How does the inferior function connect with the collective evil?

The little open door of each individual’s inferior function is what contributes to the sum of collective evil in the world.

You could observe that very easily in Germany when the devil slowly took over the situation in the Nazi movement.

Every German I knew at that time who fell for Nazism did so on account of his inferior function.

The feeling type got caught by the stupid arguments of the party doctrine; the intuitive type got caught by his dependence on money.

He could not give up his job and did not see how he could deal with the money problem, so he had to stay in it despite the fact that he did not agree, and so on.

The inferior function was in each personal realm the door where some of this collective evil could accumulate.

Or, you could say that each one who had not worked on his inferior function contributed to this general disaster – in a small way – but the sum of millions of inferior functions constitutes an enormous devil!

Propaganda against the Jews was very cleverly made up in that respect.

For example, the Jews were insulted as being destructive intellectuals, which completely convinced all the feeling types – a projection of inferior thinking.

Or they were accused of being reckless moneymakers; that completely convinced the intuitive, for they were his inferior sensation, and now one knew where the devil was.

The propaganda used the ordinary suspicions that people had against others on account of their inferior function.

So you can say that behind each individual the fourth function is not just a little kind of deficiency; the sum of these is really responsible for a tremendous amount of trouble.

~Marie-Louise von Franz, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, Page 122-123

Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog