"People Don’t Say What’s On Their Minds"
This has been an extremely busy time for me, and I apologize to those of you who may have been expecting that I would be posting before now. I have a number of somewhat longer posts that I expect to put up on the blog before very long, but I thought that today I would leave this quotation with you from Jung. It’s the latest in the series of Jung quotations that I have been posting on this blog.
It’s a fascinating little comment in which Jung tells us something of how he himself first became interested in psychology and psychological growth ,and ultimately, in identity and individuation and the shadow. It’s from an interview of Jung called “On Creative Achievement” by Emil Fisher, which appears in that great little book called C.G. Jung Speaking. Fisher asks Jung,
What were the circumstances that induced you to work in the field of psychological research?
To which Jung replies,
“Even as a small boy I noticed that people always did the contrary of what was said of them. I found some of the people who were praised quite unbearable, whereas I though others who were criticized quite pleasant.
I noticed the inconsistencies in the behaviour of adults quite early on, because I spent my formative years in Basel, in a rather odd environment, which was frequented by people with a complicated psychic structure.
When I was barely four years old, someone said to me in an exaggerated childish tone: “Where do you think you are going with your rocking horse?” I reacted quite the enfant terrible: “Mama, why does this man say such nonsense?” Even as a child I clearly felt that people did not really say what was on their minds.”
“Americans Must Say ‘No’ in McGuire, William, and Hull, R.F.C., eds.,
C.G. Jung Speaking (Princeton: University Press, 1977)
I think most of us share the sense that Jung had at a very early age, that there is a lot more going on inside people than they really show us on the outside. And then, it’s also true that there’s a lot more going on inside ourselves than we show on the outside. It’s something that we’ve all known for a very long time, and we all really want to understand it. When it comes to ourselves, there may well come a time in our lives when it’s absolutely vital for us to understand what makes us tick. To open ourselves up to self-knowledge may well be the true beginning of wisdom.
My very best wishes to each of you on your individual journeys to wholeness,
Brian Collinson
Website for Brian’s Oakville and Mississauga Practice: www.briancollinson.ca ; Email: brian@briancollinson.ca
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© 2009 Brian Collinson