Anima Possession: Are you a

spineless wimp?
By Anja van Kralingen Anima and Animus, Jungian
Themes anima, animus, C.G. Jung, individuation, Jung, Jungian, jungian
perspective, Jungian themes, Jungian Therapy 35 Comments

This is the second part of two posts on the Classic version of Jung’s Anima and
Animus theory in which I condense the information from Marie-Louise von
Franz’s book Anima and Animus in Fairy Tales [1].

This post focuses on the malevolent, destructive, dysfunctional Anima and how
that affects a man and also attempts to address the approach to take in order
to integrate the Anima and thus render her benevolent and constructive.

In the classic version of Jungian psychology, the Anima is the man’s internal
other, and the Animus is the woman’s internal other. In other words, if you are
physically a man, you will have an inner Anima, a feminine image which guides
and shapes the way you relate to women and the world at large. Whilst Post
Jungian theory is in line with Post Modernity and more ambivalent about
gender, the classical model, as described by Marie-Louise von Franz in this
post, is still incredibly useful and very interesting. The information and
knowledge that Marie Louise von Franz extracts from the Fairy Tales is
fascinating.

As this post focus on the man’s relationship with his Anima, what needs to be
understood is that this feminine image is unconscious, and has her roots in the
relationship he had with his mother. A man’s experience of his personal mother
puts the flesh on the inborn archetype of the Anima and both define his attitude
towards women and the functioning of his inner feminine principal. In Jungian
psychology, the first step to individuation is integrating your shadow. After that
follows the integration of the Anima and/or Animus.

Anima Possession:

When a man’s Anima is not integrated, it wreaks havoc in his life. The Anima
possessed man is a spineless wimp who does not know when or how to take
action in the world. He is moody and sulky and throws tantrums like a toddler.
Although very passive, he totally overreacts to slights and confrontations. He is
not appropriate in his actions, either he is paralysed and can’t find the energy
to do what needs to be done, or he jumps into action when he should be
thinking about it first. He is usually in a relationship with an Animus hound [2]
who knows it all and makes all the decisions in the relationship.

The Anima possessed man is stuck in a fate that his repetitive patterns choose
for him. The Anima spins a cocoon of fantasies and illusions. He repeats the
same dynamics, dates the same type of women, and experiences the same
resistance in the world again and again.

Any numinous experiences he has, she quickly attacks and he is left with a
feeling that the experience was “nothing but”… She is a master of creating
doubt and he finds himself always doubting his options and choices. He gets
lost in contemplations and thinking and this is what prevents him from taking
action. At night he dreams about his Anima, she appears in his dreams as a
monster, attacking him, threatening him and dismissing him.

The Anima attacks the man’s inferior function, and to explain this I need to
quickly divert to Typology. In Jung’s personality type model, each person has
four functions, namely Thinking, Feeling, Intuition and Sensation. These four
functions identify the way you relate to, and take in information from the
external world. An individual will always favour one of the four as their superior
function. To explain this, I will use the example of wanting to buy a new car. A
thinking type will analyse the performance, fuel consumption, motor plan deal
etc. A feeling type will evaluate which vehicle is best suited for his purposes. An
intuitive will select the vehicle that he “knows” is right for him. A sensate will
choose a vehicle that feels great to drive and is in the right colour. Now if you
are a Thinking type, your inferior (opposite and underdeveloped) function would
be Feeling (and vice versa). If you are an Intuitive, your inferior function would
be Sensation (and vice versa). Coming back to the Anima, she always attacks
the man in his inferior function. So where most men are thinking types,
typically, his feelings will be poorly developed and here the Anima takes
control. She plays his emotions like a fiddle. He is moody, sulky, throws
tantrums and gets really upset. When he has the rare moments of happiness
and elation and has a fabulous time, she quickly casts doubt and destroys the
experience for him. And naturally, as a consequence, his evaluative ability
tends to be poor.
Generally this man, who’s inferior function (feeling) trips him up all the time,
experiences his emotions and mystical numinous experiences as a handicap. He
finds himself disillusioned with his feelings and often tries to escape into the
thinking realm, but this does not help his cause at all. He is afraid to trust his
feelings and consequently makes a complete mess of his life.

Integrating the Anima

The Anima represents the divine aspect of the human being. She is a goddess
that imbues everything with numinosity and mystery. The human being tries to
bring the divine into the realm of reality and thereby reduce the mystery to the
banal. This attempt to rob the Anima of her divinity is evident in the Western
culture where the feminine is reduced to base and crude sexuality.

The Anima has fallen into the unconscious, especially in the protestant cultures,
where the idealized feminine is projected onto the Virgin Mary and the dark
aspect is projected out onto women who fascinate and capture the passions of
a man, who then grants her the status of witch because he feels as if he has
been bewitched.

The danger with Anima possession is when the man takes on an average,
reluctant, undifferentiated attitude. His attitude towards risk is to avoid it,
because he simply does not believe that anything he undertakes will succeed.
This hopelessness opposes the hero within. As the Anima is an Archetype, to
realise the Anima instinctively will release overwhelming emotions. This is why
the man must develop his inferior function, to prevent the Anima from
possessing him. To redeem the Anima, she must be allowed to reveal her divine
nature.

Here are some guidelines for dealing with the dysfunctional Anima.

One of the main problems with the Anima is that she lies outside time. This
results in men who act inappropriately for their age. They are either childish old
men or wise young boys. This time related issue affects the man’s judgment in
relation to action. He either totally overreacts to small matters, or does not act
when he needs to in big matters. This must be opposed in the following
manner.
The quick to react Anima:

When the man is riled up, emotional and has an urgency to react then and
there, he must wait and put off his response to the given situation. Sleeping on
it does wonders, and a new perspective will emerge. This man has gotten
himself into many undesirable situations because of this need to react
immediately and some perspective on the situation will allow him not to fall into
the trap of repeating his neurotic dynamics unconsciously.
The Anima creates a pressing urgency to send the email, confront the person,
phone immediately. This impulse must be resisted in order to change the Anima
in the unconscious. Delay the excitement, delay acting on it, and it will lose its
urgency and the man will tire of it.
With time and practice the man will be able to enter the situation consciously,
without falling prey to the emotion. Once he is able to hold the opposites in
consciousness, not to commit to any action, he will be able to integrate his
Anima. This struggle is the battle for moral responsibility, the search for light
and meaning.

The slow to react Anima:

When the man finds himself lost in ambiguity and at a loss on what to do, he
needs to act. The Anima is an expert on implanting doubt. He must step into
life to get out of this trap. He needs to act in some way. He must escape the
repetitive pattern of getting excited about ideas and then discussing it to death
until he is totally uninspired. He needs to develop a disciplined consciousness
for solutions and directions. The correct attitude is to accept that it may not
work, or that it is possibly not the right thing to do, but taking action anyway.
One must take action based on the knowledge and understanding available at
that point in time. Overcoming the Anima is through experiencing reality and
the unknown, not talking about it.

Developing the inferior function:

The integration of the Anima requires the balance between the intellect and the
instinct. One must not sacrifice the intellect for the Anima either, because this
will also develop an unbalanced relationship with the Anima. Whatever the
inferior function is, the man must engage it bravely and enter into it slowly. He
must not use the inferior function to govern his external realm, but use it in the
internal realm. As long as he tries to use his feeling function in the external
realm, he will be heavy, slow, mystical and inarticulate. But if he turns his
feeling function inwards, and allows himself to feel, no matter how silly or
infantile, he will slowly develop his feeling function. This ability to think naively,
without rules, allows the libido (energy) to rush forth and re-energize the
psyche. But to give a voice to the unconscious inferior function, the man must
learn to sacrifice the superior, ruling attitude of rules and structure, which is
not easy.

