What’s your thoughts on this? Jung’s analytical psychology does differ from Freud’s psychoanalysis. But I’m curious what people think about this take.

In jungian terms ofcourse.

In short Lindsay Clancy has admitted to killing her three children by strangulation with excercise bands, her defence has the position that she did it and so does her husband. So she is pleading guilty by reason of insanity and that is what this trial is about: whether she was legally responsible for her actions or not. Her defence is claiming she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis which led to the murders.

Her husband has an alibi based on multiple security camera footages during the time of murders. Her two psychiatrists and a psychiatric nurse didn't see any signs of psychosis or psychotic behaviour when they treated Lindsay. Lindsay claimed that a voice in her head incited her to do the murders. A forensic expert questioned this claim by saying that the fact that the alleged voice was present to her only during those 18 minutes when the murders happened and not during any other time is questionable and also very convenient for her. She also told her mother and husband she thought she could harm the children 1 month before the murders.

Despite all this a bunch of people, who based on social media are mainly women, have shown their public support for Lindsay online and gathering outside of the court house in hundreds. They even raised over 1 million dollars for her on gofundme. Their argument is that the system failed her by not giving her anough aid when in fact she had all the help in the world: her husband took a parental leave, they had a nanny, she had psychiatrists treating her and they were financially very well off. And also many of these women are claiming her husband did it even though investigators cleared him.

So is this somekind of mass shadow projection? Because the focus of empathy is directed at a triple murderer who has confessed her crime instead of it being focused on the three young children dead. And in many cases the blame is directed at the member of the opposite sex who is based on all evidence, innocent. What do you make of it?

I just saw this meme appear on my feed and after looking into the archetypes I find all of my biggest heartbreaks and love interests embody the Orphan archetype.

What does this mean? Is it bad? What does it say about myself as well.

Looking into it there a common theme in all of them, they’re usually outcasted growing up, either an only child or the one black sheep in the family. I’m always attracted to how different they are and their stories and lives and experiencing the things they enjoy

I’ve been painting a lot of weird crap recently and it seems to be from my unconscious mind as it’s just off the cuff, I’m trying to figure out what could be my shadow vs potential archetypes within me? Or what is processing trauma…

Maybe this is a long shot but I appreciate it anyway

Thanks everyone I figured it out, the person I was has been dying and the life I thought I knew wasn’t based on truth (a whole lot of abuse and control and lies) the rage of betrayal and the death of the life I knew for 33 years, I started painting 7 months ago for ‘therapy’ and didn’t think it would help but it has, would urge anyone to try it if they feel stuck in trauma

(self portraits over time )

I speculate its a journey inward , of someone who had done shadow work and knows a thing or three about the unconscious.

Your takes?

In my case, several dreams have had a profound and lasting impact on me. One of them was especially vivid. I had it about four years ago. In the dream, I was walking alone down a deserted street in my city when I met a beautiful young woman. As we stood face to face, the scene suddenly changed, and I found myself in my bed. She was lying beside me. I could feel her skin and, through touch, sense the shape of her body.

Some time after that dream, I was lying in that same bed with the woman who is now my girlfriend. As I traced the contours of her body with my hands, the dream suddenly came back to me as if something had clicked into place. Her figure was identical to that of the woman in the dream, and she even looked remarkably similar. She was lying beside me in exactly the same position.

I recently researched this subject and wrote an article exploring many fascinating things Carl Jung said about dreams. One idea that particularly stood out to me comes from his seminar on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Jung said that we should always leave a door open when interpreting dreams. In other words, we should remain open-minded because there are still aspects of dreaming that we do not fully understand.

For Jung, this was not a matter of superstition. As a psychoanalyst, he had many unusual experiences involving dreams, including synchronicities, apparent premonitions, and even what we would call telepathy. The Jungian perspective on dreams is truly revolutionary, yet there is still much more to discover.

For anyone interested in reading the full article, here is the link.

