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
Consciousness succumbs all too easily to unconscious influences, and these are often truer and wiser than our conscious thinking.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our unconscious mind can often have deeper insights than our conscious thoughts.
Carl Jung suggests that our conscious awareness can be easily swayed by subconscious influences, which might possess greater truth and wisdom than our logical reasoning. This highlights the importance of acknowledging and understanding our unconscious mind, as it may guide us to more profound insights and decisions that we may not consciously realize.
Themes
ConsciousnessUnconsciousWisdomInfluenceInsight
In practice
Example use cases
In a psychology class discussing the influence of the unconscious mind.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes →The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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