Carl Jung Foreword to God and the Unconscious – Quotations
In the fifty years of pioneer work which now lie behind me I have experienced criticism, just and unjust, in such abundance, that I know how to value every attempt at positive co-operation. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 13
Neurosis is no isolated, sharply defined phenomenon, it Is a reaction of the whole human being. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 13
The indubitable occurrence of archetypal motifs in dreams makes a thorough knowledge of the spiritual history of man indispensable for anyone making a serious attempt to understand dreams. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 14
But whereas the mythological figures appear as pale phantoms and relics of a long past age which has become strange to us, the religious statement represents an immediate ‘numinous’ experience. It is a living mythologem.one making a serious attempt to understand dreams. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 14
Scientific materialism is by no means a private religious or philosophical concern, but a matter of collective importance, as we might well have realized from contemporary history. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 15
Just as the sick person in his individual distinctiveness must find a modus vivendi with society, it will be his urgent task to compare the views which he has acquired through exploring the unconscious with the general truths and to bring them into a mutual relation. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 16
Apart from doctors, they are the only people who are professionally concerned with the human soul, with the exception perhaps of teachers. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 17
Surely it would be valuable for the theologian to know what is happening in the psyche of the adult; and it must gradually be dawning on any responsible doctor what an incredibly important role the spiritual atmosphere plays in the psychic economy. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 17
It is true that I have often been accused of merely dreaming of archetypes. I must, however, remind these too hasty critics that a comparative study of motifs existed long before I ever mentioned archetypes. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 17
The fact that archetypal motifs occur in the psyche of people who have never heard of mythology is common knowledge to anyone who has investigated the structure of schizophrenic delusions, if his eyes have not already been opened in this respect by the universal dissemination of certain mythologems. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 17-18
I must be content to describe the standpoint, the faith, the struggle, hope and devotion of the empiricist, which together culminate in the discovery and verification of provable facts and their hypothetical interpretation. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 18
The fact that the psyche is no tabula rasa, but brings with it just as instinctive conditions as the somatic life, naturally does not at all suit a Marxist philosophy. True the psyche can be crippled just like the body. But such a prospect would not be pleasing even to Marxism. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 18 fn 1
A recent suggestion that evil should be looked upon as a ‘decomposition’ of good does not alter this in the least. A rotten egg is unfortunately just as real as a fresh one. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 19 fn 1
In other words, there might be a pre-conscious psychic tendency which, independently of time and place, continually causes similar statements, as in the case of mythologems, folklore motifs and the individual production of symbols. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 20
Clear-cut moral distinctions are unless I am mistaken recent acquisitions of civilized man. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 20
In reality, however, the Individuation process is a biological fact simple or complicated according to circumstances by means of which every living thing becomes that which it was destined to become from the very beginning. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 21
It is certainly remarkable that my critics, with few exceptions, ignore the fact that, as a scientist, I proceed from empirical facts which every one is at liberty to verify. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 21
The fact that archetypes exist is not dismissed by saying that there are no inborn representations. I have never maintained that the archetype in itself is an image, but have expressly pointed out that I regard it as a modus without definite content. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 22
I try to impress on my pupils not to treat their patients as if they were all like: the population consists of different historical layers. There are people who, psychologically, might just as well have lived in the year 5000 B.C., i.e, who can still successfully solve their conflicts as people did 7000 years ago. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 23
There are countless barbarians and men of antiquity in Europe and in all civilized countries and a great number of medieval Christians. On the other hand, there are relatively few who have reached the degree of consciousness which is possible in our time. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 23
No art, science or institution which is concerned with the human being will be able to avoid the effect of the development which the psychologists and physicists have let loose, even if they oppose it with the most stubborn prejudices. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 25
Father White’s book has the merit of being the first theological work from the Catholic side which deals as deeply with the far-reaching effects of the new empirical knowledge n the realm of the representations collectives and makes a serious attempt to integrate it. ~Carl Jung, God and the Unconscious, Page 25
