He would have lived countless times over the life of the individual, of the family, tribe and people, and he would possess the living sense of the rhythm of growth, flowering and decay.
c. G. Jungquotes
1875 - 1961
The Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, Carl Jung, developed and furthered some of the most important thoughts and theories of the 20th century. His influence spread not only throughout the psychological world, but also throughout art, religion and literature. Known for developing analytical psychology, and his work expounding on the extravert and introvert personality types, Jung’s theories about the unconscious mind also carry lasting influence and intrigue.
Jung was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a clergyman, but his interest in philosophy led him down a different route. Eventually, he found his way to medicine and earned his M.D from the University of Zurich.
A short partnership and friendship with Sigmund Freud helped the young Jung develop his theories, but eventually the two parted ways forever. Jung outspokenly disagreed with Freud’s view of a sexual basis for neurosis (The Psychology of the Unconscious).
As Jung continued to study his own unconscious mind, he developed the idea that all of humanity shares a collective unconscious, and this can be seen in patterns and symbols that have arisen throughout history (Psychology & Alchemy).
By unfolding one’s own myth through dreams and imagination, Jung believed that people could become whole or complete personalities (Modern Man in Search of a Soul). Ever fascinated with the growth of personality and one’s own inner development, he named the process of this self-discovery “individuation” (The Undiscovered Self). It is a lifelong task of trial and error, but to paraphrase Jung, eventually we all “become what we are.”
The State in particular is turned into a quasi-animate personality from whom everything is expected. In reality it is only a camouflage for those individuals who know how to manipulate it.
Like all numinous contents, they have a tendency to self-amplification, that is to say they form the nuclei for an aggregation of synonyms.
All the higher grades of science, imagination and intuition play an increasingly important role over and above intellect and its capacity for application.
application / imagination / intellect / intuition / science
The man who looks only outside and quails before the big battalions has no resource with which to combat the evidence of his senses and his reason.
Nobody can spare themselves the waiting and most will be unable to bear this torment, but will throw themselves with greed back at men, things, and thoughts, whose slaves they will become.
The language and the “people” of the unconscious are symbols, and the means of communications dreams. Thus an examination of Man and his Symbols is in effect an examination of man’s relation to his own unconscious. And since in Jung’s view the unconscious is the great guide, friend, and adviser of the conscious, this book is related in the most direct terms to the study of human beings and their spiritual problems.
dreams / Jung / language / symbols / unconscious
Where your fear is, there is your task.
A dream is nothing but a lucky idea that comes to us from the dark, all-unifying world of the psyche. What would be more natural, when we have lost ourselves amid the endless particulars and isolated details of the world’s surface, than to knock at the door of dreams and inquire of them the bearings which would bring us closer to the basic facts of human existence?
The goal and meaning of individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself.
idea / individual / Life / state