Big Think via Big Think:
‘Ryan Haule outlined what Jung believed were the key characteristics of a complex:
- It has a sort of body with its own physiology so that it can upset the stomach, breathing, heart
- It has its own willpower and intentions so that it can disturb a train of thought or a course of action just as another human being can do
- It is in principle no different from the ego which is itself a complex
- It becomes dramatized in our dreams, poetry, and drama
- It becomes visible and audible in hallucinations
- It completely victimizes the personality in insanity
Like much of Jung’s work, complexes have not been scientifically validated in the ways that other psychological concepts and tests have, like operant conditioning or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. One reason is that it would be impossible to study complexes directly. Jung believed, after all, that complexes primarily exist in the personal unconscious, a subdivision of the psyche we cannot access directly in everyday waking life….’
