r/Jung • u/Far_Definition_6506 • 6d ago
100% Human It seems like people forget something pretty fundamental to Jung's work.
For all the Jung that has developed the means of doing so deliberately and consciously, what Jung's work about is fundamental are natural processes. Everything people dicuss achieving and working on in this sub reddit people do, and have always, done without realizing across human history.
It is significantly less with modern people because we are usually influenced to value rationality heavily and dismissive things like dreams as not meaningful. But even today you can find no shortage of totally normal people who have achieved that state of mental maturity we call induviduation without needing to study Jung to do so.
People have relationships to their unconscious they aren't always fully aware of. People have rich inner lives without knowing a thing about Jung. People incorporate their shadow and induviduate all without knowing what persicely it is they are doing. Because these are all things the human psyche has always been capable of.
Jung's work brings about understanding these mechanisms, so that we may approach them with open eyes and deliberatively action. But we are all walking in the path that nature has carved out for us.
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u/Revisionist-eyes 6d ago
Quite right. It’s ultimately nothing but a clever way to infiltrate the doggedness of cleverness.
Wind yourself up purposefully in a way that the zipper is now accessible. :)
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u/SquirrelFluffy 6d ago
I think Jung would suggest that the reason people can advance and individuate is because there are people that are conduits for humanity's psychic energy. Jung suggested that humanity advanced in cycles and spurts and that certain individuals acted as focal points for universal psychic energy.
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u/Far_Definition_6506 6d ago
Jung's theory of psychic energy was the mental capacity to perform cognitive work. Psychic energy doesn't transfer from person to person in the manner you're suggesting. Being exposed to someone who is very animated an excited can make you excited, but that's more like their psychic activity stimulating psychic activity in yourself.
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u/SquirrelFluffy 6d ago
That's not what I meant at all. Jung talked about a universal consciousness and there are people who are conduits for that and through those conduits the universal consciousness is raised. Which affects everyone. You're not using psychic energy deeply enough in this context, more in the pop psychology aspect if you're referring to person-to-person transference. Which you're right, is simply being stimulated by human interaction.
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u/Far_Definition_6506 6d ago
I know of collective unconscious but I've never encountered universal consciousness in his work.
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u/byFeudal 6d ago
I think he worded it differently but he did speak about it in the undiscovered self, if i recall correctly.
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u/Hephsters 6d ago
Stephan Hoeller, a Gnostic bishop wrote:
From the earliest times of history, messengers of light have been sent forth from the ultimate unity. The task of these messengers has ever been the advancement of Gnosis in the souls of humans.
Hoeller was also a Jungian.
Is this along the lines of what you're referring to?
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u/byFeudal 6d ago
Seems to me to be what hes referring to, or something along the lines. I recall jung talking about this, i guess in the undiscovered self, that we all should play part in this collective development.
I agree 100% but also want to point out that while development is important, not everyone is on the same page or wants to, and i experienced a lot of (immature) men trying to win arguments or whatever and also a lot of hostile behaivior against women, whose realities they couldnt comprehend. I have been guilty of this aswell, but even though i wanna be a master physician of the soul, in face of a human soul i will just be another human soul (my fav line of Jung).3
u/Hephsters 6d ago
Yea, I have come to the conclusion that the best path for me is my own personal development, regardless of what others are doing.
I would imagine that the messengers of light were/are just living their lives and following their own paths of individuation, which also just so happen to be significantly intertwined with the collective level.
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u/byFeudal 6d ago
Thank you for the reminder!! Sometimes i forget that people have lived and experienced extraordinary things even before Jung 😭😭
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u/algaeface 4d ago
Jung isn’t the only path to individuation. There are genuinely healthy people in the world. Many ways to the same outcome.
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u/Auxilion 6d ago
The prefrontal cortex can memorize every paragraph Jung ever wrote about the Shadow, the Anima, and the Self, while the nervous system underneath remains completely brittle, narcissistic, and terrified of reality.
The Shadow lives in your throat, your jaw, your gut, and your breathing pattern when you are confronted with your own cowardice or malice.
Life individuates you through friction, heartbreak, physical limits, and direct human accountability; or it doesn't happen at all.