Carl Jung: CW 3 “Psychogenesis of Mental Disease” – Quotations
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group
The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 3: Psychogenesis of Mental Illness
In general, the patient’s degree of intelligence and education is of considerable importance for the prognosis ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
In cases of passing, acute intervals, or in the early stages of the disease, an explanatory discussion of the symptoms, especially of the psychotic contents, seems to me of the greatest value ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
Since fascination by archetypal contents is particularly dangerous, an explanation of their universal, impersonal meaning seems to me especially helpful, as opposed to the usual discussion of personal complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
These complexes are the things that called forth the archaic reactions and compensations in the first place, and can obviously produce the same effects again at anytime ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
Often, therefore, one must help the patient to detach his interest from these personal sources of excitation, at least temporarily, so as to give him a general orientation and a broader view of his confused situation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
I have therefore made it a rule to give the intelligent patient as much psychological knowledge as he can stand. The more he knows in this respect, the better his whole prognosis will turn out, for if he is equipped with the necessary knowledge he can meet renewed irruptions of the unconscious with understanding and in this way assimilate the strange contents and integrate them into his conscious life. So in cases where the patients remember the content of their psychosis, I discuss it with them in detail and try to get them to understand it as thoroughly as possible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 575
The introvert adapts to the world by means of a system ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 420
Insomnia is often due to uncontrollable complexes against which the auto-suggestive power of sleep is no longer effective ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 137
If by suitable means we reinforce the energy of such patients, they are able to sleep again, because they can suppress their complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 137
But suppressing the complex means nothing more than the withdrawal of attention, i.e., depriving it of clarity ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 137
Thus the thought-complexes are dependent on a small fraction of clarity, for which reason they can manifest themselves only in vague, symbolic expressions and also get contaminated for lack of differentiation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 137
We need not assume an actual censorship of dream thoughts in the Freudian sense; the inhibition exerted by sleep-suggestion is a perfectly sufficient explanation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 137
Insomnia can be caused by strong affects continuing to work in the form of a physical illness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 87
The autonomous complex can only “think” superficially and unclearly, i.e., symbolically, and the end-results (automatisms, constellations) which filter through into the activity of the ego-complex and into consciousness will be similarly constituted ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 135
The treatment or termination of such developments does not always require drastic intervention ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 562
Even with ordinary therapeutic measures you can get the patient’s mind at a sufficiently safe distance from the unconscious, for instance by inducing him to draw or paint a picture of his psychic situation. (Painting is rather more effective, since by means of the colors his feelings are drawn into the picture too) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 562
In this way the apparently incomprehensible and unmanageable chaos of his total situation is visualized and objectified. It can be observed at a distance by his conscious mind, analysed, and interpreted ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 562
The effect of this method is evidently due to the fact that the originally chaotic or frightening impression is replaced by the picture, which, as it were, covers it up ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 562
The tremendum is spellbound by it, made harmless and familiar, and whenever the patient is reminded of his original experience by its menacing emotional effects, the picture he has made of it interposes itself between him and the experience and keeps his terror at bay ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 562
I have now, after long practical experience, come to hold the view that the psychogenic causation of the disease is more probable than the toxic causation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 570
There are a number of mild and ephemeral but manifestly schizophrenic illnessesquite apart from the even more common latent psychoseswhich begin purely psychogenically, run an equally psychological course (aside from certain presumably toxic nuances) and can be completely cured by a purely psychotherapeutic procedure; I have seen this even in severe cases ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 570
The general picture of an [word] association test of a schizophrenic may be very similar to that of a neurotic, but closer examination shows that in a schizophrenic patient the connection between the ego and some of the complexes is more or less completely lost ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 506
The split is not relative, it is absolute. An hysterical patient might suffer from a persecution-mania very similar to real paranoia, but the difference is that in the former case one can bring the delusion back under the control of consciousness, whereas it is virtually impossible to do this in paranoia ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 506
A neurosis, it is true, is characterized by the relative autonomy of its complexes, but in schizophrenia the complexes have become disconnected and autonomous fragments, which either do not reintegrate back to the psychic totality, or, in the case of a remission, are unexpectedly joined together again as if nothing had happened ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶506
The dissociation in schizophrenia is not only far more serious but very often irreversible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The dissociation is no longer fluid and changeable as it is in a neurosis. It is more like a mirror broken up into splinters ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The unity of personality which, in a case of hysteria, lends a humanly understandable character to its own secondary personalities is definitely shattered into fragments ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
In a hysterical multiple personality there is a fairly smooth, even tactful, co-operation between the different persons, who keep to their respective roles and, if possible, do not bother each other ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
One feels the presence of an invisible spiritus rector, a central manager who arranges the stage for the different figures in an almost rational way, often in the form of a more or less sentimental drama ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
Each figure has a suggestive name and an admissible character, and they are just as nicely hysterical and just as sentimentally biased as the patient’s own consciousness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The picture of a personality dissociation in schizophrenia is quite different. The split-off figures assume banal, grotesque, or highly exaggerated names and characters, and are often objectionable in many other ways ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
They [the figures] do not, moreover, co-operate with the patient’s consciousness. They are not tactful and they have no respect for sentimental values ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
On the contrary, they [the split-off personalities] break in and make a disturbance at any time, they torment the ego in a hundred ways. All are objectionable and shocking, either in their noisy and impertinent behavior or in their grotesque cruelty and obscenity ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
There is an apparent chaos of incoherent visions, voices, and characters, all of an overwhelmingly strange and incomprehensible nature ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
If there is a drama at all, it is certainly far beyond the patient’s understanding. In most cases it transcends even the physician’s comprehension, so much so that he is inclined to suspect the mental sanity of anybody who sees more than plain madness in the ravings of a lunatic ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
