Jung's Flaw
My beef with Jungian psychology is something that I’ve had a hard time articulating. When I was reviewing his Analytical Psychology in Theory and Practice today, I finally figured it out.
The difference between sorrow and trouble is individuality. Obstacles, troubles, do not have to cause sorrow. When we see them as uniquely our own, and face them as personal challenges to be overcome, we can actually experience a great deal of joy in confronting a significant obstacle, because it becomes a way to “prove” ourselves against a threat to our personal Will. Jungian psychology seeks to mask the individual element in the obstacles by encouraging people to identify with universal archetypes, and to see their own suffering in the light of mythological figures. When we feel sorrow, we’re all the same asshole. When we confront challenges by applying our individual Will as a force to break down obstacles, we are uniquely ourselves. But don’t just take my word for it! Let’s let Jung speak for himself. He more or less admits that his method is a confirmation of herd morality as the highest value in the “healing” process:
“In the case of psychological suffering, which always isolates the individual from the herd of so-called ‘normal’ people, it is also of the greatest to understand that the conflict is not a personal failure only, but at the same time a suffering common to all and a problem with which the whole epoch is burdened. This general point of view “lifts” [quotes mine] the individual out of himself and connects him with humanity. The suffering does not even have to be a neurosis; we have the same feeling in very ordinary circumstances. If for instance you live in a very well-to-do community, and you suddenly lose all your money, your natural reaction will be to think that it is terrible and shameful and that you are the only one who is such an ass to lose his money. But if everybody loses his money it is quite another matter and you feel reconciled to it. When other people are in the same hole I am I feel much better.
*previous page*
Modern spiritual therapy uses the same principle: pain or illness is compared with the sufferings of Christ, and this idea gives consolation. The individual is “lifted” [again, mine] out of his miserable loneliness and represented as undergoing a heroic and meaningful fate which is ultimately good for the whole world.”
-C.G. Jung, Analytical Psychology in Theory and Practice, p. 116-117
This is, obviously, a loser’s way of making themselves feel important while simultaneously fleeing any brave expression of individuality. Christ did forty days in the fucking desert. This is not comparable to having parents that are disappointed in you, or being left by your husband or wife. Gilgamesh fought the Bull of Heaven. Marduk slew Tiamut with a single arrow. These are not comparable to going to your persnickety boss and asking for a raise, or confronting your rich mother-in-law about how she competitively spoils your children. These people need to stop whining and trying to make their boring day to day lives into some dramatic “personal mythology” and actually DO some real shit. There are dragons out there. There are great beasts to be confronted. There are deserts to be endured. But you won’t find them by living an everyday life and feeling the natural anxiety that one feels when pursuing a totally nihilistic existence.
“When I read the tales in Burton’s Arabian Nights, where some said ‘I wish these were real,’ I said to myself, ‘I will MAKE them real.’”
-Aleister Crowley, paraphrased, from somewhere or other (help me out here, people)
“Ye are against the people, oh my chosen”
-Liber AL
The difference between sorrow and trouble is individuality. Obstacles, troubles, do not have to cause sorrow. When we see them as uniquely our own, and face them as personal challenges to be overcome, we can actually experience a great deal of joy in confronting a significant obstacle, because it becomes a way to “prove” ourselves against a threat to our personal Will. Jungian psychology seeks to mask the individual element in the obstacles by encouraging people to identify with universal archetypes, and to see their own suffering in the light of mythological figures. When we feel sorrow, we’re all the same asshole. When we confront challenges by applying our individual Will as a force to break down obstacles, we are uniquely ourselves. But don’t just take my word for it! Let’s let Jung speak for himself. He more or less admits that his method is a confirmation of herd morality as the highest value in the “healing” process:
“In the case of psychological suffering, which always isolates the individual from the herd of so-called ‘normal’ people, it is also of the greatest to understand that the conflict is not a personal failure only, but at the same time a suffering common to all and a problem with which the whole epoch is burdened. This general point of view “lifts” [quotes mine] the individual out of himself and connects him with humanity. The suffering does not even have to be a neurosis; we have the same feeling in very ordinary circumstances. If for instance you live in a very well-to-do community, and you suddenly lose all your money, your natural reaction will be to think that it is terrible and shameful and that you are the only one who is such an ass to lose his money. But if everybody loses his money it is quite another matter and you feel reconciled to it. When other people are in the same hole I am I feel much better.
*previous page*
Modern spiritual therapy uses the same principle: pain or illness is compared with the sufferings of Christ, and this idea gives consolation. The individual is “lifted” [again, mine] out of his miserable loneliness and represented as undergoing a heroic and meaningful fate which is ultimately good for the whole world.”
-C.G. Jung, Analytical Psychology in Theory and Practice, p. 116-117
This is, obviously, a loser’s way of making themselves feel important while simultaneously fleeing any brave expression of individuality. Christ did forty days in the fucking desert. This is not comparable to having parents that are disappointed in you, or being left by your husband or wife. Gilgamesh fought the Bull of Heaven. Marduk slew Tiamut with a single arrow. These are not comparable to going to your persnickety boss and asking for a raise, or confronting your rich mother-in-law about how she competitively spoils your children. These people need to stop whining and trying to make their boring day to day lives into some dramatic “personal mythology” and actually DO some real shit. There are dragons out there. There are great beasts to be confronted. There are deserts to be endured. But you won’t find them by living an everyday life and feeling the natural anxiety that one feels when pursuing a totally nihilistic existence.
“When I read the tales in Burton’s Arabian Nights, where some said ‘I wish these were real,’ I said to myself, ‘I will MAKE them real.’”
-Aleister Crowley, paraphrased, from somewhere or other (help me out here, people)
“Ye are against the people, oh my chosen”
-Liber AL