Growing Through Experience

I work with teenagers. Every parent of a teen no doubt has experienced the stage where the teen thinks the parent knows nothing at all. With my own sons I remember the moments when they began to come out of that period and returned to me with questions or in some way reflected that they did think I knew something. In each case it was the beginning of an adult-to-adult relationship with them. They had experienced enough to realize that I had experienced much more. It was a big step in their "growing up."

The path of individuation is a path of continuing experience in awareness of self and the world around us. But it doesn't just happen. We have to venture through that arch of past experience and be willing to be surprised by what may come. How sad it is when any teen gets stuck in that egocentric stage where he thinks he knows everything. Yet, if we are not willing to continue the quest for individuation, we may be just like that teen. How tragic it is never to continue to grow.

References and Suggestions for Further Reading:

Storr, Anthony, The Essential Jung. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983 Tennyson, Alfred, "Ulysses"

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