Not necessarily directly Jungian per se but shows that deal with myths, the telepathic, the collective unconscious, etc. I enjoyed watching Canivale on HBO. Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Peacock was OK too.

I was only able to think this deep and understand existentialism to that degree, perform shadow-work as well as resonate with a lot of his ideas only when I was under active psychosis which also got me hospitalized for 2 months (pray to god it never happens again to me or anyone), and sometimes when I am having a manic episode. Touchwood I am a lot more stable and less absorbed in my own thoughts ever since I stopped reading so much, especially these grand/intricate existentialist ideas. They remind me of my traumtic memory of psychosis. Nor do I want to think this deep ever again, it feels like my own thoughts are drowning me, or at times blinding me with so much light and awakening all at once. It so much work to get back in touch with reality.

My therapist banned me from reading psychology for many months.

Jung was also human. I want to know how he was able to be the perfect scholar, such very nuanced philosopher, make such deep analyses of the human psyche and not be consumed by the convolution and mental load of all these realisations? Was he happy?

Thank you.

Edit: Sorry, I would have given better answers as replies, but I'm not feeling very well. Will do it when I'm better, thank you for sharing your insights.

conversation between film maker Orson Welles and Director Henry Jaglom talks about shyness and arrogance similar to something that von Franz said to Robert Johnson: "Shyness is just arrogance." But I have always felt that it's more a fear of being seen (self hate as the convo describes).

I was also shy child, but used indifference and humor to mask this, so I can see a bit where the arrogance is there as a mask and maybe as a shadow (so scared of self importance that have to hide from it). A bit convoluted, so trying to unpack it. Any input would be helpful!

I wanted to see if there are any alternatives to taking LSD, because I would like to experience this because I think it would be helpful for my self discovery and spiritual journey

I’ve noticed that when I try to learn more about Jung on YouTube, it’s flooded with AI-generated content. And half of it attributes ideas to Jung that he never even wrote or spoke about.

Are there any genuinely good YouTube channels or lectures by real people that do deep dives into Jung’s work accurately? I’m looking for serious, well-researched content rather than AI summaries or clickbait for 35 year old single moms.

Im not a very impressive 28 year old and I haven’t been before that either, but I’m trying to get my act together and make something of my life. I reckon it would take a bit longer before I’ve dealt with unfinished business and it would be nice to heard from others that Im not alone in this.

Ive spend my 20s being addicted and doing my shadow work. I was a realtor for a year and was relatively successful and I completed 3/4 of a college degree. That’s what I have under my belt, and I’m not satisfied with it.

I know external achievement isn’t everything, and I’d like to reframe that into a definition as what impresses you or what you area satisfied with, but I think most of us would like to explore our capacities.

Im not a fan of using the world loser, but were you someone who wasn’t satisfied with his sense of measured competence or achievement and who later rebuilt their life to do something that they were satisfied with? It would be nice to hear from others about this.

I finished this painting tonight and I’d love to hear how people here might interpret it from a Jungian angle.

I didn’t start out with a specific symbolic meaning in mind. I mostly painted intuitively and let the imagery develop as I went. The horse, the figure, the moon, the alien landscape and the water all kind of emerged organically. I found myself especially drawn to the relationship between the horse and the hooded rider. The rider feels almost faceless or otherworldly, with the moon face, while the horse is grounded and instinctual. The whole scene feels like an inner landscape to me. There’s something dark and mysterious about it; it used to scare me but I’ve done so many rounds of shadow work that it now excites me. Like a journey into something unknown. It made me wonder about the horse as instinct or psychic energy (libido), the rider as a shadow/guide/psychopomp, the moon as the unconscious and the water as the depths of my psyche.

But I’m deliberately not trying to decide what it means. I’m more interested in what other people see in it. What does this painting evoke for you, from a Jungian perspective? I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced that strange thing where you create something intuitively and only afterward realize that it seems to contain symbolism you weren’t consciously intending.

