Individuation as practical philosophy: C. G. Jung´s clinic of the second half of life and the Indian doctrine of Puruṣārthas

Abstract

Jung's historical intervention is essentially a proposal to revitalize, in modernity, a soteriological philosophy that finds strategic shelter in the disciplinary context of a "scientific psychology". As "middle-age clinic" or "clinic of individuation", the paradigm that directly inspires Jung's analytical psychology is the athanasius pharmakon of ancients and classic western and eastern philosophers - the "medicine of immortality". Its conceptual framework, instead of a scientific theory of universal claim, constitutes itself as a power-language that structures and sustains, in modern West, a dialogical and conversational process of thinking between analyst and patient (therapeia), committed to the systematic elimination of "false sheats" that conceal the Self and the realization of an existentially transforming truth that promotes existential completeness.To support this interpretative line, we resort to the Indian doctrine of Puruṣārthas (human aspirations), especially to the process of transition between dharma (moral duty) and mokṣa (final realization).