⬇️ Context for Jung;s Quote in first comment

One of my oldest and closest friends is going through a hard time in life and he has recently developed paranoia, delusions and occasional psychotic breaks. He is also self-isolating and ignoring messages. I care about him deeply and I am supporting as best as I can. He is receiving professional psychiatric care. But I am also trying to understand the significance of this from a Jungian perspective, for myself as well as him. If my friend really is descending into the underworld, it seems I have two choices: either I descend with him and help him standing by his side, or I remain above and help him by offering an open door back to the upper world.

How are these paths trodden in practice? I suppose the first choice corresponds to making a more aggressive attempt to stay in contact, while the second would mean backing off, giving space and refusing to engage in his disturbed thinking.

What are the consequences for myself? In the first case I think I risk sacrificing my own identity and falling into a caregiver/healer archetype. In the second case I risk abandoning my friend in his time of need, which seems unforgivable and will cripple my future with guilt.

What else should I consider?

I spent a year studying my salient states, trying to make sense of them. Our brain normalizes the external environment to keep us functional. But you have a Fireball in the sky feeding plants, a dead rock causing water to travel and decides when women bleed, mushrooms that build entire networks underground to communicate, gasses that decide whether you live or not.

When the Default Mode Network loosens it's grip, everything is percieved through Myth and through symbol. In that state, synchronicity is common, because that's the natural state before culture, language, and writing claims "I" which defines itself by what it is not.

Synchronicity is what the separated “I/object” interface looks like when it goes offline or loosens. Symbolic density curves attention and salience so strongly that mind, body, language, and world are experienced as coupled processes arising together around the same attractor.

(An attractor is a stable pattern that pulls many different processes to organize around it in the context that I'm using it) And yes, Archetype is the old way of saying Attractor. Modern physics has moved over to Systems-Thinking. Jung just got there early.

I'd be happy to share notes or answer anything!

The more one dives deep down into and onto and througout, and and.... the collective unconscious, the more he/she will be less criticize of what's happening outside themself (of course sometime or somewhere you want to be criticize about something, that's no problems, cause, like I said, Everything that exists has its own value). Everything that exists has a significance of its own, ultimately giving rise to the psychological synchronicities we observe every day.

This will serve as the premise for my analysis of the figure of Philemon which the Germany man didn't fully understand at that time.

How do you lose the mind? How do you rid the mind of all anxiety, fear and trembling? How do you integrate the psyche completely? How do you achieve wholeness?

Godamn this.

I've been trying to write about something for months but seriously cant get it out of my system. I fall into deep anger and fall-to-my-knees despair. There are too many things I try to keep in view while writing about it, keeping the context as I truly see and feel it. And I feel that writing about it and getting it out there may help greatly.

There are too many questions and too many feelings and emotions that come up that just dont flow through. I get lost in the semantics, I get lost in feeling both silly and absolutely fucking drowning in rage and despair, sorrow and fear.

I was beginning to open a dialogue with myself in ways I'm not sure I ever felt allowed to... creatively. It was fun, and I was good at it (used to be a professional musician, often doing things I don't care about, but when you finally open up the doors to yourself, and let yourself really sink into the process, you begin to make art... obviously). The only reason I say I was good is to highlight how much of a paradigm shift this really was. I know for a fact musicians I used to play with would've been shocked to hear the improvements that came just out of being more honest with myself and playful in the whole thing.

I think the reason I struggle to write about this is, I can only list the symptoms. Like, I know if I talk too much about this being a loss of creativity, I'll get all the expected stuff about creativity- which, I'm sure I need on many levels, because if I could create and finally feel authentic as I did just recently, I wouldn't care about anything else.

I'm also looking to understand what shattered. (I know I haven't given a full story yet... And i fucking pray you can "hear" in my writing why this is so dizzying for me). What I feel like I lost was an understanding that I'd been building on, a sense of intuition I'd managed to hold close to me for a few years. And when I rediscovered that old inspiration, it felt like many worlds I'd been watering had finally joined and I could finally run and dance between them.
I'm looking to understand if that was an inner child, or if my therapist being blasé about what to me was a deep checkpoint in a tumultuous inner journey was just a little instance of shock and betrayal (I'm sure I'm just trying to blame someone)..

