The Chakras and the schools of Citta (The Psyche)

This exploration is not merely academic; it is a soulful quest to harmonize our inner and outer worlds of the Chakras, guided by the insights of Carl Jung. We can see how the Yogic Chakras can be loosely interpreted through the lens of various psychological schools. Our guideposts on this journey are inspired by the pioneering work of Joseph Campbell, whose interpretations of myth and psyche provide a foundational layer for this synthesis. Joe’s main contribution is the first three chakras, the rest are my attempts and adaptations that are built upon his ideas.  

Comparative Table: Jungian Ideas and Eastern Esoteric Concepts

Jungian Concept	Eastern Esoteric Concept	Alignment
Behavioral Psychology	Root Chakra	Grounding and action in the physical world
Freudian Psychology	Sex Chakra	Unconscious Projections & Emotions. Sexuality.
Adlerian Psychology	Navel Chakra	Power of communication, identity, and expression
Kohutian Psychology	Heart Chakra	Empathy, mirroring, love, and relational dynamics
NLP, WAM, Typology	Throat Chakra	Words. The Power of communication, identity, and expression
Jungian Psychology	Third Eye Chakra	The Archetypes, Integration of opposites, insight, and intuition
Beyond Psychology	Crown/Aura Chakras	Transcendent states, divine consciousness

Why This Synthesis Matters:

1. Depth of Understanding: Merging Jungian concepts with the Yogic framework of the Chakras deepens our self-awareness and fosters a nuanced understanding of our psyche as a mind-body complex.

2. Holistic Approach to Wellness: This confluence of concepts offers comprehensive tools for emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being, addressing the multifaceted and multi-leveled nature of the human experience.

3. Pathway to Balance: Through this exploration, we navigate towards a balanced state of mind and body, where peace and harmony are not just new age Chakra theories or ideals but can be lived realities by working on them through the Yogic Kriyas, Meditations and Mantras.

Navigating the Confluence: An In-depth Exploration

Root Chakra and Behavioral Psychology: 

Reflecting on the Root Chakra’s emphasis on stability and grounding, we find parallels with Behavioral Psychology’s focus on tangible actions and behavioral change, highlighting the significance of our interactions with the physical realm for foundational security. This is simpler, and primarily an external endeavor devoid of major abstractions or further complications. Any focus inward would still be a focus on the body and its perceptible changes, and what we can do behaviorally to help change “what’s wrong.” You may put the Five Love Languages, in-between these Chakra and the next one. 

Sex Chakra and Freudian Psychology: 

The dynamic interplay of creation and destruction inherent in the Sex Chakra resonates with Freudian explorations of sexuality and unconscious desires. Freud’s most important contribution to Depth Psychology was the concept or phenomena of the transference, where one “transfers” their emotions that they had of their parents in childhood and projects those emotions and unconscious dynamics onto the same gender person (as the parent) that they are encountering. This transference of emotions could also have an erotic aspect to it, idealization, anger, or many other types of emotions based on the individual. Especially between the Analyst and Analysand, it was the Analyst’s job not to be caught up in the “counter-transference” or the Analyst’s emotional projection towards the Analysand. 

Freud dealt also a great deal with sexuality and infantile sexuality and trauma. While Freud emphasized sexual energy when his theory of Libido was concerned with sexual energy,  Jung broadened this view to encompass a neutral but nevertheless “psychic,” energy that could take on many different forms, not just sex. 

Jung thought Freud’s psychology (not Freud himself) was an Extraverted one, moving towards the “pleasure principle,” whereas Adler’s psychology (who we will concern ourselves with in the next Chakra) moved towards the “power principle.” Freud did think there was a pleasure principle or drive in the psyche, but he also thought there was a death drive to kill and destroy. He called these drives the “Eros: or principle towards life, and “Thanatos” or drive towards death. This fits nicely with the Sex Chakra psychology of Procreation (Eros) and Destruction/Danger (Thanatos) that seems to lie in the symbolism with the receptive benevolent White Crescent Moon on the one hand, and the other, a dangerous encounter in the stormy waters (The Unconscious/Dreams) with the Makara (Sea Dragon/Crocodile). 

Navel Chakra and Adlerian Psychology: 

The Navel Chakra’s focus on personal power echoes Adler’s principles of individual psychology, emphasizing the journey from feelings of inferiority to the realization of personal strength and sovereignty, embodying the chakra’s martial qualities and the quest for self-mastery.