The autonomous figures have broken away from the control of the ego so thoroughly that their original participation in the patient’s mental make-up has vanished ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 509
An abaissement can be producedby many causes: by fatigue, normal sleep, intoxication, fever, anaemia, intense affects, shocks, organic diseases of the central nervous system; likewise it can be induced by mass-psychology or a primitive mentality, or by religious and political fanaticism, etc. It can also be caused by constitutional and hereditary factors ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶513
Neuroses are specific consequences of an abaissement; as a rule they arise from a habitual or chronic form of it. Where they appear to be the effect of an acute form, a more or less latent psychological disposition always existed prior to the abaissement, so that the latter is no more than a conditional cause ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 515
The symptoms of Janet’s abaissement du niveau mental are: release of automatisms (thought-deprivation, pathological ideas) and reduction of attention. The consequence of this last is an incapacity for clear ideation. The ideas are indistinct, no proper differentiation takes place, and this leads to numerous confusions, condensations, contaminations, metaphors, etc. The condensations mostly follow the law of similarity of imagery or sound, so that meaningful connections largely disappear ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 300
There is no doubt that an abaissement which leads to a neurosis is produced either by exclusively psychological factors or by these in conjunction with other, perhaps more physical, conditions ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
A neurosis is a relative dissociation, a conflict between the ego and a resistant force based upon unconscious contents. These contents have more or less lost their connection with the psychic totality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
They [the unconscious contents] form themselves into fragments, and the loss of them means a depotentiation of the conscious personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
The intense conflict, on the other hand, expresses an equally intense desire to re-establish the severed connection. There is no co-operation, but at least there is a violent conflict, which functions instead of a positive connection ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
Every neurotic fights for the maintenance and supremacy of his ego-consciousness and for the subjugation of the resistant unconscious forces ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
But a patient who allows himself to be swayed by the intrusion of strange contents from the unconscious, a patient who does not fight, who even identifies with the morbid elements, immediately exposes himself to the suspicion of schizophrenia ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
His abaissement has reached the fatal, extreme degree, when the ego loses all power to resist the onslaught of an apparently more powerful unconscious ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 516
Schizophrenia has a “psychology,” i.e., a psychic causality and finality, just as normal mental life has, though with this important difference: whereas in the healthy person the ego is the subject of his experience, in the schizophrenic the ego is only one of the experiencing subjects. In other words, in schizophrenia the normal subject has split into a plurality of subject, or into plurality of autonomous complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 498
The psychic mechanism that brings about the normal extinction and disintegration of consciousness in sleep is therefore a normal function which almost obeys our will. In schizophrenia it seems as if this function were set in motion in order to bring about that sleep-like condition in which consciousness is reduced to the level of dreams, or, in which dreams are intensified to a degree equalling that of consciousness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 523
The simplest form of schizophrenia, of the splitting of the personality, is paranoia, the classic persecution-mania of the “persécuteur persécuté” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
It consists in a simple doubling of the personality, which in milder cases is still held together by the identity of the two egos ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
The schizophrenic may be pictured as a dreamer who walks about and acts like a person awake ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 174
The patient strikes us at first as completely normal. He may hold office or be in a lucrative positionwe suspect nothing ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
We converse normally with him, and at some point, for example, we let fall the word “Freemason” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
Suddenly the jovial face before us changes, a piercing look full of abysmal mistrust and inhuman fanaticism meets us from his eye. He has become a hunted, dangerous animal, surrounded by invisible enemies: the other ego has risen to the surface ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
What has happened? Obviously at some time or other the idea of being a persecuted victim gained the upper hand, became autonomous, and formed a second subject which at times completely replaced the healthy ego ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
It is characteristic that neither of the two subjects can fully experience the other, although the two personalities are not separated by a belt of unconsciousness as they are in an hysterical dissociation of the personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
They know each other intimately, but they have no valid arguments against one another ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
The healthy ego cannot counter the affectivity of the other, for at least half its affectivity has gone over into its opposite number. It is, so to speak, paralysed ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
This is the beginning of that schizophrenic “apathy” which can best be observed in paranoid dementia ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
The patient can assure you with the greatest indifference: “I am the triple owner of the world, the finest Turkey, the Lorelei, Germania and Helvetia of exclusively sweet butter and Naples and I must supply the whole world with macaroni.” All this without a blush, and with no flicker of a smile ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
Here there are countless subjects and no central ego to experience anything and react emotionally ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
Dreams are due to an incomplete extinction of consciousness, or to a somewhat excited state of the unconscious which interferes with sleep ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 524
Sleep is disturbed if too many remnants of consciousness go on stirring, or if there are unconscious contents with too great an energy-charge, for then they rise above the threshold and create a relatively conscious state ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 524
Hence it is better to explain many dreams as the remnants of conscious impressions, while others derive directly from unconscious sources which have never been conscious ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 524
Dreams of the first type [remnants of conscious impressions] have a personal character and conform to the rules of a personalistic psychology ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 524
Dreams of the second type [from unconscious sources] have a collective character, inasmuch as they contain peculiarly mythological, legendary, or generally archaic imagery. One must turn to historical or primitive symbology in order to explain such dreams ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 524
The general picture of an [word] association test of a schizophrenic may be very similar to that of a neurotic, but closer examination shows that in a schizophrenic patient the connection between the ego and some of the complexes is more or less completely lost ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 506
The split is not relative, it is absolute. An hysterical patient might suffer from a persecution-mania very similar to real paranoia, but the difference is that in the former case one can bring the delusion back under the control of consciousness, whereas it is virtually impossible to do this in paranoia ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 506
A neurosis, it is true, is characterized by the relative autonomy of its complexes, but in schizophrenia the complexes have become disconnected and autonomous fragments, which either do not reintegrate back to the psychic totality, or, in the case of a remission, are unexpectedly joined together again as if nothing had happened ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 506
