Dr. Sara Dennis
After working as an assistant supervisor at the New Jersey state reform school for girls, I felt a pull to pursue further training in working with people who wanted to grow and heal. On my 35th birthday I was given the collected works of Carl Jung and had no idea what these volumes would mean to me. Wholeness was a somewhat abstract idea at the time, but I discovered that for Jung it was something unique. This, I discovered is the central concept in Jung’s understanding of every human’s struggle to find some integration between their personal struggles and life’s meaning.
“Wholeness is the universal urge or desire to fulfill all of oneself -all of one’s potentials, all aspects of ourselves as they have come into being or failed to come into being in our particular environmental circumstances.” – Carl Jung
The unfolding of this potential wholeness from within is what Jung meant by individuation – “the strongest, the most ineluctable urge in every being, namely to realize itself.” (Carl Jung) 1.
I identified with this urge to become more whole, and decided to pursue a doctoral degree in psychology, and went on to become a Jungian analyst. Working as an analyst allows me to join others on their journey to discover their unknown selves and hopefully reach a place of acceptance.
1 (Jung, 1049: Para. 289).