ABSTRACT
The battle over the unconscious continues, not only between psychoanalysts and analytical psychologists but between factions within those two groups. Sigmund Freud’s insistent assertion of his claim to own knowledge of the contents of the personal unconscious left Carl Gustav Jung almost no room for manoeuvre in that territory. Consciousness or unconsciousness are not fixed attributes of either pole of the dyads but are distributed in varying degrees between the two poles, reflecting the variety of ways in which mental content may be processed and stored. If a person’s sense of self-agency is functioning at the teleological level, in which they only feel real when they are controlling the actions or feelings of another person, then interpretations which rely on that person’s reflective function will be doomed to failure. Attachment theory has taken the lead in exploring models for the development of the human infant’s relationships, emotional regulation and sense of self.
