80 phrases by Carl Jung to rethink your existence
Carl Jung was one of Freud's disciples who later disagreed with him to the point of developing different "schools" of therapy. Specific, he founded what today comes to be called Deep Psychology or Analytical Psychology.
This type of psychology considers the existence of a collective unconscious from which various inherited and transmitted archetypes depart, as well as an unconscious personal conflict in which the conflicts proper to the subject's own experience remain, in the form of complex. All this evolves in such a way that the subject builds his identity, his own self.
For Jung, the symbolic and representative like dreams and artistic expressions They are of great importance, allowing to clarify the content of the unconscious in consciousness, as well as the spiritual (dimension of the person to whom he gave great value).
In order to better understand your vision of life and psyche, in this article you can find 80 quotes by Carl Jung.
80 phrases and reflections of Carl Gustav Jung
Jung's view of the human psyche and the various aspects that make us up as people
has a marked symbolic and even spiritual tint. To better understand Jung's work, you can review the following reflections by the author.1. The meeting of two people is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is a reaction, both are transformed
In this sentence Jung reflects on the ability of the human being to provoke a reaction in the other and the importance of human contact in development, the process of change and transformation vital.
2. Know all the theories. Master all the techniques, but when touching a human soul it is just another human soul
This phrase refers to the fact that regardless of our knowledge and abilities we are human beings who deal with other human beings. A cold and distant treatment can be harmful, being essential the establishment of relationships of trust based on understanding and unconditional acceptance.
3. One does not reach enlightenment by fantasizing about light but by making darkness conscious... what is not made conscious manifests in our lives as destiny
Jung urges us with this phrase to let go of our unconscious side and allow the expression of instincts, without repressing them out of fear or fear.
4. The main function of dreams is to try to restore our psychological balance
In this sentence we see how, for Jung, dreams are elements that seek to clarify our conscience.
5. Life not lived is a disease from which you can die
Repression and inhibition Our own being makes it difficult for us to live the life we really want or need to lead, causing deep frustration and suffering.
6. You are what you do, not what you say you are going to do
This phrase prompts us to act instead of promising or thinking about doing it.
7. People will do any case, no matter how absurd it may be, to avoid facing their own souls.
The fear of oneself, what they will say or a high level of moral rigidity causes us to do behaviors that try to occupy our time or deny our own essence, not accepting ourselves.
8. The shoe that fits one man tightens another; there is no recipe for life that works in all cases
What works for one can be harmful to another. This can be applied to multiple areas of life, from the level of psychological treatments to ways of dealing with certain conflicts.
9. If you are a talented person, it does not mean that you have already received something. It means that you can give something
This phrase encourages us to offer and give the best of ourselves and our abilities, seeking the good. Talent is a gift to offer to the world.
10. Great talents are the most charming and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang on the thinnest and most easily broken branches
Talent is born largely of effort, but care and measure must be taken to achieve it. In addition, talent generally has to be nurtured and nurtured or else it may fade.
11. Nobody, as long as they move between the chaotic currents of life, is without problems
Living means facing vicissitudes and difficulties and encountering obstacles that we must overcome in order to achieve our goals. A life without any problems does not exist, or is limited to surviving without living.
12. I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to be
Our past can mark us in multiple ways and can predispose us to act in certain ways. However, we can always choose what to do next and how we will continue on our way. The past has already happened, we have to choose what to do now and in the future.
13. The privilege of a life is to become who you really are
Be who you are. Finding a balance in our conflicts and develop our identity by living according to it.
14. Your vision will only become clearer when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, wakes up
Jung advocates that self-awareness and knowledge of our nature It is necessary in order to understand ourselves and be able to achieve a balance and objectives that harmonize with it.
15. Everything in creation is essentially subjective and the dream is a theater where the dreamer is at the same time the stage, actor, manager, author, audience and critic.
In this sentence we are told about subjectivity and dreams as an element of representation of our psyche.
16. Sleep is the little door hidden in the deepest and most intimate sanctuary of the soul
Again the author indicates the value of dreams in their connection with the expression of our desires.
17. Those who learn nothing from the unpleasant facts of life force cosmic consciousness to Let him reproduce them as many times as necessary to learn what the drama of what happened teaches. What you deny submits you; what you accept transforms you
Suffering, no matter how painful, allows us to learn different aspects of life. Not accepting it means that the same pattern of behavior will tend to be repeated, while doing so brings us closer to overcoming it.
