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
I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Settling for inadequate answers can lead to emotional distress.
Carl Jung suggests that when individuals accept insufficient or incorrect responses to life's profound questions, it can lead to a state of neurosis and mental unrest. This highlights the importance of seeking deeper understanding and truths rather than being complacent with easy or superficial explanations.
Themes
NeurosisAnswersSelf-DiscoveryLife'S QuestionsTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on personal development, this quote can be used to emphasize that exploring deeper questions can lead to better mental health.
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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