Epimetheus must be thought of, not as two men, but as the two sides of
one man, the conflict, in short, between introversion and extraversion.
In the normal course of development, like Faust, one develops first one
side, then the other. Naturally the time must come when the conflict
breaks out in full force: shall one follow the principle of power,
of introversion, or that of love, of extraversion? This conflict
produces a deadlock, and in this deadlock, a solution is offered by the
unconscious in the form of a symbol (the jewel, the wonder-child.) But
this is not understood, and there is a breakdown and collapse. However,
now a new path is found which leads out.
This path Jung calls the _transcendent function_; this indeed is the
Messias of the poem. It is part of the analytic process, and emerges
only at the end of a deep analysis. What it amounts to is an _inner
guidance_.
I have already shown that the collective unconscious is creative, that
it is ahead of the race, and projects at times, through geniuses, a
vision of what is to be, what is becoming. Just as it does this for the
race, it also to a certain extent, and at certain times, is prospective
for the individual, laying out the next step he is to take, and
forecasting the next phase of his development.
This prospective quality is rarely found in the dream, though sometimes
it appears there. It is usually found in the _phantasy_. The phantasy
is a product analogous to the dream, but whereas when we dream we are
fully asleep, and hence, unconscious, the phantasy appears between
waking and sleeping, when we are really half-asleep. It appears as a
sort of dream, sometimes as a clear plastic image, and we know, when we
apprehend it, that we are not asleep.
As Jung works out in great detail, the phantasy has a greater
value than the dream, for the dream is merely the product of the
unconscious, whereas the phantasy is the product of both the conscious
and unconscious minds working simultaneously at that moment when we
are half-conscious, or between the two. Hence, it contains in symbolic
form, our deepest insight, our deepest wish, our clearest foreknowledge
of what to do, being in this respect also superior to our conscious
working out of the problem.
It is by following the insight gained from our phantasies that we
work out the problem of the deep conflict; for if we follow these
phantasies, we take the next necessary step and so learn gradually to
reconcile the claims of extraversion with those of introversion.
In the great religion of the Hindoos, and in fact, in a religion of
the Chinese, we hear much of a Middle Path. The problem as set forth
by those religions is that life consists of a pair of opposites; such
for instance as spirituality vs. materialism, feminine vs. masculine,
love vs. power, divine vs. demonic, etc., and they see clearly that
neither extreme can bring peace. If we live one extreme then soon we
thirst and hunger for the other, and this brings discord and conflict.
The true wisdom of life then is to find a Middle Path, a way between
the opposites. This way is not something that can be thought out
and entered by violence. It is something found gradually through
development in religious ritual.
It is this great thought, this truth which emerges again in modern
psychology. But it comes now with a difference. Psycho-analysis is a
highly specialized scientific technic. It does not deal with ritual
and dogma, it does not lay down general laws to the individual. It
recognizes that his problem is different from that of all other
individuals, and seeks to guide him, not from without, but from within.
From the material which rises naturally from his own psyche, from dream
and phantasy and intuition, he gains the insight which he must follow.
Hence, religion ceases to be a mass-matter, but becomes an individual
matter. As Jung puts it, every creed attempts to make us all live the
phantasies of the founder of the religion. His phantasies may have been
very great and very deep; but they were, in the main, his own. Every
human being is constantly producing phantasies, and in these lies his
own path, and not in those of someone’s else.
What is the goal then of this immense struggle in the human being,
this psychic conflict which sometimes goes on to a point of shattering
the individual, this inner division that cries out for healing, and
which goads us forward to our development? The word that Jung gives
us is _individuation_. We aim, he says, to be individuals in the true
sense of the word. Certainly, however, the fragments that Nietzsche
saw are not individuals, for an individual is one who contains the
many-sidedness of human nature in a state of inner harmony. If then
this one-sidedness precludes individuality, the psyche must be
constantly urging us on to develop that which has been neglected in
order that the undeveloped side may rise level to the developed side,
and so that in the end one may be a complete, rounded, harmonious human
being.
This is the light which the new psychology offers to the race at
a moment of its greatest darkness. It has just fought the bloodiest
and most devastating war of all history; it has fought that war
in the twilight of the Gods. Its old Gods are disintegrating and
vanishing. Everywhere we see the harsh conflict going on, and at the
very moment when man has reached his highest point of extraversion,
with his machines, his radios and phonographs and aeroplanes, his
automobiles and newspapers and movies, his triumph over nature, we see
everywhere the sadness and suffering of humanity, the breakdown of
white civilization in Europe, the restless stirrings of the East, and
an immense increase in neurosis and insanity. A great change is due;
a new light has come. This new light however, is not a religion, it
is nothing to broadcast and apply _en masse_. It is a technic which
must reach individual by individual, making him known to himself,
discovering for him his type with its needs and limitation, showing him
his possibilities, directing him to the path of his own development.
Naturally such development will be different for each individual.
There are not many, as Jung shows, who must go to the painful lengths
depicted in the story of Prometheus and Epimetheus, or even in the
story of Faust. For the majority, a deeper self-understanding,
a knowledge of the types, an ability to understand some of the
products of the unconscious, a lifting off of the repressions, a full
recognition of one’s own needs and desires, will be enough to bring
about a more harmonious, a more fruitful life. But for the few, a
higher, deeper suffering is necessary, possibly because of their gifts,
which may thus be developed and become a heritage for the race.
VIII.
NOTE.
This booklet has aimed to give a glimpse of a vast territory, merely
enough to set the reader toward the complete works on the subject.
It has been necessary to condense and suggest, where a deeper
understanding would be reached by elaboration and numerous examples.
For those who care to study the matter more deeply it is suggested
that they begin Jung by reading the second edition of his Papers in
Analytical Psychology. This is a difficult book because it contains a
series of articles which show his growth, step by step toward a new
insight. Much that he writes there he has since discarded. However, it
is well to read whatever of it one finds interesting.
The next step is to read The Psychology of the Unconscious, which
uncovers the theory of the collective unconscious; and finally Jung’s
master-work up to this time, his Psychological Types.
If I have stimulated the reader to the point where he desires to go on
to these works, then the purpose with which I wrote this little book is
fulfilled.
Transcriber’s Note
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Erroneously placed or missing quotation marks or punctuation have been
silently corrected.
The following printer errors or inconsistencies have been changed:
p. 5: “bads” changed to “bad” (receiving bad news)
p. 16: “homo-sexual” changed to “homosexual” (homosexual interest)
p. 18: “psychoanalytic” changed to “psycho-analytic” (In the course of
his psycho-analytic practice)
p. 56: “Epitheus” changed to “Epimetheus” (while Prometheus and
Epimetheus, the personifications)
p. 57: “analagous” changed to “analogous” (The phantasy is a product
analogous to the dream)