Levy quotes Jung



When I first came across this article by Paul Levy I thought... "Oh another hit piece". Nothing wrong with that really, but I did not expect the depth.
Below is a compilation of Jung quotes by Paul Levy.




THE WISDOM OF C. G. JUNG

COLLECTIVE PSYCHOSIS
“Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics, the events in Germany being a classic example of this.” CW 9. 1. p 127.

“Nations have their own peculiar psychology, and in the same way they also have their own particular kind of psychopathology. It consists in the accumulation of a large number of abnormal features, the most striking of which is a suggestibility affecting the entire nation.” CW 10, p 233.

Talking about “mass suggestion,” Jung comments “All that can be built with it are houses of cards or concentration camps or death pits.” CW 18, p 602.

“The most dangerous things in the world are immense accumulations of human beings who are manipulated by only a few heads.” CW 18, p 595.

“Nobody is immune to a nationwide evil unless he is unshakably convinced of the danger of his own character being tainted by the same evil [the awareness of our potential susceptibility to fall unconscious and hence unwittingly become an agent for evil acts as a psychic immunization against this happening]. But the immunity of the nation depends entirely upon the existence of a leading minority immune to the evil and capable of combating the powerful suggestive effect of seemingly possible wish-fulfilments. If the leader is not absolutely immune, he will inevitably fall a victim to his own will-to-power.” CW 18, p 612.

“Everyone harbours his ‘statistical criminal’ in himself…..Owing to this basic peculiarity in our human make-up, a corresponding suggestibility, or susceptibility to [psychic] infection exists everywhere.” CW 10 p 199.

“Who are we to imagine that ‘it couldn’t happen here”?.....Do we seriously believe that we would have been immune? We, who have so many traitors and political psychopaths in our midst? It has filled us with horror to realize all that man is capable of, and of which, therefore, we too are capable.” CW 10 p 200.

“we are very much in the same predicament as the pre-National-Socialistic Germany of the twenties, i.e., we are apt to undergo the risk of a further but this time worldwide Wotanistic experiment [Wotan is the mythic “God” of rage, storm, fury and frenzy, the unleasher of passions and lust for battle. Wotan has to do with being “seized,” and “going berserk”]. This means mental epidemics and war.
One does not realize yet that when an archetype is unconsciously constellated and not consciously understood, one is possessed by it and hence forced to its fatal goal.” [when we are not in conscious relationship to a deeper power like an archetype it possesses us from behind and acts itself out through us].Letters, vol 2, p594

“collective psychoses are based on a constellated archetype, though of course this fact is not taken into account at all. In this respect our attitude is still characterized by a prodigious unconsciousness.” Letters, vol 2, p542

“Whenever an archetype appears things become critical, and it is impossible to forsee what turn they will take. As a rule this depends on the way consciousness reacts to the situation.” CW 10, p 229.

“Sooner or later it will be found that nothing really “new” happens in history [what is playing out in our world is a re-creation of an eternal, archetypal pattern]. There could be talk of something really novel only if the unimaginable happened: if reason, humanity, and love won a lasting victory.” CW 18, p 588.

“If the archetype, which is universal, i.e., identical with itself always and anywhere, is properly dealt with in one place only, it is influenced as a whole, i.e., simultaneously and everywhere.” [if we recognize and consciously unfold the deeper archetypal process that we are playing roles in, this realization effects the entire field, i.e., the universe as a whole]. Letters, Vol 2, p595

Speaking about “pathological liars,” Jung comments that they are in the habit of “presenting their wish-fantasies …..as easily attainable [we’ll be welcomed as liberators, and Iraq will pay for its own re-construction], and who believe these obvious lies themselves….. In order to realize their wish fantasies no means is too bad for them…..They “believe” they are doing it for the benefit of humanity, or at least of the nation or their party, and cannot under any circumstances see that their aim is invariably egoistic. Since this is a common failing, it is difficult for the layman to recognize such cases as psychopathic. Because only a convinced person is immediately convincing (by psychic contagion), he exercises as a rule a devastating influence on his contemporaries. Almost everybody is taken in by him.” CW 18, p 604

“I should like to emphasize above all that it is part and parcel of the pathological liar’s make-up to be plausible.” CW 10, p 206.

