Carl Jung on Aging
Aging people should know that their lives are not mounting and unfolding but that an inexorable inner process forces the contraction of life.
For a young person it is almost a sin — and certainly a danger — to be too much occupied with him; but for the aging person it is a duty and a necessity to give serious attention to him. ~ Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Page 125.
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process:
“Old age is only half as funny as one is inclined to think.
It is at all events the gradual breaking down of the bodily machine, with which foolishness identifies as ourselves.
It is indeed a major effort– the magnum opus in fact– to escape in time from the narrowness of its embrace and to liberate our mind to the vision of the immensity of the world, of which we form an infinitesimal part.
In spite of the enormity of our scientific cognition we are yet hardly at the bottom of the ladder, but we are at least so far that we are able to recognize the smallness of our knowledge.
The older I grow the more impressed I am by the frailty and uncertainty of our understanding, and all the more I take recourse to the simplicity of immediate experience so as not to lose contact with the essentials, namely the dominants which rule human existence throughout the millenniums.“ (C.G. Jung Letters 2. 1951-1961. p.580)
I am grown so old that I can let go my grip on the world,
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
To Jolande Jacobi
Dear Dr. Jacobi, 25 August 1960
I was very impressed and pleased to hear that my autobiographical sketches have conveyed to you something of what my outer side has hitherto kept hidden.
It had to remain hidden because it could not have survived the brutalities of the outside world.
But now I am grown so old that I can let go my grip on the world, and its raucous cries fade in the distance.
The dream you have called back to my memory anticipates the content and setting of the analysis in a miraculous way. Who knew that and who arranged it?
Who envisioned and; grasped it, and forcibly expressed it in a great dream-image?
He who has insight into this question knows whereof he speaks when he tries to interpret the psyche. With cordial greetings,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 585
Note: J . retold a “big dream” of hers in 1927 which had the character of an initiation.
It is reported in her The Way of individuation. (1967), pp. 76f.
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs. reflecting on the aging process
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process:
“Old age is only half as funny as one is inclined to think.
It is at all events the gradual breaking down of the bodily machine, with which foolishness identifies as ourselves.
It is indeed a major effort– the magnum opus in fact– to escape in time from the narrowness of its embrace and to liberate our mind to the vision of the immensity of the world, of which we form an infinitesimal part.
In spite of the enormity of our scientific cognition we are yet hardly at the bottom of the ladder, but we are at least so far that we are able to recognize the smallness of our knowledge.
The older I grow the more impressed I am by the frailty and uncertainty of our understanding, and all the more I take recourse to the simplicity of immediate experience so as not to lose contact with the essentials, namely the dominants which rule human existence throughout the millenniums.“ (C.G.Jung Letters 2. 1951-1961. p.580)
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