The process of coming to terms with the unconscious is a true labor, a work which involves both action and suffering.
It has been named the “transcendent function” because it represents a function based on real and “imaginary,” or irrational and rational, data, thus bridging the yawning gulf between conscious and unconscious.
It is a natural process, a manifestation of the energy that springs from the tension of opposites, and it consists in a series of fantasy-occurrences which appear spontaneously in dreams and visions.
Page 100
The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ — all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ.
But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself — that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness — that I myself am the enemy who must be loved — what then?
As a rule, the Christian’s attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us “Raca,” and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
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As a doctor I constantly have to ask myself what kind of message the patient is bringing me. What does he mean to me?..
The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected. “Only the wounded physician heals.”
But when the doctor wears his personality like a coat of armor, he has no effect.”
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It always seemed to me as if the real milestones were certain symbolic events characterized by a strong emotional tone.
You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous.
But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology.
Even the very disease takes on a numinous character
C.G. Jung Letters, Selected and edited by Gerhard Adler in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé
The knowledge of death came to me that night, from the dying that engulfs the world. I saw how we live toward death, how the swaying golden wheat sinks together under the scythe of the reaper…
I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And I decided to die outside and to live within. For that reason I turned away and sought the place of the inner life.
William Blake: plate from the First Book of Urizen
“I live in my deepest hell, and from there I cannot fall any further.”
