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
A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding psychoneurosis involves recognizing the deep suffering of an individual who has yet to find meaning in life.
Carl Jung's quote emphasizes the psychological struggles faced by individuals, asserting that psychoneurosis—often manifested as mental disorders—stems from a profound existential crisis. This suffering is rooted in the individual's inability to discover a greater purpose or meaning in their life, suggesting that true healing requires an exploration of one's inner self and fundamental beliefs.
Themes
PsychoneurosisMeaningSufferingSoulPurpose
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health seminar, to illustrate the importance of finding meaning in life.
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.
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
Similar quotes
If the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights,then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.
Jane AddamsRead
For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away.
Agatha ChristieRead
No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
I am beginning to believe that nothing can ever be proved. These are honest hypotheses which take the facts into account: but I sense so definitely that they come from me, and that they are simply a way of unifying my own knowledge. Not a glimmer comes from Rollebon's side. Slow, lazy, sulky, the facts adapt themselves to the rigour of the order I wish to give them; but it remains outside of them. I have the feeling of doing a work of pure imagination.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Civilization has little to fear from educated people and brain-workers. In them the replacement of religious motives for civilized behaviors by other, secular motives, would proceed unobtrusively. . . .
Sigmund FreudRead
I do not approve the extermination of the enemy; the policy of exterminating or, as it is barbarously said, liquidating enemies, is one of the most alarming developments of modern war and peace, from the point of view of those who desire the survival
T. S. EliotRead