Subtitles
and first of all I want to call 00:00:20
and first of all I want to call attention to one fundamental principle 00:00:23
that underlay all his work and that was 00:00:29
most extraordinarily and exemplified in 00:00:32
Jung himself as a person and this is 00:00:37
what I would call his recognition of the 00:00:40
polarity of life that is to say his 00:00:45
resistance to what is to my mind the 00:00:49
disastrous and absurd hypothesis that 00:00:54
there is in this universe a radical and 00:00:57
absolute conflict between good and evil 00:01:00
light and darkness that can never never 00:01:03
never be harmonized this conflict has 00:01:07
come up to us in a very vivid way in 00:01:09
recent days with the trial of Adolf 00:01:13
Eichmann 00:01:13
and with Arthur Cussler's passionate denunciation of any sort of philosophy 00:01:25
of life and he's thinking in mind he has 00:01:31
in mind particularly Eastern 00:01:33
philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism 00:01:37
which so a slur the absolute differences 00:01:44
between good and evil that in their name 00:01:48
one could justify the sort of crimes 00:01:51
which were committed in the 00:01:53
concentration camps of Germany and it's 00:01:56
interesting to certain people accused 00:01:58
young also of Nazi sympathies because he 00:02:07
too would not subscribe to the absolute 00:02:14
state of a war between good and evil 00:02:18
going down to the very roots of the 00:02:20
universe 00:02:22
obviously when certain crimes and 00:02:28
catastrophes occur human emotions are 00:02:32
deeply and rightly aroused and I would 00:02:39
for myself say that were I in any 00:02:42
situation where an Iceman was operating 00:02:47
I would be roused to a degree of fury 00:02:47
that I can hardly imagine in my present existence but I know it would come out 00:02:59
from me I would oppose those sorts of 00:03:05
villainous with all the energy that I 00:03:08
have and if I was trapped in such a 00:03:11
situation I would fight it to the end 00:03:15
but at the same time I would recognize 00:03:19
the relativity of my own emotional 00:03:21
involvement I would know that I was 00:03:26
fighting a man like Eichmann in the same 00:03:31
way shall we say as a spider and a wasp 00:03:37
insects which naturally prey upon one 00:03:41
another and fight one another do so but 00:03:46
as a human being I would not be able to 00:03:49
regard my adversary as a metaphysical 00:03:53
devil that is to say as one who 00:03:57
represented the principle of absolute 00:03:59
and unresolvable evil and I think this 00:04:04
is the most important thing in young 00:04:09
that he was able to point out that he to 00:04:15
the degree that you condemn others and 00:04:19
find evil in others you are to that 00:04:23
degree unconscious of the same thing in 00:04:25
yourself 00:04:25
or at least of the potentiality of it there can be Iceman's and Hitler's and 00:04:33
Himmler's just because there are people 00:04:40
who are unconscious of their own 00:04:45
Darkseid's and they project that 00:04:47
darkness outward into say Jews or 00:04:51
communists or whatever the enemy may be 00:04:53
and say that there is the darkness it is 00:04:56
not in me and therefore because the 00:04:58
darkness is not in me I am justified in 00:05:01
annihilating this enemy whether it be 00:05:05
with atom bombs or gas chambers or 00:05:08
whatnot but to the degree that a person 00:05:11
becomes conscious that the evil is as 00:05:15
much in himself as in the other to this 00:05:19
same degree he is not likely to project 00:05:22
it on to some scapegoat and to MIT the 00:05:28
Muskrat and commit them as criminal acts 00:05:30
of violence upon other people 00:05:30
now this is to me the primary thing that Jung saw that in order to admit and 00:05:38
really accept and understand the evil in 00:05:48
oneself one had to be able to do it 00:05:51
without being an enemy to it as he put 00:05:56
it you had to accept your own dark side 00:06:00
and he had this pre-eminently in his own 00:06:06
character I had a long talk with him 00:06:11
back in 1958 and I was enormous 00:06:18
impressed with a man who's obviously 00:06:22
very great but at the same time with 00:06:25
whom everyone could be completely at 00:06:27
ease there are so many great people 00:06:29
grated knowledge or great in what is 00:06:32
called holiness with whom the ordinary 00:06:35
individual feels rather embarrassed he 00:06:37
feels inclined to sit on the edge of his 00:06:38
chair and to feel immediately judged by 00:06:43