“it is becoming ever more obvious that it is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer but man himself who is man’s greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes. The supreme danger which threatens individuals as well as whole nations is a psychic danger. Reason has proved itself completely powerless, precisely because its arguments have an effect only on the conscious mind and not on the unconscious [this is why we can’t dialogue rationally with Bush supporters]. The greatest danger of all comes from the masses, in whom the effects of the unconscious pile up cumulatively and the reasonableness of the conscious mind is stifled. Every mass organization is a latent danger just as much as a heap of dynamite is. It lets loose effects which no man wants and no man can stop. It is therefore in the highest degree desirable that a kn
owledge
of psychology should spread so that men can understand the source of the supreme dangers that threaten them. Not by arming to the teeth, each for itself, can the nations defend themselves in the long run from the frightful catastrophes of modern war. The heaping up of arms is itself a call to war. Rather must they recognize those psychic conditions under which the unconscious [tsunami-like] bursts the dykes of consciousness and overwhelms it.” CW 18 p590.

“we can no longer afford to underestimate the importance of the psychic factor in world affairs.” Psychological Reflections, p 168.

“Once this function (of the irrational) finds itself in the unconscious, it works unceasing havoc, like an incurable disease whose focus cannot be eradicated because it is invisible.” CW 10, p 233.

“Perhaps in a more enlightened era a candidate for governmental office will have to have it certified by a psychiatric commission that he is not a bearer of psychic bacilli [someone like Bush is a “carrier” of a psychic “bug” that is infecting the entire field surrounding him].” CW 18, p 601.

Splitting off from our own darkness and projecting it outside of ourselves, “creates a dangerous situation in that the disturbing effects are now attributed to a wicked will outside ourselves, which is naturally not to be found anywhere but with our neighbor….This leads to collective delusions, ‘incidents,’ revolutions, war- in a word, to destructive mass psychoses.”

Speaking of “Evangelical Christians,” Jung says “we should and must….point out with due emphasis that, according to the Gospel, no one is in greater danger than he who, secure in the consciousness of his own innocence, judges and condemns another.” CW 10, p 240.

Once emotions such as fear reaches a certain pitch “the possibility of reason’s having any effect ceases and its place is taken by slogans and chimerical wish-fantasies. That is to say, a sort of collective possession results which rapidly develops into a psychic epidemic.” CW 10, p 248.

“Hysteria is never cured by hushing up the truth, whether in an individual or a nation. But can we say that a whole nation is hysterical? We can say it as much or as little of a nation as of an individual. Even the craziest person is not completely crazy; quite a number of his functions are still normal, and there may even be times when he himself is fairly normal too…..We may therefore expect many parts of the psychic body-politic to be entirely normal even though the over-all picture can only be described as hysterical.” CW 10, p 210.

“one would think that the world had seen more than enough of what a well-disciplined mob can do in the hands of a single madman…….the most powerful organizations can be maintained only by the greatest ruthlessness of their leaders and the cheapest of slogans.” CW 10, p 275.

“the normal person…..acts out his psychic disturbances socially and politically, in the form of mass psychoses like wars and revolutions.” CW 10, p 235.

HITLER AND GERMANY
“Hitler [like Bush] was able to work on all those who [had]….secret dreams of power. As a result, he collected an army of social misfits, psychopaths, and criminals around him, to which he also belonged [the entire Bush regime are embodying what it means to be criminally insane].” CW 18, p 605.

“Hitler [like Bush]….gripped the unconscious of normal people.....The majority of normal people….are ridiculously unconscious and naïve and are open to any passing suggestion. So far as lack of adaptation is a disease, one can call a whole nation diseased [collectively mad]. But this is normal mass psychology, it is a herd phenomenon.” CW 18 p 605.

“The impressive thing about the German phenomenon is that one man, who is obviously “possessed,” has infected a whole nation to such an extent that everything is set in motion and has started rolling on its course towards perdition.” CW 10, p 185.

