ABSTRACT
Individuation whilst mainly accredited to Carl Jung has many other cultural roots. The general idea here is that in order for a person, a group, or a culture to grow or progress, there needs to be a reintegration of those aspects which have been split off in order to comply with familial, cultural, gendered, and other scripts that define who we are. The idea here is that the other is often that which sits outside of these societal norms, but that to be truly authentic within oneself one has to embrace those projections that reinforce who we believe we are. Psychological privilege though is rooted within not just the right to self-define, but also the rigidity of that self-definition.
With prejudices being a necessary aspect of the formation of an ego, individuation therefore becomes the process whereby we reintegrate the aspects of our otherness, which are suppressed, and/or regain the parts of our privilege we have distanced ourselves, in both instances so that we might function safely within the wider world.
This chapter therefore uses creative techniques such as dreamwork, and sand play, to explore the themes that arise out of a longer heuristic exploration of privilege and otherness, and how this therefore becomes a route to greater psychological reintegration.
