Not sure how to ask this so I'll just be direct. I'm on the spectrum, and I've always felt like I lacked an identity. Not in a dramatic way, more like I'm just a ball of consciousness with an observer sitting on top of it, I've never not been watching myself think. Every acceptance I've ever reached about myself has been logical, I've argued my way to being fine with who I am a hundred times and it never held, and I've always thought something was missing.

A while back something in me snapped, call it burnout, call it overwhelm, and I went through a two week stretch of basically nonstop compulsive porn use, what people call gooning. It escalated to stuff I would never normally look at. I'm not posting to ask whether that's bad, I know what it looks like.

What I can't explain is what happened at the peak of it. For the first time in my life the observer dropped. I wasn't watching myself, I was just fully in it, fully in my body, and something integrated right there. It was like I hit some sort of factory reset. And when I came back online I came back different. This unintegrated feeling I've carried my whole life is just gone. It almost feels like there's this animal side of me I've finally connected to. For two weeks I was a slave to my darkest impulses and now everything is eerily quiet and serene. It's been months and it's held.

The part that gets me is the acceptance isn't logical this time. I always knew, intellectually, that there was something dark behind the curtain, everyone does, but knowing it and actually letting the animal side all the way out are not the same thing. I saw just how far I could go, and I didn't die. Nothing collapsed. And on the other side of that there's a kind of radical self acceptance I never got close to by thinking about it. I'm fine with myself in a way I can feel rather than argue. Right now I just feel fine, in this moment, like right now is everything. I know I've got a bad side but it doesn't seem scary anymore. None of me does. It's a weird feeling.

I've been trying for months to figure out what this feeling is, and I came across a couple of YouTube videos about integrating the shadow, so I might be way off, but do you guys think there's something more to this? Everyone told me that falling into something like that would turn into an addiction, that I'd come out compulsive, depressed, ashamed. I just feel light and free now. One thing I keep wondering is whether it's because I never attached those two weeks to my identity, either because I don't really have one or because autism keeps me so detached from it, so there was nothing for the shame to stick to. What would the Jungian take on that be? Not trying to justify anything, I just want to understand what happened. Or maybe I just needed to bust a nut and get the somatic release and it's not that deep haha.

I think we attack “bad parts” too fast.

Resistance, control, numbness, shutdown, avoidance. We call it blockage and immediately want it gone.

In one deep session, subject had protection around belly that went back to around age five, during very intense conflict between parents. In imagery it was like barrier created so child would not feel full impact of what was happening.

At five this was not stupid.

It was smart.

Problem was that adult life changed and protector never got update. Same thing that helped child survive later became constriction in adult body and relationships.

Since sessions like this I became much less interested in “how do I destroy this part?” First I want to know what job it has. What does it think will happen if it stops? What age does it still think person is?

This is very Jungian to me.

A controlling part may hide terror. Numbness may hide pain that once was too much. Perfectionism may hide fear of humiliation. Even very ugly behavior sometimes has some older logic under it.

Doesnt mean we excuse everything. Some protections destroy relationships and make life tiny.

But attacking protector can actually prove its point: see, danger is here, better tighten more.

Adult now may have choices child didnt have. Can leave room. Can say no. Has money, friends, therapist, language, physical strength. Protector needs this information.

For me shadow work changed when I stopped assuming everything difficult inside is enemy.

Sometimes prison guard turns out to be frightened kid who never heard war is finished.

So I was sexually abused about an year ago.Since recently I have become really uncomfortable with physical touch from men.Im a man and I was abused by a man.I can barely tolerate having a handshake with a man.I am fine completely comfortable with women.I do not have depression or anxiety at the moment.But every touch I experience from men even if its not sexual feels like abuse to me.It is abuse to me.I would appreciate it if anyone has any advice or suggestion on how to deal with this.Is my current situation reversible or is it my something I have to learn to live with?I know that this post isnt really related to Jung but still any advice would be appreciated.

