Blog Summary Listing

Jung on the Enantiodromia: Part II: A Surprising Example

For anyone acquainted with religious phenomenology it is an open secret that although physical and spiritual passion are deadly enemies, they are nevertheless brothers-in-arms, for which reason it often needs the merest touch to convert the one into the other. Both are real, and together they form a pair of opposites, which is one of the most fruitful sources of psychic energy.

                                                                                    C.G. Jung (1954)[1]

Jung on the Enantiodromia: Part 1--Definitions and Examples

 

I use the term enantiodromia for the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time.                                                                                                              C.G. Jung (1949)[1]

The Future of Our "Too-Big-to-Fail" Institutions: A Jungian Perspective

“Large political and social organizations must not be ends in themselves, but merely temporary expedients. Just as it was felt necessary in America to break up the great Trusts, so the destruction of huge organizations will eventually prove to be a necessity because, like a cancerous growth, they eat away man’s nature as soon as they become ends in themselves and attain autonomy. From that moment they grow beyond man and escape his control. He becomes their victim and is sacrificed to the madness of an idea that knows no master….

Preparing for the Great Attunement

Preparing for the Great Attunement

 

Jung's Hero: The New Form of Heroism

Jung’s Hero:

The Form of Heroism in the New Era

 

A New Spirit is Growing Up

Welcome to the new re-designed Web site of the Jungian Center! And praises to Rob Mills, the Webmaster responsible for it! Rob has been as patient as he is creative in undertaking this complex task. I hope you like the improvements: the retention of all the citations in the blog essays, the organization of the essays by both date of posting and alphabetically by title, and the much more obvious, easier-to-navigate posting of comments. It will now be possible for readers to have a “threaded” conversation with me.

A New Ethics for a New Era

This essay examines the new form of ethics that is implied in Jung's depth psychology and how this new ethics differs in values, goals, features and principles from the ethics that has guided our culture for centuries. It also considers why a new ethics is necessary in this transitional time.

The Blessings in Sacrifice

The beginnings of this essay go back to a dream I had several months ago—one of those rare “voice-over” dreams I get every so often—that said “Sacrifices will have to be made by Americans.” When I mentioned this to some students, their responses were uniformly negative, reflecting the common attitude we have in our culture. Given that attitude, the title of this essay surely seems bizarre. As the quote from Jung indicates, I am not alone in thinking sacrifice can be something positive: Jung also saw blessings in sacrifice. This essay examines Jung’s thoughts on “sacrifice” and extends his idea into our current collective situation.

Jung the Man: Part VI

The “Valkyries” were the Jungfrauenor “11,000 virgins” who collected around Jung over the course of his career. Like bees to a honey pot, they swarmed him at conferences and hung on his words in meetings of the Psychology Club. The Club became a hotbed of jealousies as these women had to share Jung with others, and in the midst of all this was Jung, enjoying their attentions, using their energies to further his work, relying on (some would say “exploiting”) their devotion and willingness to put their own resources in his service. In this concluding section we will consider one of the most contested aspects of Jung’s thought among later generations: his views on women. We will then examine why so many women found him and his work compelling, and what qualities they had in common. Finally, we will consider Jung’s hope for women’s role in creating a more positive future.

Jung the Man: Part V

Jung the Man:

Part V—Jung as Father and Husband

 

“Can you imagine living with a man who left you with full responsibility for his house and his children while he passed the time playing their games or being in that same house with another woman?... When we got home, Marianne ran across the lawn to Mother and cried, ‘Just look! Franz’s father bought me a little cake.’ Of course Mother immediately said, ‘Now, look, Marianne, you must understand that Franz’s father is yourfather, too!’”