Conclusion:

As with the Animus, the Anima is the bridge to the unconscious and the
roadmap to this unconscious realm lies within the inferior function of the man.
The ultimate goal of this journey is individuation, which is the most authentic
and whole expression of an individual. Integrating the Anima and Animus is a
vital aspect of this journey.

Until next time

Anja

[1] Von Franz, M. L. (2002). Animus and anima in fairy tales. D. Sharp (Ed.).
Toronto: Inner City Books.
[2] Read the blog Animus Possession: Are you a ball busting bitch?

Jung on Neurosis: Part I

Definitions and Causes

“Neurosis is self-division.”
Jung (1943)1
“The neurosis is thus a defense against the objective, inner activity of the psyche, or an
attempt, somewhat dearly paid for, to escape from the inner voice and hence from the
vocation.”
Jung (1932)2
“A neurosis is by no means merely a negative thing, it is also something positive.”
Jung (1934)3
“…the cause of neurosis is the discrepancy between the conscious attitude and the trend
of the unconscious. This dissociation is bridged by the assimilation of unconscious
contents.”
Jung (1935)4
“… every neurosis is characterized by dissociation and conflict, contains complexes,
and shows traces of regression and abaissement.”
Jung (1924)5
“… The symptom is therefore an indirect expression of unrecognized desires which,
when conscious, come into violent conflict with our moral convictions…”
Jung (1943)6
“… hidden in the neurosis is a bit of still undeveloped personality, a precious fragment
of the psyche lacking which a man is condemned to resignation, bitterness, and
everything else that is hostile to life. A psychology of neurosis that sees only the
negative elements empties out the baby with the bath-water, since it neglects the
positive meaning and value of these “infantile” – i.e., creative – fantasies.”
Jung (1934)7
“… it is only in the today, not in our yesterdays, that the neurosis can be ‘cured.’
Because the neurotic conflict has to be for today, any historical deviation is a detour, if
not actually a wrong turning.”
Jung (1934)8
“About a third of my cases are not suffering from any clinically definable neurosis, but
from the senselessness and aimlessness of their lives. I should not object if this were
called the general neurosis of our age….”
Jung (1929)9
“What does a neurosis look like? If someone is said to be ‘neurotic,’ what does that mean?” A
student posed these questions at one point in a conversation, and I offered a glib answer,
something like “Life doesn’t work very well,” fully aware that this was quite inadequate, and that
the question deserved much fuller treatment. In his Collected Works, letters and various
seminars, Jung discussed neurosis nearly 700 times.10 It was a key theme in his work as a
psychiatrist, and a major topic in his writing. To do justice to this important topic, I have created
a three-part essay. Part I takes up definitions and causes of neurosis; Part II includes features
and symptoms (addressing most closely the student’s questions); and Part III considers
possible ways a neurosis can be healed and concludes with some comments Jung made that
capture relevant aspects of his philosophy.

Part I: Definitions and Causes of Neurosis

Definitions

Our English word “neurosis” comes from the Greek neuron, which meant “sinew,
tendon;…”11 The Latin derivative comes closer to our current usage, nervicus meaning
“nervous, having a nervous disorder.”12 A modern dictionary draws on the Latin root, defining
“neurosis” as
“a mild nervous disorder showing emotional disturbance with no apparent organic
change. The nerve function is deranged and characterized especially by anxiety and a
feeling of insecurity.”13

Jung was both more succinct and more elaborate in his definitions, defining a neurosis as:

“self-division,”14 “… an individual attempt, however unsuccessful, to solve a universal

problem;…”15 “… a transitory phase, it is the unrest between two positions,” 16 in which
“something objectively psychic and strange to us, not under our control, is fixedly opposed to
the sovereignty of our will.”17
Jung acknowledged Freud as the first to use the term, which he (Freud) considered “to be a
substitute for direct means of gratification. For him it is something inauthentic–a mistake, a
subterfuge, an excuse, a refusal to face facts; in short, something essentially negative that
should never have been.”18 In this, as in so many other ways,19 Jung differed from Freud, taking
a much broader view of how, when and why a neurosis can form (more on that below) and also
regarding a neurosis as both negative and positive: “A neurosis is by no means merely a
negative thing; it is also something positive.”20 (more on this in Part II).