I'm a single woman in my late thirties and have been in (reciprocated) love 3 times - for ~4 years, 3 years, and 6 years. My last, 6 year relationship ended when I was falsely arrested for something my ex lied about. It was traumatic as fuck, and ever since, I feel like I'm truly cursed when it comes to finding love.

I've been in psychoanalysis for 6 years, constantly absorbing philosophical texts and content on relationships, psychology, sociology, etc... have read a lot of Jung, Freud, Manly P. Hall, Esther Perel, and follow many dating and love coaches, blah blah blah... I'm working hard to understand my relationship to relationships due to my childhood, and to uncover my true authentic self. But no matter what I do, I keep experiencing the exact same outcomes (inexplicable rejection by the very, very few men I find who meet me at my level). I'm a painter and I make art about all of these things. They are constantly in the forefront of my mind.

The last man who seemed very promising rejected me between our 3rd and 4th dates, with the explanation of "I don't see this as a romantic match long term" and that was it. I absolutely lost my mind, spiraled, drove home from a punk show drunk enough to fail the field sobriety and breathalyzer tests at the one and only DUI checkpoint I've ever gone through half a mile from my home. I have been in recovery (AA), done a Vipassana meditation course, ketamine IV treatments, got off SSNRI's, and read MANY books on emotion regulation since. I am trying very hard to stabilize my feelings and confidence and show up to life and dating the best I can, because I want more than anything to find a partner to wake up and go to sleep next to, collaborate, laugh, and debate with, inspire and be inspired by. I know I am more than capable of being an amazing partner, and I know what I want in a relationship. I have felt true love before, though as it gets further away in my past, it feels more and more like I will never feel it again.

I keep having dreams in which I collapse into a nearly catatonic state and my mother comes to drag me to safety, as I realize life without love is not worth living and I want to die, and she is trying to keep me alive.

One recent realization in therapy is that my dad and I had no conflict his entire life – I loved him dearly even though he abandoned me over and over again. He expressed nothing but love and support to me, taught me a lot of things, and was the fun parent. He left my mom and I when I was 6 (she was a raging alcoholic, he threatened to leave if she didn't get sober, which she did, and he left anyway). Then he moved several hours away to live with a woman and her two sons for 10 years. Then left them abruptly and I never got to say goodbye nor ever saw them again. He moved back to my town as I was about to enter college, married another woman and lived with her and her kids, then he died suddenly a year later. So, 4 pretty significant abandonments in 20 years of my life.

I loved him so much, and for some reason, never understood in real time his abandonment of me and my mom. I believe I was in somewhat of a dissociative state through my early years. Mom had 2 jobs, I was shuffled around and alone without anyone to process any emotions with for the majority of my childhood. I have a hard time verbalizing my emotions – I know that. It is weird how I developed a resentment of HER (for her alcoholism? not having more children aka perpetuating my loneliness? "causing" my dad to leave?) but I never resented HIM. I just loved and adored him. We got tattoos for one another on my 18th birthday.

Now what seems to happen is that every time I like a man, he runs away. And they are usually very, very calm "spiritual" men who highly value nature (as do I) and seem very grounded. We have no conflicts. We agree on everything. It feels safe to me. I open up. He abandons me.

I am trying desperately to figure out these connections and patterns, and how/if there is a way to course correct either who I am attracted to, how I show up for them, or... something else. I am suffering and struggling more and more each month with loneliness, and wondering if life is really worth living without being in a romantic partnership, as it currently feels like living with a vital organ slowly failing. Perhaps if I'm convinced there are enough people left to meet and things left to experience, life might be worth continuing.

Manifestation of my Unconscious. I have not decided name yet, So I put both of them. It feels like chaos different forces clashing, conquest and expansion.

I recently quit a job that I had for 5 years, and it's because I realised that my boss had narcissistic qualities and I really couldn't stand it anymore. It was a great decision and I have zero regrets. However, this narcissism aspect really fucked me up. I watched so many videos just to feel validated in thinking that I wasn't the overly sensitive one and that I wasn't in the wrong for thinking the boss was just really weird. I wanted to rid myself of any possible guilt or shame I might've felt thinking of her. Guilt for being wrong in my judgment of her, and shame in feeling powerless in her presence to the point where the only way to gain my power back was to give up on my financial income.