The dissociation in schizophrenia is not only far more serious but very often irreversible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The dissociation is no longer fluid and changeable as it is in a neurosis. It is more like a mirror broken up into splinters ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The unity of personality which, in a case of hysteria, lends a humanly understandable character to its own secondary personalities is definitely shattered into fragments ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
In a hysterical multiple personality there is a fairly smooth, even tactful, co-operation between the different persons, who keep to their respective roles and, if possible, do not bother each other ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
One feels the presence of an invisible spiritus rector, a central manager who arranges the stage for the different figures in an almost rational way, often in the form of a more or less sentimental drama ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
Each figure has a suggestive name and an admissible character, and they are just as nicely hysterical and just as sentimentally biased as the patient’s own consciousness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 507
The picture of a personality dissociation in schizophrenia is quite different. The split-off figures assume banal, grotesque, or highly exaggerated names and characters, and are often objectionable in many other ways ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
They [the figures] do not, moreover, co-operate with the patient’s consciousness. They are not tactful and they have no respect for sentimental values ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
On the contrary, they [the split-off personalities] break in and make a disturbance at any time, they torment the ego in a hundred ways. All are objectionable and shocking, either in their noisy and impertinent behavior or in their grotesque cruelty and obscenity ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
There is an apparent chaos of incoherent visions, voices, and characters, all of an overwhelmingly strange and incomprehensible nature ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
If there is a drama at all, it is certainly far beyond the patient’s understanding. In most cases it transcends even the physician’s comprehension, so much so that he is inclined to suspect the mental sanity of anybody who sees more than plain madness in the ravings of a lunatic ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 508
The autonomous figures have broken away from the control of the ego so thoroughly that their original participation in the patient’s mental make-up has vanished ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 509
Schizophrenia has a “psychology,” i.e., a psychic causality and finality, just as normal mental life has, though with this important difference: whereas in the healthy person the ego is the subject of his experience, in the schizophrenic the ego is only one of the experiencing subjects. In other words, in schizophrenia the normal subject has split into a plurality of subject, or into plurality of autonomous complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 498
The psychic mechanism that brings about the normal extinction and disintegration of consciousness in sleep is therefore a normal function which almost obeys our will. In schizophrenia it seems as if this function were set in motion in order to bring about that sleep-like condition in which consciousness is reduced to the level of dreams, or, in which dreams are intensified to a degree equalling that of consciousness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 523
The simplest form of schizophrenia, of the splitting of the personality, is paranoia, the classic persecution-mania of the “persécuteur persécuté” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
It consists in a simple doubling of the personality, which in milder cases is still held together by the identity of the two egos ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
The schizophrenic may be pictured as a dreamer who walks about and acts like a person awake ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 174
The patient strikes us at first as completely normal. He may hold office or be in a lucrative positionwe suspect nothing ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
We converse normally with him, and at some point, for example, we let fall the word “Freemason” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
Suddenly the jovial face before us changes, a piercing look full of abysmal mistrust and inhuman fanaticism meets us from his eye. He has become a hunted, dangerous animal, surrounded by invisible enemies: the other ego has risen to the surface ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 499
What has happened? Obviously at some time or other the idea of being a persecuted victim gained the upper hand, became autonomous, and formed a second subject which at times completely replaced the healthy ego ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
It is characteristic that neither of the two subjects can fully experience the other, although the two personalities are not separated by a belt of unconsciousness as they are in an hysterical dissociation of the personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
They know each other intimately, but they have no valid arguments against one another ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
The healthy ego cannot counter the affectivity of the other, for at least half its affectivity has gone over into its opposite number. It is, so to speak, paralysed ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
This is the beginning of that schizophrenic “apathy” which can best be observed in paranoid dementia ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
The patient can assure you with the greatest indifference: “I am the triple owner of the world, the finest Turkey, the Lorelei, Germania and Helvetia of exclusively sweet butter and Naples and I must supply the whole world with macaroni.” All this without a blush, and with no flicker of a smile ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
Here there are countless subjects and no central ego to experience anything and react emotionally ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 500
Anyone who observes himself, carefully and unsparingly, will know that there is something within him which would gladly hide and cover up all that is difficult and questionable in life, in order to smooth a path for itself ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 385
Insanity gives it a free hand. And once it has gained ascendency, reality is veiled, more quickly or less; it becomes a distant dream, but the dream becomes a reality which holds the patient enchained, wholly or in part, often for the rest of his life ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 385
We healthy people, who stand with both feet in reality, see only the ruin of the patient in this world, but not the richness of that side of the psyche which is turned away from us ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 385
Unfortunately only too often no further knowledge reaches us of the things that are being played out on the dark side of the soul [in the insane], because all the bridges have broken down which connect that side with this ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 385
One of them comprises all those forms of illness which are commonly designated “hysterical”; the other all those forms which the French school calls “psychasthenic” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
Although the line of demarcation is rather uncertain, one can mark off two psychological types which in themselves are quite distinct because their psychology is diametrically opposed. I have called these the introverted and extraverted types ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
The hysteric belongs to the extraverted type, the psychasthenic to the introverted type, and so, to the best of our knowledge, does the schizophrenic. The terms introversion and extraversion are dependent on my energic conception of psychic phenomena Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
I postulate a hypothetical, fundamental striving which I call libido ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
In accordance with the classical usage of the word, libido does not have an exclusively sexual connotation as it has in medicine ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
Libido is intended as an energic expression for psychological values ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶ CW3 A psychological value is something that has an effect, hence it can be considered from the energic standpoint without any pretence of exact measurement ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 418
There seems to be a certain intellectual weakness which expresses itself in a tendency to give definitions, though unlike the same tendency in imbeciles it does not strive for generalization but defines the content of the stimulus-words in terms of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
Characteristic is the extraordinary stilted and affected manner of expression, sometimes verging on the incomprehensible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
