Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, stressed the significance of racial and historical influences on personality. He believed that individuals are moving towards wholeness and individuation. Jungians believe that culture has a great influence on personal development.

Carl Jung's analytical psychotherapy stresses the dynamic interplay between the conscious and unconscious minds, which makes up the human "psyche" and governs behavior. A keener awareness of the unconscious is key to analytical psychology, which sees the unconscious as a means to conscious direction and creativity.

Analytical psychologists believe that instincts of hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression, as well as the need to achieve a whole, true self-grounded in conscious and unconscious elements (individuation) are universal. What one does is influenced partly by present experience and partly by the expectation of what one will do. Unconscious forces are revealed through symbols, and these guiding messages (contained in dream and external reality) serve to help the client resolve conflicts and overcome difficulties.

The analytical psychology counseling model deals with the client directing the psyche. This psyche is made up of the conscious ego, the personal unconscious (accessible elements that were once conscious), and the non-personal unconscious (archetypes which influence behavior but are not available to consciousness).

Jungian Archetypes:

- Rebirth
- The hero
- What one does not wish to be
- Feminine/masculine
- The need for wholeness and meaning

Making the client as aware as possible of unconscious influences and connections with behavior (present and future) is the touchstone of analytical psychology. After analyzing what the client experiences consciously, client and counselor explore unconscious messages, especially through interpretation of dreams.