Jungan Analysis & Overcoming Internet Addiction: 4 Keys

Overcoming Internet addiction is now a very real concern for many people, and Jungian analysis brings a perspective to this problem that offers hope and the possibility of finding an underlying meaning. “Hold on a minute”, I hear you saying, “I can understand overcoming Internet addiction, but how could Jungian analysis find meaning in this kind of compulsive activity?”

First: Yes, Internet Addiction Actually Exists

There are many seeking help overcoming Internet addiction who know this. Especially in Canada, online gaming, online gambling, social media and email, or Internet pornography are taking up more and more room in these peoples’ lives, and they can’t find a way to slow down or stop. For them, overcoming Internet addiction is a priority, because something not under conscious control is in the driver’s seat.

2. Signs of Internet Addiction

A person may be wrestling with internet addiction if:

Net use dominates his or her life and/or thoughts;
Net use modifies his or her mood, or creates a “buzz”;
increasing Net use is needed to stay feeling good;
refraining from Net use causes unpleasant feeling or physical effects; or,
Net use creates conflict with those they are close to, or with their everyday life.

overcoming internet addiction

3. Overcoming Internet Addiction: Insights from Jungian Analysis

The key issue in overcoming Internet addiction is determining what the Net is really providing to the individual, that brings him or her benefit. It is at this point that a perspective drawn from Jungian analysis brings real insight.

If we look at the compulsive Net user, we see a hunger and a yearning at the heart of his or her usage. Jung, in his letter to Bill W., described this as “the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness.” In our restless searching and exchanges on the Net, we yearn for something to bring us to a sense of being whole and complete. We are only going to get past unending searching on the Net, if we find something real, that makes us feel alive — that moves us toward fulfillment, and away from anxiety.

4. Jungian Analysis & Wholeness

For Jungian analysis, wholeness is not the same as perfection. We can have experiences that make us feel fully aware and alive — whole. How this happens for each of us is a very individual matter; often only the depth explorations of individual therapy will reveal what these unique, life-giving realities are for each of us.