The clumsy and peculiar-sounding definitions of imbeciles occur at unexpected places which happen to hit the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
In normal people and hysterics we find striking or linguistically odd reactions always at the critical places, and especially words from foreign languages. These correspond here to the neologisms, which are nothing but peculiarly forceful and ponderous expressions of thought-complexes Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
We can also understand why a patient describes her neologisms as “power-words.” Whenever they appear they hint at the whole system hidden behind them, just as technical terms do in normal speech ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
This [the complex] constellates most of the associations and expresses itself above all in the affectation, whose sole purpose is to emphasize the value of the personality. To that extent it is a normal and familiar aid to self-complacency. Here it is exaggerated in accordance with the patient’s morbidly intensified self-esteem ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 211
Hand in hand with the exaggerated affectation go exaggerated ideas of grandeur which, because of their contrast with reality and the affected, barely intelligible way they are expressed have something grotesque about them ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 211
We find this phenomenon in normal people whose self-esteem is at odds with their intelligence and outward situation. In the patient it is primarily a question of exaggeration and the corresponding strong affect it indicates. What exceeds the normal mechanism is the barely intelligible and unadapted manner of expression, which suggests an impairment of the underlying concepts ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 211
The complex of personal grandeur expresses itself also in the patient’s unsuitable demands and wishes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 211
An abaissement can be producedby many causes: by fatigue, normal sleep, intoxication, fever, anaemia, intense affects, shocks, organic diseases of the central nervous system; likewise it can be induced by mass-psychology or a primitive mentality, or by religious and political fanaticism, etc. It can also be caused by constitutional and hereditary factors ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 513
Neuroses are specific consequences of an abaissement; as a rule they arise from a habitual or chronic form of it. Where they appear to be the effect of an acute form, a more or less latent psychological disposition always existed prior to the abaissement, so that the latter is no more than a conditional cause ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 515
The symptoms of Janet’s abaissement du niveau mental are: release of automatisms (thought-deprivation, pathological ideas) and reduction of attention. The consequence of this last is an incapacity for clear ideation. The ideas are indistinct, no proper differentiation takes place, and this leads to numerous confusions, condensations, contaminations, metaphors, etc. The condensations mostly follow the law of similarity of imagery or sound, so that meaningful connections largely disappear ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 300
Hypnosis represses the hysterical complex and leads to the reproduction of the ego-complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
In schizophrenia, when we are not actually dealing with marked excitement accompanied by deep confusion, we often get the impression that the patients are disturbed merely by illusions but that at bottom they are correctly oriented ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
We do not always have this impression in hysteria, though we can see for ourselves that correct orientation does exist by hypnotizing the patient ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
As in hysteria the disorientation is due to a pathogenic complex momentarily pushing aside the ego-complex, so in schizophrenia it may easily happen that quite clear answers are followed the next moment by the most extraordinary utterances ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
Lucidity of consciousness is especially often impaired in the acute stage of the disease, when the patients are in a real dream, i.e., in a “complex-delirium” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
Hallucinations are simply the outward projection of psychic elements. Clinically we know all gradations, from inspirations and pathological ideas to loud auditory hallucinations and vivid visions ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 180
Hallucinations are ubiquitous. Schizophrenia merely sets in motion a preformed mechanism which normally functions in dreams ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 180
The hallucinations of hysteria, like those of dreams, contain symbolically distorted fragments of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 80
If there is a very strong complex, all progress adapted to the environment ceases and the associations revolve entirely round the complex. By and large this is what happens in hysteria, where we find very strong complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 184
The progress of the personality is retarded, and a large part of the psychic activity is expended in varying the complex in all possible ways (symptomatic actions). Not for nothing does Janet call attention to the general disturbances in “obsessed” persons, of which I mention the following: indolence, irresolution, retardation, fatigue, lack of achievement, aboulia, inhibition ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 184
If a complex succeeds in becoming fixed, monotony results, especially monotony of the outward symptoms ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 184
Who does not know the stereotyped, exhausting complaints of hysterics and the stubborn, invincible nature of their symptoms? ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 184
Just as a constant pain will always call forth the same monotonous cries of distress, so a fixed complaint will gradually stereotype the individual’s whole mode of expression, so that in the end we know that day after day we shall receive with mathematical accuracy the same answer to the same question ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 184
There seems to be a certain intellectual weakness which expresses itself in a tendency to give definitions, though unlike the same tendency in imbeciles it does not strive for generalization but defines the content of the stimulus-words in terms of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
Characteristic is the extraordinary stilted and affected manner of expression, sometimes verging on the incomprehensible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
The clumsy and peculiar-sounding definitions of imbeciles occur at unexpected places which happen to hit the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
In normal people and hysterics we find striking or linguistically odd reactions always at the critical places, and especially words from foreign languages. These correspond here to the neologisms, which are nothing but peculiarly forceful and ponderous expressions of thought-complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
We can also understand why a patient describes her neologisms as “power-words.” Whenever they appear they hint at the whole system hidden behind them, just as technical terms do in normal speech ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 208
Among the characterological disturbances in schizophrenia [dementia praecox] we might mention affectation (mannerisms, eccentricity, mania for originality, etc.). We frequently meet this symptom in hysteria, especially when patients find themselves out of their social element ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
A very common form of this affectation is the pretentious and artificial behavior of women of a lower social positiondressmakers, nurses, maids, etc.who mix with those socially above them, and also of men who are dissatisfied with their social status and try to give themselves at least the appearance of a better education or of a more imposing position ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
These complexes are frequently associated with aristocratic airs, literary and philosophic enthusiasms, extravagant, “original” views and utterances ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
They show themselves in exaggerated mannerisms, especially in a choice of language that abounds in bombastic expressions, technical terms, affected turns of speech and high-sounding phrases ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
We find these peculiarities chiefly in those cases of schizophrenia who have the “delirium of social elevation” (Krafft-Ebing) in some form or other ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para154
The affectation, in itself, contains nothing specific of schizophrenia. The disease takes over the mechanism from the normal, or rather from the caricature of the normal, hysteria ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
