Becoming Beautiful: The Aesthetics of Individuation

Abstract

How does beauty contribute to the process of individuation? C. G. Jung's articulation of the value of aesthetic expression for psychological development emerged from his personal engagement with the psychological turmoil he suffered when his intimate friendship with Sigmund Freud was severed. He learned to work with and integrate his experiences by giving them creative form. But for Jung, in the progression toward wholeness, beauty is only beneficial to the extent that it aptly captures an inner experience, so that its meaning can then be discerned and morally engaged. Such meaning and moral engagement subordinate and supersede concerns for beauty. In contrast, this article proposes that beauty is essential to the entire process of individuation. By returning to the origins of Western conceptions of truth, goodness, and beauty in the thought of Plato, concerns for truth (meaning) and goodness (morality) are shown to engage the intellect and will respectively, but only beauty moves the heart by awakening love. When beauty is relegated away, so is love. Wholeness then lacks heart and is left incomplete. Beauty completes wholeness. And ultimately, from Plato's perspective, wholeness itself is a form of beauty. So when coupled with Jung's conception of individuation as a process of becoming whole, psychological development can be seen as a process of becoming beautiful. In the end, based on factors related to his estrangement from Freud, Jung may have resisted giving greater prominence to beauty as a way to keep their perspectives distinct.