Becoming You - FL #13
Exploring the Unconscious Mind and the Technology of Individuation
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"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely."
~ Carl Jung
The hardest thing anyone can do is become the best version of themselves. Most opt-out or give up at some point on the journey.
What do we mean when we say: become ourselves? It's quite peculiar - are we, not us, in this moment?
Well, most of us aren't. Most of us identify solely with our persona, the mask we wear to the public, and never reveal what's behind the mask, even to ourselves.
Modern men and women, some in full, some in part, associate themselves with their jobs, activities, and idiosyncrasies. We are much, much more than that. We seldom realize that our minds are vast and expansive universes in and of themselves, waiting to be traveled, explored, challenged, and supported.
We should look at our unconscious mind and the process of fully realizing and becoming our authentic selves as technology. We have no idea what is waiting to be unlocked in the depths of the unconscious mind. Is it possible that deep exploration, revelation, integration, and any form of improvement of the conscious mind through unconscious mind excavation unlocks new aspects and better modes of being within oneself? If this is the case, then fully realizing yourself is, quite literally, a technology, as the more you uncover, the more capability you possess.
This is more important than ever in the era of AI and the potential for a vast paradigm shift in how humanity operates - I will get to that later.
So, how does one fully uncover one's authentic self?
Realizing the Self: Individuation
Carl Jung, a famous psychologist and founder of the analytical school of psychology, proposed the idea of psychological Individuation.
This is the process of becoming all one can be by integrating all unconscious aspects into consciousness, becoming uniquely oneself, and achieving psychological wholeness.
He identified that the first step to Individuation is to shed the false wrapping of the persona/personae, the mask we wear to the public. Our persona is a sliver of who we are, yet it is what we reveal to the world as the self. The persona/personae are the aspects of the Ego that we tend to associate with, things like our jobs and culturally relevant titles that people understand and can nicely drop into a categorical bucket of understanding.
The Ego is part of the conscious mind and is what we call 'self.' The Ego is the center of the field of consciousness, which contains our conscious awareness of existing and a continuing sense of personal identity.
The top of this model nicely depicts what I briefly stated.
The unconscious mind is vital to Individuation and learning to accept and integrate its messages into the conscious mind.
The unconscious aspects are more challenging to articulate, so I will use The Dark Knight as a model for explaining each of these.
Consciousness
Persona: Bruce Wayne's public persona as a carefree billionaire playboy starkly contrasts his true self. This persona is a mask he wears to protect his identity and to keep his mission as Batman hidden.
Ego: Bruce Wayne/Batman represents the Ego, the conscious mind that mediates between the inner world and the outer reality. He is constantly juggling his personal desires, his duty to Gotham, and the ethical dilemmas that arise from his dual life. His Ego is the central point of his identity, striving for balance and coherence amidst the chaos.
The Unconscious
Shadow: The shadow is the aspect of the unconscious mind that contains the dark parts within us, which we fear to integrate into our personalities. The Joker perfectly embodies Batman's shadow, representing the dark, turbulent forces that Batman fears and suppresses within himself. The Joker's chaos and disregard for rules mirror the repressed aspects of Batman's psyche, particularly the anger, and potential for violence that he must keep in check to avoid becoming like the criminals he fights.
Anima/Animus: This refers to the unconscious feminine characteristics of a male and masculine characteristics of a woman. Rachel Dawes can be seen as Bruce Wayne's anima, the feminine aspect of his psyche that provides emotional balance and connection. She embodies his human side, offering love, compassion, and a moral compass. Her death in the film is a pivotal moment that deeply affects Bruce, highlighting the importance of the anima in his psychological makeup.
Self: The overarching narrative of "The Dark Knight" can be seen as Batman's journey towards Individuation, integrating the different aspects of his psyche to achieve a more complete sense of self. This is evident in his struggle to reconcile his identity as Bruce Wayne with his role as Batman and his moral battles with the Joker, forcing him to confront and integrate his shadow.
While this isn't a perfect science, and I know the Jungian model is not and will not be the last model proposed for fully integrating oneself, Jung struck a chord many years ahead of his time.
The capability to maintain a strong mental and psychological composure and embark on the journey of Individuation will pose a necessary tool for the remaining time of the 21st century. When the question, 'What does it mean to be human, and what does that mean for our future? ' is inevitably further forced upon us all by technological improvements happening rapidly, our best chance of understanding is by continuously aiming to make ourselves whole; harnessing the power of our unconscious minds.