18. Loneliness does not come from not having people around you, but from not being able to communicate the things that seem important to you, or by holding certain points of view that others consider inadmissible
Jung reflect on what it means to feel lonely, something different from being physically.
19. In one way or another we are parts of a single all-encompassing mind, a single great human being.
We are all connected to each other. This phrase also connects with the idea of the existence of a collective unconscious through which we transmit elements such as archetypes.
20. There are as many nights as there are days, and each one lasts the same as the day that comes after. Even the happiest life cannot be measured without a few moments of darkness, and the word happy would lose all meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
We are able to know what happiness is because there are times when we are not, which allows us to value it. The life we live is a balance between opposites.
21. Show me a sane man and I'll heal him for you
We all have our problems. Even people who do not manifest psychopathology suffer and will suffer various circumstances throughout life and may need help.
22. If there is something we want to change in the child, we must first examine it and see if it is not something that might be better to change in ourselves.
Each person is as he is and has his own way of seeing the world. Before trying to change the characteristics of others, it is necessary to take into account where they come from, since sometimes we ourselves cause these characteristics. In addition, what needs to be changed may not be a feature that bothers us but the fact that it bothers us.
23. There can be no transformation from darkness to light and from apathy to emotionless movement
Emotions are a main element to take into account when explaining our behavior. Working solely on a behavioral level may not bring about real change if there is no motivation to do so.
24. Fanaticism is an overcompensation of doubt
The taking of extremist positions comes for Jung from an attempt to fight against uncertainty and doubt through over-corrective methods.
25. I simply believe that some part of the human self or soul is not subject to the laws of space and time
Jung's spiritual side comes to light in this sentence.
26. A man who has not passed through the hell of his passions has never overcome them.
Overcoming something means facing it despite the pain it may cause us.
27. The scariest thing is to accept yourself completely
Accepting both our person and our shadow, both what we express and what we repress, is something tremendously complex. We all have a good side and a dark side.
28. Knowing your own darkness is the best method of dealing with other people's darkness.
Being aware of the totality of one's nature can help to understand the presence of similar elements in others, both in the expressed and in the hidden, and help them to understand themselves and live their life in a satisfactory.
29. What you resist persists
Resisting something is just one way for it to remain in our mind and present itself again in the future.
30. We can come to think that we control ourselves completely. However, a friend can easily tell us something about us that we had no idea about.
Although we often believe that no one knows us better than ourselves, sometimes we express things that we are not even aware of. Others can teach us things about ourselves that we did not know.
31. The bigger the crowd, the more insignificant the person
Humans tend to partially dissolve when we are in the crowd.
32. Consciousness is a condition of being
Being aware is a fundamental part of being and knowing who we are. Without consciousness there could be no self.
33. Nothing has a stronger psychological influence on your environment and especially on your children than the unlived life of a parent.
What we live and what we repress not only has an effect on ourselves, but through our actions we transmit it to the environment and the people around us.
34. Time is a child who plays like a child. I am one but opposed to myself I am young and old at the same time
In this sentence Jung speaks of self-consciousness. We are who we are all our lives, no matter how old we are, although various aspects can change throughout development.
35. All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right do we have then to the amortization of the imagination?
Art and expression They have their origin in the capacity for fantasy and creativity, aspects linked to our emotions, our nature and impulses. This idea has a lot to do with Jung's emphasis on analyzing works of artistic and cultural expression, through which archetypes could be recognized.
- Related article: "The archetypes according to Carl Gustav Jung"
36. The unconscious can reserve essential messages for the ears that know how to listen
Introspection can serve as a mechanism to find out about your own unconscious aspects. Likewise, specialized and skilled people can help uncover the unconscious elements trapped in others.
37. When love is the norm, there is no will to power, and where power is imposed, love is lacking
Loving means not wanting to dominate the other, not establishing relationships of superiority or inferiority with the person or loved object. If this happens in reality there is no true love.
38. Do not hold back those who move away from you, because then those who want to get closer will not arrive.
The meaning of this phrase leads us to let things flow and stop living in the past, or we can miss great opportunities.
