ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses C. G. Jung's closely related concept of individuation. Like all other profound ideas, the principium individuationis was not wholly new: it already appeared in the writings of the philosopher Schopenhauer, and earlier in those by the sixteenth-century alchemist Gerard Dorn. But Jung added depth and richness to a concept integral to our understanding of human personality. In parallel, Jung's aspiration as a psychotherapist was not only to heal disorders of the mind but to achieve an ever-higher level of consciousness, perhaps even make contact with the divine. Jung knew that alchemy, while arguably a process parallel to Analytical Psychology, was just one of a number of ancient spiritual paths aiming at individuation. The quest for individuation has been pursued primarily in the mystical branches of the great world religions. In Christian, Jewish, and Islamic monotheistic traditions it combines mainly prayer, study, and the practice of sacred rituals.
