I also remember that I am a human being like any other. I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole and inasmuch as I become conscious of my shadow How can I be substantial if I fail to cast a shadow? Painful though it may be, this is in itself a gain-for what is inferior or even worthless belongs to me as my shadow and gives me substance and mass. In this way we find once more things that we have repressed or forgotten. In contrast to the meditation found in yoga practice, the psychoanalytic aim is to observe the shadowy presentations-whether in the form of images or of feelings-that are spontaneously evolved in the unconscious psyche and appear without his bidding to the man who looks within. The early method of catharsis consisted in putting the patient, with or without hypnotic aid, in touch with the hinter land of his mind-that is to say, into that state which the Eastern yoga systems describe as meditation or contemplation. It is a fact that the beginnings of psychoanalysis were fundamentally nothing else than the scientific rediscovery of an ancient truth even the name catharsis (or cleansing), which was given to the earliest method of treatment, comes from the Greek initiation rites. We may well take this saying as a motto for the first stage in psychotherapeutic treatment. Here we find a key to the great significance of true, unstereotyped confession-a significance known in all the initiation and mystery cults of the ancient world, as is shown by a saying from the Greek mysteries: “Give up what thou hast, and then thou wilt receive.” Until he can do this, an impenetrable wall shuts him out from the living experience of feeling himself a man among men. There appears to be a conscience in mankind which severely punishes the man who does not somehow and at some time, at whatever cost to his pride, cease to defend and assert himself, and instead confess himself fallible and human. It, seems to be a sin in the eyes of nature to hide our insufficiency-just as much as to live entirely on our inferior side. It is as if man had an inalienable right to behold all that is dark, imperfect, stupid and guilty in his fellow-beings-for such of course are the things that we keep private to protect ourselves. It is only restraint practised in and for oneself that is unwholesome. To cherish secrets and to restrain emotions are psychic misdemeanors for which nature finally visits us with sickness-that is, when we do these things in private.īut when they are done in communion with others they satisfy nature and may even count as useful virtues. Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group
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