bottom of the heart: Emerson, Novalis, and Jung's individuation

Despite disparities of strategy and style, the fundamental concerns of Emerson's Representative Men and Novalis's Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (The Apprentices at Sais) are almost identical. Both works describe and promote ideals of personal development that are essentially the same, and can be understood in terms of C. G. Jung's concept of individuation. The model of expansion which is celebrated in these two works goes beyond what is usually meant by "self-culture" or "Bildung," in that its principle is a dialectic of the conscious and the unconscious psyche, the aim of which is the restoration of equilibrium and a widened sense of personality. A comparison of the programs of Emerson and Novalis underscores the compatibility of their thinking, and enables us to appreciate German and American Romanticism in the context of the evolution of the concept of the unconscious.