C. G. Jung and the Scientific Attitude

Solvency First is a vital nerve

Every facet of the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is imbued with scepticism and modest regard for the limitations of our knowledge, writes Edmund Cohen (Jsa vii)
      Below we present keylines and extracts from the four first chapters of the book C. G. Jung and the Scientific Attitude by Cohen.

Contents

• From Chapter 1
• From Chapter 2
• From Chapter 3
• From Chapter 4

From Chapter 1: The Complex

Spirits of the dead spoke up, and Jung disserted and stopped following Freud - Jung conceived of libido as a universally convertible energetic resource of the psyche. It is quite different from Freud's conception, in which libido is basically erotic or destructive, (Cohen 8)
      When the complex could be integrated with the conscious attitude, the ego-personality could re-establish itself. (Cohen 9)
      Much of his fortunate insight into the nature of the complex, and also the material for his Doctor of Medicine dissertation, came from observing a fifteen-year-old girl, a psychic medium, through whom the spirits of the dead ostensibly spoke. (Cohen 2)
      The ancient Asiatics knew . . . well enough, and in the Buddhist Yoga an exact technique was devised for unmasking the illusion of the personality. (Cohen 11) [4]

The loss of stimuluses is bad - and so is being screwed up inside. A truly schizophrenic person, however, is more accurately described as having a shattered, rather than a split personality. In Jung's words: . . . it is like a splinter of glass. (Cohen 7)
      Jung did some other work which securely establishes him as one of the fathers of the modern lie detector. . . . he found that a sudden shift in GSR [Galvanic Skin Resistance] was more likely to occur when the stimulus word was associated with an unconscious complex, than a conscious one. (Cohen 6)
      When a person is particularly complex-ridden, the energy available to the ego-personality is reduced. (Cohen 9)
      Thoughts, feelings, images, reminiscences, urges . . . overlap extensively in meaning, and are convertible into one another (Cohen 8) [6] [T+]

• By being tentative and gentle you stand in less need of being corrected. Great tact is thus good for something.

From Chapter 2 - The Structure of the Psyche and the Psychological Types

HENCE: A "black tide" of stubbornness and prejudice should be fought too. [T+]

Symbolism in Jung's Teachings

A differentiated something that shares in the reality of dreams - a symbol. We [tend to] symbolize those things about which, in the words of Michael Polanyi, "we can know more than we can tell" (Cohen 16)
      A psychic state can be a perception, an emotion, an insight, an intuition, or a desire, to name a few possibilities. It can be totally intrapsychic, or can involve some physical occurrence to which the psyche responds. A symbol serves to make knowable and communicable that which cannot be fully explicated or analyzed, that which is known tacitly and implicitly rather than explicitly (Cohen 15)
      A symbol has a life of its own . . . A symbol is a differentiation of the psyche, (Cohen 16) [4]
      Symbolism, then, played a role subservient to that of rational thinking in Freud's view. Art became a last resort of the neurotic, and religion, a collective control of the socially unacceptable in man. Analysis became an interminable, distasteful process, since man's dreaded secrets were great, and his ability to face them, small. Inability or reluctance to accept the somber insights of a Freudian analysis was termed "resistance." It became customary for psychoanalysts to be dogmatic, (Cohen 15)
      The essence of the difference is shown by the role each viewpoint assigns to the symbol in human thought. For Freud, the psyche was clearly divided into the unconscious, where the primary id processes of infantile erotic, incestuous, and destructive impulses were repressed by the reified agent of the superego; and the conscious, where the rational, reality-oriented thought processes of the ego took place. The latter made some gratification of id impulses possible, in compromise with morality and reality. The superego also censored threatening memories from the conscious, i.e. those too dangerous or immoral for the ego to tolerate; most strongly censored were memories repressed since early in life. The symbolism of dreams, religion, and art works represented a diluted, depotentiated form of the terrible, taboo products of the id. So disguised, these could come to consciousness and be integrated with the ego, one sub-lethal dose at a time. (Cohen 14-15)

HENCE: An incomplete expression that allows itself to be shared: the symbol. [T+]

From the Depths of Mind

A cardinal principle: A mind can organise its content from deep inside too. Jung quotes Schiller in formulating that problem: "Externalize all within and shape everything without."20 (Cohen 18)
      Once we conceive of the psyche as a field of energy, differentiated, segregated, and structured into symbols, on one level, and into complexes, on another, we come to the search for principles of organization of the contents of the psyche, as the next step. (Cohen 16) [4]

HENCE: Differences and lack of empathy can organise schools of analysis - in part against a better or (more) unified foundation . . . [T+]

