Most people cannot reach their destinies anyway without a streak of craziness.
Anonymous
Dear Herr N., 26 January 1959
Best thanks for telling me about the progress of your opus.
It does indeed, as you say, make considerable demands on our constitution.
It goes to the very limit, but no further.
Most people cannot reach their destinies anyway without a streak of craziness, and so long as they haven’t it is better not to exorcize their demons.
For if one did succeed in doing so it would merely be a successful amputation.
Your dream of “A bare room in a slummy apartment with a dirty wall: “Dirt” is always related to greatness.
It is a necessary compensation.
Because we are so small, contact with greatness always carries with it the danger of inflation.
Then our dreams speak of dirt and squalor, so that we shall remain Down below and not be swept into the distance by the great world-wind.
It is only from the purely human standpoint that the divine game is seen as a sickness, a leprosy, a perilous threat to the bond with human society.
It is therefore advisable not to rant about it but to carry on the work in secret.
Wishing you continued good luck and a stout constitution.
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 479-480
