Family Constellations And The Collective Unconscious

Although many psychological and psychiatric theories abound, depending on what school a person adopts, most of the theories pretty much originate from a specific source and branch from there. This is true, especially when it comes to family dynamics.

In trying to fathom emotions of the modern family of today, Bert Hellinger, in his book “Love’s Hidden Symmetry,” has come up with certain conclusions about why we react the way we do, and namely, it is so we fit in with our family group more effectively.

Yet it can be said that Hellinger is not necessarily the first to have brought up this theory. Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud’s protégé, came up with some similar dynamics, but instead of addressing these dynamics as the “family constellation,” as Hellinger calls it, Jung tagged it the “collective unconscious.” Although these two mental health experts lived a century apart, their theories both have many similarities.

In this paper, I will try to identify both of the theories, then compare and contrast them with one another. Finally, I will place my personal thoughts and experiences explaining how this has touched my own life.

Hellinger uses as an example, a married man who left his wife for another woman, inventing “superficial and capricious reasons” for leaving her (Hellinger, 2002). The man married and the other woman had a daughter, who hated her father for no apparent reason (Hellinger, 2002). Upon examination, it seemed as though in the man’s subconscious mind, the daughter represented his first spouse, and he treated her as such, meaning she reacted the same way toward him, without even knowing about the existence of the initial spouse (Hellinger, 2002). “In this” Hellinger concludes, “we can see the hidden systemic compensatory force at work, avenging the injustice done to the earlier member by unconsciously listing a younger member” (Hellinger, 2002). This occurs as children unconsciously represent an “excluded” family member, and then try to satisfy that excluded person’s need for revenge and restitution (Hellinger, 2002).

Furthermore, Jung states that material in the collective unconscious is inherited, and it never came from the current environment, but rather “is the part of the mind that is determined by heredity” (McCarthy, 2002). As a member of humanity therefore, we inherit a collective unconscious, with the mind, prefigured by evolution as the body is (McCarthy, 2002). In other words, an individual is linked to the past of a whole species, and literally has no control over it (McCarthy, 2002). Therefore, the collective unconscious is an evolutionary link with things that happened in the past (McCarthy, 2002).

The Jungian theory says, therefore, that decisions are motivated by unconscious factors placed there by environmental determinations, with most of those determinations involving the wishes and desires of other people (McCarthy, 2002). But because these wishes and desires are unconscious the person making the decision is not aware that he/she is being manipulated into a specific position.

Some topics in this essay:
Sigmund Freud’s, Furthermore Jung, Jung McCarthy, Family Constellations, Jung Hellinger’s, Hidden Symmetry”, Hellinger Jung, Collective Unconscious, mccarthy 2002, hellinger 2002, collective unconscious, Bert Hellinger’s, family constellations, Bert Hellinger, theory collective, family dynamics, own family, jung’s theory, theory collective unconscious, “love’s hidden symmetry”, control jung, conscious ones, necessarily child’s fault, family constellations hellinger, hellinger 2002 hellinger,