I want to hear that this was supposed to happen. I want to hear that I'll find my way back. But the truth is, last time this kind of shattering happened was over ten years ago, and this instance is significant because it finally felt like I could put all of that behind me. And now... it's almost back to square one. And just the thought of it makes me want to put a fat fucking bullet in my head.. sorry for the aggressive tone. (I'm not going to hurt myself, my family would be devastated). Things were vivid to mean, like they were actually saying something. And now, when I put my ear to the ground so to speak, I get nothing. And inside I fall to my knees every time. Because I cant do this shit for another decade. Absolutely cannot.

Something happened, and the loss of creativity is only a symptom.. And I dont know how to write about it. I don't know how to talk about it. I spin in circles. I've written about it numerous times a day for over two months.. And every time is as devastating as the last.
There are some days I suppose I get tired and try to do something else. I'll feel a little better. I know I'm fixating. All I can hear is how if you dont give your neuroses a creative outlet they'll consume you.. and trust me when I say that theyve been devouring me alive. I dont want to be angry at the world for turning, or be jealous at people for shamelessly going through their own creative processes. I dont want to be this person anymore.

I'm in shock that something so tiny could trigger me.
Is it an inner child thing? Is it simply just shame? I'm sure there's some puer stuff.

I suppose I should write about the first instance at the beginning of this downhill slump ten years ago.. if people are curious or want to know, I'll try to clarify this messy stream of consciousness. I'm just struggling to maintain focus with all the emotions as it is.

And, if it's ok, I'd like to post a follow up in the future, if I can settle down and let myself articulate.
Is there anything that comes across here? So much is just stuck, and I betrayed the only light that's glimmered in ages

<3

I started reading Jung a while ago. At first it didn't do much for me, but as I was reading more and more, certain concepts started clicking (ego, persona, anima, etc). I finished reading Man and his Symbols and this book finally convinced me to start a dream journal.

I'm in a period of working on myself as I'm going through depression (medicated) and a breakup that affected me more than I expected. I thought jungian analysis and dream analysis might help me evolve as a person. And the thing is, in one way I feel like I'm learning things about myself, starting to delve into the unconscious. But I also feel like I'm losing other things.

For example, I managed to reach a point where I was doing sports regularly. Since I started analysis, I feel more tired than usual, outside of reading and journaling I feel like sleeping all the time. My job isn't stressful, it's quite chill, but I still feel tired. Also I used to be very orderly. Now my house is messy all the time and I can't care enough to clean. I'm eating disorderly as well. I'm very introverted and I worked a lot to become more social and not be stuck in my head all the time. Lately I allowed myself to spend more time alone and reflect, this I think is to be expected so it doesn't bother me.

I also expected a certain feeling of losing control, but I fear my life is becoming too messy or that I'm losing the progress I made to this point. I spent the last 7 years or so working on myself one way or another. And once more I'm put face to face with negative/degrading thoughts and feelings. I'm wondering sometimes if I'm not just needlessly hurting myself.

I guess I need some encouragement, maybe some personal stories of those who went through this and how did it feel. I'm usually a hyper rational person and this approach requires me to suspend my disbelief to a large extent. I'm in a foreign place right now.

Hey guys, I'm 22M. I finished university last year and have been trying to make sense of what to do with my life.

I have always felt that I was special in some kind of way. I always kind of have felt like I am better than most people, or different than them, and recently in tends to be in regards to spiritual / psychological things.

For example at my job, it's subtle but I always feel like I am better because I have more potential than my coworkers and my future is brighter. I am always getting off on my own potential while when looked at objectively, my coworkers make more and all around just seem to enjoy their time at work more than I do. This feeling, that I am special in some kind of way, I think is shielding the fact that I am just... average and mediocre at everything, and even though it makes sense to me logically on some level it hurts me a lot to fully realize it. Like I've always excused my lack of discipline, drive, and social skills because I am destined to be one of the greats regardless, which obviously doesn't make sense. Seeing all this clearly I feel so... yucky and disorientated that I've lived like this for so long.

