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The Plight of the Individual in Modern Society

For the more a theory lays claim to universal validity, the less capable it is of doing justice to the individual facts.
I can only approach the task of understanding with a free and open mind, whereas knowledge of man, or insight into human character, presupposes all sorts of knowledge about mankind in general.
The positive advantages of knowledge work specifically to the disadvantage of understanding, the judgement resulting therefrom is likely to be something of a paradox.

Just as the addition of however many zeros will never make a unit, so the value of a community depends on the spiritual and moral stature of the individuals composing it.

Consciousness is a precondition of being.
[A scientifically oriented psychology] removes itself just sufficiently far from its object not to lose sight of it altogether.
The normal fantasies of a child are nothing other, at bottom, than the imagination of the instincts.
If the flow of instinctive dynamism into our life is to be maintained, as is absolutely necessary for our existence, then it is imperative that we should remould these archetypial forms into ideas which are adequate to the challenge of the present.

His consciousness therefore orients itself chiefly by observing and investigating the world around him, and it is to the latter;s peculiarities that he must adapt his psychic and technical resources, This task is so exacting, and its fulfilment so profitable, that he forgets himself in the process, losing sight of his instinctual nature and putting his own conception of himself in place of his real being. In this way he slips imperceptibly into a purely conceptual world where the products of his conscious activity progressively take the place of reality.

History will undoubtedly pass over those who feel it is their vocation to resist this inevitable development, however desirable and psychologically necessary it may be to cling to what is essential and good in our own tradition.
A human relationship is not based on differentiation and perfection, for these only emphasize the differences or call forth the exact opposite; it is based, rather, on imperfection, on what is weak, helpless and in need of support - the very ground and motive for dependence.

Happiness and contentment, equability of mind and meaningfulness of life - these can be experienced only by the individual and not by a State, which, on the one hand, is nothing but a convention agreed to by independent individuals and, on the other, continually theatens to paralyse and suppress the individual.

One has to remind oneself again and again that in therapy it is more important for the patient to understand that for the analyst’s theoretical expectations to be satisfied.

The archetype is an inherited tendency of the human mind to form representation of mythological motifs - representations that vary a great deal without losing their basic pattern.
But while personal complexes never produce more than a personal bias, archetypes create myths, religions, and philosophical ideas that influence and set their stamp on whole nations and epochs.

Since we measure a child’s psychic life by the paucity and simplicity of its conscious contents, we do not appreciate the far-reaching complexitites of the infantile mind that stem from its original identity with the prehistoric psyche. That “original mind” is just as much present and still functioning in the child as the evolutionary stages are in the embryo.
The symbol-producing function of our dreams is an attempt to bring our original mind back to consciousness, where it has never been before, and where it has never undergone critical self-reflection.
As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will undergo it and carry it through. The change must begin with one individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can addord to look around and wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself.