Mary Festa

Process Paper
My project is on Carl Jung; it focuses on his involvement within the field of psychology,
especially regarding the exploration of the unconscious. We chose this topic because all three of
us expressed interested in psychology and the inner workings of the brain. We realized that if we
chose such an interesting topic as Carl Jung, we could concurrently gain new knowledge that
interests us and complete the National History Day project.
Once our topic was cemented, we began conducting individual research. My first
resource was our school librarys Virtual Reference Collection. First I found biographies to give
me overviews of his life, and a background to base my other research off of, then I looked for
primary sources which would explain my topic, and for sources that were more specific to what I
needed to know.
Choosing our presentation category was extremely easy; last year was my second year
creating a website as my NHD project, and I preferred it significantly over the other categories
that I had done. My partners had previously designed websites as well. I enjoy designing layouts,
but change my mind quite easily; websites are useful because they can be easily tweaked to
reflect new perspectives. To begin putting together the website, we made an outline of what tabs
we should include so that we could elaborate enough on each category, while not over-explaining
to the point where it would surpass the word limit. Once the outline was done, we chose a theme
and color scheme for the website; we chose a muted color scheme showcasing mainly black,
white, and shades of gray in between to signify the gray areas of psychology. Carl Jung focused
on the facts (i.e. black and white), as well as the opinions and unexplored areas (i.e. gray). We
decided on layouts for each page and began conveying the information, inserting media, and
adding shortcuts to facilitate the users experience when browsing the website.

Mary Festa
Carl Jung published a multitude of works (over 50 books) and this was an extremely vital
resource throughout the research process. He had so thoroughly explained his philosophies and
ideas that we had infinite amounts of information to choose from; this proved to be a blessing
and a curse. Narrowing down what to include was difficult since he had achieved so much.
My project is perfect for the NHD theme of Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange; Carl
Jung was the epitome of an explorer during his prime, and through his encounters with new ideas
and new cultures, exchanged his thoughts. Even though his theories were not always widely
accepted, in particular the theory of the transpersonal unconscious, he continued to publish his
work to exchange information around the world with whomever was willing to listen. He
explored areas of psychology that none before him had ventured into, and became a widely
published author and scientist. Though some of Jungs theories are rejected in modern
psychology, some still hold true and continue to be important today.

Word Count: 499