Speaking of Germany, “the devil stole a march on the Germans, dangling before them the tempting bait of power, aggrandizement, national arrogance…..And so it was that the Germans allowed themselves to be deluded by these disastrous fantasies and succumbed to the age-old temptations of Satan.” CW 10, p 212.

Speaking about Germany, Jung comments, that it “fell a prey to mass psychology, though she is by no means the only nation threatened by this dangerous germ.” [italics mine- the collective psychosis that is spreading through our country is like a contagious virus, a virus of the psyche]. CW 10, p 222.

“Now Germany has suffered the consequences of the pact with the devil, she has experienced madness and is torn in pieces like Zagreus, she has been ravished by the berserkers of her god Wotan, been cheated of her soul for the sake of gold and world-mastery, and defiled by the scum rising from the lowest depths.” CW 10, p 214.

“The phenomenon we have witnessed in Germany was nothing less than the first outbreak of epidemic insanity, an irruption of the unconscious into what seemed to be a tolerably well-ordered world. A whole nation, as well as countless millions belonging to other nations, were swept into the blood-drenched madness of a war of extermination. No one knew what was happening to him, least of all the Germans.” CW 10, p 212.

Speaking of the German people, Jung says “Like the rest of the world, they did not understand wherein Hitler’s significance lay, that he symbolized something in every individual [he was their embodied reflection]. He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was au utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He [like Bush] represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.” CW 10, p 223.

Speaking of Hitler, Jung says “the German people would never have been taken in and carried away so completely if this figure had not been a reflected image of the collective German hysteria.” CW 10, p 204.

Speaking of Hitler, Jung says “He behaved in public like a man living in his own biography,…..the ideal of an infantile public whose knowledge of the world is derived from the deified heroes of trashy films.” CW 10, p 204.

Speaking of Hitler, Jung says “For this theatrical hysteric and transparent imposter was not strutting about on a small stage, but was riding the armoured divisions of the Wehrmacht, with all the weight of German heavy industry behind him [whereas Bush has the greatest war machine the world has ever known at his disposal]. Encountering only slight and in any case ineffective opposition from within, the nation of eighty million crowded into the circus to witness its own destruction.” CW 10, p 204.

“The struggle between light and darkness has broken out everywhere. The rift runs through the whole globe, and the fire that set Germany ablaze is smouldering and glowing wherever we look. The conflagaration that broke out in Germany was the outcome of psychic conditions that are universal.” [italics mine]. CW 10, p 242.

GOOD AND EVIL
Talking about good and evil “the more psychological insight we acquire the more we see how fearfully the two of them interpenetrate. The evil of the good and the good of the evil are – unfortunately, unfortunately- ineffaceable facts [is Bush an instrument for the deepest evil to incarnate itself into our world? Or is he the figure that’s going to polarize the field so fully that it will precipitate a global spiritual awakening?]. Psychology is as little to blame for this as zoology for lice. It merely knows about them, and whoever wants to remain unconscious (thereby serving the devil) therefore hates and suspects psychology. The reigning prince of this world [“supposedly” elected on November 2] shuns the light of knowledge like the plague.” Letters, vol 1, p488.

“Therefore the individual who wishes to have an answer to the problem of evil, as it is posed today, has need, first and foremost, of self-knowledge, that is, the utmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness [on the other hand, to quote Bush, “I don’t spend a lot of time trying to figure me out….I’m just not into psychobabble.”].” MDR, p 330.

“The future of mankind very much depends upon the recognition of the shadow. Evil is- psychologically speaking- terribly real [Jung is not talking theologically, but psychologically]. It is a fatal mistake to diminish its power [its effects are everywhere].” Letters, vol 1, p 541

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is [italics mine]. CW 11, p. 76.

“The great problem of our time is that we don’t understand what is happening to the world. We are confronted with the darkness of our soul, the unconscious. It sends up its dark and unrecognizable urges [the revelation of the dark or hidden God, the “deus absconditus”].” Letters, vol 2, p590

“This is an exceedingly dangerous time and we are confronted with a problem which has never been known in the conscious history of man. You cannot compare it with the early times of Christianity, because that movement did not come from the blood, but came from above, a light that shone forth. This is not a light but a darkness, the powers of darkness are coming up [the darkness that was hiding in the shadows is becoming visible].” NZ vol 1, p500

“evil needs masses for its genesis and continued existence [this is why the evil that Bush is an instrument for needs to be contemplated as a non-local field phenomena].” CW 18, p 601.

“Posession, though old-fashioned, has by no means become obsolete; only the name has changed. Formerly they spoke of “evil spirits,” now we call them “neuroses” or “unconscious complexes.” Here as everywhere the name makes no difference…..If the unconscious disposition should happen to be one which is common to the great majority of the nation, then a single one of these complex-ridden individuals, who at the same time sets himself up as a megaphone, is enough to precipitate a catastrophe.” CW 18, p 509.

“Even though nature is depsychized [we, as civilized people, have withdrawn our projection of Gods and demons from nature], the psychic conditions which breed demons are as actively at work as ever. The demons have not really disappeared but have merely taken on another form: they have become unconscious psychic forces……Just when people were congratulating themselves on having abolished all spooks, it turned out that instead of haunting the attic or old ruins the spooks were flitting about in the heads of apparently normal Europeans. Tyrannical, obsessive, intoxicating ideas and delusions were abroad everywhere, and people began to believe the most absurd things [the rapture], just as the possessed do.” CW 10 p 211- 212.

“Empty people, or people who have an excellent opinion of themselves and cherish amazing virtues, have always somebody in their surroundings who carries all their evil. This is literally true.” NZ vol 2, p 1495

“We must all open our eyes to the shadow who looms behind contemporary man.” CW 10, p 215.

“If only a world-wide consciousness could arise that all division and all fission are due to the splitting of opposites in the psyche.” CW 10, p 299.

THE STATE
“Now we behold the amazing spectacle of states taking over the age-old totalitarian claims of theocracy, which are inevitably accompanied by the suppression of free opinion. Once more we see people cutting each other’s throats in support of childish theories of how to create paradise on earth. It is not very difficult to see that the powers of the underworld- not to say of hell- which in former times were more or less successfully chained up in a gigantic spiritual edifice where they could be of some use, are now creating, or trying to create, a State slavery and a State prison devoid of any mental or spiritual charm.” CW 10, p 231.

“So-called leaders are the inevitable symptoms of a mass movement. The true leaders of mankind are always those who are capable of self-reflection, and who relieve the dead weight of the masses at least of their own weight.” [the true leaders are not burdening mankind by working out their infantile, adolescent unresolved unconscious conflicts on the world stage]. CW 10 p 230.

“A political situation is the manifestation of a parallel psychological problem in millions of individuals [the outer political situation is an expression of the inner state of the collective psyche of humanity]. This problem is largely unconscious (which makes it a particularly dangerous one!). Letters, vol 1, p535

“Society is organized, indeed, less by law than by the propensity to imitation, implying equally suggestibility, suggestion, and mental contagion.” CW 7, p. 155.

“the statesman who toys with unlawful measures is ultimately working for the ruin of the nation.” CW 18, p 597.

“The man who promises everything is sure to fulfill nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.” CW 10, p 201.

“Will man be able to give up toying with the idea of another war? Can we at last get it into our heads that any government of impassioned patriots which signs the order for mobilization should immediately be executed en bloc?” CW 10, p 242.

When “fanaticism” is present, “Free opinion is stifled and moral derision ruthlessly suppressed, on the plea that the end justifies the means, even the vilest. The policy of the State is exalted to a creed, the leader or party boss becomes a demigod beyond good and evil, and his votaries are honored as heroes, martyrs, apostles, missionaries. There is only one truth and beside it no other. It is sacrosanct and above criticism. Anyone who thinks differently is a heretic, who, as we know from history, is threatened with all manner of unpleasant things.“ CW 10, p 259.

“The State, like the Church, demands enthusiasm, self-sacrifice, and love, and if religion requires or presupposes the “fear of God,” then the dictator State takes good care to provide the necessary terror.” CW 10, p 260.
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Posted: Thu - April 14, 2005 at 09:29 AM            

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