God and the Archetype

Carl Jung was a brilliant psychologist who understood how the unconscious and the conscious work together in our minds – the intuitive (what we envision and dream) and the sensory (the physical available to the five senses).   I intend in my next few posts to discuss what Carl Jung and his associates in Man and his Symbols written in 1964 wrote. 

Carl Jung believes that our archetypes are part of our inherited psyche just like our genes and physical characteristics.  The common archetypes are part of the collective unconsciousness we share like common physical properties of our bodies.  Carl Jung does not see the unconscious and the dreams produced by them as our brain reorganizing trash or defragmenting our brain like a computer.  He writes, “We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly though dreams and visions.”  He goes on to say later in the book, “I stress this point because, in our time, there are millions of people who have lost faith in any kind of religion.  Such people do not understand their religion any longer.  While life runs smoothly without religion, the loss remains as good as unnoticed.  But when suffering comes, it is another matter.  That is when people begin to seek a way out and to reflect about the meaning of life and its bewildering and painful experiences.” … “Modern man’s motto is 'Where there’s a will, there’s a way' and is the superstition of modern man.” ...“Yet in order to sustain his creed, contemporary man pays the price in a remarkable lack of introspection.  He is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, his is possessed by “powers” that are beyond his control.  His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names.”   Carl Jung is pointing out that without the archetypes representing God, imbedded in the unconsciousness as man has exercised reason and emphasized the conscious, our tools to deal with the emotions of what happens to us, has disappeared.   Therefore, we turn to drinking, drugs, neuroses, and other self –destructive behaviors.  We have become disconnected from God and nature, which are two of the most powerful archetypes in our unconsciousness.  Carl Jung is arguing that to be psychologically healthy we need to recognize our need for archetypes specifically God.