this person's wisdom or sanctity Jung 00:06:46
managed to have wisdom and I think also 00:06:48
sanctity in such a way that when other 00:06:51
people came into its presence they 00:06:52
didn't feel judged they felt 00:06:52
enhanced encouraged and invited to share in a common life and there was a sort of 00:07:06
twinkle in Young's eye it gave me the 00:07:15
impression that he knew himself to be is 00:07:21
just as much of villain as everybody 00:07:25
else there's a nice German word in 00:07:28
Turkey danke which means a thought in 00:07:30
the very far far back of your mind you 00:07:32
only had a hint at the danke in the back 00:07:34
of his mind which showed it showed in 00:07:38
the twinkle in his eye it showed that he 00:07:43
knew and recognized what I have 00:07:47
sometimes called the element of 00:07:48
irreducible rascality in himself and he 00:07:54
knew it so strongly and so clearly and 00:07:59
in a way so lovingly that he would not 00:08:02
condemn the same thing in others and 00:08:06
therefore would not be led into those 00:08:09
thoughts feelings and acts of violence 00:08:12
towards others which are always 00:08:16
characteristic of the people who project 00:08:19
the devil in themselves upon the outside 00:08:23
upon somebody else upon the scapegoat 00:08:27
now this may be on a very integrated 00:08:30
character in other words here I have to 00:08:33
present a little bit of a complex idea 00:08:35
he was a man who was thoroughly with 00:08:38
himself 00:08:38
having seen and accepted his own nature profoundly he had a kind of unity and 00:08:44
absence of conflict in his own nature 00:08:55
which had to it this additional 00:08:58
complication that I find so fascinating 00:09:00
he was the sort of man who could feel 00:09:03
anxious and afraid and guilty without 00:09:08
being ashamed of feeling this way in 00:09:14
other words he understood that an 00:09:17
integrated person is not a person who 00:09:19
simply eliminated the sense of guilt or 00:09:21
the synchs sense of anxiety from his 00:09:23
life who was fearless and wooden and 00:09:28
kind of sage of stone he's a person who 00:09:32
feels all these things but has no 00:09:34
recrimination against himself for 00:09:36
feeling them and this is to my mind a 00:09:39
profound kind of humor now in humor 00:09:44
there's always a certain element of 00:09:45
malice there was a talk given on the 00:09:48
Pacifica stations just a little while 00:09:50
ago which was an interview with Al Capp 00:09:53
and our cab made the point that he felt 00:09:56
that all humans fundamentally malicious 00:09:58
now is a very high kind of humor which 00:10:01
is humor at oneself 00:10:01
a real humor is not jokes at the expense of others there's always jokes at the 00:10:11
expense of oneself and of course it has 00:10:15
an element of malice in it it has malice 00:10:19
towards oneself the recognition of the 00:10:23
fact that behind the social role that 00:10:25
you assume behind all your pretensions 00:10:28
to being either a good citizen or a fine 00:10:32
scholar or a great scientist or a 00:10:38
leading politician or physician or 00:10:41
whatever you happen to be the behind 00:10:43
this facade there is a certain element 00:10:48
of the unreconstructed bum not as 00:10:53
something to be condemned and wailed 00:10:55
over there's something to be recognized 00:10:58
as contributive to one's greatness and 00:11:02
to one's positive aspects in the same 00:11:04
way that manure is contributed to the 00:11:07
perfume of the rose young saw this and 00:11:13
young accepted this and I want to read a 00:11:18
passage from one of his lectures which i 00:11:21
think is one of the greatest things he 00:11:24
ever wrote and which has been very 00:11:27
marvelous thing for me it was in a 00:11:30
lecture delivered to a group of clergy 00:11:32
in Switzerland considerable number of 00:11:35
years ago and he writes as follows 00:11:41
people forget that even doctors had 00:11:44
moral scruples and that certain patients 00:11:48
confessions are hard even for a doctor 00:11:50
to swallow yet the patient does not feel 00:11:55
himself accepted unless the very worst 00:11:57
in him is accepted - no one could bring 00:12:01
this about by mere words it comes only 00:12:04
through reflection and through the 00:12:06
doctors attitude towards himself and his 00:12:09
own dark side if the doctor wants to 00:12:12
guide another or even accompany him a 00:12:14
step of the way he must feel 00:12:17
with that person's psyche he never feels 00:12:21
it when he passes judgment whether he 00:12:25
