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The Undiscovered Self by Carl G. Jung

Carl Gustav Jung’s The Undiscovered Self offers a profound exploration into the psychological struggles of modern individuals, particularly within the context of mass-mindedness and societal structures. This short but impactful book delves into the consequences of losing personal identity in the face of collective movements and ideologies, touching on themes that resonate strongly in today’s world. As the fabric of our society becomes ever more dominated by political movements, technological...

Do Social Psychologists have a Problem with Rebels?

Compared to other social scientists, it appears that social psychologists appear to be especially concerned about the negative effects of rebels in groups. For example, sociologists often point to the important function that deviance plays in group life and the beneficial effects of deviance. Emile Durkheim (1958) highlighted that deviance and crime are important activities within any healthy society. He argued that, in the process of responding to deviance, group...
heresy

Heresy and Heretics

Heretic Middle English: from Old French heretique, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek hairetikos ‘able to choose’ (in ecclesiastical Greek, ‘heretical’), from haireomai ‘choose’. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica one can read:“The word heresy is derived from the Greek hairesis which originally meant an act of choosing, and so came to signify a set of philosophical opinions or the school professing them. As so used the term was neutral, but once appropriated by Christianity it began to convey a note of disapproval. […]...

Hypnosis in Advertising and Politics

Hypnosis, suggestions can drastically alter the way individuals perceive and think about their world. There has always been tension between the rulers and the ruled, the masters and the masses. It is the centrifugal pull of self-desire against the welfare of the larger society, the tether that holds human history together. For much of that history society at large was the concern of a governing class: kings or priests, who...

The Hidden War for Your Will

“What if the battlefield was no longer land or ideology — but the human nervous system itself?” When most people hear the term mind control, they envision the tropes of bad thrillers: hypnotic spirals, CIA brainwashing labs, and cult leaders whispering strange mantras. But the true story, as Heiner Gehring presents it in Versklavte Gehirne (“Enslaved Minds”), is far more disquieting — and far more real. In the mid-20th century,...
Albruna Gudrun Maier files

Soror Mystica

The anima as a friend or soror mystica (mystical sister) has always played a great role in history. In the “cours d’amour” (courts of love) of René d’Anjou she even takes precedence over the wife. The term maîtresse actually means mistress or master. In the Middle Ages, for example, the worship of the anima led to courtly love, in which the knight was committed to his lady and was at her service. In later history we know of women such […]...

Jung on Evil – Are we the origin of all coming evil?

The problem of evil is a perennial one. Theodicies abound throughout history, explaining God’s purposes in tolerating evil and allowing it to exist. Mythological and theological dualisms try to explain evil by asserting its metaphysical status and grounding and the eternal conflict between evil and good. More psychological theories locate evil in humanity and in psychopathology. Probably humans have forever wrestled with questions like these: Who is responsible for evil?...

Jung’s Seminars on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra

C.G. Jung’s seminars on Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, held between 1934 and 1939, are a monumental exploration into the depths of Nietzsche’s philosophy through the lens of analytical psychology. Jung was profoundly influenced by Nietzsche, and in these seminars, he delved into the psychological underpinnings of Nietzsche’s work, examining it from the perspective of the collective unconscious and archetypal symbolism. Jung saw Zarathustra as an essential text for understanding the...
Contradictions and paradox

Can truth be a liar?

When it is exclaimed that contradictions may very well be true, numerous analytic philosophers will screw up their face into an appearance of discomfort, and say ‘But I just don’t see what it could be for a contradiction to be true’. They could mean numerous things by this. ‘See’ might just mean ‘understand’, by which case they might be complaining that traditional two-valued semantics leaves no room, as it were, for something to be both true and false. Such a […]...

From Ancient Rites to Modern Revelations

Initiation—an evocative term that conjures images of secret rites and profound transformations—has intrigued anthropologists and scholars of religion for generations. As Joseph Henderson wisely noted in his seminal work, Thresholds of Initiation, “Initiation more than any other body of knowledge has suffered throughout history from the fate of continually being forgotten and having to be rediscovered” (Henderson 2005: 1). In 1909, a remarkable resurgence of interest in initiation rites occurred,...
sprookjes

The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale. All these together form the literature of preliterate societies. The Nordic languages have only one word for both: saga. The German language retained the word Sage for myths, while fairy stories are called Märchen. It’s the same in the Dutch language, the word Sage for myths, while fairy tales are called sprookjes. It is unfortunate...

The Mystical Depths of Tristan und Isolde

In the realm of myth and music, the story of Tristan und Isolde holds a profound place, delving into the mystique of love and death. This article explores the deeper, perhaps occult, significance of the Tristan und Isolde myth, using insights from Denis de Rougemont’s “L’amour et l’Occident” and Robert A. Johnson’s “Die Traumvorstellung Liebe – Der Irrtum des Abendlandes.” By examining Richard Wagner’s music drama, we unravel the layers of Tristan’s quest for his Anima, the elixir of love […]...
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