Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of ThoughtJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Philosophy
Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Libido (Psychology); Mother and child; Psychoanalysis; Subconsciousness; Symbolism (Psychology)
This might be a tremendous delusion, because we have the appropriate
tendency always to recognize only the difference of things. This is
demanded by the psychologic adaptation which, without the most minute
differentiation of the impressions, would be absolutely impossible. In
opposition to this tendency we have ever the greatest difficulty in
recognizing in their common relations the things with which we are
occupied in every-day life. This recognition becomes much easier with
things which are more remote from us. For example, it is almost
impossible for a European to differentiate the faces in a Chinese
throng, although the Chinese have just as individual facial formations
as the Europeans, but the similarity of their strange facial expression
is much more evident to the remote onlooker than their individual
differences. But when we live among the Chinese then the impression of
their uniformity disappears more and more, and finally the Chinese
become individuals also. Individuality belongs to those conditional
actualities which are greatly overrated theoretically on account of
their practical significance. It does not belong to those overwhelmingly
clear and therefore universally obtrusive general facts upon which a
science must primarily be founded. The individual content of
consciousness is, therefore, the most unfavorable object imaginable for
psychology, because it has veiled the universally valid until it has
become unrecognizable. The essence of consciousness is the process of
adaptation which takes place in the most minute details. On the other
hand, the unconscious is the generally diffused, which not only binds
the individuals among themselves to the race, but also unites them
backwards with the peoples of the past and their psychology. Thus the
unconscious, surpassing the individual in its generality, is, in the
first place, the object of a true psychology, which claims not to be
psychophysical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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