One thing that is being depicted in Inception, is Dom Cobb's process of individuation. According to Jungian psychology, individuation is a process of psychological integration, having for its goal the development of the individual personality. "In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated [from other human beings]; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology."[a]
Top left and right: The fact that the mazes Ariadne hands Dom to work his way through, are rectangular or oblong rather than square or round, respectively, indicate that they represent what Jung called 'disturbed' mandalas. The shapes of these mazes indicate an emphasis on the horizontal, and thus, an over-emphasis on the ego-consciousness at the expense of vertical height, which represents the unconscious.[b]
The fact that the arrows Dom draws in the scene at left, show a clockwise movement, indicates a movement toward the conscious (whereas a counter-clockwise movement is one toward the unconscious).[c] The line drawn between the arrows, however, indicates that Dom's movement toward the conscious is 'blocked' in some way.
a. Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 6. Princeton University Press, 1971. para. 757.
b. Jung, C.G.. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12. Princeton University Press, 1968. paras. 287, 291. Google Books. URL = https://books.google.com.
c. Ibid., para. 166.