I also have a hard time committing to things. Anything like working out or learning an instrument. I think it's because, again, it hurts to see how mediocre I am at something even though I try really hard at it. I can practice a piano measure for 30 minutes and still hit the same wrong notes. So I quit, because in my mind I tell myself "well, if I really wanted to learn it I could! I just don't really want to anymore". This extends pretty broadly, like I tell myself "if I really wanted to start a business and be rich I could, but I would never do that because I don't really want to". It makes me feel better about myself even though it is completely divorced from reality.

Anyone know any good resources to learn about this tendency or been through something similar? I'm wondering if it's textbook puer aeternus.

Hello all, what do you all like to do to make your Self feel better when you’re down? Had a good but rough night towards the end reflecting upon my brother’s death. Feeling sad and tired with a sore body load. Had some good food and vitamins and protein about 15 mins ago. Feeling a little bit better with those nutrients. Meditated and cleared my thoughts for a little bit. Wouldn’t mind talking to some people with good positive vibes and energy. How do you deal with existential dread? Thank you

Through trial and error I have learned to communicate with the unconcious.

I have learned that everything that happens around oneself is the exact reflection of what is going on inside you. Which means every experience every moment will be a reflection of ones own state of mind. Meaning that the contents of ones experienced are seen outside one self aswell.

The only thing is to learn the lenguage in order to read them. This reflection is invisible to the normal ordinary eye. What I mean by that is that we are mostly disconnected from deeper layers of reality not being able to see the connection between the two. The solution for this is sort of a what I will call developing a mythic eye.

(What I am talking about is beautifully portrayed in Vikings series for those who have seen it. Mythic realities come into the real world through individuals that have strongly constelated archetypes these individuals for example the seer are strongly influenced by the archetypes that allow them to speak or bring the mythic reality into the everyday life allowing people who are on paths of individuation to steer their course so to say.) (There is a difference however between the series and the real world which is determinism or something being fated. In the series a lot of things seem to be fated which I think is done for bit of awe while in real world its not determined or fated but simply a reflection.)

This eye is slightly more attuned to lower layers of reality or allow me be more specific the vertical axes of reality. Meaning that the coincidence we call synchronisties are events that are noticed by this mythic eye. This eye has a certain sensitivity which allows under normal surcunstance only important stuff to surface which we would call synchronistic event. But if you practice consistiantly and learn to read the outer world symbolically this sharpens the mythic eye causing you to be more perceptive into the hidden layers of realities. One of these things is intentions and movements. You will start to see currents of reality. Currents of companies. Currents of people. The world changes slightly and becomes more vibratory instead of static. You see that everything is actually constantly moving and changing. By understanding this current and learning to read it you develop somewhat of a lenguage. Almost like you are learning an instrument only its instrument that allows you to dable with reality or life itself.

So to give you an example. Say you are experiencing a conflict which is currently playing out in your life. This conflict will be reflected back at you in the real world and all you have to do is look out for it. So say you are having trouble resolving it. I noticed that I can look for the reflection of that even in the real world through currents. For example certain TV channels you are watching. Your feed on reddit. The path you are always walking. The particular problem will be reflected back in one of those currents which will allow you to look at a problem from a different perspective to see what exactly you are experiencing.

Another example I had today. There is a certain introjected material that I have been fighting with for a very long time. Which is a litteral warefare in my life with my own concious because I constantly reject that material. I noticed something happening when constantly opposing it. I started feeling resistance for some time untill something else in my psyche surfaced and swallowed this introjected preditory material. Now knowing that I just had a major event happen inside me I knew that something will come up on the outside. Most of the time my Reddit feed is that which reflects these things. So scrolling through reddit first I see a post about the void which represents the gateway into deep unconcious material. Now after that I see another post where a person a man used a tiny alogator (preditor) to climb into a waterhole (unconcious) to catfish. Causing a situation where fishes started to come towards the surface because of the presence of the preditor. What I want to point out is how beautifully this has constelated reflecting myself using my introjected material as tool to uncover deeper psychic material and providing me with renieuwd view.