Such patients have a special predilection for neologisms, which they used mostly as learned or otherwise distinguished-sounding technical terms ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
One of my women patients called them “power-words,” and showed a special liking for the most abstruse expressions, which obviously seemed to her fraught with meaning ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The “power-words” serve among other things to emphasize the personality and to make it as imposing as possible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The emphasis laid on “power-words” accentuates the value of the personality in the face of doubt and hostility, and for this reason they are frequently used as defensive and exorcistic formulae ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
A schizophrenic patient under my care, if the doctors refused him anything, used to threaten them with the words: “I, the Grand Duke Mephisto, shall have you treated with blood vengeance for orangutan representations” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The affectation also expresses itself in gesture and handwriting, the latter being adorned with all kinds of peculiar flourishes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
Normal analogies can be found in young girls who, out of caprice, affect an especially striking or original script ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
Schizophrenic patients frequently have a characteristic handwriting: it expresses the contradictory tendencies in their psyche, the script being now sloping and cursive, now upright, now large, now small ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
The same thing can be seen in temperamental hysterics, and it is often easy to show that the change in writing begins at the place where the complex is touched. Even with normal people one can often see disturbances at such places ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
Hypnosis represses the hysterical complex and leads to the reproduction of the ego-complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
In schizophrenia, when we are not actually dealing with marked excitement accompanied by deep confusion, we often get the impression that the patients are disturbed merely by illusions but that at bottom they are correctly oriented ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
We do not always have this impression in hysteria, though we can see for ourselves that correct orientation does exist by hypnotizing the patient ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
As in hysteria the disorientation is due to a pathogenic complex momentarily pushing aside the ego-complex, so in schizophrenia it may easily happen that quite clear answers are followed the next moment by the most extraordinary utterances ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
Lucidity of consciousness is especially often impaired in the acute stage of the disease, when the patients are in a real dream, i.e., in a “complex-delirium” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 163
A strong complex, for instance, a nagging worry hinders concentration. We are unable to tear ourselves away from it and direct our activity and interest into other channels ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Or if we try to tear ourselves away in order to “forget our worries,” we succeed perhaps for a short time but we do it only “half-heartedly”. Without our knowing it, the complex prevents us from giving ourselves wholly to the task in hand ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We succumb to all kinds of inhibitions. In the pauses of thought (“thought-deprivation”) fragments of the complex appear and, as in the word association experiment, cause characteristic disturbances in the intellectual performance ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We make slips of the pen in accordance with the rules of Meringer and Mayer, we produce condensations, perseverations, anticipations, etc., and Freudian errors which reveal by their content the determining complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Our slips of the tongue occur at the critical places, that is, when we say words that have a significance for the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We make mistakes in reading because we think we see the complex-words in the text where frequently these words appear in the peripheral field of vision (Bleuler) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
In the midst of our “distracting” occupations we catch ourselves singing or whistling a certain melody. The words, which we have great difficulty in remembering, are a complex constellation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We may be haunted all day by an obsession, by a melody or a word that is always on the tip of our tongue. These too are complex constellations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Or we make doodles on paper or on the table which are not difficult to interpret in terms of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Wherever the disturbances caused by the complex express themselves in words we find displacements by clang similarities or by combinations of phrases ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Melodic automatisms show us once again how repressed thoughts are disguised ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 117
We know that singing and whistling often accompany activities which do not require full “investment of attention” (Freud) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 117
The residual attention is therefore relating to the complex, but the purposive activity prevents the complex from becoming clear, it can only show itself instinctively, as for instance in the melodic automatisms that contain the thought complex in the usual metaphorical form ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 117
Every affective event becomes a complex. If it [an affective event] does not encounter a related and already existing complex and is only of momentary significance, it gradually sinks with decreasing feeling-tone into the latent mass of memories, where it remains until a related impression reproduces it again ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
But if it [the affective event] encounters an already existing complex, it reinforces it and helps it to gain the upper hand for awhile ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
The clearest examples of this can be seen in hysteria, where apparent trifles may lead to tremendous outbursts of affect. In such cases the impression has impinged, either directly or symbolically, on the insufficiently repressed complex and thereby evoked a veritable storm, which considering the insignificance of the event often seems altogether disproportionate ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
We also find that the strongest feelings and impulses are connected with the strongest complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
It is therefore not surprising that the majority of complexes are of an erotic-sexual nature, as also are most dreams and most of the hysterias ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
Every affective event becomes a complex. If it [an affective event] does not encounter a related and already existing complex and is only of momentary significance, it gradually sinks with decreasing feeling-tone into the latent mass of memories, where it remains until a related impression reproduces it again ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
But if it [the affective event] encounters an already existing complex, it reinforces it and helps it to gain the upper hand for awhile ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
The clearest examples of this can be seen in hysteria, where apparent trifles may lead to tremendous outbursts of affect. In such cases the impression has impinged, either directly or symbolically, on the insufficiently repressed complex and thereby evoked a veritable storm, which considering the insignificance of the event often seems altogether disproportionate ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
We also find that the strongest feelings and impulses are connected with the strongest complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
It is therefore not surprising that the majority of complexes are of an erotic-sexual nature, as also are most dreams and most of the hysterias ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 140
Among the characterological disturbances in schizophrenia [dementia praecox] we might mention affectation (mannerisms, eccentricity, mania for originality, etc.). We frequently meet this symptom in hysteria, especially when patients find themselves out of their social element ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
A very common form of this affectation is the pretentious and artificial behavior of women of a lower social positiondressmakers, nurses, maids, etc.who mix with those socially above them, and also of men who are dissatisfied with their social status and try to give themselves at least the appearance of a better education or of a more imposing position ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