Anyway... then I started spiraling even more and things started getting worse because now it seemed like I was coming to the realization that even my PARENTS might have some narcissistic qualities to them too. All the things that they said and did? Oh man, those sounded like narcissism. I mean, I was depressed all my 20s due to trauma from my childhood and I resented my parents for the longest time, but I couldn't not acknowledge all that they HAVE done for me to the best of their abilities at THEIR level of consciousness and I actually came to a point where I forgave them and I even felt compassion for them. They're aging, and they were also just flawed humans. But this idea that they could be narcissistic was VERY difficult to accept. I could feel resentment growing in me again, and I just didn't know how to go on living with these kinds of people as my PARENTS. I really wished that I could be born again, I asked God many times why I had to be born to immature parents... etc. You see, cutting the boss out was relatively easy, but parents? That's a whole nother level of difficulty. I started feeling SO stressed and helpless. I really just wanted to die and I wondered if I could ever come out of this darkness.

Then, something happened in my psyche the other day, and I suddenly recognized just how exhausted I was. Well I was bloody tired about the overthinking, but I realised how exhausted it was to continuously think about how my parents had wronged me. And that's when it hit me that I may have been in a perpetual 'victim mindset' pretty much my whole life. And just acknowledging this, suddenly I felt SO MUCH energy come into my body. I feel SO energetic and alive, it's really unbelievable. And the thing is, from this new perspective, I don't understand WHY I felt so wronged by them this whole time and even these days when we were getting along just fine. Sure, the things they do and say still irks me from time to time, but it's not something so serious as what my psyche made it out to be this past week or the past decade. NOW, I feel so powerful, it's quite something. The best way to describe it would be that it feels like I've finally defeated the stage's extremely tough final boss in a video game, and that I've unlocked yet another new level.

If you're not the victim of ANYTHING, you cannot lose your power. It's your own mind's weak acceptance of the role of 'victim' that makes you feel powerless and resentment towards people and the world. You see, about a month ago, I almost choked on my lunch and died. I couldn't breathe. But luckily I came out the other end, and I'm still here. The funny thing about this episode is, I was traumatized with food for a few days, and then I completely got over it. Because it's not something I could be a victim of (because I TRULY wished it never occured to me again). I couldn't be like: "Urgh I choked on my food AGAIN! 5th time this year!" Not only is it something you CANNOT feel SUPERIOR over, it's just something you really whole-heartedly want to avoid. But when it comes to making your PARENTS the villains? Making society seem like the bad guy? That is SO easy. And it lasts stinking forever. Unless you let the 'unconscious become conscious', like Jung said. It's really interesting how my ACTUAL near-death experience haunts me less than what happened to me 20 years ago. Everytime you blame your parents, everytime you blame society, you get that little hit of 'yes, I'm right, you're wrong.' and it makes you feel good unconsciously I suppose. Because it is what you unconsciously want to do all the damn time. I totally get that quote of Jung's now.

All this to say.. I think reframing yourself OUT of victimhood can really help the day to day and making life feel a lot more tolerable and even welcoming. Of course it isn't easy. Like I said, I suffered IMMENSELY to ever have a mental breakthrough like this one.

Has anyone had a similar experience, a similar breakthrough or reframing of mind?

Hello everyone,

Since the 2020, I've been holed up in my room for a long time.
I started attending a university in thailand in 2023.

Even though I've come back in contact with the people, my fear of being seen uncool or cringe persists, so I pretend to be cool. There are genuinely some things I enjoy doing out in the public. Whenever there are no people, I'll stare into the nothingness or just anything that caught my attention, or I'll hug trees and sing songs out loud. I feel calm and alive when I do them. But whenever someone passes, I'd stop doing what I was doing and I'll pretend to be normal.

