What Individuation Means
Jung's name for the lifelong project of becoming the particular person one was, in fact, born to be — distinct from both conformity and rebellion.
Individuation is the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual — that is, a separate, indivisible unity or whole. The phrase is Jung's, and it does not mean what individualism means.
Conformity is the abdication of this work in favor of the collective. Rebellion is the abdication of this work in favor of the negative of the collective. Both leave the individual undeveloped because both keep the center of gravity outside.
Individuation is the long, often unglamorous labor of locating that center inside — and then living from it, with the consequences that follow.
Jung was clear that this is not a project for the young, and not a project to be rushed. The first half of life is properly devoted to building an ego that can function in the world. The second half is properly devoted to the relativization of that ego in favor of something larger he called the Self.