The self as destination or illusion: a comparative study of individuation in Jung and self-transcendence in Buddhist Vijñānavāda
Frontiers in Psychology June 30, 2026 Yiwen Zhang
Jung's theory of individuation reaches a structural limit that Vijnanvada (Yogacara) Buddhist philosophy can identify and continue. Prior comparative scholarship that mapped Jungian archetypes onto Buddhist categories conceals a more fundamental asymmetry between the two traditions. Both traditions posit a subliminal mind (collective unconscious or alaya-vijnana) in response to the insufficiency of surface consciousness. Jung's integrative methodology misreads the structural self-grasping of manas as content available for integration. The Jungian Self archetype reproduces at a more sophisticated level the same atma-graha structure that manas enacts in lived experience. Vijnanvada's doctrine of 'turning consciousness into wisdom' articulates a transformation of cognitive mode that Jung's framework approaches but does not formulate. Individuation functions as precondition for the subtler work of transforming the structural orientation of cognition itself.