These complexes are frequently associated with aristocratic airs, literary and philosophic enthusiasms, extravagant, “original” views and utterances ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
They show themselves in exaggerated mannerisms, especially in a choice of language that abounds in bombastic expressions, technical terms, affected turns of speech and high-sounding phrases ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 154
The affectation, in itself, contains nothing specific of schizophrenia. The disease takes over the mechanism from the normal, or rather from the caricature of the normal, hysteria ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
Such patients have a special predilection for neologisms, which they used mostly as learned or otherwise distinguished-sounding technical terms ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
One of my women patients called them “power-words,” and showed a special liking for the most abstruse expressions, which obviously seemed to her fraught with meaning ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The “power-words” serve among other things to emphasize the personality and to make it as imposing as possible ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The emphasis laid on “power-words” accentuates the value of the personality in the face of doubt and hostility, and for this reason they are frequently used as defensive and exorcistic formulae ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
A schizophrenic patient under my care, if the doctors refused him anything, used to threaten them with the words: “I, the Grand Duke Mephisto, shall have you treated with blood vengeance for orangutan representations” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 155
The affectation also expresses itself in gesture and handwriting, the latter being adorned with all kinds of peculiar flourishes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
Schizophrenic patients frequently have a characteristic handwriting: it expresses the contradictory tendencies in their psyche, the script being now sloping and cursive, now upright, now large, now small ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
The same thing can be seen in temperamental hysterics, and it is often easy to show that the change in writing begins at the place where the complex is touched. Even with normal people one can often see disturbances at such places ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 156
Since, for many people, the sexual complex cannot be acted out in a natural way, it makes use of by-ways ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
During puberty it takes the form of more or less abnormal sexual fantasies, frequently alternating with phases of religious enthusiasm (displacements) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
In men, sexuality, if not acted out directly, is frequently converted into a feverish professional activity or a passion for dangerous sports, etc., or into some learned hobby, such as a collecting mania ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Women take up some kind of philanthropic work, which is usually determined by the special form of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
They devote themselves to nursing in hospitals where there are young assistant physicians, or they develop strange eccentricities, a prim, affected behavior which is meant to express distinction and proud resignation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Artistic natures in particular are wont to benefit by such displacements ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
There is, however, one very common displacement, and that is the disguising of a complex by the superimposition of a contrasting mood ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
We frequently meet this phenomenon in people who have to banish some chronic worry ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Among these people we often find the best wits, the finest humorists, whose jokes however are spiced with a grain of bitterness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Others hide their pain under forced, convulsive cheerfulness, which because of its noisiness and artificiality (“lack of affect”) makes everybody uncomfortable ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Women betray themselves by a shrill, aggressive gaiety, men by sudden alcoholic and other excesses (also fugues) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶105
These displacements and disguises may, as we know, produce real double personalities, such as have always excited the interest of psychological writers (cf. the recurrent problem in Goethe of “two souls,” and among the moderns Hermann Bahr, Gorky, and others) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
“Double personality” is not just a literary phrase, it is a scientific fact of general interest to psychology and psychiatry, especially when it manifests itself in the form of double consciousness or dissociation of the personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
The split-off complexes are always distinguished by peculiarities of mood and character, as Jung has shown in a case of this kind ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
It sometimes happens that the displacement gradually becomes stable andsuperficially at leastreplaces the original character ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
Everyone knows people who, judged externally, are enormously gay and entertaining. Inwardly, and sometimes even in private life, they are sullen grumblers nursing an old wound ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
Often their [the grumbler’s] true nature suddenly bursts through the artificial covering, the assumed blithesomeness vanishes at a stroke, and we are confronted with a different person ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
A single word, a gesture, if it touches the sore spot, reveals the complex lurking in the depths of the psyche ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
A strong complex, for instance, a nagging worry hinders concentration. We are unable to tear ourselves away from it and direct our activity and interest into other channels ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Or if we try to tear ourselves away in order to “forget our worries,” we succeed perhaps for a short time but we do it only “half-heartedly”. Without our knowing it, the complex prevents us from giving ourselves wholly to the task in hand ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We succumb to all kinds of inhibitions. In the pauses of thought (“thought-deprivation”) fragments of the complex appear and, as in the word association experiment, cause characteristic disturbances in the intellectual performance ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We make slips of the pen in accordance with the rules of Meringer and Mayer, we produce condensations, perseverations, anticipations, etc., and Freudian errors which reveal by their content the determining complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Our slips of the tongue occur at the critical places, that is, when we say words that have a significance for the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
In the midst of our “distracting” occupations we catch ourselves singing or whistling a certain melody. The words, which we have great difficulty in remembering, are a complex constellation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Or we keep on murmuring a word, frequently a technical term or a foreign word, which likewise refers to the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
We may be haunted all day by an obsession, by a melody or a word that is always on the tip of our tongue. These too are complex constellations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Wherever the disturbances caused by the complex express themselves in words we find displacements by clang similarities or by combinations of phrases ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 109
Melodic automatisms show us once again how repressed thoughts are disguised ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 117
The residual attention is therefore relating to the complex, but the purposive activity prevents the complex from becoming clear, it can only show itself instinctively, as for instance in the melodic automatisms that contain the thought complex in the usual metaphorical form ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 117
Besides this special form of sexual complex, which I have chosen as a paradigm for didactic reasons, since it is the commonest and best-known form of obsessional complex, there are naturally many other kinds of sexual complexes which can exert an equally strong influence ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶ Among women the complexes of unrequited or otherwise hopeless love are very common ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