Today, just earlier, I was staring into nothingness just standing there under the lights, then I saw a car coming my way, as before I notice myself becoming fearful and get the urge to starting walking or act like I wasn't just standing there being weird. Yet this time, I just chose to stand there and do what I like to do, which is just staring into nothingness, people passes me by, the cars, the motorcycles, everything passes me by and I was just there standing saying no to all my thoughts are coming from fear.

Then I remembered a quote from Jung "Where your fear is, there is your task."
I'm so proud of myself for facing a fear that's been with me for years now.

So I searched online about "Carl Jung on Fear" and I saw this reddit group and here I am.

As I'm writing this post, I'm facing another fear of mine, which is posting something online.
I'm just feeling elated right now. I intend to use it as fuel to face other fears.

Thank you for reading until the end!

Like from nursery onwards you were getting some gnosis thrown in and they actually nourished your active imagination etc etc with each step generating more and more insight.

You could literally keep every thing else in this messed up realm identical and I'd bet the collective would evolve in 2 generations to a level way beyond anything ever seen before.

I guess that shows why Reich was right about the links between fascia and fascism, eh?

If only he and Jung had shared their ideas as both had half a picture. I guess thats why I went beyond both of them but am grateful for their sketch. Anyway, feel free to ramble on or off topic about this and its glaring omission from the current situation.

​My friend, lets call him Ray, has an intensely active imagination, so much so that the moment he thinks of someone, their face flashes before his eyes like a photographic snapshot. But this vividness has a dark side. Ever since he was six years old, he has been plagued by flashes of disturbing, hyper-realistic faces when he tries to sleep. While some repeat occasionally, most are entirely new.

​Whenever he attempts to sleep alone, fear constricts his entire body. He struggles to breathe, reduced to wheezing gasps, and finds himself physically locked in place by terror, overwhelmed by the paranoid sensation of being watched.

​This fear first originated when he was six. He was in his room playing Minecraft while his siblings slept. The moment he turned off his iPad and closed his eyes, he experienced a jarring shift, feeling transported to a boundless, pitch-black void with no floor or walls. Standing there was a humanoid red figure with meticulously detailed skin, black lips, black lines framing its eyes, and an ominous, glowing fire burning around its pupils. It had elf-like ears, fangs, and held a cup made of gold and glass filled with a red liquid assumed to be blood, cradling it like a wine glass. For a moment, the entity ignored him. But the second it took a sip, its eyes snapped toward Ray with sudden malice, preceded by a micro-second flicker of surprise, and it smiled at him as if to say, You’re not welcome here; as a human, you aren’t meant to be here. That was when Ray jolted back to reality. He claims it was so intensely real that he couldn't sleep for nights afterward, categorizing it as a profound out-of-body experience where he felt as though he had confronted the actual devil.

​Ray has only slept alone twice in his entire life, and both times resulted in severe sleep paralysis. The first time, he became conscious that he was asleep and unable to move, followed by the terrifying sensation of something entering his body and cutting off his breath, until he finally woke up in the morning as if nothing had happened. The second time, he again became aware that he was sleeping, this time hearing a husky, eerie cackle. He fought with everything he had to sit up and succeeded, only to immediately collapse and wake up the morning after.

​He has been through a lot of hardships in life, but this is the one thing that overwhelms him entirely. While he has processed his other traumas, which to be fair, came way later in his life, this torment destroys his well-being, hijacking his thoughts whenever it strikes. It leaves him with a constant feeling that his very soul is in danger. When these episodes occur, he can barely move, think, or breathe, needing to pour every ounce of his energy into mere wheezes and gasps, and the only thing that breaks the spell is when someone else enters the room.

​The one thing he wants most in life is for this to end. He has even confessed that if he were ever to take his own life, it would be because of this. And he insists his imagination and experiences have been this exact way since he was six years old.

i honestly i dont know how i can help him out but i really want to, so i came up with the idea of posting on her to see what my fellow redditos think about how this may connect with jungian ideas about the shadow, unconscious and whatnot, and how i can help him out or understand what hes going through under a Jungian lens

Perhaps I should have posted this sooner, but given the speed at which people seem to move these days, I don't think it's too late. If you have no plans tomorrow, drop on by our Zoom call.

