Individuation & Woundedness

"The individuation process is usually quite painful. It requires learning much about ourselves we would prefer not to know, and assuming the burden of our inner conflicts. Becoming whole is a dark and dangerous passage and it is a small wonder that most people avoid it if they can. Those who do enter into individuation experience a certain woundedness. They can no longer live with illusions, and they can no longer live without letting into consciousness whatever it is that the unconscious wants to bring. Individuation in itself is a kind of wound, and there is a connection between becoming whole and experiencing one's illness and woundedness. We can even speak of individuation as a 'divine wound'."

"In fact, we are all of us wounded people. There is no such thing as a person who is free from illness, incompleteness, and injury to his or her personality. Some of us can simply hide from our woundedness better than others. When we can no longer hide from our woundedness, we are ready for individuation."

from Healing and Wholeness by Jungian Analyst John Sanford.