Persons and Types

Eight types surround people - and later mother and daughter Myers and Briggs expanded the list to sixteen types as well: The German nation . . . its feeling function is inferior, it is not differentiated. - Jung (Cohen 20).
      For general descriptions of the eight (i.e., 23) basic types . . . Jung said, "It is no use at all putting people into drawers with different labels."
      The more undifferentiated and unconscious its psychological opposite, feeling (Cohen 19).
      The sensation type . . . Stable, orderly surroundings are his preference (Cohen 20- 21).
      The intuitive type may possess artistic sensitivities (Cohen 21). [4]
      Knowing the unique person is the essential thing, and knowing his type merely an aid thereto (Cohen 21]

HENCE: [T+]

Dreams

Some mental contents can be easily seen, and more can be speculated about - Jung does: [Contents talk:] temporarily subliminal contents that can be reproduced voluntarily (memory); second, unconscious contents that cannot be reproduced voluntarily; third, (hypothetical) contents that are not [normally] capable of becoming conscious (Cohen 26). [4]
      "What to the causal view is fact to the final view is symbol, and vice versa (Cohen 27]

HENCE: [T+]

Ego

What rests on the not-experienced, widely postulated "total field", is surely speculated about: A certain one-sidedness is necessary for there to be an ego-personality (Cohen 22).
      By 1950, the role of the Ego as synthesizer of conscious and unconscious was more explicitly seen: ". . . the ego rests on the total field of conseiousness, and on the other, on the sum total of unconcious contents (Cohen 26).

Rest is at times an outward appearance only - consider that too: When I said that the ego "rests" on the total field of consciousness I do not mean that it consists of this (Cohen 26).
      The Ego must not be confused with the persona. The persona (from the Greek word for "mask") is the appearance one presents to others . . . At best, it represents a conscious compromise between the constraints of reality, and the need to develop one's own, true, authentic personality. At its worst, it can represent a deceit (Cohen 25).

HENCE: [T+]

Self-Teachings

Does the self-actualization bring out a nearly unlimited variety for a deeper, better purpose we don't yet know enough about? [The Self:] As the hardest thing in life to explicate, it gives rise to an almost unlimited variety of symbolic expression (Cohen 27). [4]

Unfolding merely one personality of an array, could it be erring altogether? [What] Jung called individuation, . . . represents the unfolding of a particular personality out of a vast field of possibilities (Cohen 28]

HENCE: [T+]

From Chapter 3 - The Collective Unconscious and the Universal Realms

Misrepresented independence

Both a symbol and a figure can be misrepresented - guard against it. [Jung:] I found the patient standing at the window, wagging his head and blinking into the sun. He . . . said: "Surely you see the sun's penis - (In Cohen 30).
      The fire- or sun-god here invoked is a figure (Cohen 31).
      Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, which has been so widely maligned and misrepresented, is really nothing but a working hypothesis (Cohen 29).

HENCE: [T+]

Archetypes and a Case

Be aware of the current collective's myths. The universal symbols per se, Jung called archetypes (Cohen 34). [4]
      The hypothesis of the collective unconscious is that there are universal symbols and myths which are a function of the nature of the psyche itself; (Cohen 33).
      Jung was very sensitive to the factor of early suggestions and experiences in apparently spontaneous creativity (Cohen 33n).

Wild dreams - much seems involved - [From a case Jung treated: The patient was a twenty-five year old unmarried lady who complained of excessive emotionality, had weird erotic fantasies etc. Jung lapsed into a patronizing attitude toward her till he had a dream of having to strain his neck to look up at her standing on the highest parapet of a great castle. That dream served as a corrective to his "looking down" attitude, and this improvement triggered off such as:] she experienced a vague excitation of the perineal region, and dreamed of a white elephant coming out of her vagina [and] she became troubled by the idea that her cranium was becoming soft (Cohen 32).
      The first thorough account of Tantric, Kundalini Yoga appeared (The Serpent Power by Sir John Woodroffe, under the pseudonym of Arthur Avalon), and Jung got hold of it (Cohen 32).

HENCE: Postulating pure forms that ride on the current and present collective around you seems like wild dreams to some, and may be so as well. But there is no proof against the old Platonic idea of 'pure forms' either, for that matter. [T+]

Further - Archetypes

Peculiar or particular life expressions could speak of an individuation process awry or on some profitable tracks - it may be hard to tell. Archetypes give structure to symbols, which express the life situation of the person who produces them, and prefigure the individuation of his particular personality out of the background of possibilities represented by his collective unconscious (Cohen 38).
      In this case also "les extremes se touchent." (Cohen 36). [4]

