Corbett, L. & Whitney, L. (2016). ‘Jung and non-duality: some clinical and theoretical implications of the self as totality of the psyche’.  International Journal of Jungian Studies,  8, 1,  15-27.

In this article, Lionel Corbett and Leanne Whitney address the position of Jung as revealing a non-dual sensibility, describing the Self as the totality of the psyche and departing from this stand in his stress on the importance of the ego. They draw parallels with non-dual spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Yoga philosophy and Vedanta. The implications of non-duality for psychotherapy are developed, in particular in view of the importance of empathy.

Corbett and Whitney's article sets out the non-dualistic strands in the thought of Jung, who repeatedly asserts that the Self is the totality of the psyche, the ego being part of the Self. The ideas of synchronicity and unus mundus also belong to Jung's non-dualistic stand. However, through his stress on the importance of the ego and on becoming rather than Being, as in the Upanishadic tradition, Jung departs from the non-dual approach. He does not consider that full relinquishment of subject/object consciousness is possible. The authors propose that Jung considers consciousness, observed primarily through its contents and individuation, as a progressive process, whereas the non-dual spiritual traditions, Vedanta and Yoga, focus on consciousness as pure Awareness, pure seeing and pure perception. In this view of the world, consciousness is all there is and there is no such thing as the unconscious.

‘From a dualistic standpoint, the ego and the Self are two apparent centres in one psychic process, and from within this dualistic perspective Jung believes the ego can experience or encounter at least some aspects of the Self, although not its totality’ (p. 17). The authors' view is that the Self can never be an object of consciousness because the Self is the ultimate subject.

The authors assert that there are different implications for psychotherapy centred in a therapeutic attitude of non-duality from one centred in a dualistic