The Archetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment
your archetypal integration levels & individuation phase |
Psychology
COMPLETE
REPORT
for The Archetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment
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Archetype Map
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Individuation Snapshot
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Detailed Archetype Analyses
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Key Symbolic Themes of the Archetypes
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Reflective Questions for Integrating the Archetypes
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Curated Book Recommendations
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Individuation Phase Analysis
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AI Positive Evolution Recommendations
Psychology
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This free Archetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment (AIIA) offers a comprehensive and insightful window into the symbolic architecture of your psyche. Grounded in the theoretical foundations of analytical psychology, this tool generates accurate scores across five core archetypal dimensions—the Shadow, Anima/Animus, Persona, Inner Sage, and Self — while also highlighting a sixth, dynamic metric known as the Growth Edge. This unique dimension captures your current threshold for transformation, signaling where tension, readiness, or psychological activation may be emerging in your individuation journey.
Unlike traditional personality tests, the AIIA moves beyond typology to offer a symbolic and developmental perspective. By analyzing your archetypal scores in combination with your Growth Edge, the assessment algorithm calculates your current Individuation Phase, placing you within one of nine distinct symbolic stages that reflect the unfolding of your inner life.
These phases range from early identity entrapment and unconscious conflict to deeper integration, alignment, and service to the collective.
Why a New Kind of Assessment?
Understanding oneself is a fundamental human drive, yet traditional psychological assessments often fail to capture the complexity of inner experience, symbolic identity, or stages of existential and psychological maturation. Rooted in the principles of Analytical Psychology and inspired by the work of Carl Gustav Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, the Archetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment (AIIA) offers a reflective model for exploring the internal terrain of the psyche. This model is based on archetypal constellations and one’s evolving relationship to the self, the unconscious, and others.
[R]eal liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.… By accepting the darkness, the patient has not, to be sure, changed it into light, but she has kindled a light that illuminates the darkness within. By day no light is needed, and if you don’t know it is night you won’t light one, nor will any light be lit for you unless you have suffered the horror of darkness.
Beyond Typologies: What Makes AIIA Different ?
Unlike common personality inventories focused on typology or behavioral patterns, the AIIA is not a diagnostic instrument nor a clinical tool. It is, instead, an archetypal mapping tool designed to mirror aspects of the psyche that are in varying states of integration, disownment, or over-identification.
The test is offered freely and is especially helpful for individuals undertaking shadow work, engaging in therapy, or seeking to understand their place within the broader process of individuation.
Designed for Depth-Oriented Growth
The AIIA is particularly well-suited for those drawn to inner work, symbolic understanding, and psychological transformation. Rather than offering surface-level insights or quick-fix labels, it invites users into a dialogue with the unconscious—illuminating both the gifts and challenges of each archetypal dimension. Whether you’re navigating a life transition, deepening your self-inquiry, or integrating therapeutic insights, the AIIA provides a nuanced, self-reflective framework that respects the complexity of your inner world and supports a more intentional, authentic path of growth.
What Does the AIIA Measure ?
The AIIA measures five major archetypal constructs: the Shadow, the Anima/Animus (the internal contrasexual other), the Persona, the Inner Sage, and the Self. A sixth construct, the Growth Edge, represents an active psychological tension or challenge—a liminal zone that offers insight into one’s current developmental threshold. The language and scoring are symbolic and metaphorical, intentionally designed to support reflective dialogue rather than finite labeling.
Each archetype is measured along a continuum that reflects both one’s current psychological relationship to it and its degree of integration. For example, a low score in the Shadow dimension might indicate strong denial or repression of unacceptable traits, which may result in projection, defensiveness, or rigidity in moral reasoning. In contrast, a high score may suggest not only awareness but also healthy acknowledgment and ownership of unconscious material. However, very high scores in some dimensions (such as Persona or Sage) could indicate over-identification—whereby the archetype dominates the personality in a way that restricts wholeness. Thus, the test does not view “high” scores as universally better. Instead, it encourages nuanced interpretation and symbolic awareness.
The Shadow Archetype: Integration and Individuation in Contemporary Contexts
Among the key constructs of Analytical Psychology, the shadow archetype stands as one of the most psychologically significant and transformational. Carl Gustav Jung (1953/1969) first articulated the shadow as the unconscious complement to the conscious personality—comprising emotions, traits, instincts, and behaviors that the ego refuses to acknowledge. Often misunderstood as exclusively negative, the shadow is psychologically neutral; it houses not only disowned fears and aggression but also unexpressed creativity, sensuality, and inner power (Jacobi, 1973; Johnson, 1991).
The Anima and Animus: Psychological Polarity, Projection, and Inner Integration
In Jungian analytical psychology, the anima and animus are archetypes representing the inner feminine in men and the inner masculine in women. Together, they form the symbolic polarity of the psyche and serve as vital bridges between the ego and the unconscious (Jung, 1959). While these terms are often interpreted through a gendered lens, they actually reflect a broader psychological reality—the necessity of balancing opposites within the psyche. In contemporary terms, the anima/animus dimension can be understood as the inner polarity between receptivity and assertion, feeling and thinking, relatedness and autonomy (Hillman, 1985; Stein, 1998).
The Persona Archetype: Social Identity and the Path to Authentic Expression
In analytical psychology, the persona archetype represents one of the earliest and most socially visible structures of the psyche. Coined by Carl Gustav Jung and derived from the Latin word for mask, the persona refers to the roles, behaviors, and public identities we adopt to function within society (Jung, 1953). These masks allow individuals to navigate social hierarchies, meet expectations, and participate in group life. However, the persona’s adaptive utility becomes problematic when over-identified with—masking the authentic self and stunting psychological development (Jung, 1959).
