Blog

     In the wake of his confrontation with the unconscious (1913-1916), C.G. Jung wrote a short essay titled “The Transcendent Function;” and although the essay was not published until 1957, it is in my opinion one of his most important works. Jung (1916/1957) indicated that the essay was written as a partial answer to the following question: “How does one come to terms in practice with the unconscious?” (CW8, p. 68). In the same vein, Jung (1916/1957) also suggested that active imagination—a method he devised to approach, amplify, and integrate psychic “contents of the unconscious which lie, as it were, immediately below the threshold of consciousness and, when intensified, are the most likely to irrupt spontaneously into the conscious mind” (CW8, p. 68)—could bring about the conditions necessary to unite unconscious contents with consciousness into a symbolic synthesis that transcends both the former and the latter. According to Jung, the transcendent function is the psychological process that mediates conflicting attitudes, conscious and unconscious, within the personality. In Psychological Types his first major publication after his so-called fallow period, Jung (1921/1971) officially defined the transcendent function as follows:

Jung borrowed the term from the mathematical concept of a transcendent number, which is a function of a real or imaginary number that is not algebraic (e.g., π, e).

     Because the contents of the unconscious and the attitude of everyday waking life are frequently at odds with one could characterize their relationship as asymmetric.

Figure 1. Patterns in the unconscious are like invisible eddies and vortices.

“Thus he kills the monster, which then drifts to land, where the hero, new-born through the transcendent function (the “night sea journey,” as Frobenius calls it), steps forth, sometimes in the company of all those whom the monster has previously devoured.” (Jung, 1928, para. 160)

     Culture and civilization require that that we constantly direct our consciousness into an activity and what follows is dissociation in other parts of our personality that are too vying for expression. In this vein, Jung (1916/1957) suggested that “The unconscious contents want first of all to be seen clearly, which can only be done by giving them shape, and to be judged only when everything they have to say is tangibly present” (CW8, para. 179). The whole of the psyche wants to bask in the light of consciousness, but one-sidedness is a necessary consequence of directed consciousness or psychic functioning. In other words, selecting one direction or position precludes the all other directions. A counter-position or counter-direction then is gradually built up in the unconscious. Where analysis, dream work, active imagination and others methods come in handy, is addressing the artificial ramparts built up between consciousness and the unconscious.

     Jung further suggested that “we need the unconscious contents to supplement the conscious attitude. Jung further suggested that “The tendencies of the conscious and the unconscious are the two factors that together make up the transcendent function. It is called “transcendent” because it makes the transition from one attitude to another organically possible” (CW8, para. 145). In this way, the transcendent function serves as a quasi-figurative bridge that can bind unconscious contents to the conscious mind. If the conscious attitude were only to a slight degree “directed,” the unconscious could flow in quite of its own accord” (CW8, para. 158). It is important to point out that Jung’s student Jolande Jacobi did not like the term transcendent because there really is nothing “transcendent” about what Jung was suggesting with the term (1957/1959, p. 99, n. 54). If the transcendent function was truly transcendent, one would not be able to use it as a psychological concept. Viewed philosophically, the word transcendent implies a metaphysical quality which would be beyond the scope of empirical psychology. In this way, she preferred word’s gerund, “transcending,” because it better described a dynamic process rather than a metaphysical quality or mathematical quantity.

     The personality is able to attain a new psychological attitude by synthesizing a symbol that transcends (“rises above”) old conscious attitude. The energy value from the tension of opposites contributes to the formation of a new symbols that can

Figure 2. The transcendent function promotes individuation.

Key Points

References

Jacobi, J. (1959). Complex archetype symbol in the psychology of C.G. Jung. R. Manheim
(Trans.). New York, NY: Bollingen Foundation, Inc. (Original work published 1957)

Jung, C. G. (1928). Two essays on analytical psychology. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C.G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 7). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Jung, C. G. (1957). The transcendent function. In R.F.C Hull (Trans.),The collected works of C.G. Jung. (Vol. 8). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1916)

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C.G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 6). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)