Individualism versus individuation

The word individuation is not heard very often. On the other hand, individualism is commonly expressed in our culture. Many people consider the two words to have the same meaning but the two words are very different.

Often people praise, envy or acknowledge individualism. Most people consider individualism to be associated with an accomplishment, an ability to meet life with confidence or achieving a personal level of satisfaction. These descriptions can apply but often individualism actually is associated with someone's ego expressions (values, beliefs and identity), which can include attitudes such as: pompousness, arrogance, egoism, pride and stubbornness. These attitudes are psychological states, or conditions, and are quite the opposite of individuation.

Individuation is a process, a process of personal development. A process differs from a condition - that is, a dynamic process differs from a state of being. Consider the process of painting a picture versus the completed picture or described another way, the dynamic of painting versus the finished state/condition.

Individuation is a psychological term therefore, it relates to a person in the process of developing, or becoming – becoming a more complete person. In these terms, individuation, as a developing process, implies change while individualism, as a static condition, implies a lack of change or remaining fixed.

Of course, everyone experiences both development and lack of development at different times in their lives. Even when a person does not try to change it occurs. For example, the aging process produces change and as a result, personality changes follow but as mentioned, often a person reaches psychologically static conditions and remains fixed.

Individualism does stand-out among collectives, or groups, meaning a person thinks or functions differently from other group members. This can produce positive results or it can fill the person with a sense of superiority.

Individuation progresses through various personal developments and eventually, if a person becomes a member of a group, or collective, their progressive perceptions and understandings can enhance or expand the group's, or collective's, consciousness. In this way, the person assists or helps develop the collective or group while continuing to personally develop as well.

The individuation process includes greater creativity and experiences in life. Individualism tends toward controlling creativity, life and more, simply by expressing fixed psychological conditions.

So, we can stand-out from the crowd through our individualism or static psychological conditions, or we can continually progress in our psychological development, that is become a work in progress to borrow a familiar phrase from artists describing their creative expressions. The question is simple: Would you prefer to be an individual or to individuate?