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
Man's unconscious... contains all the patterns of life and behaviour inherited from his ancestors, so that every human child, prior to consciousness, is possessed of a potential system of adapted psychic functioning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the idea that humans inherit unconscious patterns of behavior from their ancestors, influencing their development even before they become self-aware.
Carl Jung emphasizes the significance of the collective unconscious—a repository of memories and experiences that shape human behavior. According to Jung, every child is born with innate tendencies and potential psychological frameworks that are influenced by their forebears, suggesting that our actions and reactions are deeply rooted in a shared human experience that transcends individual consciousness.
Themes
UnconsciousPatternsAncestryBehaviorPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
In a psychology class discussing human behavior and development, this quote can illustrate the impact of ancestral influences.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes →The 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.
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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.
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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