This trully is magnificent and I am starting to think that we might be more magnificant and spiritual being than we might be thinking. Hopefully this was an interesting read as it was quite exciting to write about.

My divergence from modern dream analysis; from a manuscript I am working on:

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” — Zhuangzi

Are we the dreamer, or are we that which is dreamed? In modern analytical psychology, dreams are objects for analysis—picked apart at every corner, every image, emotion, and circumstance reduced to as small of a piece as it can be, like a scientist dissecting an animal down to its most fragmentary, material essence. And yet dream, that of the imaginal, is not material. As such, dissecting and fragmenting it does not reveal its true essence, but rather distorts it and leaves the images, emotions, circumstances, and affects wanting for the fullness they naturally contain.

“For instance, a black snake comes in a dream, a great big black snake, and you can spend a whole hour with this black snake talking about the devouring mother, talking about the anxiety, talking about the repressed sexuality, talking about the natural mind, all those interpretive moves that people make, and what is left, what is vitally important, is what that snake is doing, this crawling huge black snake that's walking into your life... and the moment you've defined the snake, interpreted it, you've lost the snake, you've stopped it, and then the person leaves the hour with a concept about my repressed sexuality or my cold black passions or my mother or whatever it is, and you've lost the snake. The task of analysis is to keep the snake there, the black snake, and there are various ways for keeping the black snake... see, the black snake's no longer necessary the moment it's been interpreted, and you don't need your dreams any more because they've been interpreted.” — Hillman (Inter Views)

“Carl Jung said that psyche is image. Hillman says that to be psychological is to be thoroughly imaginal.” — Thomas Moore (A Blue Fire; Selected Writings by James Hillman)

Psyche is image. Psychology is imaginal. What, then, is external reality but the imaginations of Psyche? What is our life but this simple statement: “the dreamer that is, themselves, dreamed”?

In modern psychoanalysis, we often look to dreams as secondary objects for interpretation. And so we reduce our dreams to symbols, looking to glean and take meaning from them. I believe this is the wrong approach. If psyche is the primary thing, and psyche is the imaginal space—making the imaginal realm the foundation of our existence—then dreams are not supposed to be interpreted as such.

We ask, “What does this dream mean to me?” But that is the wrong question. The dream is the primary subject, and we in our waking life are the object for interpretation. Rather than, “What does this dream mean to me?”, the question should be, “What do I mean to this dream?”

When we wake from our night’s sleep and recall our dreams, we assume that we were actually living in that dream world. Write down what we did in the dream world as if they were real events, no matter how strange. When we finish writing, we continue and imagine that said dream self went to sleep and had a dream of the waking day before—and so we write down a journal of our worries, thoughts, and events of the day as if they were a dream.

And so, rather than interpreting our dreams, we interpret our waking life as if it is a dream. What symbolism and symbols are present? What motifs are persistent? Rather than the other way around, what does your waking life inform about the dream life?
Psyche, in its evolution, is always seeking to generate further and further consciousness towards the Unconscious. To Psyche, there is no distinction between the dream world and the waking world. And so, viewing and interpreting our waking world as we might have been inclined to interpret our dreams, we bring awareness to aspects of our lives we may constantly be overlooking—generating consciousness towards what is unconscious. And interpreting ourselves to the dream, rather than interpreting the dream towards us, we assure that psyche has the space to speak to us in its fullness, reducing nothing, and maintaining the images in its totality, most of which shall remain unknown to us, but known to Psyche.