Here we find an exceedingly strong complex-sensitiveness. The slightest hint from the other sex is assimilated to the complex and elaborated with complete blindness for even the weightiest arguments to the contrary ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶104
An insignificant remark of the adored is construed as a powerful subjective proof of his love. The chance interests of the intended become the starting-point for similar interests on the woman’s parta symptomatic action which rapidly disappears when the wedding finally takes place or if the object of adoration changes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
The complex-sensitiveness also shows itself in an unusual sensitiveness to sexual stimuli, which appears particularly in the form of prudery ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
Those obsessed by the complex ostentatiously avoid in their younger years everything that could remind them of sexthe well-known “innocence” of grown-up daughters ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
Although they know where everything is and what it means, their whole behavior gives the impression that they never had an inkling of things sexual ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
If one has to inquire into these matters for medical reasons, one thinks at first that one is on virgin soil, but one soon finds that all the necessary knowledge is there, except that the patient does not know where she got it from ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
In later years the prudery often becomes unbearable, or the patient displays a naïve symptomatic interest in all sorts of natural situations in which one “may now take an interest because one is past the age” and so on ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
The objects of this symptomatic interest are brides, pregnancies, births, scandals, and so on ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
The fine nose of elderly ladies for these matters is proverbial. They are passed off as “objective, purely human interest” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 104
Since, for many people, the sexual complex cannot be acted out in a natural way, it makes use of by-ways ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
During puberty it takes the form of more or less abnormal sexual fantasies, frequently alternating with phases of religious enthusiasm (displacements) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
In men, sexuality, if not acted out directly, is frequently converted into a feverish professional activity or a passion for dangerous sports, etc., or into some learned hobby, such as a collecting mania ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Women take up some kind of philanthropic work, which is usually determined by the special form of the complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
They devote themselves to nursing in hospitals where there are young assistant physicians, or they develop strange eccentricities, a prim, affected behavior which is meant to express distinction and proud resignation ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Artistic natures in particular are wont to benefit by such displacements ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
There is, however, one very common displacement, and that is the disguising of a complex by the superimposition of a contrasting mood ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
We frequently meet this phenomenon in people who have to banish some chronic worry ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Among these people we often find the best wits, the finest humorists, whose jokes however are spiced with a grain of bitterness ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Others hide their pain under forced, convulsive cheerfulness, which because of its noisiness and artificiality (“lack of affect”) makes everybody uncomfortable ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
Women betray themselves by a shrill, aggressive gaiety, men by sudden alcoholic and other excesses (also fugues) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
These displacements and disguises may, as we know, produce real double personalities, such as have always excited the interest of psychological writers (cf. the recurrent problem in Goethe of “two souls,” and among the moderns Hermann Bahr, Gorky, and others) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
“Double personality” is not just a literary phrase, it is a scientific fact of general interest to psychology and psychiatry, especially when it manifests itself in the form of double consciousness or dissociation of the personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
The split-off complexes are always distinguished by peculiarities of mood and character, as Jung has shown in a case of this kind ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 105
It sometimes happens that the displacement gradually becomes stable andsuperficially at leastreplaces the original character ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
Everyone knows people who, judged externally, are enormously gay and entertaining. Inwardly, and sometimes even in private life, they are sullen grumblers nursing an old wound ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
Often their [the grumbler’s] true nature suddenly bursts through the artificial covering, the assumed blithesomeness vanishes at a stroke, and we are confronted with a different person ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
A single word, a gesture, if it touches the sore spot, reveals the complex lurking in the depths of the psyche ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 106
The first group is best illustrated by the legend of Ramón Lully, who, as a gallant adventurer, had long courted a lady. Finally the longed-for billet arrived, inviting him to a midnight assignation. Lully, full of expectation, came to the appointed place, and as he approached the lady, who was awaiting him, she suddenly threw open her robe and uncovered her cancer-eaten bosom. This episode made such an impression on Lully that from then on he devoted his life to pious asceticism ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 89
There are impressions which last a lifetime. The lasting effects of strong religious impressions or of shattering experiences, which are well known ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
The effects are particularly strong in youth. Indeed, the whole aim of education is to implant lasting complexes in the child ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
The durability of a complex is guaranteed by its continually active feeling-tone. If the feeling-tone is extinguished, the complex is extinguished with it ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
The persistence of a feeling-tone complex naturally has the same constellating effect on the rest of the psychic activities as an acute affect. Whatever suits the complex is assimilated, everything else is excluded or at least inhibited. The best examples of this can be seen in religious convictions ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
There is no argument, no matter how threadbare, that is not advanced if it is pro, while on the other hand the strongest and most plausible arguments contra make no impression; they simply bounce off, because emotional inhibitions are stronger than all logic ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
Even in quite intelligent people who have considerable education and experience, one can sometimes observe a real blindness, a true systematic anaesthesia, when one tires to convince them, say of the theory of determinism. And how often does a single unpleasant impression produce in some people an unshakable false judgment, which no logic, no matter how cogent, can dislodge! ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 90
The effects of the complex extend, however, not only to thought but to action, which is continually forced in a quite definite direction ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 91
For instance, many people unthinkingly perform religious rites and all kinds of groundless actions despite the fact that intellectually they have long since out grown them ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 91
The second group of chronic effects of the complex, where the feeling-tone is constantly maintained by active stimuli, affords the best examples of complex constellations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 92
The strongest and most lasting effects are seen above all in sexual complexes, where the feeling-tone is constantly maintained, for instance by unsatisfied sexual desire ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 92
A glance at the legends of the saints, or at Zola’s novels Lourdes or The Dream, will provide numerous examples of this. Yet the constellations are not always quite so crude and obvious, often they are more subtle influences, masked by symbolisms, that sway our thoughts and actions ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 92
Complexes are mostly in a state of repression because they are concerned as a rule with the most intimate secrets which are anxiously guarded and which the subject either will not or cannot divulge ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 93
