{"id":2805,"date":"2009-09-27T14:21:58","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T22:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=2805"},"modified":"2009-09-27T14:32:03","modified_gmt":"2009-09-27T22:32:03","slug":"not-quite-all-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/not-quite-all-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Quite All There"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not exactly news that Carl Jung was a rum \u2018un, but even so this <\/a>piece from the New York Times<\/em> is a reminder that the irrational will always be with us, perhaps too much of a reminder. Here’s an extract:<\/p>\n

For about six years, Jung worked to prevent his conscious mind from blocking out what his unconscious mind wanted to show him. Between appointments with patients, after dinner with his wife and children, whenever there was a spare hour or two, Jung sat in a book-lined office on the second floor of his home and actually induced hallucinations \u2014 what he called \u201cactive imaginations\u2026Jung recorded it all. First taking notes in a series of small, black journals, he then expounded upon and analyzed his fantasies, writing in a regal, prophetic tone in the big red-leather book. The book detailed an unabashedly psychedelic voyage through his own mind, a vaguely Homeric progression of encounters with strange people taking place in a curious, shifting dreamscape. Writing in German, he filled 205 oversize pages with elaborate calligraphy and with richly hued, staggeringly detailed paintings\u2026The book tells the story of Jung trying to face down his own demons as they emerged from the shadows. The results are humiliating, sometimes unsavory. In it, Jung travels the land of the dead, falls in love with a woman he later realizes is his sister, gets squeezed by a giant serpent and, in one terrifying moment, eats the liver of a little child. (\u201cI swallow with desperate efforts \u2014 it is impossible \u2014 once again and once again \u2014 I almost faint \u2014 it is done.\u201d) At one point, even the devil criticizes Jung as hateful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yikes. In an earlier age\u00a0Jung would, doubtless, have been considered some sort of holy man. In a later age he probably will be.<\/p>\n

H\/t: Reason<\/em>\u2019s Tim Cavanaugh<\/a> on splendidly snarky form<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not exactly news that Carl Jung was a rum \u2018un, but even so this piece from the New York Times is a reminder that the irrational will always be with us, perhaps too much of a reminder. Here’s an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}