In Jung’s understanding, a neurosis could be regarded as “a dissociation of personality due to

the existence of complexes,”21 an “illness”22 manifesting “a relative dissociation, a conflict
between the ego and a resistant force based upon unconscious contents.” 23 As a “cleavage–the
state of being at war with oneself,”24 a neurosis “is a splitting of personality,”25 in which one is
alienated “from one’s instincts,” suffering from a splitting off of consciousness from certain basic
facts of the psyche.”26 Jung offered examples of such splits: between the “sensual and the
spiritual man, or between the ego and the shadow…”, 27 that is, situations where we are unable
to reconcile or integrate opposites within ourselves.

As failures of adaptation, a neurosis can take “two forms: one, a disturbance of adaptation to
outer conditions; two, a disturbance of adaptation to inner conditions.” 28 Either we fail to adapt
to outer realities, e.g. oldsters who try to hold on to the things of youth,29 or we lose contact with
our inner life, and “miss” our vocation, i.e. what we are meant to do with our lives.30 Given the
Extraverted, materialistic nature of our modern world, and our “present-day sexual
morality,”31 Jung felt the very nature of our time fosters neurosis:
“Neurosis is intimately bound up with the problem of our time and really represents an
unsuccessful attempt on the part of the individual to solve the general problem in his
own person.”32
By “general problem,” Jung referred to features of the modern world like “hooking up” (i.e. the
denigration of sexual morality),33 consumeritis (i.e. the acquisition of stuff in an effort to fill an
inner void), and the decline of religion,34 leading to the widespread phenomenon of doubt. Jung
was blunt: “Doubt about our civilization and its values is the contemporary neurosis.” 35

So, given Jung’s assessment here, I could have replied to my student that we all might be said
to be neurotic, since neurosis is

“the hall-mark of civilized man. The neurotic is only a special instance of the disunited
man who ought to harmonize nature and culture within himself.”36
“The neurotic is one who falls victim to his own illusions,” 37 and, given our current culture we
certainly are witness now to lots of illusions in our politics and civic life, and so many Americans
have fallen “victim” to their own, and their President’s, illusions! Why is this? Why do neuroses
arise? Let’s consider some of the causes Jung identified.

Causes

We must start off our discussion of causes with Jung’s reminder of the ubiquity of antimonies:

“… every truth relating to the psyche must, if it is to be made absolutely true,

immediately be reversed. Thus one is neurotic because one has repressions or because
one does not have repressions; because one’s head is full of infantile sex fantasies or
one does not live by the pleasure principle; because one is too unconscious or because
one is too conscious; because one is selfish or because one exists too little as a self; and
so on …”38
In what follows, we will identify causes, but must do so with the awareness that there are no
absolutes, and Jung would never countenance much “theory-building in psychology.”39

With that caveat, we can discuss the various causes for neuroses under several rubrics: conflict,
dissociation, maladaptation, being out of sync with one’s age, neuroses relating to social roles,
those relating to moral issues, those linked to religion, erotic or sex-based neuroses, and
features of our collective life that foster our being vulnerable to neuroses.

Conflict. This cause arises from the fact that we all have both a conscious life and an
unconscious. We have an ego and a shadow side, a sensual life and a spiritual life, 40 and when
“we cannot see the other side of our nature,”41 we can fall prey to a neurosis: “… the cause of
neurosis is the discrepancy between the conscious attitude and the trend of the
unconscious.”42Especially is a neurosis likely when we become one-sided,43 e.g. too rational,
too “heady,” too worldly (i.e. denying the claim our soul has on our lives), or too saintly. The
unconscious always tries to compensate such imbalances, and the result is that we are “faced
with a situation which [we] cannot overcome by conscious means.” 44 The development of our
personality comes to a “standstill.”45 We become at “war with [our]selves [in] the suspicion or
the knowledge that [we] consist of two persons in opposition to one another.” 46 Our inner life is
no longer cooperating with our outer, conscious identity.

