The Party and the State.
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
To Heinz Westmann
Dear Mr. Westmann, 12 July 1947
Best thanks for your letter and your news about the Present Question Conference.
The theme is indeed very interesting: “What is the critical problem in human relationships today?”
Human relationships today are threatened by collective systems, quite apart from the fact that they are still, or always were, in a dubious and unsatisfactory condition.
The collective systems, styled “party” or “State,” have a destructive effect on human relationships.
And they can easily be destroyed, too, because individuals are still in a condition of unconsciousness which cannot cope with the tremendous growth and fusion of the masses.
As yon know, the main endeavour of all totalitarian States is to undermine personal relationships through fear and mistrust, the result being an atomized mass in which the human
psyche is completely stifled.
Even the relation between parents and children, the closest and most natural of all, is torn asunder by the State.
All big organizations that pursue exclusively materialistic aims are the pacemakers of mass-mindedness.
The sole possibility of stopping this is the development of consciousness in the single individual, who thereby is rendered immune to the lure of collective organizations.
This alone keeps his soul alive, for its life depends on the human relationship.
The accent must fall on conscious personalization and not on State organization.
The latter inevitably leads to the blight of totalitarianism.
In this sense I wish your undertaking every success.
I am writing you this instead of a special greeting and leave it to you to make what use you will of this letter.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 472.