The Inner World of Choice

With a focus on how we come to make the choices we make, Wickes gives the Jungian view of the development and integration of aspects of the emerging Self, made up of primarily conscious ego and the anima for men or animus of women. More specifically she demonstrates anecdotally how NOT integrating the ego/unconscious or male-female aspects of oneself into a working harmony (of which a Self as a whole is at least somewhat aware) leads to living a life of no having no choices at all because you are at the mercy of your unconscious impulses. Jung worked with a pantheon of archetypes, and Wickes does also, choosing however to work primarily with those that worked best for her within the Christian context. Thus she talks of sin and show more redemption, suffering and transcendence, Christ and the cross and always using "man" and "men" and "he" a combination of which made it hard for me, at times, to look beyond the modality she chose to the message underneath. To her the Christian modality is as natural as any of the other, less culturally attached, archetypes -- animals, physical features from running water to the stars, and the different ages of human, from newborn to aged but not to me. Nor am I at all sure anymore that the gender you are born appearing to be is guaranteed or even that the male-female duality is more than a convenient term for an array of characteristics that tend more to one group than the other but that shouldn't be lumped together anymore. Nonetheless the underlying message, that each of us is made up of a bundle of characteristics many of which are embedded in the unconscious and must be coaxed into acceptance and some awareness by the conscious part of the personality -- the part that forms young to "manage" in the real world into which a child must learn to navigate. The unassimilated parts of the self, anima or animus, will get projected onto others and create havoc in relationships. The message is not dated but the mode of delivery now is and the emotional issues that we in the 21st century while being about the same thing -- living up to your full potential and in harmony with your inner self -- seems to have such different external ground rules, I had to constantly overlay her words. Another important message surfacing here and there is that each person must attend completely to their own development -- that how we react to external happenings is usually more about what is inside us, than the happening itself. An interesting bit too about how from childhood the factual and fantastic have become inextricably intertwined in ways that the adult might not realize but that will also have an influence on how they see and react in daily life. I'm sorry the book is so dated, but it happens. ***1/2

{Integrating ego and self} "means listening to the inner voice, accepting the interpretations that arise from the Self, remaining alone and yet involved, related but not identified."

"In every conflict, inner or outer, conscious and unconscious continually confront each other, for "The psychological transcendent function arises from the union of conscious and unconscious content which have a curious tendency not to agree." (quote is from Jung) "Yet they need each other--the conscious to give form and reality, the unconscious to fertilize the conscious--in that interplay through which man becomes not only a creature of instinct and will but also a living spirit . . " show less

This new book, by a noted American analyst and author, is a light piercing the shadow of inner confusion and conflict. To read it is to start the long journey out of darkness , to find at last a way to the definitive choice in life: whether to remain a mirror of one's environment, of outer circumstances - or to break through these and find authentic selfhood. There is an austere beauty in Mrs. Wickes's description of :the punishment of choice, of responsibility, of self-awareness, and self-judgement." The stark necessity for confronting one's real inner life is the driving force in every line. The Inner World of Choice is filled with fascinating case histories, sketches of dreams, concrete incidents. In reading each experience, the show more ultimate moment of truth revealed becomes a further step along along the road to self-awareness: to fulfilling oneself as a creative human being. Source: Publisher show less

One of two volumes by Wickes, relating to C G Jung