Good designs are not always incorporated and seen in America - and some have died out. It might apply to personality structures also. The forefin of a whale, the wing of a bird, the forefoot of a quadruped, and the hand of a man are all homologous variations of one characteristic design. [cf. e.g. the book On Growth and Form by D'Arcrey Thompson] (Cohen 37).
      If the conscious attitude becomes too one-sided and rigidified, then the corrective is not assimilated: instead, it becomes an autonomous complex that will assert itself against the conscious personality, as described in the first chapter above. Instead of the ongoing integration of the personality which is individuation, a division of the personality against itself takes place (Cohen 38-39]

HENCE: [T+]

Dreams Interpreted

The antecedent "Learn much and forget it" allows for more fun. To be sure what a single dream means, series of dreams, and trends noted in them, are needed for the analysis to proceed. . . . the relationship of the dream to the dreamer is paramount and must take precedence over mere intellectual comparison of the dream to its historical antecedents: "Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analyzing a dream." (Cohen 39). [4]

If anything rings true, it may be wrong all the same, as history so often documents. The ultimate criterion for an interpretation is the satisfaction of the person to whom it pertains. If it "rings true" for him, then it has value. Thus, more than one interpretation may be fruitful (Cohen 39] [T+]

• Inefficient antecedents that ask you to throw off good learning routines and results - forget them, as they are not fit for prosperous living. You are also supposed to learn throughout life.

Honest People

To have one's own personal moral is fine. The "ethical" involvement may at times be too abstract to be fruitful. Jung summed up the essence of the difference: ". . . primitive pathology recognizes two causes of illness: loss of soul, and possession by a spirit." (Cohen 43).
      Jung, himself, liked to chisel his fantasy into stone, and became quite a competent sculptor (Cohen 40n).
      Extreme inflation - are the result of too close an identification with some unconscious archetype (Cohen 41). [4]
      The interpretation of pictures drawn by the patient is frequently done. (Cohen 40).
      [One is to have and show] Respect for the patient as ethically free and independent (Cohen 40).
      The myth of Satan having originally been in God's presence (Cohen 42).
      This formulation of neurosis, it should be noted, does not contradict the conventional Freudian one, rather, it is more comprehensive (Cohen 39n). [T+]

• An imago interferes up to superbly. And one's personal moral may be like stucco. Deeper involvement makes better depth-development possible. Contemplating sanely helps it.

Falling in Love

Some who fall in love may marry beneath themselves - up to half of those who marry should marry in this way - A typical intellectual . . . will very likely make foolish nonsense when he falls in love (Cohen 44). Falling in love, being wildly infatuated with another person, is one result of such a soul projection (Cohen 44). By falling in love, the lover tries to compensate for his weak side by an easier means than developing it (Cohen 44). [4] Many intellectuals are inclined to marry beneath them (Cohen 44). [T+]

• An old insider teaching: Exchange of tall winds happens during sexual intercourse, and love and marriage seem unimportant for it to take place.

Homosexuals

Animus, Mainly

Animus continued. "Animus and anima. No philosopher in his senses would invent such irrational and clumsy ideas." - Jung (Cohen 141]
      A young lady dreamt of human-sized rabbits, collectively representing her animus — The animus frequently takes the plural form, while the anima seldom does so (Cohen 45, 45n). [4]

Animus in the plural - The animus often is personified in the plural (Cohen 50). [T+]

• Animus is a deep feminine contact experience, often personified in the plural.

Anima Influence (The Speculation)

Deceptive words from inside - The most characteristic manifestation of the animus is not in a configured image . . . but rather in words (Cohen 49). [4]

And other troublesome words to deal with - [This was said to] illustrate the prominent, troublesome aspect of the animus (Cohen 49] [T+]

• Something seductive and deceptive and troublesome from inside is from someone intelligent, I presume.

Humanizing One's Near-Environment Too

Into a humanized whole - The conscious attitude dominated by Eros . . . seeks to humanize . . . make things into a continuous, unitary whole. [4] [T+]

• Being in the world, going for humanized environments and wholeness, could be good.

"I climbed"

Refined work and not senility - It is the same problem that is symbolized by the old conundrum of squaring the circle (Cohen 52). [4]
      Jung himself had a very productive old age, continuing to do increasingly advanced and refined work (Cohen 53n).
      Spiritual development, [Jung] thought, was pertinent . . . the refining and differentiating course of individuation (Cohen 53).
      The process of individuation is normally gradual (Cohen 53).
      His [Jung's] stress on completeness rather than senility as the culmination of a human life was consistent with his personal experience (Cohen 53n] [T+]

• Disturbed circumabulation is not senility per se -

A Case of Split Personality: Eve Black, White, etc.

