Humanism and Spirituality in Jung - as Seen through the Prism of the Hourglass Metaphor

C.G. Jung is known mainly for his efforts to probe the depths of the personal and collective unconscious. His labelling of the abyss from the perspective of a psychologist seems indeed very natural. Less is said about his humanism though, about his particular emphasis on concepts like self, spirit and spirituality or faith, concepts which have remained undeservedly in the shadow of the concept of the unconscious. If in the works of Plato forgetfulness is the defining illness of our psyche, for Jung the greatest enemy of our spirit is the loss of faith. For this reason, the existential journey for any human being is focused on the effort of rediscovering the lost faith. Failure to do so may have tragic consequences: either endless wandering or psychological disorder. The authors of this study do not propose only to evidence new meanings of the concepts of self, spirit, spirituality, faith, the individuation process etc, but they will attempt to capture the dynamics of the 'lost inheritance' by using, for this purpose, a novel model or metaphor, deemed the 'hourglass metaphor'. There are many elements from Jung's works sustaining the possibility of such a representation of personality which will be brought forth as arguments, and the advantages of this illustrative representation of personality through the hourglass metaphor will each be explored in detail. We believe that the hourglass metaphor can elucidate, among other things, the paradox that the more we assume the courage to descend into our own unconscious, the higher up we ascend into the area of spirituality, where we are faced with our own civilizing destiny.