One form such conflict can take is in the phenomenon known as the “turn type”–the situation
that occurs when a person is unable to live true to his/her own innate type preferences. 47 This
can be due to parental pressures or family situations in early life in which a child is forced to
become something she or he is not. I know this well, having had this experience myself. My
innate type preference is INFJ: Introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging. But my early years were
marked by profound parental neglect, and having no reliable caregivers, I had to shift to living as
a Sensate Thinking type. Jung was clear that “whenever such a falsification of type takes place
as a result of parental influence, the individual becomes neurotic later, and can be cured only by
developing the attitude consonant with his nature.”48 Yes: I had to reclaim my intuition and
feelings, and this was a major piece of work in my analysis. I was living in a mode that was
unnatural, and my unconscious side, aware of my true nature, came into conflict with my outer
habitual way of living.

Dissociation.

Jung regarded dissociation as “the root of all neuroses.” 49 In this cause of neurosis, “The
conscious goes to the right and the unconscious to the left.” 50 A gap forms between our inner
“healthy instincts”51 and “an artificial life”52 full of “prejudices, fantasies, infantile wishes, and the
lure of external objects.”53 Over time we might develop “an intellectual or moral idea that forms
an ideal [that is] incompatible with human nature.”54 We might come to deceive ourselves about
how smart we are, how moral we are, etc. and “…self-deceptions of this kind have dissociating
effects which breed neurosis,…”.55 In response to a swelled head, or too big an ego, for
example, the unconscious may conjure up “feelings of inferiority,” 56 and the gap “between
conscious and unconscious,”57–between how we think we are and how we really are within–
grows wider and wider, leading to “the fatal splitting of the personality” 58 and the formation of a
neurosis.

Maladaption.59

This cause takes many forms. A person might be “childishly unadapted to one’s environment or
… one is adapted exclusively to the environment.”60–both of these being too one-sided,
triggering a neurosis. Either we fail to adjust to outer life demands in proper ways, or we fail to
attend to our inner life, and fail to “adapt to inner conditions.”61 The key here is imbalance:
Trying “to adapt entirely and exclusively to the outside, while entirely neglecting the
inside,”62 upsets the balance that is essential for psychic health. Given the strong preference for
Extraversion in American society, this imbalance is quite common: Not many people tend to
their inner life so diligently that they maintain psychic equilibrium, which is why Jung concluded
that our contemporary society promotes neurosis.63

Being Out of Sync with One’s Age.

Jung depicted the human life span as an arc,64 much like the passage of the sun which moves
from the Eastern horizon at dawn, rises to its maximum altitude at noon, and then sinks lower in
the sky until it disappears below the Western horizon at nightfall. Dawn is birth, noontime is mid-
life, and nightfall is the moment we die. Jung felt that each of these intervals–youth, mid-life, and
old age–has a unique character: “… the life of a young person is characterized by a general
expansion and a striving towards concrete ends; and his neurosis seems mainly to rest on his
hesitation or shrinking back from this necessity.”65 Mid-life (c. ages 35-45) should be a time of
reorientation, as we let go of some of the things of youth and begin to shift our perspective, e.g.
planning for retirement, while “… the life of an older person is characterized by a contraction of
forces, by the affirmation of what has been achieved, and by the curtailment of further growth.
His neurosis comes mainly from his clinging to a youthful attitude which is now out of season.” 66
Another example of this cause of neurosis is the adult person who lives under a parental
complex, i.e. “an abnormal dependence on the real or imaginary parents.” 67 Jung recalled
“a particularly vivid memory of a woman patient with a mild hysterical neurosis
which,… had its principal cause in a “father-complex.” By this we wanted to denote the
fact that the patient’s peculiar relationship to her father stood in her way…. The
progress of her life was thus held up, and that inner disunity so characteristic of a
neurosis promptly made its appearance.”68
In my own experience, I too had a father-complex, and, much as with Jung’s patient, the
“progress” of my own life was frustrated until I “had it out with myself” 69 during my analysis, and
was able, over time, to come to terms with the inner father imago that had unconsciously
dominated my life. In doing this, I was finally able to get unstuck and grow more fully into the
adult life that my soul intended for me.

