The Individuation Process: Walter Salles’s Movie Central Station

One of my favourite quotes on Individuation by C. G. Jung is: “I use the term ‘Individuation’ to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological, “in-dividual”, that is, a separate, indivisible unity or “whole”. Individuation is a process rather than a final product, a journey of self-discovery rather than a final destination, a circumambulation rather than a straight trajectory.

Central Station deals with such a journey. The movie was meaningful for me on many levels; I had already decided to write on the movie when I was called back to France where my father was in the last days of his life. The theme of the movie -the quest for the father- became then synchronistic and it held a deep personal meaning. I could relate to both characters in turn; Josue with his intense and hopeful search for his missing father, as well Dora with her initial cynicism, anger and isolation. I became literally obsessed with the movie, I watched it many times and it accompanied me along the way. What did it mean, what does it mean to Individuate, to become fully oneself, a whole, indivisible person, distinct from other people or collective psychology? How do we distinguish between being distinct from other people and being estranged from them?

I believe that the process of Individuation is a process informed by the archetypal idea of wholeness that transcends consciousness, the archetype of the Self.


Jung writes: “the goal of Individuation is the synthesis of the self”. It is a ‘coming-to-be of the Self’.
 How does  the Self manifest in tragic circumstances? How does it manifest in the movie?
 Is there ‘a process of revelation, assimilation and transformation’?”

This essay explores Individuation through the lens of the character Dora in Central Station, and analyzes the movie’s symbols, structure and content.