Some thoughts inspired by the chapter “Confrontations with the Unconscious” from Carl Gustav Jung’s autobiography “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

I mentioned that I was reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung to a coworker and he told me that was funny because there was some controversy this past week about a New York Times article by Kevin Roose where he asked the new ChatGPT powered Bing (search engine) about it’s shadow self. I’m only halfway through the article and it’s getting interesting! Perhaps it’s now important for even our technology to “know thyself”

One thought is that Jung’s theme concerning the importance of understanding the unconscious, integrating the shadow, or (summarily) to “know thyself,” seems to go hand in hand with walking a fine line between sanity and insanity, or normality and abnormality. Concerning his exploration of his unconscious he makes the observation:

“It is of course ironical that I, a psychiatrist, should at almost every step of my experiment have run into the same psychic material which is the stuff of psychosis and is found in the insane.”

That is unambiguous. And makes me wonder: if C.G. Jung, a man of profound intelligence and wit, and a man who makes the top 10 when it comes to investigating his own mind and the mind in general, if this man openly declares himself to border on insanity, what does that say about the rest of us? And what does that say about… me?

Earlier in Memories, Dreams, and Reflections he discusses a fellow psychiatrist whom he encouraged to undergo psychoanalysis with the assertion that in order to be able to help anyone else, he must first understand himself. This man was on the surface completely ordinary and identified as so. Normal job, family, hobbies, etc, etc, the whole 9 yards: a normal guy.

The man told Jung that he didn’t dream. Jung told him “You will soon” and noted that saying that to someone is enough to make any relatively normal person have and remember a dream that same night. (And sure enough, I had a dream that night and have continued to have and remember them since then and have started a dream journal, because if I don’t write them down right away, they are lost, I forget them. How many dreams have I forgotten in this way? That then gives me the impression that I don’t dream often?)

Anyway, Jung’s coworker patient continued to not dream for some weeks but then came in with a dream to share. The result: Jung ended the therapy. Told him: “You’re right, you are normal!” when he was anything but. That’s not an exact quote, let me find some:

“I have had some astonishing experiences with ‘normality.’”

“I realized that his normality was a compensation.”

“His emphatic normality reflected a personality which would not have been developed but simply shattered by a confrontation with the unconscious.”

He was too normal to be helped!

This makes me think of people and times when I’ve wondered to myself: should I say what I really think? Would that help them or is it too much?

When someone spends their life pursuing one course of action and one set of beliefs… sometimes it is past the point where you can do any good by introducing a new belief or poking holes in their dogma. And this explains why most old people are so set in their beliefs. Once you commit past a certain point… you’ve got to see it through.

Jung states that he’s in favor of psychotherapy by professionals but when it comes to the “layman” he holds the opinion that – yeah, check it out. A theme of this memoir indeed seems to be “know thyself.” Try to understand yourself. Question yourself. Because if you don’t… insanity awaits you!

But as far as practicing psychoanalysis on other’s, Jung has words of caution for the dinner table psychologist: “I am in favor of non-medical men studying psychotherapy and practicing it; but in dealing with latent psychoses there is a the risk of their making dangerous mistakes.”

I find this disturbingly relatable and to return to my thought: I think being honest is one of the most important ideals for a person to have, but again I wonder if at times I’ve said too much when I should have kept my mouth shut.

What is it that Marcus says? I didn’t find the quote I was looking for but this one will do: “It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.” The quote I was looking for was more specifically about not admonishing people if it’s not going to do them any good.

I wonder if I’ve made the mistake of violating that prescription… To act against both Jung and Marcus is surely a sin.

Taking a step back: so it’s true! The “normal people” are indeed the craziest of us! I’ve had this thought before (and the image of Christian Bale from “American Psycho” comes to mind) but it’s interesting to have some confirmation from perhaps the most respected psychologist.

“Unpopular, ambiguous, and dangerous, it is a voyage of discovery to the other pole of the world,” is how Jung describes the investigation of the unconscious. And he is critical of Nietzsche for losing himself in thought: “I was not a blank page whirling about in the winds of the spirit, like Nietzsche.” Jung shows great respect and admiration for Nietzsche at times but is straightforward about his opinion of the latter years: he lost it. Lost himself in thought. Delved so deep that he lost touch with reality. (What’s the story about the horse? I think he had a public breakdown when he witnessed a horse beaten and declared himself one with the horse while crying in the street. (Citation needed…))

So if this investigation is so dangerous then why do it? As I said earlier, Jung seems to be of the opinion that the dangers of not doing so are worse (until you reach that point of ‘normalcy’ where you the unconscious half of you is no longer reachable to yourself…).

A general theme of this memoir and maybe his work and philosophy in general seems to be: if you don’t investigate yourself / your unconscious / your shadow side, then you will never be a complete person, and the fracture between the two parts of yourself will cause you and those in your life a lot of pain and… you might end up going completely insane.

Well look at that… I’ve written an article and didn’t even stick to my original idea, or develop it. But now having further evidence of my skill of blabbering on… perhaps there is hope for this blog after all!

But having not stuck to the program, here is a more uplifting quote that I will end with:

“What a dreary world it would be if the rules were not violated sometimes!”

– C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, from the chapter titled “Confrontations with the Unconscious”