The wise and powerful sovereign behind what we are and do

The True Power Behind Us

I’ve been searching for the right way to convey the importance of the concept we’ll discuss next (the Self), because it really is very important. So I’ll try my best:

Have you ever tried to answer the question of why you do what you do?

For example, years ago I explored why I’ve liked gyms since I was very young. The answer was obvious: because I like to be in shape. Why? Because I like how I look physically. But why? Because I feel good about myself when I’m in shape.

But why do I feel so good being in shape? Because I’m healthy. Mmmm… deep down, I felt something didn’t quite fit in that last answer.

Later, deep meditation made me clearly see how much I didn’t like my appearance. Later still, the same meditation showed me that it wasn’t my physical features I disliked, but the role and position my passive physical presence was playing in the world.

I resolved a complex that had tormented me, but the question persisted: what makes me feel this way? That’s how I reached the core of something that is present but often unseen.

This is how we reach an unresolvable question — why we do what we do — only to end up at the bottom, discovering that everything stems from our human nature, and even deeper, at its center, lies what Carl Jung called the Self, a kind of sovereign behind all that we are.

From the Jungian perspective, the Self would be the ultimate answer to the question “why do we do what we do?” Not in the sense of a concrete or rational cause, but as the deep and teleological — that is, purposeful — origin of our psychic development.

As you begin to contemplate and see the true reasons behind your behavior (whether good or bad), again and again, you reach a point where what drives you is no longer an external or logical reason. It’s something more internal and totalizing.

That “something” is what Jung called the Self: a kind of mysterious and incomprehensible existential compass that pushes you to realize your true inner image.

Nietzsche arrives at the Self

This is probably how Nietzsche arrived at the Self (before Jung), and in the chapter of his book Thus Spake Zarathustra titled “On the Despisers of the Body,” the following quote appears:

“Behind your thoughts and feelings, my brother, there stands a mighty ruler, an unknown sage — whose name is Self. In your body he dwells; he is your body.”

But for Carl Jung, this definition is too vague, since the Self is something as vast as it is incomprehensible and should not be identified with the body. His words on the matter were:

When [Nietzsche] identifies the body with the Self, he introduces the Self into the body or elevates the body to the Self, which produces an inflation of the body. It is very curious that Nietzsche, an intuitive, would overestimate the body to such a degree. Naturally, the body is extraordinarily important, but here it is overvalued. (Nietzsche’s Zarathustra Seminar, Session V, Winter Term 1935)

As we can see, for Jung the Self is not reducible to the physical or to instincts. It is an archetype that represents psychic totality: body, soul, mind, collective unconscious, spirituality, etc.

Therefore, identifying the Self with the body is a dangerous reduction — a form of “inflation,” that is, projecting too much power onto a limited part of who we are (in this case, the body).

Although the body is part of the Self, the Self is much more vast and includes the symbolic, spiritual, and transpersonal dimension of the psyche.

The Self as a reconciling principle

Later, Jung says:

The understanding of the Self appears as the reconciling principle, the powerful sovereign.

Let’s note that Jung doesn’t just say “the Self,” but “the understanding of the Self.” That already indicates something crucial: the Self is not just an internal psychological reality, but also a progressive experience, a growing awareness developed through the individuation process.

That is, the Self is always there, but it only becomes effective and transformative when consciously recognized.

For Jung, psychic life is full of tensions and polarities. The ego, being limited, tends to take sides with only one pole. But the Self has a totalizing vision, and its work is to unite opposites without destroying them.

That is why it’s a reconciling principle: it doesn’t erase differences; it integrates them.
Thus, the Self is the principle that reconciles the opposites of the psyche: conscious and unconscious, masculine and feminine, light and shadow, spirit and matter, individual and humanity, etc.

In deep meditation, this can feel like a revelation, since upon reaching the root of everything, we feel and see that everything relates to the same thing, and therefore the conflict disappears.

We realize that the Self is like a hidden king: silent, yet decisive. When the ego becomes aware of it, it experiences a kind of “inner reign,” a sacred hierarchy where the ego no longer rules, but something deeper and wiser does.

Uniting the body with the Self

Jung goes beyond Nietzsche and later invites the union of the body with the Self:

We must unite the Self with the body, since the distinct body is the distinct appearance of the Self in three-dimensional space, and yet it is again a function like the mind. We cannot say that the mind is a function of the Self without admitting that the body is also a function of the Self.

Here Jung acknowledges something essential: we cannot separate the Self from the body. Although they are not the same, they are intimately connected. In other words:

The Self is not only psychic or spiritual; it also has an embodied expression.

Thus, the mind and the body are expressions of the same thing: the body is the visible manifestation of the Self, a kind of “form” it takes to manifest in material reality. The mind is the conscious reflection of the Self, its expression on the symbolic, psychological, and rational plane.

Mind and body are not the Self themselves, but both are expressions of it; both serve as its vehicles. The Self transcends them, but also needs them to manifest in the world.

As we can see, many questions remain in the air when we speak of the Self, and Jung himself called it incomprehensible on several occasions and a frontier for our understanding. So we will need several articles to explore it.

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Remember: I’ve committed myself to deeply studying all of Jung’s work and also to freely sharing what I learn, so my content will always be free. But if you’d like to support my project, I’d gladly accept a coffee:

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I also recommend that you read my following publications:

• Why should men turn to an intelligent woman according to Jung?

• The Symbolic Treasure Behind Holy Week

• Carl Jung: What Is the Real Meaning of Christ's Death?