Jungian Therapy, Jungian Analysis, New York

Individualism

from Jung Lexicon by Daryl Sharp

Individualism. A belief in the supremacy of individual interests over those of the collective, not to be confused with individuality or individuation.

Individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations. But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfilment of the collective qualities of the human being, since adequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to a better social performance than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed.
. . . . Since the universal factors always appear only in individual form, a full consideration of them will also produce an individual effect, and one which cannot be surpassed by anything else, least of all by individualism.[“The Function of the Unconscious,” CW 7, pars. 267f.]