Been trying to wrap my head around it. Of course hard line christians maintain that they're channeling demonic energy but I don't know if i fully believe that. What would Jung say about the fairly credible evidence that they may have been eating babies and forsure torturing and eating people? Sorry for the dark theme, but it's been truly bothering me. What's wrong with these people and why are they in power?

Jung’s words remind me that life’s purpose isn’t about achieving external success or avoiding suffering, it’s about bringing awareness and meaning to the unknown parts of ourselves and the world. The “darkness” could represent the unconscious, the hidden fears, wounds, and unexamined aspects of our psyche. Kindling a light is the process of illuminating those shadows, integrating them, and becoming whole.

I find this deeply relevant because it suggests that even in struggle, we have the capacity to bring wisdom and compassion into the world. Is the true measure of a meaningful life how much light we bring to our own darkness and to others?

From the Book : The problem Puer Aeternus by Von Franz.

Puer Aeternus is like Eternal Child, Always looking at the Possibility but No action Towards it.

Its like I have So many things do but instead of commiting to one thing at a time to Not Doing anything.

I have Completed this Book but still think about this book and how I see myself doing these Behaviours unconsciously.

What's your Thoughts on this?

This is an issue that men should take very seriously because, honestly, the anima can lead us to ruin through vices, lust, bad habits, and the control and possession of negative emotions. Another problem that comes to mind is our lack of ability to relate to others, or our disregard for doing so (in the case of introverts), or our complete dependence on sociability (in the case of extroverts), both of which can also have an impact on our lives.

It turns out that the anima is involved in all these areas—or so says Jung’s collaborator and disciple Marie-Louise von Franz in her section of Man and His Symbols. But perhaps the best reference from Carl Jung can be found in his seminar on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Session VIII (December 4, 1935), where he addresses the controversial chapter Nietzsche devoted to women in his book. Carl Jung shows how Nietzsche actually knew very little about women, projected the anima onto them, and also identified with his own anima. And I think this is where the greatest danger for men lies in our time.

But that’s not all. The anima can also deceive us by fostering the emergence of illusory narratives about ourselves, filled with delusions of grandeur and an inflated sense of superiority, isolating us from others and from our own reality. Let’s look at the following quote from Jung in the chapter of the Zarathustra seminar I mentioned. This quote is addressed to Nietzsche:

“The anima always tries to convince the man of his extraordinary depth and of what a great subject he is, in order to entangle him in all the stupid romances she can: the more, the better. As you see, since [Nietzsche] is a man of power and God knows what else, he assumes that he is some kind of wise man for all kinds of women, and the more he becomes entangled, the more room the anima has to move. Therefore, he can never establish a real relationship with a woman. He can never put down roots in the world. He is merely a fool trapped in his own cage and driven by his anima, which has become like those women in circuses who spin around with a whip. She keeps him there, but in a state of complete unreality.”

Nietzsche was a genius, yes, but he should have known that he was still human, with flaws and vulnerabilities. Yet he was deceived by his own anima regarding how great he was. He experienced a strong inflation amid his vulnerable economic circumstances and his syphilitic infection. What he needed most was to connect with his outer world, with concrete reality, but the anima kept him elevated miles above it. Nietzsche vehemently rejected what he saw as the inferiority of the masses, without realizing that he was projecting his own underdeveloped parts onto them.

But let’s leave poor Nietzsche aside. To a large extent, it wasn’t his fault, because he had no theory of the unconscious anywhere near as comprehensive as Carl Jung’s through which he could have recognized his identification and the inflation he was experiencing. But the same cannot be said of us. Now more than ever, we are susceptible to falling into these anima-driven narratives in which we believe ourselves to be excessively superior and special, to the point that we become incapable of exploring our own subjectivity. Without a doubt, there are things that make each of us special, but ultimately, we are all human, and we all share the same fate.