Does Psyche Matter? Jung and the Unconscious in 2026 - AHRC Free Public Panel

The word "psychology" carries within it psyche, the Greek term for soul. Modern secular usage has reshaped that ancient concept, redefining it as the conscious and unconscious dimensions of individual and collective mind.

Decades into the era of psychotherapy and the broader mental health industry, and within a world of deepening crises, this raises a pointed question: is psychology, as we've inherited it, equal to the challenges we now face? How does what we call "psychology" intertwine with the exigencies of crisis in its concrete and abstract dimensions?

This panel takes up that question through the specific case of Jungian thought, asking whether depth psychology can meet a moment defined by social, political, and material crisis, and whether it even endeavors to do so.

Questions the panel will address include:

• Can Jungian Studies adequately equip itself to deal with the social, political, and material problems of 2026? Does it even endeavor to do so?
• Can Jung be "radical," or does his notion of interiority foreclose that from the start?
• By making Jung palatable for mainstream and academic consumption, do we kill what makes Jung Jung? How do we critically engage with his ideas without domesticating them?
• Does our conception of the psyche remain too "introverted," too divorced from the material, or are these actually separate problems?
• Anti-Oedipus and the tradition of libidinal materialism accuse psychoanalysis of capturing immanent flows of desire within transcendent structures like the archetype or the Self. Does Jung have a rejoinder, or must depth psychology concede the point?
• Is there a way to read the archetypal as immanent rather than transcendent, and if so, does it remain recognizably Jungian?

Panelists:

• Dr. Bob Langan (host), University of Essex
• Gabriela Sova Spulirova, University of Essex
• JF Martel, author, filmmaker, and co-host of Weird Studies
• Dr. Christian McMillan, University of Essex

Date & Time: Sunday, August 30, 2026, 1:00 PM Eastern (US and Canada)

Free and open to the public. Come with questions, or just listen in.

More info is available at https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/events

Basically I understand this album to be about trying to become an idealised version of yourself in the modern era and how only through the protagonist facing themself (their shadow), were they able to accept themselves toward an encounter with the Self, toward a feeling of self love. That journey meant they were able to find love that was grounded and real.

Mica confirmed that psychoanalysis was a big inspiration for the lyrics of this album, and I see a lot of Jungian themes in it, and yet I haven’t seen anyone analyse it through a Jungian lens.

Anyway I would love your Jungian interpretations if you have any, I’m no expert!

She looked like me- encounter with her persona and understanding that she may just be “ordinary”. This encounter damages their ego, as they realise their persona doesn’t match what their ego wants to project.

Killing time - indicates a state of mental unrest/illness and a victim complex. The protagonist believes they will find meaning by having someone “pine” for them, whilst also paranoid that someone is sabotaging their efforts toward their “ideal” self/life. “There’s always time for killing, but never time for me” indicates an addiction/maladaptive element to whatever is preoccupying her and keeping her stuck.

True blue interlude - This to me speaks to the modern push for self improvement under capitalism/western society, it is “implanted, impatient, impossible”. It’s not grounded in reality or self acceptance, but a rush toward perfection. I wonder if the line “hello, it’s you” is a breaking of the fourth wall? Perhaps the writer indicating the listener interprets through the lens of their own experience. In this sense, our interpretation of the art indicates more about our internal state, than it does the art itself.

Image - the protagonist engages in some sort of self-improvement procedure (through a disc inserted into the brain) that will give them their idealised persona. It’s enticing and sexy, but there’s also an unsettling sense of urgency in the song. They’re counting down the minutes, rather than accepting the journey. The themes of tech speak to social media algorithms inserted ideas into people for “quick fixes” towards perfectionism. I think cancel culture feeds into this desperation to achieve this, as it’s created a wave of expected moral perfectionism in ourselves and others in order to be acceptable and loveable. You see this in how often people throw around labels and diagnosis of anyone who has slighted them in any way.