The ineffable spook was inadequate - Consecutive syntheses of unconscious material with the conscious attitude transform the Ego, producing the transitory Jane, and then Evelyn, an approximation of the Self. Her emergence is an ecstatic experience of rebirth (Cohen 57).
      A third personality appeared, dubbed Jane. She was characterized by higher intelligence and generally greater depth of personality (Cohen 56). [4]
      Eve Black also had an allergy to nylon that Eve White did not have (Cohen 54-55).
      She became aware of a formless, interloping spirit, whom she named, "the Spook." The Spook was experienced as standing between her "I," and a more important spirit, the mysterious, ineffable, "you," whom she came to identify with the therapist (Cohen 61).
      There is a healing effect of the therapist to reckon with too, among other factors. (cf. Cohen 62]
      With . . . powerful complexes . . . the unconscious is likened to a quagmire (Cohen 55).

A unification - The disunited pieces came together, smoothly, and not in any sudden, ecstatic experience (Cohen 61).
      Then she had an ecstatic experience of rebirth, in which she felt she was no longer Jane, but all the previous personalities synthesized into (Cohen 57). [T+]

• A symbol of not being rightly focused or united outwards: having two faces like the Roman god Janus.
• Becoming conscious through "plumbing heart and soul" has possible dangers and experiences.

Jungian Attitudes

It is common that we Jungians speak of nobility, good and evil. It helps to attain supreme clarity . . . [Jung's] view was a view in which the scientific attitude and the religious one did not contradict (cf. Cohen 66).
      A person or an idea is able to exert influence because some archetypal projection is evoked, we often speak of charisma (Cohen 68-69).
      It is a common error among Jungian enthusiasts, for instance, to refer to any fascination caused by an archetypal projection as numinous, and thus give an aura of nobility to a pathological condition (Cohen 68n).
      True faith, for [Paul] Tillich, was the state of being ultimately concerned (Cohen 66).
      The paradox of the split between the goodness and evilness in us is probably the most fundamental such ambiguity (Cohen 66). [4] [T+]

• Meanings depend on viewpoints, on vantage points, and the dichotomy between good and evil at times allows for shades of grey between those poles apart, if not colours too.

From Chapter 4 - Jung and the Scientific Attitude

Not Delirium Tremens: Astrology-related

A stiff teaching: A serpent (power) moves in the space-and-time body. A reliable symptom of . . . delirium tremens, is hallucinations of little, scurrying animals, usually insects or rodents. . . . are simply part of the universal structure of delirium tremens, and are, thus, an archetype (Cohen 71).
      Knowledge finds itself in a space-time continuum . . ." (C. W., vol. 8, par. 912. Synchronicity: an Acausal Connecting Principle) (Cohen 70).
      The serpent very often represents the cerebro-spinal system (Cohen 71 - He's guessing wildly. TK). [4]
      When we turn from that question to the one of psyche interacting with aspects of reality other than the body, we do not get much further into the dark (Cohen 70).

Abdomen - or two big breasts and abdominal sides and the insides of upper arms too? The crab, on the other hand, having a sympathetic nervous system only, represents chiefly the sympathicus and para-sympathicus of the abdomen...." (Cohen 71. He oversimplifies the crab emblem. In astrology the crab represents the organism, the home, a death sphere, emotional living, and not the small part that Cohen identifies.) [T+]

• In astrology, which Jung subscribes to, the Crab, Cancer, is one of the twelve symbols of the Zodiac, and represents things aligned with it.

Like a Near-Death Experience of Carl G. Jung (Proem)

Far below my feet lay Ceylon,
And in the distance ahead of me the subcontinent of India....
A short distance away I saw in space a tremendous dark block of stone, like a meteorite. It was about the size of my house, or even bigger. It was floating in space....
It was sloughed away
If I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced or done,
Everything that had happened around me.
I consisted of my own history,
And I felt with great certainty:
This is what I am.

From below, an image [of] my doctor, Dr. H. floated up (from the direction of Europe)
In life he was an avatar of this basileus,
The temporal embodiment of the primal form,
Which has existed from the beginning.
Now he is appearing in that primal form."
A mute exchange of thought took place between us.

[He had] a message to me:
To tell me there was a protest against my going away.
I was not to be allowed to enter the temple, to join the people in whose company I belonged....
I was worried about him.
For heaven's sake! He had appeared to me in his primal form!
So he was going to die.

Jung considered: "Why does he always pretend he doesn't know He is a basileus of Kos?
And that he has already assumed his primal form?
Damn it all, he ought to watch his step."
I was his last patient.

On April 4, 1944 - I still remember the exact date - I was allowed to sit up on the edge of my bed for the first time since the beginning of my illness.
On this same day Dr. H. took to his bed and did not leave it again.
He was a good doctor; there was something of the genius about him. . . . a prince of Kos."
(cf. Cohen 72-74]

Jung's Night Experience in England in the Summer of 1920

Moving to another room, Jung was not disturbed again.

Jung and the Scarab Beetle

Jung's Exposure to Einstein

ONWORD:

Adjoined

• Jung Lexicon