From 'Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche' : Marie-Louise von Franz

The inner development process, which leads to the realization of this fourth stage, Jung called the individuation process. It involves the development of what is known as a mature personality, “a well-rounded psychic whole that is capable of resistance and abounding in energy,” which is capable of choosing its own path and self-reliantly remains true to its own inner law.

Especially in times of collective neurosis, the existence of such mature people is of crucial importance. Also in this stage, according to Jung, only dreams can point the way, for this development follows a purely inner bent or is determined by destiny.

Dreams that are an index of the individuation process have, as we shall see, a strange religious or mythological character, for after all it is really religions that have served humanity in the discovery of inner meaning from time immemorial.

Today, however, there are all too many people for whom the existing religions are no longer capable of providing any meaning and who are also not satisfied by the purely extraverted worldview of contemporary science or by the intellectual word games of modern philosophers.

It is at moments like these that many people are called by an inner voice and find themselves compelled to set forth on an inner quest.

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