There are no “purposeless” psychic processes
Symbols of Transformation CW 5
As we have seen, the religious hymn unconsciously produced by Miss Miller appears in the place of the erotic problem.
It derives its material for the most part from reminiscences which were reactivated by the introverted libido.
Had this “creation” not come off, Miss Miller would inevitably have yielded to the erotic impression, either with the usual consequences, or else with a negative result which would have replaced the lost happiness by a correspondingly strong feeling of regret.
Opinions, as we know, are deeply divided over the value of solving an erotic conflict like Miss Miller’s in this way.
It is thought to be much more beautiful and noble to let an erotic tension resolve itself unnoticed into the sublime feelings of religious poetry, in which perhaps other people can find joy and consolation, and that it is a kind of unjustified fanaticism for truth to complain
about the unconsciousness of such a solution.
I would not like to decide this question one way or the other, but would prefer to find out the meaning and purpose of the apparently devious path followed by the libido, and of the apparent self-deception, in the case of a so-called unnatural and unconscious solution.
There are no “purposeless” psychic processes; that is to say, it is a hypothesis of the greatest heuristic value that the psyche is essentially purposive and directed. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, Para 80
