Memories, Dreams, Reflections

About the book

Book author: Carl Jung

Note: Carl Jung is a controversial figure. He is somewhat of a mystic and everything he talks about is hard to prove. He is a bit of an historical oddity or artifact.

This is Carl Jung’s memoirs. We follow Carl as he lived his life, and how through living and experiencing his own life he forms his thoughts into theories. He seems to be a very introspective and extremely creative. He lived his life according to some dreams he had at an early age. He was an insanely prolific writer and regarded by many as a “modern sage”, whatever that means. He was close friends with Freud for some time, before they diverged in their respective theories.

Is Jungs stuff bullshit? Well, Psychology certainly isn’t. However, here we have to descern between psychology (the actual science) and analytical psychology which is what Jung was doing. Regular psychology is an actual science and studies the mind and behaviour in scientific ways.

Analytical psychology, on the other hand, attempts to explore the deeper aspects of the human psyche, such as spiritual experiences, dreams, symbols and self-realization. It sometimes borders a bit on the occult. As such, they have a different focus. They share a similar name but the toolkit is quite different too. What is interesting is that Jung was able to help many patients through analyzing their dreams and resolving certain complexes present in their personalities.

Reflection and takeaways

I liked the book, and I was inspired to introspect even more. Being jealous of how much Jung seems to dream, I have thought a lot more about dreams, and as a consequence I dream more. For that reason, this book was already worth the read.

I have always been intrigued (as an outsider) by certain parts of Jung’s work. A lot of insightful quotes are from Jung or Jungians, such as:

“What you resist, persist” - Carl Jung

“We cannot change anything unless we accept it” - Carl Jung

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves” - Carl Jung

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek”

Joseph Campbell, a Jungian

Some other stuff that he is responsible for:

• Collective unconscious, the shared reservoir of archetypes and symbolic patterns, existing in the depths in the human psyche. It is the reason why the same myths and stories independently show up everywhere in folklore, and why some things “vibe” with everyone. Many mythological concepts and symbols have their root here.
• Archetypes, some concrete things that really manifest with the collective unconscious. For example, we find “The wise old man” in Ben Kenobi, Dumbledore, Gandalf et al. This mentor is part of many famous stories and guides the individual to individuation. (see also: Hero’s journey)
• Anima and animus, the innate psychological counterpart of the opposite gender that exerts influence on your behaviour, relationships and self-development. Ever been in a relationship and in love with the idea of a person, rather than who the person actually is? I certainly have. It doesn’t confirm this concept, but I certainly have experienced the meaning behind it.
• Shadow, all the “undesired” things about your personality that are repressed. When acknowledged and integrated, can lead to personal growth and wholeness. Jungs point was that inherent in all humans is a large capacity for evil, yet noone admits that they are evil. In Skärmhjärnan I learned that 10-15% of all human deaths in hunter-gatherer times were beatings by other people. Also during Jungs lifetime WWI and WWII happened, which we can all agree was pretty damn evil. Noone sees themselves committing evil acts, yet regular people worked as guards and executioners. A good book about this is Ordinary Men.
• Individuation, the process of integrating all the parts of you (i.e your unconscious – all of it, even the shadow, anima and animus) into yourself. Supposedly it makes you a better person to integrate these parts. Only when you accept certain things about yourself and bring them into awareness do you gain control over it.
• Persona, the kind of mask that you put on depending on who you are interacting with or trying to be. It is not your “true” self. What you do at home is probably different behavior than at your workplace.
• Complexes, weird experiences around an archetype that can influence your thoughts, behaviours and perceptions, often outside of your conscious awareness.
• Synchronicity, when uncorrelated events happen but you are in a mood where you interpret it in a meaningful way. You think of someone and they call that day, for example. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is supernatural, but it can be interpreted very meaningfully by you.

The first part I really enjoyed was Jung confessing he did a lot of things without realising why. One of these things was creating some sort of mannequin. Later he found out that exactly what he did was a “Churinga”, a ritual totem, a kind of “soul-stone” which is something that aboriginals used to create. Why did they have the same “hobby” even though Jung is a child in Europe and aboriginals exist in Australia? Was there some sort of latent driver in the psyche that can drive people to make them? This sparked something.

The second part I enjoyed too: we discover Jung’s theory about the Persona. He discovered that within himself there are two personalities: No. 1 and No. 2. No. 1 is the perfect good son: the schoolboy who likes to get good grades and conforming to society. But there is also No. 2, his sort of inner mystic. No. 2 liked to read all kings of weird books and doesn’t care much for what No. 1 wants, and external validation. Only when Jung listened to No. 2 was he truly at his happiest. But No. 2 had to be hidden from view because it is a little too weird, its thoughts were better kept secret as to not invite drama. These parts later developed into the ego and the self. Isn’t this fascinating? I can confess to putting on all kinds of masks depending on who I’m talking to.. certainly I don’t joke about the same things with my parents as with my friends. I have a very professional demeanour in business, but I’m not a particularly serious person at the core. I just love this insight. My “No. 2” certainly loves reading pretentious books like this one.

Jung’s opinion on Plato & the ancient philosophers was pretty on point too: he said that it is as if they have seen an elephant by hearsay. I agree with this; most Socrates, Plato and Aristotle content has a lot of logical trolling and it’s all stuck in the idea and forms space. The real way to discover something is through experience, i.e by tinkering.

On Nietzsche, he said that he was profound, but as we know, Nietzsche went insane. Jung believes it is because he lived according to his “No. 2” and let it take over completely. Personally I think Nietzsche had some awesome ideas – he really is profound, but yes, he did go insane. He actually predicted that he would, and left a little note to people who would undoubtedly say “why should I trust someone whose ideas turned him insane?”

“There is a false saying, ‘Whoever cannot save himself - how can he save others?’ But if I have the key to your chains, why should your and my lock be the same.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

I also thought it was super interesting when Jung thought himself into a neurosis. After abandoning himself completely to his subconscious he encountered things he immediately recognized in his clinical patients: visions, symbols and things of similar nature. Must have been strange to be so aware of what to expect, and do it anyway.

Why did I pick it

I encounter a lot of Jung content in my YouTube feed, and I always find it fascinating. I was recommended this book by a friend and that was the final nail in the coffin for me.

Verdict

3.⁵⁄₅ - It was a fun read. I like Jung, and he certainly has traits I like. Some parts were a bit long-winded. Some terms I had no idea about and could not find in the glossary.