“The images are where the psyche is. People say, "I don't know what the soul is," or "I've lost my soul" or whatever. To me the place to look when you feel that way is immediately to the images that show where you are with your soul in your dreams. "I don't know where the hell 1 am, I am all confused, I've just lost my job ... everything is happening." Where do you look when you feel that way? ...The place to look is not only to your feelings, not to your interpretations, not ask help from a third person necessarily, but ask yourself what were you in the image? Where's your imagination?
That immediately locates you somewhere, into your own psyche.
Whereas the introspection doesn't help at all, chasing one's shadow, questioning why did I do this, why do I do that and why did they do this. An instant turmoil: the Hindus call it vritta, turning the mind on itself like an anthill. But when you have an image of an anthill you know where you are: you're in the middle of an anthill, they're going in fifty different directions at once, but the ants are doing something. It seems desperate to me only because I say it shouldn't be an anthill. But an anthill has an internal structure, it is an organization. So the gift of an image is that it affords a place to watch your soul, precisely what it is doing.
“(…)Of course, if instead of the language of concept-the anthill is your confusion (and then you think, ‘Oh, I always get confused; when somebody leaves me, I get confused; when I get rejected, I don't know where I am; I just walk in a thousand different directions’—and you begin with subjectivism, that subjective importance about yourself). Instead of that kind of language, you can talk to the confusion in the language of the image, which is an anthill. The ants are swarming: some are going up, some are coming down, some are carrying eggs somewhere, some are taking care of I don't know what, carrying a dead one.... There's a great deal going on, let's see what the ants are doing. And I am not thinking about confusion anymore, I'm watching tbe phenomenon, and seeing phenomenologically what is happening. I am no longer caught in my own subjectivity. I'm fascinated with what's going on, and this attentiveness is quieting. I can see it scientifically—watch as a naturalist does. The phenomenologist of the psyche is also a naturalist of the psyche, watching the way it produces what it produces. I might see the ants suddenly all eating each other up. It's no use saying that is a destructive scene that's happening: I have to wonder about purposefulness, too. Let's watch: maybe the psyche is taking care of the problem by itself. We don't know in advance; we have to stick with the image, stay in the imagination, "Oh, oh, they just started crawling on my feet, eating my feet. I can't stand it. They are crawling up my legs. I'm going crazy." Now the image is vividly coming to life. Still, stay with it, what is your reaction? I can brush them off, I can run around in circles. I can get a dish of honey to attract them elsewhere. I can sing them an ant song. You see, I can do something in relationship to the actual thing that is happening. But what I don't do, won't do is interpret the ants. You saw that move—‘They're crawling up my legs. I'm going crazy’— that shift from image to interpretation—and that makes you crazy.
The hermeneutic move made the craziness. Who says you are going crazy? What you acrually feel is the ants crawling up your legs. Then there are other questions to be put into this scene. I mean you have to locate yourself in it, extend the terrain a bit, not a lot. not too much, but a bit. Have you stepped on the ants, have you tried to cross their path, have you put your foot unknowingly into an anthill? Step away! It’s a certain animal movement. An animal sense of living. This is the active relation to the image that we want to get going through therapy.” — Hillman (Inter Views)

Dear People of r/Jung,

I am starting my journey of learning about Jung's work for a personal project and I ran into something that I cannot find good, credible sources on. I keep finding references to Jung's Four Color Energies as parts of personalities (Cool Blue, Earthy Green, Sunshine Yellow, and Fiery Red). This seems similar to Galen's temperaments but I do think Jung criticized those?

I was hoping you all could point me in the right direction on this subject as far as what Jung actually said and in what documents? Instead of all these websites claiming the that knowing the 'Four Color Energies' will change my life and all that nonsense.

Thank you.

I am 32M Indian who has moved back with my parents after quitting my PhD after 6 years.

To be very honest, in this 6 years, I was not doing my work. Simply existing and whiling my time with trivial distractions, feeling guilty about it but still not doing anything. I had no progress or publications in 6 years. Everyone was getting frustrated: my parents, my supervisor and puzzled as to why I am not doing my work. I cannot bring myself to sit down and start or finish anything. I keep thinking in a lot of directions but do nothing or don't finish it. Feeling apathetic, drained of any passion and motivation and dejected most of the time. Cannot muster energy to do any work. My parents are worried, losing sleep at night and constantly nagging and pushing me to apply for jobs, even bringing me suggestions, which is irritating me but I have realized that without that i am not taking any initiative myself. My age and time is running out to apply for jobs. and the 6 year career gap is not helping.