39. Art is a kind of innate unity that takes hold of a human being and turns him into his instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own benefit, but an art that allows his purpose to come true through him
Jung reflects his opinion about what art means, and its irrationality.
40. Everything that irritates us about others leads us to an understanding of ourselves
In this sentence we are told that the fact that something irritates us can allow us to discover what we are like and why it is irritating to us.
41. All of us born originals and die copies.
This phrase reflects the idea that in childhood we are authentic and pure, while as we grow up we are constrained by our experiences and the repression of our nature. We tend to adopt the majority model of behavior.
42. The unconscious is the history of mankind from time immemorial
This phrase partly reflects Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, which allows the transmission of knowledge and information through time and generation.
43. No psychic value can disappear without being replaced by another equivalent in intensity
Our emotions, feelings, beliefs or values do not just disappear, but are transformed.
44. You can take away the gods from a man, but only to give others in return
This phrase refers to the same aspect as the previous one. What we believe, what we value, think or feel cannot just vanish, it can only be transformed.
45. The healthy man does not torture others, usually it is the tortured who becomes the torturer
In this sentence he establishes that generally the person who harms others is because he has previously been harmed (is It is important to note that the relationship is not reversed, that is, not all those tortured become torturers).
46. The separation of psychology from the premises of biology is purely artificial, because the human psyche lives in indissoluble union with the body.
Despite being deeply spiritual, Jung believed that body and mind are united and influence each other.
- You may be interested: "Dualism in Psychology"
47. We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgment of the intellect is only part of the truth
Sensations and intuitions are an important part of helping to explain the world. Using only logic limits our point of view.
48. Children are educated by what the great one does and not by what he says.
Words can be important, but what we engrave in our memory from childhood is what our referents do.
49. All forms of addiction are bad, no matter if the narcotic is alcohol, morphine or idealism
To circumscribe our way of acting only based on one aspect of our life is harmful and harmful.
50. When the most intense conflicts are overcome, they leave a sense of security and tranquility that is not easily disturbed. It is only these intense conflicts and their conflagration that are needed to produce lasting and valuable results.
The resolution of important conflicts for us is fundamental and necessary in order to modify our way of seeing life and acting, while its resolution allows us to feel satisfaction and wellness.
51. If one does not understand another person he tends to consider him crazy
The lack of understanding is what leads to confrontation, and this, together with other factors, can lead to criticism and to consider that the other is wrong or even that they do not have good mental health.
52. Complexes are psychic contents that are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have split from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or reinforce conscious intentions.
Complexes with for Jung the repressed elements of the psyche that cause great problems to the time to act, generally caused by the experience of stressful, painful and traumatic events. These contents are separated from the conscious psyche due to the pain they generate.
53. The unconscious is not something bad by nature, it is also a source of well-being. Not only darkness but also light, not only bestial and demonic, but also spiritual and divine
Often the unconscious, instinct and drive are understood as something brutal and that has negative connotations, but it also supposes the birth of passion, art, expression, kindness or love.
54. The word belief is a difficult thing for me. I don `t believe. I have to have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know one thing, and then I know I don't need to believe
What is a belief? Where does it come from? Jung considered that behind them there was a certain reason that makes them be something more than mere beliefs.
55. The pendulum of the mind alternates between meaning and nonsense, not between good and evil
Good and evil are human-created concepts. We simply act in a certain way that may or may not make sense or be consistent.
56. We can't change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, she oppresses
Condemning something, repressing it, only causes it to be hidden and prevents it from being modified.
57. They have accused me of defender of the soul. It was not me but God himself who defended her
A phrase that reflects Jung's belief in the human soul.
58. The man who does not perceive the drama of his own end is not in normality but in pathology, and he would have to lie down on the stretcher and allow himself to be cured
Death is something that most people cause some kind of concern since, after all, it means facing the unknown and the end of life.
59. It all depends on how we see things, and not on the way they are themselves
Our perception of things determines how we act and what they mean to us. It is our point of view about them that determines what the facts mean, and not what it really is.
60. Knowledge is not based on truth only but also on error
To err is something normal and represents an opportunity. To make mistakes it is necessary to learn and develop. One of the most inspiring Carl Jung quotes.
