Jung is particularly well known for his theories regarding individuation, especially those regarding the components of the psyche such as the shadow, persona, and the anima. Individuation is the process by which one realises one's individual personality which steadily develops as one grows older. Jung believed that psychological illness was due to a person's refusal to acknowledge one of the archetypes found within the unconscious; the anima presented, for Jung, a person's life energy, or force, the shadow symbolises, on the simplest level, an individual's dark, or inferior, side, and the persona becomes the side that we wish others to see. Alchemy is the science which attempts to change material from a base substance to a more noble material. On the whole, science attempts to explore the complexities of change, the changing from one state to another. According to Couliano, alchemy whole was linked to the limitations and control imposed on European society during the Reformation: the view that the alchemical sciences were merely a precursor to modern chemistry is held to be a popular misconception. The philosophy of alchemy particularly interested Jung, who was considered by some to have resurrected that particular body of knowledge as a modern school of thought as it enabled him to explore just how a human being was able to enter a process which allowed him to develop the self. This self was created through what Jung termed the individuation process, and would eventually become, for the individual, the creation of a psychological stability, regardless of the stormy emotional environment. Jung therefore believed that the alchemical process mirrored the complexities and difficulties of an individual. Jung's view of the psyche reflects the four elements of alchemy which are 1.) the idea of a common substance in nature, 2.) the belief of a conflict of opposites, again held together by an underlying commonality, and 3.) the belief of a 'definite structure' in all components of matter, whether represented by atomic structure or by geometric forms at microscopic level. Jung's view reflects these beliefs since he argued that the human psyche fulfilled these requirements. He believed that 1.) the psyche was an underlying commonality in all processes, 2.) the belief of a conflict of opposites with an underlying commonality is in all processes, and 3.) his archetypes, the underlying components of the human mind, and finally, 4.) the belief that all human psyches can connect with one another through projection and imagination.
