ilar to the Freudian Ego except that in Jungian analysis the Ego’s strength is entirely contingent upon the amount of Individuation that one has realized (Hall, 1973). The amount of Individuation that one has undergone may be a decisive factor in whether or not one in inclined to violent aggression. That is to say, as with the weakening of the Freudian Ego, the lack of proper Individuation of the Jungian Ego results in a susceptibility to the backlash of unbridled aggression found deep within the Psyche, in the Collective and Personal Unconscious.The Personal Unconscious, roughly analogous to the Freudian Id, plays perhaps the most important role in the origins of human aggression, particularly through the development of Complexes. A Complex according to Jung was the psychic association of a thought with a particular feeling, i.e. the person experiences a “hang-up” or dominant preoccupation with something or someone (Hall, 1973, p. 36). Complexes may play a pivotal role in violent aggression in that the object with which a Complex is associated, or even environmental cues associated with that object, which may be linked to anger, hatred or contempt may result in a fit of violent aggression, especially at times during which the Ego has undergone a weakening, or regression in terms of its Individuation. For example, if one has a complex related to his father’s aggressive and subversive tendencies associated with contempt, he could easily lash out on somebody whom he associates with an authoritarian personality, without even knowing why he has done it. In the words of Jung, “A person does not have a complex; the complex has him” (Hall, 1973, p. 37).Last, but not least, in a role of paramount influence on the origins of human aggression, due to its cryptic complexities as a construct, is the Collective Unconscious, which bears no remote equivalence in any of Freud’s constructs. It is thus unique bec...
