Tony Crisp Interpretation:
The journey of individuation is not only that of becoming a person, but also expanding the boundaries of what we can allow ourselves to experience as an ego. As we can see from an observation of our dreams, but mostly from an extensive exploration of their feeling content, our ego is conscious of only a small area of experience. The fundamental life processes in our being may be barely felt. In many contemporary women, the reproductive drive is talked about as something that has few connections with their personality. Few people have a living, feeling contact with their early childhood. In fact, many people doubt that a baby or young child remembers much. Because of these factors, the ego can be said to exist as an encapsulated small area of consciousness, surrounded by huge areas of experience it is unaware of. These unconscious areas direct our life to an extraordinary degree. Individuation means to emerge from unconscious dependence upon this hidden side of self. It means to become functionally more independent of the archetypes that dominate conscious life. In many ways it is similar to, and includes, becoming functionally independent of one’s mother. See .