Adlerian psychology called “Individual Psychology,” and methods were focused on what Jung called “A will to Power. ” This placed the power within the Individual and gives power to the subject rather than to objects (i.e. people, places, or things). As opposed to Freud’s Extraverted theory, Jung saw Adler’s theory as closer to the classical description of an introverted psychology, because it is concerned with the person as a self-referencing subject who has feelings of inferiority in society. This inferiority (complex) drives the person towards  “superiority” or sovereignty over himself, all themes of the Navel chakra, as well as the planetary Archetypes of Mars and the Sun.  

At the forefront of the symbolism of this Chakra is the planetary archetype of Mars. The Navel Chakra is how we combat these issues,  which is based on our “Navel Power,” or “Intestinal Fortitude.” Mars is also the Individual Ego of one’s personality, and what is “Heroic” about us. Effectively it is like our dominant function, or inferior for that matter when our emotions erupt.  John Beebe, in his 1987 lectures at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, says that “Hero Psychology is not the point anymore” (A new  Model in Psychological Types), and that we need to get beyond the Hero. Yes, we can look at dominant “feeling types,” or  “dominant intuitive types,” but this is only one of eight possible archetypal complexes, with Mars as an apt image to represent the Hero. But the Hero has a deeper core (the Sun as the Self). How we use our “Will to Power” is either one towards selfish desires (Mars) or towards the true realization of our Self and Soul Needs (The Sun).

Heart Chakra and Kohutian Psychology: 

The Heart Chakra, the center of love and empathy, finds its psychological counterpart in Kohut’s self-psychology, which underscores the importance of relationships and emotional mirroring for psychological development and well-being, highlighting the vital role of empathy and connection in our lives. Kohutian psychology (Self Psychology) utilizes methods for dealing with the issue of meeting our own narcissistic needs. Everyone wants to be validated and have their greatness mirrored back to them by a “self-object.”  

In a nutshell, the self-object is an intra-psychic object or image that is related to our narcissistic wounding. The later Freudians called it having a Good or Bad Breast or a “Good Enough Mother,” but Kohut called it a “Self-Object.” It is based on when whether we fragment or keep it together in any given circumstance (but often in triggering ones). It asks do we have the right image or archetypal expression of that image that was channeled for us by a person like a Father or a Mother so that we can keep it together?  Or is our psyche going to break into pieces, every time X happens? So from a development point of view, what happens is we look for people to mirror back the positive pieces of the archetype (because we can’t handle all of it at once) in order to build up our self-esteem (and to make up for what we didn’t get in childhood) to be able to handle those sticky situations and mature ourselves. This is essentially what therapists try to do in analysis for the analysands. 

To the degree that was mirrored properly by our parents or other “selfobjects” as Kohut called them, is the degree to which are able to regulate our joy and anxiety (Saturn/Vata/Air/Heart Chakra). This puts the importance of relationships at the forefront and the ability to be in a state of Namaste,  with another being, which is honoring the light in me, that is the same light within you. When “failures” in empathy occur as a lack of proper mirroring, it increases the air element and anxiety because we feel a lack of connection. We would like to have that love touch not just by receiving a hug, but also within our psyche. We idealize others, which is to say that we give more importance to them because we love them. We hope the love we give to them is mirrored back to us. 

The love of a Father or Mother mirrored back to us can influence how much we can be in touch with the Divine Father or Mother archetypes. If we have enough Ego strength (narcissistic needs met) to be able to contain the emotional surge of energy that comes when we encounter something meaningful, divine, or archetypal. If we don’t have a strong ego (because we haven’t felt the heart chakra from others, and likely nor have we given it to others) we fragment and become filled with anxiety, emotion, and insecurity. 

Throat Chakra,  Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), the Word Association Test & Jung’s Typology: 

The expressive power of the Throat Chakra aligns with NLP’s focus on language and communication as tools for psychological transformation, illustrating the profound impact of verbal expression and linguistic patterns on our mental and emotional landscapes. I also consider Jung’s Typology to find its home in the Throat Chakra, being concerned with identity and self-expression.

The Neuro-linguistic programming school was developed by Richard Blander and John Grinder and aimed to re-program your mental mishaps through the use of communication and language. This is exactly what mantras aim to do.

