ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the parallels between Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of the transcendent function and the notion of dialectical change, first expounded by the German Romantic philosopher, Frederick Hegel. Jung considered the transcendent function to be a process central to the psyche. The psychological “transcendent function” arises from the union of conscious and unconscious contents. Hegel’s grand design is an attempt to understand reality as constructed historically in pairs of opposites that are not dichotomous but are rather in intimate, dynamic, albeit oppositional relation to one another. The dialectical process begins with a “thesis”—any definable moment of reality that is considered as an unconditioned beginning, a starting point from which future developments proceed. The interrelations between analyst and patient, the openness of both to changes in each other, are clearly valued by Jung, and he referred to the centrality of the relationship between analyst and analysand in dialectical terms.
