Carl Jung and the Basel Seminar – Quotations
Carl Jung: Basel Seminar.
“Love thy neighbour” is wonderful, since we then have nothing to do about ourselves; but when it is a question of “love thy neighbour as thyself” we are no longer so sure, for we think it would be egoism to love ourselves. There was no need to preach “love thyself” to people in olden times, because they did so as a matter of course.
But how is it nowadays? It would do us good to take this thing somewhat to heart, especially the phrase “as thyself.” How can I love my neighbour if I do not love myself? How can we be altruistic if we do not treat ourselves decently? But if we treat ourselves decently, if we love ourselves, we make discoveries, and then we see what we are and what we should love. There is nothing for it but to put our foot into the serpent’s mouth. He who cannot love can never transform the serpent, and then nothing is changed. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 87
Why is psychology the youngest of the empirical sciences? Why have we not long since discovered the unconscious and raised up its treasure-house of eternal images? Simply because we had a religious formula for everything psychic — and one that is far more beautiful and comprehensive than immediate experience.
Though the Christian view of the world has paled for many people, the symbolic treasure rooms of the East are still full of marvels that can nourish for a long time to come the passion for show and new clothes. What is more, these images—be they Christian or Buddhist or what you will—are lovely, mysterious, richly intuitive. Naturally, the more familiar we are with them the more does constant usage polish them smooth, so that what remains is only banal superficiality and meaningless paradox. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 11.
I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice. And thus, from so-called goodness, which was once really good, something has arisen which is no longer good; it has become an evasion. Nowadays any coward can make himself respectable by going to church and loving his neighbour. But it is simply an untrue state, an artificial world. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 88
What is a problem of the present day? If we speak of a general problem nowadays, it is because it exists in the heads of many people. These individuals are somehow chosen by fate and destined by their own natures to suffer under a collectively unsatisfactory condition and to make it a problem. Therefore it is always single individuals who are moved by the collective problem and who are called upon to respond and contribute to its solution by tackling it in their own lives and not running away from it. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 86
When we say “the animal in man,” this always strikes us as something horrible. But this animal in man is not horrible, no more than animals are horrible, for they fulfil God’s will most faithfully; they live to fulfil their Creator’s purpose. We do not do this. We meddle with the work of the Creator, for we always want to be something different from what we are. Our ambition is not to be the whole of ourselves, for that would be unpleasant. But the animals are themselves and they fulfil the will of God that is within them in a true and faithful manner. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 87
We always think that Christianity consists in a particular confession of faith and in belonging to a Church. No, Christianity is our world. Everything we think is the fruit of the Middle Ages and indeed of the Christian Middle Ages. Our whole science, everything that passes through our head, has inevitably gone through this history. It lives in us and has left its stamp upon us for all time and will always form a vital layer of our psyche, just like the phylogenetic traces in our body.
The whole character of our mentality, the way we look at things, is also the result of the Christian Middle Ages; whether we know it or not is quite immaterial. The age of rational enlightenment has eradicated nothing. Even our method of rational enlightenment is Christian. The Christian Weltanschauung is therefore a psychological fact that does not allow of any further rationalization; it is something that has happened, that is present. We are inevitably stamped as Christians, but we are also stamped by what existed before Christianity. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 84
All of us who have had a religious education are deeply impressed by the idea that Christianity entered into history without an historical past, like a stroke of lightning out of a clear sky. This attitude was necessary, but I am convinced it is not true. Everything has its history, everything has “grown,” and Christianity, which is supposed to have appeared suddenly as a unique revelation from heaven, undoubtedly also has its history. Moreover, how it began is as clear as daylight.
I need not speak of the rites of the Mass and certain peculiarities of the priests’ clothing which are borrowed from pagan times, for the fundamental ideas of the Christian Church also have their predecessors.
But a break in continuity has occurred because we are all overcome by the impression of the uniqueness of Christianity. It is exactly as if we had built a cathedral over a pagan temple and no longer knew that it is still there underneath. The result is that the inner correspondence with the outer God-image is undeveloped through lack of psychic culture and has remained stuck in paganism. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 84
Therefore it is always single individuals who are moved by the collective problem and who are called upon to respond and contribute to its solution by tackling it in their own lives and not running away from it. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 86
How can I love my neighbour if I do not love myself? How can we be altruistic if we do not treat ourselves decently? But if we treat ourselves decently, if we love ourselves, we make discoveries, and then we see what we are and what we should love. There is nothing for it but to put our foot into the serpent’s mouth. He who cannot love can never transform the serpent, and then nothing is changed. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 87
What is more, these images—be they Christian or Buddhist or what you will—are lovely, mysterious, richly intuitive. Naturally, the more familiar we are with them the more does constant usage polish them smooth, so that what remains is only banal superficiality and meaningless paradox. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 11
If one reflects upon what consciousness really is, one is deeply impressed by the extremely wonderful fact that an event which occurs outside in the cosmos produces simultaneously an inner image. Thus it also occurs within; in other words, it becomes conscious. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para i
Since the differentiated consciousness of civilized man has been granted an effective instrument for the practical realization of its contents through the dynamics of his will, there is all the more danger, the more he trains his will, of his getting lost in one-sidedness and deviating further and further from the laws and roots of his being. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 276
And thus, from so-called goodness, which was once really good, something has arisen which is no longer good; it has become an evasion. Nowadays any coward can make himself respectable by going to church and loving his neighbour. But it is simply an untrue state, an artificial world. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 88
Therefore it is always single individuals who are moved by the collective problem and who are called upon to respond and contribute to its solution by tackling it in their own lives and not running away from it. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 86
We meddle with the work of the Creator, for we always want to be something different from what we are. Our ambition is not to be the whole of ourselves, for that would be unpleasant. But the animals are themselves and they fulfil the will of God that is within them in a true and faithful manner. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 87
The Christian Weltanschauung is therefore a psychological fact that does not allow of any further rationalization; it is something that has happened, that is present. We are inevitably stamped as Christians, but we are also stamped by what existed before Christianity. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 84
It is exactly as if we had built a cathedral over a pagan temple and no longer knew that it is still there underneath. The result is that the inner correspondence with the outer God-image is undeveloped through lack of psychic culture and has remained stuck in paganism. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 84
Why have we not long since discovered the unconscious and raised up its treasure-house of eternal images? ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 11
He who cannot love can never transform the serpent, and then nothing is changed. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 87
If one reflects upon what consciousness really is, one is deeply impressed by the extremely wonderful fact that an event which occurs outside in the cosmos produces simultaneously an inner image. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para i
Therefore it is always single individuals who are moved by the collective problem and who are called upon to respond and contribute to its solution by tackling it in their own lives and not running away from it. ~Carl Jung, Basel Seminar, Para 86