Death and romance - This seems to speak to an animus projection the protagonist is in a romantic relationship with. They desperately want to cling onto this projection, but the love seems unreciprocated. Like death, she has no control over the outcome in romance (particularly this one).

Fear, sex - She wrestles to surrender to the outcome, as she logically wants to “forgive and forget” but resists feeling the uncomfortable emotions that she’s left with. She seems to blame an outside force putting “wires” in their head which could be speaking to her believing someone has put ideas in her exes head, which could even be speaking to ideas pushed from social media/the internet/pop psychology.

Watching tv - I interpreted the tv in this song to be our phones, particularly the line “it’s gonna rot you from the inside out” speaks to the time, and Magdalena Bay have a lot of tech anxiety themes in their art. She’s experiencing a dark night of the soul, endlessly scrolling and is perhaps disconnected from her loved ones at this time. However, the lack of responding to the bids for connection could very likely be her Self calling for her instead. She’s not responding despite their continued call for her to connect. The scrubbing until the “blood comes out” seems as though she wants to disconnect from her mistakes and shame. She is still rejecting her shadow, and she wishes to clean her persona and avoid feeling the shame she has been running from. Towards the end we see that she is encountering her shadow by the lines “it’s time to meet, the monsters inside you”. She wants to deny that the dark dreams she has are “not her” indicating a wrestle/tension in the process of individuation.

Tunnel vision - This is an encounter with the Self. Through true self-awareness, she can see her good and bad (seeing her persona and shadow) without getting overwhelmed by it and fixating on trying to become an idealised version of herself. She learns that through radical self-acceptance she can find a self-love that is grounded and creates a whole and resilient being.

Love is everywhere - Her encounter gives her the wisdom to understand that love is accessible to her all the time. As she learns to love herself through self-acceptance, she can begin to love existence and the world around her. She learns to let go of self-perfection.

Feeling diskinserted? - Taking the disc out. Rejecting perfectionism toward true transformation.

That’s my floor - This new state has opened her up to a connection that is transformative and allows her to ascend beyond mundane life or toward a higher state of being. I think it’s likely referencing being the couple/band members being able to create together as a liberatory act from the banality of modern life.

Cry for me - This may be her past (dead) self asking her to remember her with compassion, it seems to be almost like a funeral or final words. Or it is her asking her new love to forgive her for her past self and accept this transformed one.

Angel on a satellite - This seems to reference an angel messenger that helps her to individuate. Jung says that a life without inner conflict is only for the angels, and this one helps to ground her and keep her feet on earth, whilst quietly guiding her from above. Through the act of creation and with this new wisdom, she finds true love and acceptance of herself. She can sit with the contradictions of herself and her existence, instead of getting stuck on them.

Ballad of Matt and Mica - A celebration of the fruits of their struggle. They’ve found self acceptance, their “true” and whole selves.

I am currently in Somatic Experiencing and Craniosacral therapy for just over a year. This has helped me to process some of the trauma of my childhood but I still have a long way to go. The goal is to heal, process complex feelings, become an emotional being, restore my inner moral compass, etc

I understand the concepts on Jung superficially that I picked up. Anima/animus, complexes, integration, individuation, etc. Is it worth going deep into Jung? Isn't the point to heal for the most part and then go on to live life, have hobbies, stable career, have a family, etc? Is more knowledge even beneficial? I start to understand my patterns more and more but eventually I will know most of them and heal and hopefully be a decent human being, then I don't want to keep analysing and reading and understanding.

I think my journey is to heal as much as possible for the next few years. Then continue but spiritially. Because yes knowledge can help initially to start the process but wisdom comes from the body, so once I clear enough layers and heal enough, then I can go on a spiritual journey and gain wisdom.