Social Roles.

Another feature of adult life is socialization. Proper parenting should teach youngsters certain
social habits so as to allow them to fit into the society they live in. Sometimes this training can
become extreme, leading a person to identify with a social role.70 Jung felt such a situation was
a “very fruitful source of neuroses.”71 This is because “A man cannot get rid of himself in favor of
an artificial personality without punishment.”72 Our “psychic experience within the family or even
the social group”73 creates certain expectations and assumptions (most of these quite
unconscious), which can result in “psychological insecurity” 74 and “the suppression of infantile
and primitive demands for cultural reasons…”.75 Jung is not suggesting here that we should act
like infants, or live out infantile demands, but that we be conscious of these facets of our
unconscious life, i.e. that we bring these into consciousness, and be aware of them, lest they
lead to a splitting, with the conscious life manifesting refinement, while the unconscious throws
up all sorts of piggish or uncouth compensations. The key to avoiding a neurosis is our holding
the tension between these opposite tendencies, rather than repressing one or the other.

Moral Issues.

On occasion Jung encountered people who had become neurotic because of their immoral
attitudes.76 In several places in his Collected Works77 he wrote of a young man who had
analyzed with a Freudian, and had, as a result, keen insight into his situation. The man wrote a
very professional monograph, which he gave Jung to read. It was impressive, but all his
intellectual efforts had done nothing to eliminate his neurosis. He asked Jung why this was.
Jung had no idea, but drew the young man out, asking how it was he spent his winters on the
Riviera, and then it came out that the man was living off the financial support of a poor
schoolteacher who hoped to marry him. He saw nothing wrong in sponging off this woman, and
Jung told him bluntly that his neurosis was “a compensation and a punishment for his immoral
attitude.”78 The young man then stomped out of Jung’s office. In another case, Jung worked
with
“an introverted, highly intelligent neurotic who spent his time alternating between the
loftiest flights of transcendental idealism and the most squalid suburban brothels,
without any conscious admission of a moral or aesthetic conflict. The two things were
utterly distinct as though belonging to different spheres. The result, naturally, was an
acute compulsion neurosis.”79
With such an extreme split between intellect and soul, this man had fallen “into disunity with
himself…”.80 Our soul retains moral scruples that cannot be denied acknowledgement, whether
we like to admit this or not. Any wide discrepancy between our conscious attitudes (idealisms
and pretensions to sanctity) and our actions (using or abusing others) might trigger a neurosis.

Religious Issues.

Jung was not a proponent of “creeds”81–his term for organized religion–but he was firmly
convinced of the reality of the “religious instinct”82 that lives within every person. This instinct,
like the myriad other instincts within us, cannot be violated without risking a neurosis. Ignoring
this side of ourselves can result in a conflict between the “sensual and the spiritual man,” 83 and
our being cut off from the spiritual guidance the psyche holds. Jung was explicit that the
“godless”84 life “meant a dire loss of hope and energy.” 85 More than this, Jung felt that “… with
the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow noticeably more frequent.” 86 in our Western
culture. Multiple patients showed up in Jung’s consulting room with “religious problems which
the patient puts before me as authentic and… possible causes of the neurosis.” 87 Closely
connected with religion–i.e. our sense of connection to a larger meaning or purpose for living88–
is the idea of vocation.89 Everyone, Jung thought, has a vocation, and our “inner voice” tries to
“lead [us] toward wholeness,”90 toward the fulfillment of our unique “calling” (aka “vocation”).
Those who are vehemently closed to the unconscious often fail to hear this voice, and the result
can be a neurosis.
Sexuality and Erotic Issues.

