Carl Jung on Neurosis. [Anthology]
The psychological trouble in neurosis, and the neurosis itself, can be formulated as an act of adaptation that has failed. ~Carl Jung; CW 4; par. 574.
An exclusively sexual interpretation of dreams and fantasies is a shocking violation of the patient’s psychological material: infantile-sexual fantasy is by no means the whole story, since the material also contains a creative element, the purpose of which is to shape a way out of the neurosis. ~Carl Jung; “The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction,” CW 16, par. 277.
In [the Middle Ages] they spoke of the devil, today we call it a neurosis. ~Carl Jung; “The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man”, 1933.
What we call civilized consciousness has steadily separated itself from the basic instincts. But these instincts have not disappeared. They have merely lost their contact with our consciousness and are thus forced to assert themselves in an indirect fashion. This may be . . . physical symptoms . . . neurosis . . . various incidents . . . moods . . . unexpected forgetfulness . . . or mistakes of speech. ~Carl Jung; Man and His Symbols; Page 72
Neurosis is an inner cleavage-the state of being at war with one- self. … What drives people to war with themselves is the intuition or the knowledge that they consist of two persons in opposition to one another. ~Carl Jung; Modern Man in Search of a Soul
We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior man with his desires and emotions, and it is only with an enormous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If it comes to a neurosis, we invariably have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together. ~Carl Jung; Answer to Job; CW 11; Psychology and Religion: West and East; Page 1.
After the disgraceful defection of Adler, a gifted thinker but a malicious paranoiac, I am now in trouble with our friend, Jung, who apparently has not outgrown his own neurosis.” ~Sigmund Freud to James Jackson Putnam, 20Aug1912.
After the disgraceful defection of Adler, a gifted thinker but a malicious paranoiac, I am now in trouble with our friend, Jung, who apparently has not outgrown his own neurosis.” ~Sigmund Freud to James Jackson Putnam, 20Aug1912.
Doubt is creative if it is answered by deeds, and so is neurosis if it exonerates itself as having been a phase—a crisis which is pathological only when chronic. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 332-334
Neurosis is a justified doubt in oneself and continually poses the ultimate question of trust in man and in God. Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 332-334
Inferiority is laming and so leads to a neurosis or even a psychosis. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Vol. 2, Page 151.
Ad ”neurosis”: I mean, of course, that it is as a rule better to leave neurotics to themselves as long as they do not suffer and seek health. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 479-481.
We constantly forget how far we have got from our own inner law and this revenges itself upon us with a neurosis, or digestive disturbances, which should make clear to us that “we have made out the bill without the host”.
It is only possible to live as we should if we live according to our own nature. But in these days we live by our brains alone and ignore the very definite laws of our body and the instinctive world. We damage ourselves severely when we offend against these, and this is what our patient has done in her efforts to live rationally. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Page 219.
It seems to me that the basic facts of the psyche undergo a very marked alteration in the course of life, so much so that we could almost speak of a psychology of life’s morning and a psychology of its afternoon.
As a rule, the life of a young person is characterized by a general expansion and a striving towards concrete ends; and his neurosis seems mainly to rest on his hesitation or shrinking back from this necessity. But the life of an older person is characterized by a contraction of forces, by the affirmation of what has been achieved, and by the curtailment of further growth. His neurosis comes mainly from his clinging to a youthful attitude which is now out of season…. ~Carl Jung, CW 16, ¶75.
The classic compulsion neurosis is an exception in that it is always due to a latent psychosis, which is also the reason why it is uncurable. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 299.
Like neurosis, psychosis in its inner course is a process of individuation, but one that is usually not joined up with consciousness and therefore runs its course in the unconscious as an Ouroboros. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 371.
These things are then lost to consciousness, and must be found again in the course of life, at the cost of infinite effort, if God is kind enough to send us a neurosis (that special gift of grace) to accompany us on life’s journey. ~Carl Jung, ETH, Lecture XIV, Page 119.
But we spend our free time listening to the wireless and rushing off to the cinema. Yet much of our western neurosis comes from the fact that we do not find enough time for ourselves; it would be wiser to meditate and seek the Void when we need rest, than to run after outer distraction. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 128.
Behind a neurosis there is so often concealed all the natural and necessary suffering the patient has been unwilling to bear. We can see this most clearly from hysterical pains, which are relieved in the course of treatment by the corresponding psychic suffering which the patient sought to avoid. ~Carl Jung, CW 16, Para 185.
Even when we recognise that an erotic problem lies behind a neurosis we must not express it crudely lest we frighten the patient away. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 14.
Too much secrecy causes neurosis and a split from reality, but having no mystery permits only collective thinking and Action. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 14.
If the unconscious does not cooperate, if, that is, there are no dreams or fantasies, then it is very difficult to deal with a neurosis. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 15.
You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 377.
In any case of a child’s neurosis, I go back to the parents and see what is going on there, because children have no psychology of their own, literally taken. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 13.
You see, the neurosis is made every day by the wrong attitude the individual has. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 27.
About a third of my cases are not suffering from any clearly definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and aimlessness of their lives. I should not object if this were called the general neurosis of our age. ~Carl Jung, CW XVI, Par 83.