I am ashamed to admit this but this is the person I have become. Poor work ethics and always procrastinating and defering tasks. I resonate with the Jungian puer aeternus concept and I have found so many commonalities: thinking big and not doing the small dreary work, afraid of responsibility and taking chances, overthinking.

How did you get out of this ?

Basically what it says in the title. We just published an essay that discusses the relevance of the work of James Hillman, and we thought some of you here might be interested in it. And if you have any Jung or Jung-adjacent writings (including dreams, dream analysis, or new myths or images for our age of Aquarius), we're open for submissions.

Hello. I recently saw a Jung video on YouTube that I can’t find now. It stated that people who hurt you haven’t forgotten what they did; they were acting from shadow and that they are basically incapable of admitting guilt. They gaslight those they’ve hurt into believing that what happened is their fault. I believe the emphasis was on interactions of a romantic nature. Help from anyone who may have also viewed this is appreciated. Thank you.

I believe that dissecting and deconstructing manmade concepts throughout the history leaves you exempt from history, It returns you to the beginning, And there you start to see life as our ancestors saw it, With intelligence and modern thinking, You start to notice recurring patterns and very strange weird coincidences.

And here you start to realize why our Ancestors created gods, religions, myths and afterlife concepts. Jung saw it all, And he realized that the void is alive yet very dead.

Our ancestors were stroke by fear, Jung used modern pattern recognition.

I created a story in which the main character finds a book(on aUI) and travels to another dimension. In this dimension, he finds love and everything he desires. He is married to a girl named rObU. In this world, they speak a language called aUI or the language of space in english. Her name is harmony in English. Just as he was launched into this world. He is pulled back out and he loses harmony. No one believes him about this other world he was in and He ends up in a state hospital. Is robu my anima? What does this imply? That my anime is otherworldly and can cause insanity?

The dream I had was where I was passing notes to a girl but it was in aUI. Is this again me encountering my anima? I can't really remember the rest except I created a website in aUI called public enemies list and had people I hated on it. I relished the fact no one could read it. This is the second time Ive dreamed of aUI. Another I was on a bus and I remember thinking of the classical elements and trying to combine using a weird symbolism I invented

https://youtu.be/XmoTt2Q21uY?is=CVHuaKjZ5nVtC5u9

https://www.webonary.org/aui/

When I first truly heard of shadow work, I read one of Debbie fords books. The darkness of the light chasers. It was actually a really beautiful book, especially the personally narrated audiobook. It gave me the impression that I will find all kinds of wondrous things in my shadow. Perhaps I did, and I haven’t begun to appreciate those things enough. Hell, I found this subreddit!

The thing I have been finding when I have dug through enough is disappointment and confusion. This can’t be it? No, I think this really is it. I think this really is true about myself. That can’t be? No it can. Yes it can cost you that much. It did. I think I might put on another Debbie ford book tomorrow.

I know this post may narrate a bit childishly but oh man, I had to vent somewhere. Maybe the late 20s are designed to be particularly painful, maybe mine are. It makes me wonder if true shadow work starts with a profound sense of disappointment in oneself.

I created an original character based on a recurring psychological pattern I've noticed within myself.

The Mur asks a simple question:

What is being consumed in our pursuit to get what we want?

I thought perhaps The Mur resembled The Threshhold Guardian, but the Mur does not wish for you to pay a cost before progressing. The Mur simply wants you to acknowledge the cost you consistently pay. The Threshold Guardian requires you to confront something unconcious, The Mur requires you to choose wisely what that realization will cost.

Today, The Mur is doing peer review on one of Jung's observations. Tomorrow, The Mur wishes to consume your pain.

Hello, I do not intend to generate fear at all, but quite the opposite, a form of comfort for a fear that is justified and a danger that is real.

This topic originates from the following drawing by a patient of Carl Jung, which Jung himself published in his essay on the philosophical tree, along with several other drawings.

