The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
The perfection of that which rests in itself in no way contradicts the perfection of that which circles in itself. Although absolute rest is something static and eternal, unchanging and therefore without history, it is at the same time the place of origin and the germ cell of creativity. Living the cycle of its own life, it is the circular snake, t
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This is not to say that early man was something of a philosopher; abstract questions of this kind were wholly alien to his consciousness. Mythology, however, is the product of the collective unconscious, and anyone acquainted with primitive psychology must stand amazed at the unconscious wisdom which rises up from the depths of the human psyche in
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Unlike other possible and necessary methods of inquiry which consider the development of consciousness in relation to external environmental factors, our inquiry is more concerned with the internal, psychic, and archetypal factors which determine the course of that development.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
#[[Ego Psychology]] vs #[[Self Psychology]]
Naturally to me, as a psychologist, the most valuable aspect of the work is the fundamental contribution it makes to a psychology of the unconscious. The author has placed the concepts of analytical psychology—which for many people are so bewildering—on a firm evolutionary basis, and erected upon this a comprehensive structure in which the empirica
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Indeed, creative individuals possessed of a stronger consciousness are even branded by the collective as antisocial.4 The creativity of consciousness may be jeopardized by religious or political totalitarianism, for any authoritarian fixation of the canon leads to sterility of consciousness. Such fixations, however, can only be provisional. So far
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The uroboros appears as the round “container,” i.e., the maternal womb, but also as the union of masculine and feminine opposites, the World Parents joined in perpetual cohabitation. Although it seems quite natural that the original question should be connected with the problem of the World Parents, we must realize at once that we are dealing with
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The stability of the ego, i.e., its ability to stand firm against the disintegrative tendencies of the unconscious and the world, is developed very early, as is also the trend toward extension of consciousness, which is likewise an important prerequisite for self-formation.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
the ego has to absorb essential portions of the cultural past transmitted to it by the canon of values embodied in its own culture and system of education.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
Images and symbols have this advantage over the paradoxical philosophical formulations of infinite unity and unimaged wholeness, that their unity can be seen and grasped as a unity at one glance.