Jung touched upon this idea a little bit with his word association method. Although he didn’t aim to change the person’s words, he found that certain words triggered psychosomatic responses in the body which he would call “complexes” or a set of ideas that were held together by an emotional trigger.  That trigger was connected to a word that disturbed the person’s consciousness and they, therefore, were unable to make any associations, or the response to the stimulus word was prolonged. This shows how words (which come from the abstract or Sukshma realm) can influence us psychosomatically. These two methods can be seen as a connection between words or language and their influence on psychic reality, which is part of the sukshma or subtle and abstract aspects of reality. The old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me,” couldn’t be further from the truth. Words are powerful and contain weighted energy that influences, programs, and re-programs our psyche. 

The idea of words triggering a complex in the word association test being is backed up by my research and findings on Psychological Type, in which the cognitive functions seemed to be most easily identified not in what people did, but in what they “said.” This also relates to John Beebe’s Typological model, where he focuses on the cognitive functions being paired with an “Archetypal Complex.” Each cognitive function has its own set of vocabulary that we associate with it. When triggered, it calls us into action in a specific way, by the archetype that puts us in a unique role and way to express the words of the cognitive function. For example, Introverted Intuition words like “knowing,” may trigger a different psychosomatic call to action in the Heroic Dominant (with a superiority complex) than in the Good Parent (which wants to take care of people).  

In the review section on the mantra, it is stated that mantras change the chemicals in the brain through the movement of the tongue (another allusion to the transformation of the nectar). In a sense, mantras are a form of Yogic NLP. This early but effective form of Yogic NLP can affect you psychosomatically and can heal your body or other bodies through the correct use of our words. In this regard, it may be a higher or more abstract form of Behavior Psychology. This is also why Psychology Typology is often conflated with Behavior Psychology. 

Third Eye Chakra and Jungian Psychology: 

Jung’s exploration of the unconscious through symbols and active imagination parallels the Third Eye Chakra’s emphasis on intuition and insight, offering a framework for integrating disparate aspects of the psyche towards a state of wholeness and inner clarity.

No doubt the primacy of the school is in dealing with the problem of opposites within the psyche. C.G. Jung drew upon images and symbols of the psyche through the manifest content of dreams to elucidate the inner dynamics and workings of each individual psyche but also to find wholeness and inner meaning/fulfillment. He did this by cross-culturally exploring the works of Religion, Spirituality, and Mythology. He said that “Man had a Soul” and that this Soul had its own language, which is the language of images and symbols and the language of opposites. The symbol is something that is essentially “unknown.” It points to many possibilities and possibilities of healing. 

In the 3rd Eye, we heal the split and find wholeness through the union of opposites. When the two become one, conscious and unconscious are working together. This gives rise to the use of our imagination and intuition. Jung deployed a method called “Active Imagination,” where one would take an image from a prior dream, or your current disagreeable mood and work with that in waking life in order to give shape or luminosity to the dark contents of your psyche. One would engage in a dialogue with this image or images to reach a point of realization or peace with the content. Sometimes other images would spontaneously manifest and or arise. But the key up was not interfering with the Ego and using that “Ajna Inflation” and being a master of your own house. Rather, you became a “Guest” in your own house, your house being the Psyche, as you watched strangers enter and exit your domain by their own will. 

Jung also had practical aspects to his model of the psyche, aside from working with symbols. Of course, these symbols and images had to be grounded in concepts like the “ego” which was the center of consciousness, or typology which were “types of consciousness’. “He considered his psychology to be empirical based on “psychic” and not physical facts. It is where we can be more conscious of the sukshma aspect of reality. 

Crown and Aura Chakras: 

Beyond the Psychological Realm: These chakras suggest states of consciousness that transcend conventional psychological frameworks, hinting at the mystical or divine aspects of experience that defy easy categorization or explanation within the confines of psychology.

Conclusion: The Path Towards Wholeness

This synthesis of Jungian psychology and Yogic philosophy invites us on a transformative journey toward self-realization and holistic wellness. It’s a pathway enriched by the wisdom of sages and scholars, from Carl Jung’s analytical depth to the spiritual insights of Yoga offering a comprehensive frameworks like the Chakras for understanding and integrating the multifaceted dimensions of our being.

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