Why This Is the Most Important It's Ever Been
I woke up this morning and planned on continuing a piece I've been working on. The piece I've been working on explores what our lives would look like if AI did take most jobs - where would humans find meaning?
As I cleared my inbox, all my attention was drawn to and captivated by a piece by Frederik Gieschen titled "Night Season." It was an excellent piece, highlighting something similar to what I've been writing about in this piece: one must explore the depths of oneself no matter where that takes them. Not forcing oneself into continuing something because others demand it - shedding the mask in pursuit of your full potential.
This is inevitably part of the answer to the question of what humans would do if AI took all current jobs: it allows us to all fully invest in and follow our personal evolution, explore our darkness (read unconscious), and become a more whole, well-rounded, and complete individual.
The question is difficult to answer, but it's possible everyone will look this question in the face soon enough. This is the question driving the AI draft piece:
If your finances were worked out for the rest of your life, and you managed to maintain your current standard of living, would you care if you lost your job? Would you worry about losing your job if those other considerations were true?
Our jobs, in large part, are what most of us identify with. Our personas have become us, so losing a job is like losing yourself, which is a brutal awakening.
What if we voluntarily choose to individuate, shed the persona, and try to become all we can be?
The thing is, we don't know the upper limits to that. What is possible if we continue excavating our unconscious minds daily? Constantly persist through the struggle to find what our minds have stored for us, the gold waiting to be claimed if we can conquer the dragon guarding it?
5-10 minutes of daily Individuation journaling has felt like putting myself on an exponential growth curve. I certainly would not be where I am without it. Though difficult, a hopeful version of the future includes this becoming a daily practice, aiming to transcend the human psyche for the individual and the collective.
How I have done this, practically speaking, is mostly through journaling, dream interpretations, and active imagination. I have set up a Google form, for which I have created an automated script to send daily emails to myself to check in and explore trends within my emotions and actions based on the previous day; within that form, I also do dream interpretations, which has been tremendously helpful in trying to understand that depths of my unconscious mind. I have been using ChatGPT to be my dream interpreter thought partner. Discussion is essential here, and anything that I discover that is worth diving into, I write about and/or discuss with my fiancée.
Becoming You
"Night Season" served as a good reminder: this newsletter's evolution is not entirely up to me.
Writing is the deepest form of thinking. I write about emerging technologies and innovative ideas because, through exploring my mind, it feels like the path I need to walk.
I don't know how long and how deep that path goes, but I know that as I allow myself to manifest in the world, this is where I have landed, with a strong sense of conviction.
In The Exploring Agent, I wrote that I want to make this a top 10 tech newsletter and a top 100 podcast. That aim feels necessary, and I believe I will attain it, which is probably strange to say as someone with 61 subscribers. Something about the constant excavation of the mind tells me that this dream of mine is an inevitable part of my future, that this is a dragon that will be conquered through my exploration.
Whether I like it or not, I will get there. Along the way, I will make mistakes and struggle. Still, I will always aim to put out pieces of art that are uniquely me - that after you finish reading, your brains will dance with ideas, and feelings of inspiration will flourish from the beauty I hope to put into the world.
You might be here for my writing on Web3, crypto, Cardano, Artificial Intelligence, or technology. You may be here because you like the way I write, the way I think, or the way I put all of it together to make art.
One thing is certain: I have a general idea of where I'm going; I know where I want this to land, but the path there is not 100% certain. I hope that you enjoy the ride and that even if every single piece is not exactly about your domain of interest, every piece manages to strike a chord with you in some way, and as a community, we can all be better from it in some way or another.
I hope you become genuinely you, and this newsletter can help in whatever way that looks like for you.
If you enjoyed or found this beneficial, subscribe to join our exploration of the frontier!
Have a wonderful week, see you in the next one 🙂
Dom
I love it, Dom! I was smiling reading through Jung's model of the psyche. Most people I come across are usually dismissive of this, thinking it's some 'spiritual' BS that doesn't apply to them but there's so much wisdom to be gleaned from it. I mostly studied Freud (20 years ago that is) and the simpler model was just "ego", "id" and "superego" and I remember growing up watching Tom & Jerry and seeing this played out - in the scene where there's a devil and an angel sitting on someone's shoulders "influencing" their thoughts. Buddhism teaches us about this too - to practice 'distancing' yourself from these emotions because at the end of the day, emotions are fleeting.
Hello Dom, great content as always! Quick question, do you still go live on TikTok??