This was Freud’s hobby horse: He felt “erotic conflicts,” 91 “incest complexes”92 and sexual
repressions were the “key to the whole conception of neurosis.” 93Jung did admit that “Abnormal
displacements of libido, quite definitely sexual, do in fact play a great role in these
illnesses.”94 In many instances neurotics’ heads are “full of infantile sex fantasies” 95 which can
lead to neurosis. But Jung also felt strongly that “… neuroses are by no means exclusively
caused by sexual repressions,…”,96 nor are neuroses only personal: they have a collective
causation too.97

Features of Our Collective Life.

Jung was not a fan of the modern world. He spoke repeatedly of the “general neurosis of our
age.”98 and the banality of much of life in the Western world,99which gives rise to a host of
pathologies, like “separations, discord, divorces, and other marital disorders.” 100
“Everything is banal, everything is “nothing but;” and that is the reason why people are
neurotic. They are simply sick of the whole thing, sick of that banal life, …”101
In response, “we seek the cause [for our discomfort] in lack of vitamins, in endocrine
disturbances, overwork, or sex.”102 We project our problems on to others,103 seeing them as the
source of our discomfort, completely forgetting the unconscious–the shadow that lives within us.
We dismiss intangibles, like the unconscious, the soul, and a spiritual connection to something
larger than ourselves. It never occurs to us to enlist the “cooperation of the
unconscious.”104 Quite the opposite: the unconscious “… is something we never think of and
always take for granted,”105 until it fails to cooperate. These times of failure occur when we
become so unbalanced that a split occurs, causing neurosis.
Jung understood that we can consume all the vitamins we like, supplement endocrine
deficiencies all we want, work less or work more, sleep around or indulge in other sensual
pleasures, but none of this will address the real cause of our collective problem: “the
senselessness and aimlessness”106 of lives lived without a spiritual rootedness. Material stuff
(like vitamins or adrenal supports) or “forced exaggeration of the conscious attitude”107 won’t
cure what ails our society. Jung is clear that
“… something objectively psychic and strange to us, not under our control, is fixedly
opposed to the sovereignty of our will.108 … We can never legitimately cut loose from
our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any
more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing
suicide…109 Projection… is never a cure; it prevents the conflict only on the surface,
while deeper down it creates a neurosis…. In that way the devil is cast out by
Beelzebub.”110
For those unfamiliar with Biblical terms, Beelzebub is another term for the devil. In other words,
it profits us nothing.

Jung reminds us that we are living in a neurotic time,111 a time when

“… everybody, naturally prefers (so long as he lacks insight) never to seek the causes of
any inconvenience in himself, but to push them as far away from himself as possible in
space and time. Otherwise he would run the risk of having to make a change for the
better.”112
Even when the change would offer health, greater happiness and overall improvement in our
lives, we resist.113 And what resists, persists, which is why Jesus told his followers “resist not
evil.”114 Resistance, projection, and “forced exaggerations of the conscious attitude” 115 are some
of the features of neuroses. In Part II, we consider others, as well as symptoms, in answering
the question of what a neurosis might look like.

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________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.

________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.

________ (1959), “Aion,” Collected Works, 9ii. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.

________ (1953), “Psychology and Alchemy,” CW 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1967), “Alchemical Studies,” CW 13. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1966), “The Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature,” CW 15. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
________ (1954), “The Practice of Psychotherapy,” CW 16, 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.

________ (1954), “The Development of Personality,” CW 17. Princeton: Princeton University

Press.

________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1979), General Index to the Collected Works of C.G. Jung, compiled by Barbara
Forryan & Janet Glover. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

________ (1975), Letters, ed. Gerhard Adler & Aniela Jaffé. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.

________ (1984), Seminar on Dream Analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kluger, Rivkah (1995), Psyche in Scripture: The Idea of the Chosen People and Other Essays.
Toronto: Inner City Books.

