Carl Jung: From what psychic stratum do the immensely impressive ideas found in schizophrenia originate?
To Manfred Bleuler
Dear Colleague, 19 August 1950
Your kind letter with wishes for my birthday came as a surprise and joy.
I was very touched to receive such a cordial message from my old place of work, where everything that happened afterwards had its beginning.
All the more so as I have never had the pleasure of meeting you in your later years. I remember you only as a small boy at a time which for me lies in the far-off past.
All the more vivid in my memory are the impressions and the encouragement I received from your father, to whom I shall always be grateful.
Not only am I deeply indebted to psychiatry, but I have always remained close to it inwardly, since from the very beginning one general problem engrossed me: From what psychic stratum do the immensely impressive ideas found in schizophrenia originate?
The questions that resulted have seemingly removed me far from clinical psychiatry and have led me to wander all through the world.
On these adventurous journeys I discovered many things I never yet dreamt of in Burgholzli, but the rigorous mode of observation I learnt there has accompanied me everywhere and helped me to grasp the alien psyche objectively.
While thanking you for your cordial message I would also like to ask you to convey my gratitude to all those who were kind enough to sign your letter.
With collegial regards,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 562-563
Intelligence and psychological preparation in cases of schizophrenia result in a better prognosis.
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
To Jolande Jacobi
Dear Dr. Jacobi, 12 June 1945
I would answer your question as follows: It is a fact that intelligence and psychological preparation in cases of schizophrenia result in a better prognosis.
I therefore make it a rule to give anyone threatened with schizophrenia, or the mild or latent schizophrenic, as much psychological knowledge as possible, because I know from experience that there is then a
better chance of his getting out of the psychotic interval.
Equally, psychological enlightenment after a psychotic attack can be extraordinarily helpful in some circumstances.
I am not convinced that schizophrenia is absolutely fatal any more than tuberculosis is.
I would always recommend psychological education to patients at risk as a measure of prophylactic hygiene.
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.
Psychological preparation joins the process to consciousness, or rather, there is a chance of its being joined, and hence of the individuation process having a healing effect.
Hoping I have answered your question satisfactorily, and with best regards,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung, ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 371
I once had a case of schizophrenia, a girl who was so caught by that redemption mystery
Carl Jung – The Visions Seminar
I once had a case of schizophrenia, a girl who was so caught by that redemption mystery which was going on in her that she could no longer speak to people.
She was locked up in a lunatic asylum for about sixteen months, and I had a chance somehow to get behind her screen and discover where she
went.
She went to the moon and became the savior of the moon people.
She became the redeemer of the world, she built temples and did all sorts of wonderful things, it was a most amazing story.
And the thing which was difficult for her to bear was that, in telling me that story, she cut the thread to the moon and could not go back; she had to be sane, she was caught to the earth because she had betrayed the mystery.
She wanted to kill me because I had cured her, because her life in the moon was so much more beautiful.
She had no idea that the moon was a symbol, so that one called people like herself lunatics; she went into the unconscious—into the moon—and
there she did the only thing that was worth living for, redemption; she succeeded in saving the moon people.
But she got stuck in the moon, she became the prisoner of the moon spirit.
Then when I came in and she could tell me that story, she was caught in this world and could not go back.
She hated me for a long time and said to me: “Oh, it was so much more beautiful.
I hate to live on this earth.”
Since then I am not so compassionate about insane people; it may not be so bad, it only looks so. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 146.
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog