Favourite Quotes
“Every good quality has its bad side, and nothing that is good can come into the world without directly producing a corresponding evil. This is a painful fact.” p. 230
Summary
I did not write a summary of this book.
Analysis
Notes
Faith / Religion
- ‘It may be said that the middle position is held by those people who know that they have outgrown the Church as exemplified in Christianity, but who have not therefore been brought to deny the fact that a religious attitude to life is as essential to them as a belief in the authenticity of science.’ p.viii
- Jung is talking about the opinions of people in the current age. In the above quote is talks about the ‘middle’ position between traditional faith and militant rationalism.
- I think JP holds this ‘middle position’
Truth
- ‘We appeal only to the patient’s brain if we try to inculcate a truth; but if we help him to grow up to this truth in the course of his own development, we have reached his heart, and this appeal goes deeper and acts with greater force.’ p. 11
- this signifies the importance of finding your own truth. Reminds me of the quote from Crime & Punishment: “Talking non-sense of your own — that’s almost better than talking someone else’s truth; in the first case you’re human, in the second you’re nothing but a parrot!”
- ‘Truth that appeals to the testimony of the senses may satisfy reason, but it offers nothing that stirs our feelings and expresses them by giving a meaning to human life.’ p. 222
- Essentially saying reason and spiritually are both needed
- Jung gives a example of this in a story/case on page 223-224
- pg 125: Jung seems to be saying that a lack of religion is what causes neurosis in older age men (40-50+)
Meaning and Purpose
- Man has a meaning/purpose in the first half of a life, that of having kids, a family, etc. But in the second half of life, there is not really a purpose. Thus religion holds the promise of a life after death, this makes it possible for a man to live the second half of life with as much perseverance and aim as the first half. - Paraphrased from pg 127
- pg 129: Jung holds the opinion that having belief in religion (especially for older people) is good for psychic hygiene
- To have a healthy psyche, we must align our thinking with the primordial thoughts of the unconscious. One of these thoughts is the idea of life after death
Other
- ‘It seems to be a sin in the eyes of nature to hide our insufficiency’ p. 39
- Regarding secrets that an individual may have. We keep secrets often to hide our insufficiency, and these secrets almost always take a psychological toll on us. That’s why it’s a “sin”, because it impacts us psychologically. Nature doesn’t want us to hide our insufficiencies or secrets
- Confession is the first stage of psychotherapy
- ‘(Adler) does all this apparently in the conviction that social adaptation and normalization are indispensable - that they are even the most desirable goals and the most suitable fulfilment for a human being’ p. 51
- JP always says that socializing children is crucial for their development and possibly the most important thing for them when they grow up. Seems that Adler is the source for that.
- ‘Crooked paths of a neurosis lead to as many obstinate habits, and that, despite any amount of understanding, these do not disappear until they are replaced by other habits. But habits are only won by exercise, and appropriate education is the sole means to this end.’ p. 53
- bad habits can only be removed by replacing them with other habits. But in order to do that, you must exercise the new habit frequently to get used to it
- Many people can have neurosis not because they are abnormal, but rather that they are normal. These are the types of people who have more ability than the average person. They are those for whom successes were easy to obtain. For them, restriction to a life of ‘normality’ is a nightmare. Their deepest needs is to lead ‘abnormal’ lives. - paraphrased from pg. 55
- ‘the doctor must consistently try to meet his own therapeutic demands if he wishes to assure himself of a proper influence on his patient.’ p. 58
- the therapist can also experience issues from hearing the experiences of their patient
- ‘be the man through whom you wish to influence others. Mere talk has always been considered hollow’ p. 59
- I.e. influence them with your actions/experiences.
- ‘For who can educate others while himself uneducated? Who can enlighten his fellows while still in the dark about himself, and who can purify if he is himself unclean?’ p. 59
- you must be implementing whatever it is you are preaching. People look at actions, not at words
- Self-criticism and self-examination are the sine qua non of consciousness itself - paraphrased from pg 61
- Sine qua non = an essential condition
- ’… his failures, on the other hand, are priceless experiences in that they not only open up the way to a deeper truth, but force him to change his views and methods.’ p. 66
- This applies in all aspects of life. Appreciate your failures, because those are the things that will further you in life.
- ‘we draw far-reaching inferences as to the constitution of the psyche from the constitution of the body.’ p. 85
- the opposite is true too (i.e. inferences things about the body from the makeup of the psyche), although it is much harder. Why? …
- B/c in the first way, we are starting from a ‘known’ to inference an ‘unknown’, while in the latter way, we are starting from an ‘unknown’
- The mental constitution of a person (or more relevant, a child), does not lie in the parental complex (the mental constitution of their parent), because we see variations between siblings, many times drastic variations - paraphrased from pg 92
- It all lies in the way the child reacts. What is our reaction based on? Our psycho-motor system. - Paraphrased from pg 92-93
- Ancient Greek medicine defined 4 humours/temperaments
- Phlegmatic: calm, composed
- Sanguine: optimistic, hopeful
- Choleric: grumpy
- Melancholic: sad, depressed
- Jung’s fourfold classification: Thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition
- ‘Sensation establishes what is actually given, thinking enables us to recognize its meaning, feeling tells us its value, and finally intuition points to the possibilities of the whence (from) and whither (to) that lie within the immediate facts.’ p. 107
- ‘Childhood and extreme old age, to be sure, are utterly different, and yet they have one thing in common: submersion in unconscious psychic happenings.’ p. 131
- ‘I once showed some native hunter, who were as keen-sighted as hawks, magazine pictures in which any of our children would have instantly recognized figures. But my hunters turned the pictures round and round until one of them, tracing the outlines with his finer, finally exclaimed: “These are white men.” It was hailed by all as a great discovery.’ p. 148
- LOL
- Peculiar events happening in succession often makes modern man believe in a higher/other power - paraphrased from pg 157
- ex: make a glass of water, glass breaks. 5 minutes later, your new glass breaks, and then 5 minutes later your third glass breaks. The modern man wouldn’t think this is purely ‘chance’
- This is the primitive mind at play
- ‘Physic projection is one of the commonest facts of psychology… everything that is unconscious in ourselves, we discover in our neighbor, and we treat him accordingly… we injure him by means of moral verdicts pronounced with the deepest conviction. What we combat in him is usually our own inferior side.’ p. 163-164 ^ed1a05
- I.e. What you criticize others for, is probably something in you
- ‘Every good quality has its bad side, and nothing that is good can come into the world without directly producing a corresponding evil. This is a painful fact.’ p. 230
- ‘Psychic life always found expression in a metaphysical system of some sort.’ p. 234
- Regarding the primitive/ancient man. Jung is saying that modern man’s lack of a metaphysical system (religion, spirituality) causes his neurosis (other quotes above regarding this). Jung also said that this is why psychology in modern times even started in the first place, it was a way to understand the psyche since people lost touch with a metaphysical system
- ‘Let man but accumulate his materials of destruction and the devil within him will soon be unable to resist putting them to their fated use.’ p. 236
- wow. This can be applied to so many things
- ‘Whenever relativism is taken as a fundamental and final principle it has a destructive effect.’ p. 248
Main Idea of the Book
- there isn’t really a single idea, this book covers a lot of different topics