#collective psyche

[jungquote]

“During a collective manifestation of archetypes there is always a great danger of a mass movement, and a catastrophe can be avoided only if the effect of the archetype can be intercepted and assimilated by a sufficiently large majority of individuals. At the very least there must be a certain number of individuals who are still capable of making their influence felt.”

Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition.

[lioninsunheart]

“It is not for nothing that our age cries out for the redeemer personality, for the one who can emancipate himself from the grip of the collective [psychosis] and save at least his own soul, who lights a beacon of hope for others, proclaiming that here is at least one man who has succeeded in extricating himself from the fatal identity with the group psyche.”

~ Carl Jung -

[anarchonist]

People resisting change because of the fear that they’re too old for it is just... heartbreaking to me. Infuriating too, yes, but also heartbreaking.

When you see people who have succeeded in the hierarchical sense, that is, in acquiring more social and economic power (fame and fortune) than you, and strongly feel that if you take up a new hobby, activity or other interest at that point, you’re already so “far behind” the other person that you shouldn’t even try, you don’t dare to expand your horizons and try new things.

And that’s just another way hierarchies and competition have poisoned the collective psyche. Everything from age to hobbies becomes a competition, instead of being seen as different facets of unique individuals who have wildly different priorities in life. The values of the hierarchical system force everyone to think of “success” in the exact same way; anything that doesn’t increase your power and status in that system is considered a frivolous waste of time.

A hierarchical system, such as capitalism, does not encourage individuality and self-expression: it stifles it.

[jungquote]

"Our world has shrunk, and it is dawning on us that humanity is one, with one psyche."

— C.G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition

[jungquote]

"It is only because the persona represents a more or less arbitrary and fortuitous segment of the collective psyche that we can make the mistake of regarding it in toto as something individual. It is, as its name implies, only a mask of the collective psyche, a mask that feigns individuality, making others and oneself believe that one is individual, whereas one is simply acting a role through which the collective psyche speaks."

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

[togetyourarmsfree]

Fundamentally the persona is nothing real: it is a compromise between individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. He takes a name, earns a title, exercises a function, he is this or that. In a certain sense all this is real, yet in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned it is only a secondary reality, a compromise formation, in making which others often have a greater share than he.

C. G. Jung