Carl Jung on the boundaries of the Clairvoyante’s Psychology.
Modern Psychology: C. G. Jung’s Lectures at the ETH Zürich, 1933-1941
Chart I (p. 64) The Clairvoyante of Prevorst.
When we set out to establish the boundaries of the Clairvoyante’s psychology, in order to localise her consciousness, we see that she stands very much on the Left side, for the outstanding fact is that she lived in the reality of inner objects; her consciousness therefore reaches its highest point in Left IV.
The question then arises: how does she stand with regard to Left V?
In what measure is her psychology influenced by something which is really beyond human reach?
The Sun Circle belongs to this sphere.
I should have to take you as far as Tibet in order to prove that such things actually exist.
It is very necessary to find parallels to a patient’s strange experiences, for as long as he can make himself understood he feels that he still stands in the world, and there is hope.
I therefore have to make every effort, when dealing with such cases, to keep the bridge of understanding open.
If I can, so to speak, nod to a strange experience as to an acquaintance, the patient is related to reality and feels reassured.
If I were to say: “No, that is unheard of, that thing does not exist anywhere except in your imagination”, the last bridge to human relationship would be broken down,
the patient would be isolated in his experience and then the only open door would lead to insanity.
The Clairvoyante was able to describe the Sun Circle to her doctor, Kerner, who was really interested, and in this way she related her experience to the world.
She herself, however, did not stand in Left V, the symbol alone is there and it is not very expressive, it is fainter than her experiences in Left IV.
If we proceed to the Right side, we must recognize that the Clairvoyante was very much concerned with her body: she was always ill and absorbed in her own
condition, everything had to revolve round her.
Her consciousness, however, stretched very little further into the world of reality, her relationship to people was singularly subjective, her relation to her child, for instance, was fitful and she saw Kerner in a very one-sided way.
From the nature of the curve on this chart we can draw definite conclusions, in the first place how the Clairvoyante stands in relation to the world.
Any one else with exactly the same chart would be forced to react in much the same way.
Her actual reality did not lie on this Right side, but in the spirit world.
The chart shows us further that, whereas she hardly had an interest in the outer world, the emphasis is on the Left side.
If this condition should continue to be stable, the curve would remain as I have marked it on the chart; but, as the Clairvoyante had so little relation to the outer world, should a change set in, we can expect her sphere of consciousness to move still further to the Left; so I have drawn the arrow pointing in that direction.
The long straight line beginning at the end of Left I and running over the whole of Left II and Left III, denotes a break in the continuity of consciousness.
The Clairvoyante was only aware of these sections in a state of somnambulism; and the line does not rise again till Left IV. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Vol. 1, Pages 63-65.
