constitutes the parts of ourselves we reject or avoid looking at because these aspects don’t fit with the way we’d like to see ourselves. He explained that we each have in us the forces for the greatest good and also the greatest evil. We have the potential to commit the same horrible atrocities that we see in the wor

In my own experience, for example, I long noticed I was triggered by people who were loud and overly expressive. I eventually realized that this was because there is some part of me that wanted to be more expressive, to take up more space, but I feared people’s judgment, in the same way I was judging others.