Introducing Jung

What a relief! Instead of damnation, Jung felt this vision was an act of grace. He had been shown another side of God altogether, different to the one his father and uncles spoke of in their sermons.

God sits on His golden throne, high above the world – and from under the throne an enormous turd falls upon the sparkling new roof, shatters it, and breaks the walls of the cathedral asunder”

Decades later, Jung came across a reference to the motif of cannibalism in the symbolism of the Mass. And only then did the image of the “man-eater” make sense to him. He realized that the “dark Lord Jesus, the Jesuit and the phallus were identical”. They represented a dark creative force in nature, the investigation of which he pursued throughout his life.

The Persona is conditioned by social class, job, culture and nationality. There are often several personas we use to suit different situations. But we adopt a general Persona based on our superior functional type (e.g. thinking) because it comes easiest to us.

The “perfect Persona” can lead to a one-sided, rigid and alienated personality.

Psychic health and equilibrium depend on a well-adapted Persona because it makes social exchange possible.

Neurosis can arise from “wrong answers to life”, from empty success and confinement within too narrow

The unconscious side of the Persona is the Soul-image. Jung uses the Latin male and female names for the soul, the animus and the anima. The Soul-Image is always represented by the individual’s opposite gender.

This includes even the persona of the rebel!
The danger is in identifying totally with the persona, being “nothing but” the role you play.
The “perfect Persona” can lead to a one-sided, rigid and alienated personality.

You’re afraid of dropping the mask and finding nothing real behind it.
Neurosis can arise from “wrong answers to life”, from empty success and confinement within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Neurosis generally disappears by developing into a more spacious personality.

The Soul-Image is an archetype which can represent the whole of the unconscious. It is inherited, collective and “ageless”.