02-04-2009, 11:56 AM
I particularly liked the following quote from above:
Were he alive today I wonder where he might have directed his thought as to the identity of the self-righteous "new victim" sought by the demons to replace 1940's Germany?
However, the truly great danger to mankind, as Jung has repeatedly noted throughout his work, is the Collective Shadow - and to the extent that each one of us comprise an atom in that vast lurching body, we are each individually responsible for the approaching storm.
We must hope that a sufficient number of courageous souls step forward and take the responsibility of reclaiming their shadow projections, thus reducing the Collective darkness that is now huffing and puffing at our door, threatening to blow our house down.
Quote:No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans,* the demons will seek a new victim. And that won't be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey.... We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.
"The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans" (1945)
*Written I945.
Were he alive today I wonder where he might have directed his thought as to the identity of the self-righteous "new victim" sought by the demons to replace 1940's Germany?
However, the truly great danger to mankind, as Jung has repeatedly noted throughout his work, is the Collective Shadow - and to the extent that each one of us comprise an atom in that vast lurching body, we are each individually responsible for the approaching storm.
We must hope that a sufficient number of courageous souls step forward and take the responsibility of reclaiming their shadow projections, thus reducing the Collective darkness that is now huffing and puffing at our door, threatening to blow our house down.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14