Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.
Carl JungRead
The cinema, like the detective story, makes it possible to experience without danger all the excitement, passion and desirousness which must be repressed in a humanitarian ordering of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that cinema allows us to explore intense emotions safely, without the risks associated with real-life experiences.
Carl Jung points out that both cinema and detective stories provide an avenue for individuals to engage with the excitement and passions that are often suppressed in a structured and humanitarian society. Through film, audiences can vicariously live out desires and thrills without the inherent dangers that come with them in real life, serving as a cathartic escape from the constraints of daily existence.
Themes
CinemaEmotionExperienceSafetyPassion
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a film studies class to discuss the psychological impact of cinema.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes βThe majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
Carl JungRead
Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
Carl JungRead
We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.
Carl JungRead
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
Carl JungRead
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Carl JungRead
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