Order as Consciousness

The Ego

            In Jungian phraseology, the ego itself is a complex. It is the complex that is the subject of consciousness (Jacobi, 1973). Jung also taught that the stability of the ego is relative, and far-reaching changes of personality can and do occur. These need not be pathological; they are sometimes developmental (Jung, 1978). 

            Not only is our body a dissipative system, but our ego as well. Jung, designated the ego as an ego-complex because of the numerous components and processes with which it is comprised. He taught that the components of the ego-complex are held together by the gravitational force of their relation to consciousness (Pascal, 1992).

The ego, the subject of consciousness, comes into existence as a complex quantity which is constituted partly by the inherited disposition (character constituents) and partly by unconsciously acquired impressions and their attendant phenomena ... Analytical psychology differs from experimental psychology in that ...  it is far more concerned with the total manifestation of the psyche as a natural phenomenon - a highly complex structure .  (Jung, 1991, pp. 91-92)

            For Jung, the structure of the psyche, of which the ego is but one component,  is not static but dynamic (Jacobi, 1973). Kast (1992) writes that, “To Jung, the psyche, like the living body, is a self-regulating system” (p. 5).

            Changes to the ego often correspond to bifurcation points when we consider the ego as a complex system. According to Jung (1976), "The changes that may befall a man are not infinitely variable; they are variations of certain occurrences which are limited in number" (p. 294). When a conflicting experience occurs, a corresponding archetype will arise from the unconscious and "will attract to itself the contents of consciousness" (Jung, 1976, p. 294).

            If we consider the ego as a complex system, then when a person reaches a critical decision point in their life, where they must decide which of two possible choices to make (either consciously or unconsciously), they will have encountered a bifurcation point.  The number of the primary bifurcations of the psyche (which can be considered a complex system that includes the ego as one component), those caused by the archetypes as attractors, are limited in number for each of us. Because of this uniqueness, they stand out as important events that we usually don’t forget.