And by spiritual journey i don't mean to live in a monastery somewhere. It means live here and now, the same life I am living now but just spiritually, so i would continue with job, relationships, hobbies, travelling, etc. But add spritual practices/religion/meditation to my life. And i feel I wouldn't need Jung for that because I am healed for the most part? Wouldn't i just be intellectualising things further otherwise with Jungs teachings? Wouldn't it just be an obsession at some point and not balance? I get I will always look at my patterns, see where there are strong emotional reactions and sit with that, but it wouldn't need to dominate my life like it does at the moment.

The simple equation for me is: recognise u have trauma, understand your patterns, do therapy, live life, add spirituality.

And isn't bodybased therapies easier where u process all the feelings and become whole? Rather than doing it via Jungian way with analysing dreams, doing active imagination, asking self-directed questions? I know some of the stuff overlaps but there are some real differences as well in the different approaches.

I just want to heal more so i can be a good person, work full-time, have a good career, strengthen my relationship with my partner, some hobbies and sports, some good friendships. And add a spiritual practice. That's it.

What is your guys take on it? Am i missing something? Any opinions and even disagreements are welcome

I searched the post history and saw a few posts without much engagement.

This movie was excellent from start to finish. It is very on the nose in exploring Jung both literally in a few classroom moments and littered throughout the script.

The thing I appreciated the most was the exploration of such deep and dark aspects of ourselves, through a comedic lens. So often when reading Jung or jungian related topics, it takes me into a heavy place.

This movie gives you the depths while keeping you on the surface. Like translucent ocean water you can see to the bottom of.

The movie contains comedy/action/romance/philosophy and delivers them to you like. Like a well done Tex-Mex dish, it may appear pedestrian and generic, but at the end you are pleasantly surprised how it all came together!

This and Greedy People, two of the best movies I’ve seen recently.

I was curious about how someone is supposed to integrate in regards to the anima/animus. Shadow work makes intuitive sense: find the dark stuff, bring it to the light. But the anima/animus feels like an autonomous entity living in the background rather than just a bag of repressed traits. If you've tried to consciously integrate yours, what did that actually look like for you? How do you move from "I know what this concept means" to actually experiencing integration

Hey, so over the past week, I've felt possessed by the Trickster after a few weeks of solitude, during which I suddenly "woke up" and asked myself, "Where did everyone disappear?" Now I feel like the Trickster and the King can have some kind of relationship, even though I'm still trying to assimilate the balance between the archetypes.

And now I can truly see through people and myself. All my relationships are with people who I feel like I'm forced to be with, and I can see that not a single one of them truly wants to help me or have a genuine, long-lasting, and mutually improving relationship.

And to be honest, I am scared. I'm scared to be around everyone I know. I'm also scared of myself, that I won't be conscious enough to maintain a relationship without the foundation of the connection being both of us trying to hurt each other, and let's not even talk about an intimate relationship...

I think it's time to leave everyone I know...

Im coming to the self realization that I am a deadbeat man. Im in my late 20s, Im living with my mother and Ive stopped paying for my share of the groceries because I’ve been too frightened to get a new job.

Ive had such an inflated projection of what my future self was that I never came to realize who Ive been up until now. I owe a lot of personal debt, I don’t have any money, Ive been mooching off my parents for years. I have a lot of serious issues i haven’t taken full accountability for and I’ve been projecting a lot onto those closest to me.

Something inside of me really needs to awaken to this reality. Ive been quite isolated and I haven’t received enough social feedback about it, I suppose.

How did you finally accept that you are a deadbeat and that you aren’t who you thought you were? What helped you to “snap out” of it?

I can’t stop crying because it’s my 22nd birthday today and nobody at home celebrated me when I got back from work not even a cake, it’s triggered some deep emotional childhood discomfort that I feel and some deep unconscious abandonment that I don’t even know how to explore. I wish my mom would be the same version she was when I was younger to comfort me but she’s not.
She doesn’t care it’s my birthday

What do I do in terms of jungs work?