Even under normal conditions the repression may be so strong that the subject has an hysterical amnesia for the complex. That is, he has the feeling that some idea, some significant association, is coming up, but a vague hesitation keeps the reproduction back. He feels he wants to say something, but it slips away again immediately. What has slipped away is the thought-complex ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 93
The most trivial objects are guarded like priceless jewels, so far as they relate to the complex; his whole environment is viewed sub specie amoris ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 102
Anything that does not suit the complex simply glances off, all the other interests sink to nothing, there is a standstill and temporary atrophy of the personality ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 102
Only what suits the complex arouses affects and is assimilated by the psyche. All thoughts and actions tend in the direction of the complex; whatever cannot be constrained in the direction is repudiated, or is performed perfunctorily without emotion and without care ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 102
In attending to indifferent matters the most extraordinary compromise formations are produced; slips of the pen referring to the erotic complex creep into business letters, suspicious slips of the tongue occur in speaking ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 102
The flow of objective thought is constantly interrupted by invasions from the complex, there are long gaps in one’s thought which are filled out with erotic episodes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 102
The foregoing well-known paradigm [paragraph “s” above] shows clearly the effect of a strong complex on a normal psyche. We see how the psychic energy applies itself wholly to the complex at the expense of the other psychic material, which in consequence remains unused. All stimuli that do not suit the complex undergo a partial apperceptive degeneration with emotional impoverishment ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 103
Even the feeling-tone becomes inappropriate: trifles such as ribbons, pressed flowers, snapshots, billets doux, a lock of hair, etc., are cherished with the greatest care, while vital questions are often dismissed with a smile or with complete indifference ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 103
On the other hand the slightest remark even remotely touching on the complex instantly arouses a violent outburst of anger or pain which may assume pathological proportions ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 103
If we had no means of feeling our way into the psyche of a normal person in love, his behavior would seem to us that of an hysteric or a catatonic ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 103
In hysteria, where the complex-sensitiveness is far greater than normal, we have almost no means of feeling our way, and must laboriously accustom ourselves to intuiting the meaning of the hysterical affects. This is quite impossible in catatonia, perhaps because we still know too little about hysteria ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 103
Every molecule participated in this feeling-tone, so that, whether it appears by itself or in conjunction with others, it always carries this feeling-tone with it, and it does this with the greater distinctness the more distinctly we can see its connection with the complex-situation as a whole ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 80
This behavior may be compared directly to Wagnerian music. The leitmotiv, as a sort of feel-tone, denotes a complex of ideas which is essential to the dramatic structure ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 80
Each time one or the other complex is stimulated by something someone does or says, the relevant leitmotiv is sounded in one of its variants ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 80
It is exactly the same in ordinary psychic life: the leitmotivs are the feeling-tones of our complexes, our actions and moods are modulations of the leitmotivs ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 80
Large complexes are always strongly feeling-toned and, conversely, strong affects always leave behind very large complexes ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 87
This is due simply to the fact that on the one hand complexes include numerous somatic innervations, while on the other hand strong affects constellate a great many associations because of their powerful and persistent stimulation of the body ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para ¶ CW3 ¶ 87
Normally, affects can go on working indefinitely (in the form of stomach and heart troubles, insomnia, tremors, etc.) Gradually, however, they subside, the ideas relating to the complex disappear from consciousness, and only in dreams do they occasionally manifest themselves in more or less disguised hints ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 87
But complexes continue to show themselves for years in the characteristic disturbances they produce in a person’s associations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 87
Their gradual extinction is marked by one general psychological peculiarity: their readiness to reappear in almost full strength as a result of similar though much weaker stimuli ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 87
It is certain that the symptoms of negativism should not be regarded as anything clear and definite ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
In our view, negativism always depends ultimately on negative associations. Whether there is also a negativism that is enacted in the spinal cord I do not know ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
The broadest view on the question of negativism is the one taken by Bleuler, who shows that “negative suggestibility,” or the compulsion to produce contrary associations, is not only a constituent of the normal psyche but a frequent mechanism of pathological symptoms in hysteria, obsessional states, and schizophrenia [dementia praecox] ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
The contrary mechanism is a function existing independently of the normal associative activity and is rooted entirely in “affectivity”, hence it is actuated chiefly by strongly feeling-toned ideas, decisions, etc. ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
“The mechanism is meant to guard against precipitate action and to force one to weigh the pros and cons.” The contrary mechanism acts as a counterbalance to suggestibility ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
Suggestibility is the capacity to accept and put into effect strongly feeling-toned ideas. The contrary mechanism does just the opposite. Bleuler’s term “negative suggestibility” is therefore fitting ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 27
Pelletier compares the superficial course of association in schizophrenia [dementia praecox] to flight of ideas ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
Characteristic of flight of ideas is the “absence of any directing principle” ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
The same is true of the course of association in schizophrenia [dementia praecox]: The directing idea is absent and the state of consciousness remains vague without any order in its elements ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
The only mode of psychic activity which in the normal state can be compared to mania is the daydream, although daydreaming is more the mode of thinking of the feeble-minded than of the manic ( Madeleine Pelletier, pp. 116, 123, 118 ) ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
Pelletier is right in seeing a great resemblance between normal daydreaming and the superficial associations of manics, but that is true only when the associations are written down on paper ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
Clinically, however, the manic does not at all resemble a dreamer ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
The richness and acceleration of thought in manic flight of ideas can be sharply differentiated from the sluggish, often halting course of association in the dreamy type, and particularly from the poverty of associations in catatonics, with their numerous perseverations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
The analogy is correct only in so far as the directing idea is absent in all these cases; in manics because all the ideas crowd into consciousness with marked acceleration and great intensity of feeling, which probably accounts for the absence of attention ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
In daydreaming there is no attention from the outset, and wherever this is absent the course of association must sink to the level of a dream-state, to a slow progression according to the laws of association and tending mainly towards similarity, contrast, coexistence, and verbal-motor combinations ~Carl Jung, CW3, Para 22
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
