1. Jung on Freedom – Anthology

Carl Jung on Freedom – Anthology

One creates inner freedom only through the symbol. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 311.

Although I am not the son of the God myself I represent him nevertheless as one who was a mother to the God, and one therefore to whom in the name of the God the freedom of the binding and loosing has been given. The binding and loosing take place in me. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 250.

Ideas are not just counters used by the calculating mind; they are also golden vessels full of living feeling. ~Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life, Pages 310-311.

Without freedom there can be no morality. ~Carl Jung; “The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious”, 1928.

Man always has some mental reservation, even in the face of divine decrees. Otherwise, where would be his freedom? And what would be the use of that freedom if it could not threaten Him who threatens it? ~Carl Jung; Memories, Dreams and Reflections; Page 220

It is a privilege born of human freedom in contradistinction to the compulsion of natural law. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Footnote 9, Page 158.

But because of its empirical freedom of choice, the will needs a supraordinate authority, something like a consciousness of itself, in order to modify the function. It must “know” of a goal different from the goal of the function. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Pages 178-181, Paras 371-381.

The ethical problem of sexual freedom really is enormous and worth the sweat of all noble souls. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 17-19.

Who would have thought that the alchemists, popularly supposed to be searching for gold, were really promising themselves freedom from illusion, exaggerated emotion, passion, excess and all possible vices ~Carl Jung, ETH, Lecture XIII, Page 108.

Consciousness thus is torn from its roots and no longer able to appeal to the authority of the archetypal images; it has Promethean freedom, it is true, but also a godless hybris. It does indeed soar above the earth, even above mankind, but the danger of an upset is there, not for every individual, to be sure, but collectively for the weak. ~Carl Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 85.

The growth of culture consists, as we know, is a progressive subjugation of the animal in man. It is a process of domestication which cannot be accomplished without rebellion on the part of the animal nature that thirsts for freedom. ~Carl Jung, CW 7, On Eros Theory, Page 19.

I naturally agree with what you say about freedom of thought.

The Communist doesn’t come into this category, since he doesn’t think; but his actions are a danger to the public. If he thought, he would have found out his deceit long ago. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 179-180.

Man has only very limited possibilities amongst which-so far as his consciousness extends-he can choose with practical freedom. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 102.

If causality is axiomatic, i.e., absolute, there can be no freedom. But if it is only a statistical truth, as is in fact the case, then the possibility of freedom exists. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 102.

I only can say that as far as consciousness reaches, the will is understood to be free, i.e., that the feeling of freedom accompanies your decisions no matter if they are really free or not. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 139.

If unconscious contents approaching the sphere of consciousness are not analysed and integrated, then the sphere of your freedom is even diminished through the fact that such contents are activated and gain more compelling influence upon consciousness than when they were completely unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 139.

The 4 aspects of causality make possible a homogeneous causal viewpoint but not a total one. For this purpose, it seems to me, causality (in all its aspects) has to be complemented by acausality. Not simply because freedom also is guaranteed in a law-bound world, but because freedom, i .e., acausality, does in fact exist. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 157-158.

The latest developments of scientific thinking, especially in physics, but recently also in psychology, make it clear that “freedom” is a necessary correlate to the purely statistical nature of the concept of causality. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 182-183.

Freedom could be put in doubt only because of the one-sided and uncritical overvaluation of causality, which has been elevated into an axiom although-strictly speaking-it is nothing but a mode of thought. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 182-183.

So your question concerning the “freedom” of the unconscious is easily answered: the freedom appears in the non-predictability of synchronistic phenomena. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449

Why should the psyche be the only living thing that is outside laws of determination? We follow archetypal patterns as the weaver-bird does. This assumption is far more probable than the mystical idea of absolute freedom. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 450-451

And this is the problem that is raised in our days: where do we land if we believe in the almightiness of our will and in the absolute freedom of our choice? ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 471-473

Our moral freedom reaches as far as our consciousness, and thus our liberation from compulsion and captivity. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 546-547

But the soul suffers great need, since outer freedom is of no use to it. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 311.

There is no morality, no moral decision, without freedom. There is only morality when you can choose, and you cannot choose if you are forced. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 262

Where the realm of the complexes begins the freedom of the ego comes to an end, for complexes are psychic agencies whose deepest nature is still unfathomed. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 216.

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