Karl Jung’s Power of the Mind “How did he acquire his knowledge?”

by Martin Chekel (editor)

This book is a subjoined series of interviews and dialogues with Karl Jung.The present age is so distinctly one of change and transition that few individuals think about life and destiny, most remain satisfied with ancestral and traditional dogmas.Yes, it is an age of change, but also an age of search and that is its greatest virtue. For out of the growing confusion of change, search ultimately will find better ways of living with universal truths and therefore, about life and the universe as a composite of inherited forms and ideology of thought regarding the nature of the existence of mankind.The perfecting of human behavior is both a science and an art, therefore, may be viewed as a scientific process, exercising the utmost intelligence and judgment. It is possible to arrive at ideal standards for conduct through the use of this scientific judgment, as Socrates did.However, a scientist, whose mind is principally occupied in one particular line of investigation, is not liable to recognize a new truth in natural law, until it has been brought to his attention.Karl Gustav Jung was one such scientist, a Swiss psychiatrist, influential thinker, considered a Gnostic relating to knowledge, especially knowledge of spiritual truths, and founder of analytical psychology Early in his career, Jung worked with psychiatric patients at the University of Zürich asylum. In 1906, he wrote Studies in Word Association and sent a copy to Sigmund Freud. The event served as the beginning of a friendship between the two men. Working with Sigmund Freud impacted Jung’s later theories and helped him develop a fascination for the unconscious mind and searched for a better understanding of the human mind through dreams, myth, art and philosophy. However, their friendship began to dissolve as Jung started to develop his own ideas that diverged from Freud's views.It was during a period of intense self-analysis that Jung became increasingly interested in dreams and symbols, later using what he learned during this time as the basis for his theories of psychology. As he studied medicine, he also developed an interest in spiritual phenomena. He carefully recorded his dreams, fantasies, and visions, and drew, painted, and sculpted them as well. His experiences formed themselves into persons, one beginning a wise old man and one being his companion, a little girl. The wise old man evolved, over a number of dreams, into a sort of spiritual guru. The little girl became "anima," the feminine soul, who served as his main medium of communication with the deeper aspects of his unconscious mind the medical field of psychology.It was this fascination with medicine and spirituality that had led him into the field of psychiatry, which he viewed as a combination of his two interests. In 1912, Jung “should it happen that all traditions in the world were cut off with a single blow, the whole mythology and history of religion would start over again with the succeeding generation”. With this vision, Jung gave a new understanding to the concept of world literature; the history of human thought lay in the soul. Passed on from generation to generation, it was always ready to re-emerge. Three hundred years before, the field of psychiatry was only the study of the soul.Jung's definition of ego is the conscious part of the mind. His explanation was that the ego is that cork bobbing on the ocean he called individuation, with the ocean being all the myriad elements of the human psyche, which are mind, body, and soul.For the soul (the heart or love) to develop and rule in the human psyche, the ego (the mind) must give way to this thought pattern.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 25, 2012