The Inner Sage Archetype: Discernment, Equanimity, and Inner Witnessing
Within the symbolic system of Jungian psychology, the Inner Sage archetype signifies a deep, transpersonal center of wisdom, clarity, and discernment. Unlike more socially reactive or emotionally charged archetypes, the Sage emerges when ego-identification loosens and the Self’s observational consciousness becomes accessible. Carl Gustav Jung (1959) associated this dimension with the “mana personality”—a psychological constellation representing spiritual maturity, integration, and guidance. The Sage is less a learned role than a psychic mode of perception that sees symbolically and responds rather than reacts.
The Self Archetype: Psychological Wholeness and Individuation Compass
Among the core constructs in Jungian psychology, the Self archetype stands as the most encompassing and integrative. Unlike the ego, which mediates conscious experience, the Self represents the totality of the psyche—conscious and unconscious, personal and transpersonal. It is both origin and goal: the psychic nucleus that orchestrates development and the archetypal image of wholeness that draws the personality forward (Jung, 1959).
The Growth Edge: Transitional Readiness and the Call to Transform
Unlike the five core archetypal dimensions of the Archetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment (AIIA)—Shadow, Anima/Animus, Persona, Inner Sage, and Self—the Growth Edge is not an archetype in the Jungian sense. Instead, it functions as a transitional marker, highlighting a person’s psychological readiness for transformation. Where archetypes describe enduring psychic structures, the Growth Edge represents a liminal condition—a psycho-developmental threshold between a previously integrated identity and an emerging level of psychological complexity.
Theoretical Correlations of AIIA DImensions with Established Models
While the AIIA is rooted in symbolic and depth-oriented frameworks that are not typically measured by standardized psychometric instruments, its constructs demonstrate conceptual overlap with empirically established psychological models. These correlations serve as theoretical bridges between analytical psychology and contemporary research traditions in personality, cognitive, and developmental psychology.
| AIIA Dimension | Corresponding Concepts in Scientific Psychology |
|---|---|
| Shadow | Neuroticism (Big Five), Repression, Projection (Freudian defense mechanisms) |
| Anima/Animus | Emotional intelligence, Attachment style, Gender schema theory |
| Persona | Social desirability bias, Self-monitoring, Identity status (Marcia, 1980) |
| Inner Sage | Wisdom (Ardelt, 2003), Reflective functioning, Metacognition |
| Self | Self-actualization (Maslow, 1968), Ego integrity (Erikson, 1982), Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) |
| Growth Edge | Readiness for change (Prochaska et al., 1992), Self-directed learning, Transformational learning theory (Mezirow, 2000) |
The 9 Phases of Individuation
A distinctive feature of the AIIA is its inclusion of the Individuation Phase Model, which maps nine symbolic stages based on Jungian theory. These stages range from initial entrapment within the false self to more advanced stages like. The phase determination is algorithmically inferred by analyzing archetype scores and growth edge variables, revealing the symbolic stage most aligned with the individual’s current psyche.
Why the AIIA Model Matters in Today’s World
This type of mapping is particularly relevant in the context of modern life, where individuals often experience psychological fragmentation, identity fatigue, or existential questioning without clear models for internal coherence. Many report feeling trapped by social roles, performance pressure, or emotional suppression. In this environment, shadow work and archetypal reflection offer ways to bring unconscious patterns into awareness (Jung, 1959/1969), restore emotional integrity (Singer, 1994), and foster a more authentic engagement with life.
The AIIA has also been informed by adjacent fields such as narrative identity theory, depth coaching, and symbolic cognition. While it is not a clinically validated tool, the assessment draws from theoretical constructs that have been used extensively in psychodynamic literature and therapeutic contexts (Hillman, 1975; von Franz, 1998). The resulting report includes not only a visualization of your archetypal profile but also suggested practices, AI-enhanced journaling prompts, and symbolic imagery designed to deepen your engagement with the results.
Users often report that the AIIA has clarified vague emotional experiences, given language to internal dynamics, or revealed unexpected truths about their behavior and relationships. For instance, someone who over-identifies with the Persona might recognize a pattern of self-abandonment in order to maintain approval. Conversely, a suppressed Inner Sage score may highlight a tendency to dismiss personal insight, leading to chronic self-doubt or dependence on external authority.
Importantly, the AIIA is not prescriptive. There are no “right” outcomes, and no fixed ideal profile. It is not concerned with categorizing people, but with encouraging a more conscious relationship with the symbolic forces shaping one’s life. By interacting with this tool, individuals engage in an inner dialogue with parts of themselves that may have remained unseen or unspoken. As Jung noted, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate” (Jung, 1953/1966, p. 126).
We recommend the AIIA to anyone who is currently engaging in personal transformation, therapy, coaching, or spiritual growth. It is especially suited to those looking for a free Jungian archetype integration quiz, a shadow work test based on Carl Jung, or a psychological self-integration tool that offers more depth than mainstream typologies.
Books about Archetypes & Individuation
If you are interested in gaining a more in-depth understanding of Archetypes & Individuation, here we offer you a selection of the most relevant and valuable books that explore the subjects and can aid you in your endeavour:
References
- Hillman, J. (1975). Re-Visioning Psychology. Harper & Row.
- Jung, C. G. (1953/1966). Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Collected Works Vol. 7). Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1959/1969). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works Vol. 9, Part 1). Princeton University Press.
- Singer, J. (1994). Boundaries of the Soul: The Practice of Jung’s Psychology. Anchor Books.
- von Franz, M.-L. (1998). The Psychological Meaning of Redemption Motifs in Fairytales. Inner City Books.
Media Credits
- Featured image for the Acrhetypal Integration & Individuation Assessment:
painting by Salvador Dali, Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man – 1943. - All the rest of the images are generated with the help of AI by envision your Evolution.
Salvador Dali, Spanish painter
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí, was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.
