Carl Jung and Highly Sensitive People
Have you ever been told you’re “too sensitive”? Maybe you’ve felt like you pick up on everything—other people’s moods, the energy in a room, even the beauty or pain of the world around you. It can be exhausting, but it can also be incredibly meaningful.
Carl Jung never used the term highly sensitive person—that language came much later. But he understood what it means to live with a permeable psyche, a soul that’s porous and open. He called it innate sensitiveness.
And he didn’t see it as a flaw. In fact, Jung once wrote:
“This excessive sensitiveness very often brings an enrichment of the personality and contributes more to its charm than to the undoing of a person’s character.”
In other words—your sensitivity isn’t something wrong with you. It’s part of what makes you who you are.
Living with a Permeable Psyche
Being sensitive means you feel more, notice more, and take in more. That can show up in different ways:
vivid dreams that stay with you
sensing tension or warmth in a room without anyone saying a word
being moved to tears by art, music, or beauty
feeling drained by noise, crowds, or constant demands
Jung believed that this openness connects you to the unconscious—the deeper layers of the psyche where symbols, emotions, and archetypes live. Sensitive people often walk closer to those depths, whether they want to or not.
The gift of this is creativity, empathy, and soulful connection. The challenge is not getting swept away by it all.
Why Sensitivity Can Feel So Hard
Jung also knew that a permeable psyche comes with risks. Sensitive people can be flooded by emotions, pulled under by unconscious material, or overwhelmed by the suffering of others.
That’s why solitude matters. Jung described introverts as needing to turn inward, to retreat from too much stimulation. If you’ve ever needed to cancel plans just to be alone, that’s not weakness. It’s your nervous system asking for rest.
The Wounded Healer
Jung often wrote about the wounded healer—the idea that those who have suffered deeply can become the very ones who bring healing to others. Sensitive people often know this path well.
Because you feel so much, you carry your own wounds. But in those wounds there is also potential for empathy, creativity, and meaning. What has hurt you can also shape you into someone with enormous capacity for love and understanding.
Sensitivity as a Guide
For Jung, the work of life was individuation—the process of becoming who we truly are. If you’re sensitive, your individuation might look like learning boundaries, finding ways to ground yourself, and discovering how to live with your depth rather than against it.
Over time, sensitivity stops being just something you struggle with. It becomes a compass, pointing you toward your own truth.
Finding Support
If you’ve carried shame around your sensitivity, I want you to know: you are not broken. You’re wired to live close to the depths.
In depth psychotherapy, I create a safe container for that kind of soul. Together, we can explore the images, dreams, and feelings that move through you—so your sensitivity becomes not something to hide, but something to trust.
I offer therapy for sensitive people in Oakland, CA, and online throughout California. If these words resonate, I’d be honored to walk alongside you.