Section 4

We are getting it bit behind schedule. I think the holiday weekend has thrown us off. Oh, well.

I don’t have a lot to say about this section. It seems to me that I have read it before but I know I haven’t. I think he did a good job of foreshadowing for this and it touches on stuff from other essays of his that I have read: that is why I feel I have already read it.

Here are a few quotes I loved:

“A scientifically oriented psychology is bound to proceed abstractly; that is, it removes itself just sufficiently far from its object not to lose sight of it altogether.”

It is like trying to talk about moon rocks while firmly planted on Earth and having to samples on hand.

“It is therefore advisable to carry understanding only to the point where the balance between understanding and knowledge is reached, for understanding at all costs is injurious to both partners.”

I think this is a very important statement for him to make. At times it seems that he is really against knowledge, but he is not. He sounds like he is against it because he is attacking it as it is, and currently it has a strangle hold on the West. It is only in breaking it down and aggressively promoting the alternative, understanding, that a true balance can be found.

”A million zeros joined together do not, unfortunately, add up to one.”

So a society needs to be made up of individuals to be strong. Jung says, we have societies that are filled with non-individuals and so our societies are zeros. I don’t think it is that bad, but he does have a very good point; it takes individuals to make a decent society and societies of non-individuals are horrible things.

I’ll leave it there for now…