Jung says (my emphasis) :
"Individuation cuts one off from personal conformity and hence from collectivity. That is the guilt which the individuant leaves behind him for the world, that is the guilt he must endeavor to redeem. He must offer a ransom in place of himself, that is, he must bring forth values which are an equivalent substitute for his absence in the collective personal sphere. Without this production of values, final individuation is immoral and-more than that-suicidal. . . .
The individuant has no a priori claim to any kind of esteem. He has to be content with whatever esteem flows to him from outside by virtue of the values he creates. Not only has society a right, it also has a duty to condemn the individuant
if he fails to create equivalent values." ('Adaptation, Individuation, Collectivity,' CW 18, pars. 1095f.)
"A real conflict with the collective norm arises only when an individual way is raised to a norm, which is the actual aim of extreme individualism. Naturally this aim is pathological and inimical to life. It has, accordingly, nothing to do with individuation, which, though it may strike out on an individual bypath, precisely on that account needs the norm for its orientation to society and for the vitally necessary relationship of the individual to society. Individuation, therefore, leads to
a natural esteem for the collective norm." ('Definitions', CW 6, par. 761.)
What is this supposed to mean? Should a Jew in Nazi Germany chime in with ruling ideology? Jung's view of individuation seems to stand only on one leg, and it is missing the leg of the reclusive way of individuation. Jung took exception to the secluded and eremitic ideal of individuation as formulated in the Middle Ages, often denoted as 'imitatio Christi'. This is the reason why he keeps so devotedly to a this-wordly ideal of the self. But it has awkward consequences. The individual cannot sing in unison with the collective when the latter has become neurotic and follows evil and destructive ways. I have argued that the self must be viewed as complementary (
here). There exists also a path of transcendency that complements the this-worldly path. Arguably, the rejection of the ways of the world is wholly consistent with individuation.
Mats Winther