61. We are born at a given moment in which this takes place and like good wines we have the qualities of the year and the season in which we have come to this world. Astrology should not justify anything else
Astrology is another of the fields in which Jung showed interest, linking it with the existence of some innate characteristics in people. This, among other things, distances Jung from science.
62. Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.
Jung indicates to us in this sentence that the intellect is not everything, and that often our body and our instinct can respond to what reason does not arrive at.
63. Through pride we deceive ourselves. But deep below the surface of average consciousness a soft, still voice tells us that something is out of tune.
Pride is just a way of trying to deceive yourself despite the fact that deep down we know that we are not acting correctly or truthfully.
64. From mid-life onwards, only the one who is prepared to die alive remains vital.
Aging sometimes induces us to worry and focus on death and what could happen instead of living in itself and trying to follow our nature,
65. We need to learn that the giver of all things resides within us. This is a truth that in the face of all evidence, in the biggest and smallest things, you never know, although it is often so necessary, even vital, for us to know
It is we ourselves who live our life, and our actions that govern it.
66. It is surprising that man, the instigator, inventor and vehicle of all these events, the author of all judgments and decisions and planning for the future, is so negligent
The human being has made great discoveries and has developed a large number of skills, knowledge, technologies and forms of expression. However, human nature is negligent and often neglects essential aspects, including itself.
67. In science, we must always be attentive to the fact that there are human veils that hide the abysmal darkness of the unknown
In this sentence Jung tells us about the possibility of finding biases and even interests in research that are carried out and that can compromise the results.
68. The human being who promises everything is sure that he will do nothing and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using diabolical means to carry out his promises and is already on the path of perdition
We cannot commit ourselves to everything and everyone, and whoever does too much will either have to breach his commitment or use means that are harmful to himself and / or others, wearing out.
69. The erotic instinct belongs to the original nature of man... It is related to the highest form of spirit
While Jung did not consider sex to be the primary driver of human behavior, sexuality and sensuality form an important part of the human being, linking eroticism to spirituality.
70. It is much better to take things as they come together with patience and equanimity.
What happens to us is not always controllable no matter how much we worry, so it is much more adaptive to be able to tolerate uncertainty and accept what may come.
71. There is no language that cannot be misinterpreted. Each interpretation is hypothetical, as it is a simple attempt to read an unknown text
It all depends on how we see things. Regardless of how objective something may seem, others will always interpret it in their own way and may reach different conclusions regarding the same reality.
72. Without playing with fantasy no creative work has ever been born. The debt we owe to the work of the imagination is incalculable
Creativity and the unconscious are always deeply linked, and thanks to this we can develop and generate new content and elements.
73. The little world of childhood with its family environment is a model of the world. The more intensely the family forms character, the better the child will adapt to the world
The family environment is what endows us with values and the one that educates us and prepares us to see the outside world. It is something of great importance in order to forge a good adaptation to it.
74. The great decisions of human life have as a general rule much more to do with instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors that with conscious will and sense of reasonableness
When making decisions, we tend to reflect heavily on the pros and cons of each option, but generally instinct ends up prompting the making of a specific option.
75. The worst thing that can happen to anyone is being fully understood
A reflection that the complete understanding of something or someone can be inconvenient for both the understood and the one who understands, but especially for the former.
76. There is no awareness without pain
Feeling pain is inevitable, and it helps us to be aware of ourselves and our relationship with reality and with our own self.
77. All mythology can be understood as a kind of projection of the collective unconscious. We can see this more clearly when we look at the star constellations, those originally chaotic forms were organized through the projection of images. This explains the influence of the stars as claimed by astrologers. Those influences are nothing less than unconscious and introspective perceptions of the Collective Unconscious.
The collective unconscious, the images and concepts inherited and transmitted generationally, is an important part of the psyche for Jung. He considers that archetypes come from these images, internalized images of our own nature, and that from it the myths and legends of each people have been forged.
78. The wine of adolescence does not always clear as the years go by, sometimes it becomes cloudy
Time per se does not have to heal wounds or improve the aspects of each person, but acting is what does it.
79. Astrology represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity
Again we can see that for Jung astrology is an important element, since it reflects the beliefs and what the ancients knew about the psyche.
80. As far as we can achieve, the only meaning of human existence consists in lighting a light in the darkness of mere being.
Finding ourselves and living according to what and how we are is for Jung the main meaning of life.
