Memories Dreams Reflections A Biography by Aniela Jaffe
In his autobiography Jung would speak of the importance of this experience:
After the illness a fruitful period of work began for me.
A good many of my principal works were written only then.
The insight I had, or the vision of the end of all things, gave me the courage to undertake new formulations.
I no longer attempted to put across my own opinion, but surrendered myself to the current of my thoughts [ . . . ].
Something else, too, came to me from my illness. I might formulate it as an affirmation of things as they are: an unconditional ‘yes’ to that which is, without subjective protests—acceptance of the conditions of existence as I see them and understand them, acceptance of my own nature, as I happen to be [ . . . ].
It was only after the illness that I understood how important it is to affirm one’s own destiny.
In this way we forge an ego that does not break when incomprehensible things happen; an ego that endures, that endures the truth, and that is capable of coping with the world and with fate.
Then, to experience defeat is also to experience victory.
Nothing is disturbed – neither inwardly or outwardly, for one’s own continuity has withstood the current of life and of time’ ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 297.