Fin

Man, just look at that grand old pipe of his...

  

Yes, trusty followers, I have yet again returned from a brief hiatus to kindle a light in the darkness of being! Last week I was on a sacred voyage to Verona and Venice, and I managed to put in a brief stop in Florence as well! Now what did I learn from this travel, loyal acolytes? Enough to keep your humble minds running around in confusion while chasing the miraculous bait of splendid and grandiose illumination that my blessed website will leave dangling in front of your eager and zealous noses! But lest ye collapse in pitiful catatonia and sordid apathy, clutching the armrests of your cheap, ignominious Ikea-chairs and abundantly soiling your menial undergarments, let me offer some concluding remarks on Jung, so that we can next move on to other topics!

                            

For Jung, myth is of fundamental importance: it is an assertion of the unconscious that comes closest to capturing the meaning of the archetypal experience in words. Without it we are lost and separated from the connection with the unconscious that is necessary for individuation, the process which Jung considered to be the objective of all human existence. Through individuation every human being comes to his own in the world as a single, unique individual, fully self-realized and morally conscientious. But Jung was always quick to add a clinical dimension to his theories, for he was first and foremost a psychiatrist, though one that was not completely free of any self-inflating tendencies, I must add. Myth was also a practical tool for Jung, as he believed that it could form a sort of signpost to which you could guide yourself as the unconscious kept on bombarding you with superfluous symbols and meaningful images. Remember that Jung thought that schizophrenics simply lacked the ability to properly prevent the unconscious from dominating the conscious, and that however much we would like to block out the unconscious altogether in our modern society (although now that Jung’s been dead for so long, maybe I should speak of post-modern society, or beyond-post-modern, or in the words of German dance music-luminary Scooter: “Hyper, hyper!”), it would always find a way to express itself.

In any case, Jung himself already skated close to the edge of pseudo-mysticism with his analytical psychology (and especially the ardent devotion that his followers brought to bear on it), but in these days Jung has for an important part been claimed by New Age-enthusiasts as the principal agitator against the maladies and insecurities of the digital age, who unquestionably demonstrated that, yes, there really is a Goddess in every woman! (You are wrong; there is only one in MY girlfriend). These witless dolts of course never bother to read one letter of his vast oeuvre in the original German, nor do they concern themselves with the many clinical papers that he wrote. Thank the stars therefore that there is this blog, and that you found it!

I bet you experienced my glorious return not unlike this: “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” (Revelation 1:12-16)

 Is this what you saw with your mind's eye while reading this post, devoted reader!? Be honest!

Oh yeah, I took this in the dome of Verona.

Keep on truckin’!

Until the next!