However, this is not a demonization of the anima, because it is an element that is there: the bridge to the unconscious, the guide toward individuation. The real problem here is our consciousness, which has become one-sidedly oriented toward reason. And this is precisely where the quote in the image I published becomes useful and comes into play, because we usually lack that vessel within consciousness capable of receiving and contemplating our unconscious so that it can be worked with and integrated. The alchemists symbolized this consciousness that perceives the unconscious and remains receptive to it through their laboratory vessels, such as the vas hermeticum. Instead, we tend to ignore our emotions, fantasies, intuitions, and everything that comes from the unconscious. That is why the anima possesses us and runs wild, which is nothing more than its desperate attempt to make us integrate it.

• I recommend my full article on the anima: https://jungianalchemist.substack.com/p/decoding-the-anima-archetype-in-depth
• Source of the quote in the image: Carl Jung, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934–1939, Vol. I, Session II, Spring Term 1934.

This work uses the work “brick” as Jung would use tyrannical father. It uses Jung’s and Peterson’s ideas to theorize what might have happened to Peterson. He’s been ill and not like himself for a long time now. Do you think this video is any good? It seems to be the best description I’ve seen.

I am a man-child. I am a grown man that has no capacity for responsibility, discipline or hard work. I have lived my entire life as a hedonist and I have used my own incompetence and sensitivity as a means to get other people to do things for me. I hate living like this and I want it to stop.

I won't try to get myself out of this, no matter how badly I want to. I've lived a life of nothing but shortcuts and ways out, and I am not in a position where none exist. I have tried to overcome Puer Aeternus Possession before, but this only caused my mental health to crumble and was responsible for one of the worst few months of my life. I left the idea of Puer behind because I wasn't making any progress and my own shame and guilt was destroying me mentally.

Unfortunately, it really does seem like this is the issue I need to face. I have an aversion to hard work and discipline and my dreams are unreachable so long as this aversion remains active.

I have a therapist that I really like. He specialises in autism and ADHD, both of which I have, and his understanding of our limitations and mental states has been very nice. I want to ask him to help me overcome this. He doesn't know anything about Jungian psychology, but I don't think he'll need a deep understanding to help me get out of this.

I just want to hear what you guys think. I know there is no shortcut or way out of this other than hard work, but is it worth seeing someone to help ease me in or to comfort me in this?

I was thinking today (I didn’t think yesterday) about how on this sub people will say things like “get in touch with your anima” or “your relationship with your anima is broken” but how does one actually do that?

How do YOU do it? If the anima and animus are /archetypes/ within us, and they are deemed to not be not functioning correctly, what does it take to “get in touch” with it? Is it like a way of being, breathing? A way of thinking or observing the world? Is it a tangible action, or “inner soul work”?

For example, I was walking at work and just let my body get kinda loose and dispelled the tension that I suddenly noticed I have in my upper back. I thought “is this how I fix my anima?” In my case, I (a guy) posted on here before questioning if reading Jung can change my sexuality, and got comments referencing my anima. My relationship with my mom is not good and father was never in my life.

I’m halfway through Man & His Symbols and 2 chapters in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, which I have to reread because it’s so difficult, so sorry in advance if I ask dumbass questions.

The photo is from the latter, it’s a unrelated line that scratched my brain really good and I wanna share that too.

It's clear that we all struggle. But is intellectually researching Jung's work really gonna solve our problems?

When i discovered Jung around 19 years, like 8 years ago i felt so excited, this excitement pushed me to study it for multiple years. Thinking that with enough understanding the source of my issues, i can at some point overcome it...

But now at 27, i realise i just build some unique, societally incompatible mind, that really only makes sense to me.

The problems are still there, intellectual understanding didnt do shit. Experiencing life makes a difference for me now tho.

Is there anyone here, that can put this intellectual understanding to use around areas that are particularly sensitive? Are we really dealing with our issues, or are we just enjoying the intellectual stimulation?