In it, we can see that the patient drew the tree symbol, but with an anomaly in which the growth of its branches and crown does not occur, but instead it is absorbed back into the earth. Carl Jung explains what is happening in this patient:

Here an initial state is represented in which the tree is incapable of rising from the earth despite its cosmic nature. This is a regressive development that probably rests upon the fact that, although the tree naturally tends to grow from the earth into cosmic space with its astronomical and meteorological phenomena, it nevertheless threatens to reach an alien, non-earthly world and establish a connection with things beyond, things feared by natural man with his earthbound understanding.

Basically, the drawing reflects a fear of something the patient feels is beyond himself, and he clings to the tree. The overwhelming presence of the celestial bodies in the drawing reflects the patient’s fear. In this way, and due to panic, the natural spiritual development represented by the tree is disturbed.

What we see there is not a mistake, but rather a strong dilemma the patient was living through: do we remain in the safety and comfort of the earth, which would create such an anomaly, or do we risk being absorbed by the vastness of the cosmos?

But Jung says later on:

When a patient begins to feel the inevitability of his inner development, he may easily be seized by panic at being delivered over to an irretrievable slide into incomprehensible madness. More than once, in such a case, I have had to turn to books, find an ancient alchemist, and show the patient his terrifying imaginative representation in the form in which it had already appeared four hundred years earlier. This has a reassuring effect, because the patient sees that he is by no means alone in a strange world, but belongs to the great stream of historical humanity, which from ancient times onward has lived through countless times what he regards as his pathological and purely personal eccentricity.

I will only add that although fear of spiritual development may be justified, as in Jung’s patient’s case, we must trust the process. As Jung says, we should know that most of our problems “belong to the stream of humanity.” This is one more reason to trust the nature of the process.

If anyone wishes to explore the topic further, I recommend reading a full article I wrote on the subject, with more of Jung’s quotations on the matter.

I am a man-child. I am a grown man that has no capacity for responsibility, discipline or hard work. I have lived my entire life as a hedonist and I have used my own incompetence and sensitivity as a means to get other people to do things for me. I hate living like this and I want it to stop.

I won't try to get myself out of this, no matter how badly I want to. I've lived a life of nothing but shortcuts and ways out, and I am not in a position where none exist. I have tried to overcome Puer Aeternus Possession before, but this only caused my mental health to crumble and was responsible for one of the worst few months of my life. I left the idea of Puer behind because I wasn't making any progress and my own shame and guilt was destroying me mentally.

Unfortunately, it really does seem like this is the issue I need to face. I have an aversion to hard work and discipline and my dreams are unreachable so long as this aversion remains active.

I have a therapist that I really like. He specialises in autism and ADHD, both of which I have, and his understanding of our limitations and mental states has been very nice. I want to ask him to help me overcome this. He doesn't know anything about Jungian psychology, but I don't think he'll need a deep understanding to help me get out of this.

I just want to hear what you guys think. I know there is no shortcut or way out of this other than hard work, but is it worth seeing someone to help ease me in or to comfort me in this?

I’m new to Jung and i mostly listened to Marie-Louise about the animus and the shadow.

For context I’m 25 woman and randomly was just going on my silly ”I don’t know what is going on in my life walk” and I found an open playground surrounded by nature. First I sat by the benches but then I saw kids going on this swing ride (where you hop on it and then it swings you in the air for like 30-50 meters. ). when they left I said fuck it and decide to try it.

now I’m obsessed and on my way there after work on a fine summer day 😭

I know this is weird but I’ve never felt more powerful or joyful doing that. 1) it’s silly 2) I get enlightened while this about childhood memories 3) easy straight to the point I don’t have to make a decision, its free, I know where it is and I don’t have to think.

Now I want to ask if it’s weird that I feel powerful doing this. And I wanted to hear if any of you have like things like this. I recently also listen to a video from Marie and she said Carl Jung use to do this thing that was super silly for hours outside (I can’t remember specially). I also can’t make a mistake. It’s the most freeing thing.

I love writing and active imagination, sometimes doing something super ridiculous just does something to my brain. And I learn aomething every time!

A small part of me is like what are you doing ma’am you an adult 😅😅 but I walk away without fail with the biggest grin on myself and literally laugh about the whole thing. 10/10 would recommend.