A Jungian Reflection on Individuation, the Wounded Masculine, and Inner Authority

Motto for 2026: Choosing the Self

As I move into 2026, the phrase “Choosing the Self” has become more than a guiding intention. It has revealed itself as a Jungian task — one that sits at the heart of individuation, healing, and mature relationship.

In my clinical and symbolic work with children, adults, and couples, I repeatedly encounter the same underlying question, expressed in many forms:

Am I allowed to exist from who I am — or only from what I provide, endure, or prove?

From a Jungian perspective, this question is never merely personal. It belongs to the deeper dynamics between the ego, the unconscious, and the Self.

Choosing the Self in Jungian Psychology

In everyday language, “choosing oneself” can sound like self-focus or withdrawal from relationship. In Jungian psychology, however, choosing the Self refers to something very different.

Carl Jung understood the Self as the organising centre of the psyche — larger than the ego, and inclusive of both conscious and unconscious life (Jung, 1959/1968). To choose the Self is not to inflate the ego, but to realign the ego with its deeper centre.

Jolande Jacobi, one of Jung’s most important interpreters, clarifies this distinction beautifully. She explains that psychological suffering often arises when the ego becomes identified with a complex, mistaking it for the whole personality (Jacobi, 1959). Individuation begins when the ego steps out of that identification and enters into relationship with the unconscious instead.

Choosing the Self, therefore, is not a feeling — it is a structural shift.

The Wounded Masculine and the “Not Good Enough” Complex

In many women, this shift involves confronting the wounded masculine (animus) within the psyche.

Jung described the animus as the inner masculine principle related to agency, valuation, meaning, and authority (Jung, 1959/1968). When this inner masculine is wounded early — through loss, rejection, betrayal, or conditional love — it often organises itself around a core complex such as:

“I am not good enough.”

As Jacobi explains, a complex is not simply a belief; it is an emotionally charged psychic structure that can take over consciousness when activated (Jacobi, 1959). Under its influence, a person may:

• wait to be chosen rather than choose,
• carry responsibility for others at the cost of self,
• endure rather than act,
• confuse loyalty with self-erasure.

In Jungian terms, this is a state of participation mystique, where the ego is no longer in reflective relationship with the unconscious, but is carried by it (Jung, 1921/1971).

Being Carried Away vs. Being Marked

A helpful symbolic distinction emerges here: the difference between being carried away by experience and being marked by it.

To be carried away is to lose one’s ego position — to be overtaken by emotion, longing, fear, or the verdict of a complex. To be marked, by contrast, is to allow experience to leave meaning without taking over the personality.

Jung emphasised that psychological transformation does not come from avoiding the unconscious, but from relating to it symbolically (Jung, 1964). Symbols allow experience to be held, contained, and integrated rather than acted out or endlessly repeated.

In my own reflective work, this distinction became central. Choosing the Self meant allowing my history, wounds, and longings to leave their mark, without continuing to organise my life around them.

“I Choose Myself” as a Jungian Act

When the affirmation “I choose myself” emerged, it did not feel dramatic. It felt quiet, firm, and irreversible.

Seen through a Jungian lens, this statement does not reject relationship, love, or vulnerability. Instead, it interrupts the unconscious authority of the wounded animus. It says:

• My worth is not decided by recognition.
• I no longer live from the question “Am I enough?”
• I choose to stand in relationship to my psyche, not be governed by it.

Jacobi notes that this is precisely how a complex begins to lose its power — not through suppression, but through conscious differentiation (Jacobi, 1959).

Choosing the Self, in this sense, is an ethical act. It restores inner authority without hardening the heart.

Clinical Reflections from Practice

In my work as a Clinical Social Worker and Jungian Sandplay practitioner, I see this movement mirrored in the therapeutic process itself.

Children often express it symbolically in play, long before they can articulate it in words. Adults encounter it when familiar relational patterns lose their grip. Couples meet it when responsibility is redistributed and emotional labour becomes conscious rather than assumed.

Sandplay, clay work, and symbolic reflection offer particularly powerful ways of working with this shift, because they allow the psyche to speak without requiring premature insight. As Jung observed, symbols emerge where the psyche is ready to grow (Jung, 1964).

Choosing the Self as a Way of Living (2026)

As I step into 2026, Choosing the Self is not a slogan, but a practice.

It means:

• choosing inner truth over unconscious loyalty,
• choosing symbolic reflection over repetition,
• choosing relationship from wholeness rather than need.

This choice does not make life easier in a superficial sense. But it does make it truer.

And in Jungian terms, that is the direction of individuation.

References

• Jacobi, J. (1959). Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the Psychology of C. G. Jung. Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1921/1971). Psychological Types. Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 6. Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1959/1968). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 9(ii). Princeton University Press.
• Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Aldus Books.

Rina Louw is a Clinical Social Worker (MSocSc), Jungian Sandplay Therapy Therapist based in South Africa. Her work integrates Jungian psychology, symbolic play, jungian sandplay therapy, and depth-oriented reflection with children, adults, and couples.
Rina’s clinical and creative work focuses on individuation, emotional regulation, and the healing power of symbols. Her guiding motto for 2026 is Choosing the Self — a commitment to inner authority, conscious relationship, and psychological wholeness.