1 Collected Works 7 ¶18. Hereafter Collected Works will be abbreviated CW.

2 CW 17 ¶313.
3 CW 10 ¶355.
4 CW 16 ¶26.
5 CW 17 ¶205.
6 CW 7 ¶438.
7 CW 10 ¶355.
8 Ibid. ¶363.
9 CW 16 ¶83.
10 Cf. CW 20, pp. 477-480; Letters, II, p. 691; and Jung (1984), 735, for complete lists of all these
references.
11 Liddell & Scott (1978), 530.
12 Lewis & Short (1969), 1203.
13 World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, II, 1303.
14 CW 7 ¶18.
15 Ibid. ¶438.
16 CW 18 ¶667.
17 CW 10 ¶309.
18 CW 15 ¶156.
19 For an in-depth discussion of the differences Jung had with Freud, see the essay “Jung on Freud,”
archived on this Web site.
20 CW 10 ¶355.
21 CW 18 ¶382.
22 CW 16 ¶11.
23 CW 3 ¶516.
24 CW 11 ¶522.
25 Ibid.
26 CW 8 ¶808.
27 CW 11 ¶522.
28 CW 18 ¶1087.
29 CW 16 ¶75.
30 CW 17 ¶313.
31 CW 7 ¶438.
32 Ibid. ¶18.
33 Ibid. ¶438.
34 CW 11 ¶514.
35 CW 15 ¶69.
36 CW 7 ¶16.
37 CW 17 ¶202.
38 Ibid. ¶203.
39 Ibid. ¶205.
40 CW 11 ¶522.
41 CW 7 ¶438.
42 CW 16 ¶26.
43 CW 13 ¶455.
44 CW 10 ¶546.
45 Ibid.
46 CW 11 ¶522.
47 CW 6 ¶560.
48 Ibid.
49 CW 9ii ¶280.
50 Ibid.
51 CW 18 ¶474.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid. ¶1390.
55 CW 11 ¶457.
56 Ibid.
57 CW 5 ¶683.
58 Ibid.
59 CW 13 ¶12.
60 CW 17 ¶203.
61 CW 18 ¶1087.
62 Ibid. ¶1088.
63 CW 16 ¶83.
64 CW 7 ¶114. For more on Jung’s thoughts on aging, see the essay “Enjoying the Afternoon of Life:
Jung on Aging,” archived on this Web site.
65 CW 16 ¶75.
66 Ibid.
67 CW 7 ¶114.
68 Ibid. ¶206.
69 The term Jung and his students use for this work is the German “portmanteau”
word auseinandersetzung; cf. Hollis (1993), 108-109, and Kluger (1995), 74-75.
70 CW 7 ¶307.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 CW 10 ¶337.
74 CW 17 ¶343.
75 CW 6 ¶573.
76 Cf. CW 18 ¶282 & CW 8 ¶702.
77 Cf. CW 18 ¶282 & CW 8 ¶685.
78 CW 18 ¶282.
79 CW 6 ¶472.
80 CW 7 ¶27.
81 CW 11 ¶10. For more on Jung’s stance on religion, see my book The Spiritual Adventure of Our Time:
C.G. Jung and the New Dispensation.
82 CW 17 ¶157.
83 CW 11 ¶522.
84 CW 7 ¶397.
85 CW 9i ¶139.
86 CW 11 ¶514.
87 Ibid. ¶518.
88 CW 17 ¶313.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 CW 7 ¶431.
92 CW 4 ¶377.
93 CW 7 ¶431.
94 CW 4 ¶275.
95 CW 17 ¶203.
96 CW 15 ¶106.
97 CW 10 ¶357.
98 CW 16 ¶83.
99 CW 18 ¶627.
100 CW 17 ¶343.
101 CW 18 ¶627.
102 CW 11 ¶784.
103 CW 5 ¶507.
104 CW 11 ¶784.
105 Ibid.
106 CW 16 ¶83.
107 CW 6 ¶663.
108 CW 10 ¶309.
109 CW 9i ¶267.
110 CW 5 ¶507.
111 CW 16 ¶83.
112 CW 17 ¶200.
113 Ibid.
114 Matt. 5:39.
115 CW 6 ¶663.