Ambiance

Two Quotes

December 21, 2010 at 10:57 am (By Amba)

Jung’s “strange definition of God”:

“This is the name by which I designate all things which cross my willful path…all things which upset my subjective views, plans, intentions and change the course of my life for better or worse.”

[Letters, Vol. 2, 5 December 1959]

*       *       *

The box is also psychology: not psyche, but the ‘ology,’ that parasitical suffix that sucks the psyche dry. Long before there was psychology there were tales, old-wives-tales, grandmother’s tales, oral accounts of origins and great deeds, theater of tragedy and comedy, the gossip of the day carried by messenger, lessons learned at the foot of a teacher, stories all passed down rich in the ways of the world and the ways of the soul. Long before psychology there was the bedside observation of physicians, of captains on the field of battle, painters of portraits, breeders of animals and trappers, of midwives and judges and executioners. Psychology’s case reports are too often botched attempts to continue the story-telling tradition. Too soon we draw theoretical conclusions obliged by ‘ology’ to package psyche in a box. We would win from every story the trophy of meaning.”

~ James Hillman