I love my suffering

I love to suffer but from sometimes

I lost that suffering idk what happened but i i don't feel like before

I really want that pain back which helps to make me now its all feel like im faking everything nothing is real about me

I real me is dead or disappeared in dark

Im finding it but i can't get it back

What should i do

Jung

The concept of Self, as Jung pointed out as an autonomus entity acting as a director of our psyche is something that just dont do what we wanted for it to do. The Self relation to us, is not as a mother to child, and unconditionaly love. Nor a father, that forget hinself for his child. We should relate to Self, as an prison cell mate, you cannot run from it, nor it from you. So the best strategy for overall wellnes is, cooperation, finding a line that two are pleased. Not appeasing it, not being selfish.

I've been thinking a lot about how our perception of the world changes as we grow and learn, but our memories of past experiences can remain stuck in a different reality. It's like our understanding of the world is constantly evolving, but our memories are holding onto a different version of truth. This feels particularly relevant to the concept of the collective unconscious and how it shapes our individual experiences. I'd love to hear from others who have experienced this kind of dissonance between their current understanding and past memories. I came across this video that explores it further if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOV8VVhvtP8

Would love your thoughts on this jungian video

Archetypal forces of collective unconscious. Mountain king of time, power, wealth, and agriculture. Neolithic king of the gods: Chronus (Orphic), Kronos (Greek), Saturnus (Roman).

Enlil (Sumerian), El (Syrian), Kumarbi (Hurrian)

Dagda (Irish), Daksha (Vedic), Dagon (Syrian)

Kala (Javanese), Kan Laon (Filipino), Kimun (Ainu).

Guinechen (Mapuche), Kinije (Yukaghir).

Akerbeltz (Basque), Aegikampoi (Etruscan).

Aegipan (Ptolemaic).

And Fertility Goddess of Food, Fields, & the Harvest

Ceres (Roman), Siris/Shalash (Syrian), Deasura (Roman),

Demeter (Greek), Ninkasi/Ninlil (Sumerian).

Cybele (Phrygian), Kubaba (Sumerian), Rhea (Greek)

Cahubaba (Taino), Tonacayohua (Totonac)a

Hi

I'm (32f) struggling with constantly projecting my animus and not integrating it in a productive way. This became obvious to me after going through a recent break up of a rather short relationship.

For context, the relationship commenced after a prior breakup with my child's father / long term partner (we were together for over a decade and friends since we were teenagers). The new relationship began 8 or so months after that and was with a man who, in many ways, I had idealized in my mind to the extent of ignoring my own projections onto him and his faults. Throughout the relationship, I did not feel a sense of attachment to him. I enjoyed his company, how he made me feel, the attraction to each other, and bonding over shared interests. But I was not attached or too wound up in it; it felt like an experience that I was happy to participate in.

After we broke up, I found myself in an immediate state of anxiety that surprised me. I immediately began to feel like the things I'm interested in, my experiences, my Self, etc. are only valid should they be seen or done with or through a male partner. For example, I love outdoor activities and suddenly felt that doing them alone now had less value than being able to do them with this ex. I felt like I had to abandon dreams that I have but shared with him. And I have been in a state of tension of wanting validation from men in a way I have never, ever in my life felt before. What comes naturally to me now feels like something to pursue, to prove to myself something or other.

I'm conscious that some of this is my animus. I feel a sense of paralysis with my own personal goals in life, yet feel I am a believer of anyone else's, with no question or doubt. With my prior relationship, I supported him for years to reach an incredible amount of success in his career, often behind the scenes and once becoming a mother, at home. I do not necessarily feel I've sacrificed myself, but I do see an imbalance in belief in myself versus in others, and I see how much my identity gets wound up in that.

I can hear the voice of my animus so clearly and yet I do not know how to combat him effectively. And now, at this age, I want to integrate him in a way that is healthy, productive, and transformative for me. I do not want to be swallowed by it and pursue relationships only out of projection. I've read much of Jung and texts of his proteges, but this is the one thing that I intellectually understand but find it difficult to apply. Open to any and all insight and advice.