A Phase Space of the Ego

            The ego-complex grows and develops through “collisions with the outer world and the inner” (Jung, 1978, p. 5). These collisions result in stimulations. The ego is stimulated psychically by the archetypes and instincts and physically through somatic stimulation from the brain. There are three degrees or types of psychic/somatic stimulation:

            a) conscious stimulation,

            b) subliminal stimulation (can become conscious), and

            c) unconscious stimulation (can never become conscious).

            The ego has four primary states: waking, dreaming, sleep, and transpersonal. Figure 14 shows the four states of the ego with consciousness, C, along the y or vertical axis and the personal unconscious, U_p,  along the x or horizontal axis. According to this four-fold view of the psyche, the waking and transpersonal states (the so-called alternate states of consciousness) are fully conscious. The right two quadrants of waking and dream involve the personal unconscious. Jung (1981) points out that “though sleep is a state in which consciousness is greatly restricted, the psyche by no means ceases to exist and to act” (p. 143). Thus we have psychic activity in all four quadrants. Every human being has a waking consciousness which is normally associated with the ego, a dream consciousness, a sleep consciousness, and a transpersonal consciousness.

Figure 14. The Four States of the Ego.  

            Because the ego has four states, it has four degrees of freedom or four primary phases of consciousness. The archetypal Self provides consciousness at all times where (1) consciousness in the waking state is normally focused through the ego-complex, (2) consciousness in the dream or REM (rapid eye movement) state (this state is usually mixed with SREM or slow REM) is focused through a dream-ego (a complex) which may or may not bear resemblance to the waking ego, (3) consciousness in the sleep (NREM, no rapid eye movement or non-REM) state is one of formless rest and peace, and (4) consciousness in the transpersonal state equates to a wide variety of altered states of consciousness.

            The idea of four separate states of consciousness is well known in the East. In Sanskrit, these are Jagrat (waking), Swapna (dreaming), Sushupti (dreamless sleep), and Turiya (which is explained as a higher-than-normal consciousness).

            Figure 15 shows an idealized and much simplified phase space of Jung’s ego complex. Figure 15 is a logical extension of Figure 5 which shows the ego between the conscious and unconscious. This two-dimensional psychic phase space is divided into three main areas: consciousness, C, the personal unconscious, U_P, and the collective unconscious, U_C. The growth and development of the ego complex is shown by the line dividing C from U_P which is an idealized ego trajectory. C, U_P, and U_C are primary state variables as well as ordering parameters. The idealized ego trajectory through this phase space resembles the bell-shaped curve of the standard distribution of statistics.

            The x axis is time showing Jung’s main developmental stages as infancy, physical puberty (around 13 years), psychic puberty (around 20 years for women and 25 years for men), mid life, and old age. Details of Jungian psychic development and growth can be found in Neumann (1995). The y axis is the distance along what Edinger (1974) calls the ego-Self axis as shown in Figure 11. This axis begins at birth.

The child’s psyche, prior to the stage of ego-consciousness, is very far from being empty and devoid of content. Scarcely has speech developed when, in next to no time, consciousness is present; and this, with its momentary contents and its memories, exercises an intensive check upon the previous collective contents. (Jung, 1991, p. 44)

            Jung implies here that C and U_P are measurable parameters around ages two or three (“During the first years of life there is hardly any consciousness”, p. 52) while U_C is already present at birth (“The unconscious psyche of the child is truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age” p. 45). During the first half of life, the ego is growing apart from the collective unconscious and both the conscious and the personal unconscious are increasing. According to Edinger (1974) the ego-Self axis begins to become conscious at some point corresponding to the middle of Figure 11 and is fully conscious only at a point corresponding to the bottom of Figure 11 (complete separation). 

            C and U_P both normally increase from birth to mid life (“The greatest and most extensive development takes place during the period between birth and the end of psychic puberty” Jung, 1991, p. 52). Ideally, during the second half of life, C increases while U_P decreases. At no time does U_C either increase or decrease although it can be affected in small degrees by C.

            This phase space, with its divided U_C, suggests the existence of a subconscious below C and a superconscious above C, but Jung never liked to separate the collective unconscious this way. We can, however, consider the higher area as the archetypes and the lower area as the instincts, but even this is likely to be an oversimplification.  The overall length of the phase space represents a lifetime. The overall height is proportional to intelligence.

Psychic development cannot be accomplished by intention alone; it needs the attraction of the symbol, whose value quantum exceeds that of the cause. (Jung, 1981, p. 25)

            As we have seen, the archetypes serve as chaotic attractors. Figure 16 shows this phase space with seven primary attractors. Six of these are chaotic attractors which can either attract or repel at various times. The seventh is death (A_D) which is a fixed point attractor that eventually attracts all trajectories through the phase space.

            Early in life, the archetypes of the mother (A_M) and the father (A_F) come into play and can strongly affect ego-development as the conscious ego begins to separate from the unconscious. The archetype of rebirth (A_R) attracts ego-development by drawing the ego away from the Self during the first half of life. The attractor A_R is the chief cause of the mid-life crisis and its strength upon the ego largely determines the distance along the y-axis that the ego can travel.

            During the second half of life, the ego complex must come to terms with A_R (i.e., must resolve the mid-life crisis) only to find itself being affected by the shadow (A_S) and the anima/animus (A_A). Dealing with these two attractors essentially constitutes the first two stages of the individuation process. The ego is drawn away from its first-half-of-life trajectory back towards its roots during the second half of life by the attractive power of the archetypal Self (A_SELF). Union of the ego and Self in the lower right-hand corner of the phase space constitutes an idealistic accomplishment of the individuation process and a transcendence of the ego itself. U_C1 is the amount of U_C that can become conscious (i.e., that part with form or images). U_C2 is that part of U_C that can never become conscious (i.e., that part that is formless). When C touches U_C1, the ego is transcended. Because of the possibility of ego-transcendence, Jung is considered one of the pioneers of transpersonal psychology.

            There are, of course, many other attractors in phase space.  Between A_F and A_R, for example, is the Hero/Heroine which often helps A_R to separate C and U_P from U_C.  Just after mid life, the Wise Old Man sometimes appears as does the Divine Child. In late adulthood death itself sometimes acts as a chaotic attractor that can affect the ego in numerous ways. The ego’s trajectory is usually being affected by one or more chaotic attractors at all times.

            Figure 16 also shows normal trajectories in which the ego approaches the Self but no union or transcendence occurs. When the ego is only slightly drawn toward the Self, or not at all, the trajectories become pathological, resulting in what is often called pathological aging (Schueler, 1989).

            Figures 15 and 16 show an idealized trajectory; one that remains in equilibrium.  However, the ego is usually not in equilibrium but rather in some far-from-equilibrium condition. Figure 17 shows a more realistic trajectory.