ABSTRACT
IT is often assumed that, in their psychic growth, children progress from a totally unintegrated state towards one of increasing integration, starting when the ego forms and in creasing as it grows. This simple formula is however inadequate; firstly because during development some psychic experiences regularly become disintegrated and repressed, secondly because the essentially unconscious archetypes never can be integrated within the ego. Only parts of the psyche can, then, be integrated into the conscious mind, but Jung has shown that the ego is not the only centre of integration in the personality. Amongst the archetypal images are those of wholeness and order which repre sent a controlling influence over the unconscious functions; it is also known that they represent a potential integrate of the ego and its ‘ inner objects’, the archetypes.