puts his judgments into words or keeps 00:12:27
them to himself makes not the slightest 00:12:29
difference to take the opposite position 00:12:32
and to agree with the patient offhand is 00:12:35
also of no use feeling comes only 00:12:38
through unprejudiced objectivity this 00:12:41
sounds almost like a scientific precept 00:12:43
and it could be confused with a purely 00:12:45
intellectual abstract attitude of mind 00:12:48
but what I mean is something quite 00:12:50
different it is a human quality a kind 00:12:53
of deep respect for the facts for the 00:12:56
man who suffers from them and for the 00:12:59
riddle of such a man's life 00:13:01
the truly religious person has this 00:13:03
attitude he knows that God has brought 00:13:07
all sorts of strange and inconceivable 00:13:09
things to pass and seeks in the most 00:13:11
curious ways to enter a man's heart he 00:13:15
therefore senses in everything the 00:13:18
unseen presence of the Divine Will this 00:13:21
is what I mean by unprejudiced 00:13:22
objectivity it is a moral achievement on 00:13:25
the part of the doctor who ought not to 00:13:28
let himself be repelled by sickness and 00:13:30
corruption we cannot change anything 00:13:34
unless we accept it 00:13:36
condemnation does not liberate it 00:13:40
oppresses I am the oppressor of the 00:13:43
person I condemn not his friend and 00:13:45
fellow sufferer I do not in the least 00:13:48
mean to say that we must never pass 00:13:50
judgment when we desire to help and 00:13:52
improve but if the doctor wishes to help 00:13:55
a human being he must be able to accept 00:13:57
him as he is and he can do this in 00:14:00
reality only when he has already seen 00:14:03
and accepted himself as he is perhaps 00:14:07
this sounds very simple but simple 00:14:10
things are always the most difficult in 00:14:13
actual life it requires the greatest art 00:14:16
to be simple and so acceptance of 00:14:19
oneself is the essence of the moral 00:14:21
problem and the acid test of one's whole 00:14:24
outlook on life 00:14:27
that I feed the beggar that I forgive an 00:14:30
insult that I love my enemy in the name 00:14:32
of Christ all these are undoubtedly 00:14:35
great virtues what I do unto the least 00:14:38
of my brethren that I do unto Christ but 00:14:42
what if I should discover that the least 00:14:44
amongst them all the poorest of all 00:14:46
beggars the most impudent of all 00:14:48
offenders 00:14:48
yea the very fiend himself that these 00:14:51
are within me and that I myself stand in 00:14:55
need of the arms of my own kindness that 00:14:58
I myself AM the enemy who must be loved 00:15:00
water then then as a rule the whole 00:15:04
truth of Christianity is reversed there 00:15:08
is then no more talk of love and 00:15:10
long-suffering we say to the brother 00:15:13
within us raka and condemn and rage 00:15:15
against ourselves we hide him from the 00:15:18
world we deny ever having met this least 00:15:21
among the lowly in ourselves and had it 00:15:23
been God Himself who drew near to us in 00:15:25
this despicable form we should have 00:15:27
denied him a thousand times before a 00:15:30
single [ __ ] had crowed 00:15:30
well 00:15:35
you may think the metaphors rather strong but I feel that they are not so 00:15:42
needlessly this is a very very forceful 00:15:52
passage and a memorable one in all 00:15:55
Jung's works trying to heal this 00:16:02
insanity from which our culture in 00:16:08
particular has suffered of thinking that 00:16:12
a human being can become hale healthy 00:16:15
and holy by being divided against 00:16:19
himself in inner conflict paralleling 00:16:22
the conception of a cosmic conflict 00:16:25
between an absolute good and an absolute 00:16:27
evil which cannot be reduced to any 00:16:33
prior and underlying unity 00:16:33
in other words our rage and our very proper rage against evil things which 00:16:42
occur in this world must not overstep 00:16:52
itself for if we require as a 00:16:57
justification for our rage 00:16:59
a fundamental and metaphysical division 00:17:02
between good and evil we have an insane 00:17:05
and in the southern sense schizophrenic 00:17:08
universe I wish no sense whatsoever can 00:17:11
be made all conflict Hume was saying all 00:17:17
opposition has its resolution in an 00:17:20
underlying unity you cannot understand 00:17:23
the meaning of to be unless you 00:17:26
understand the meaning of not to be you 00:17:28
cannot understand the meaning of good 00:17:30
unless you understand the meaning of 00:17:32
evil even some Thomas Aquinas saw this 00:17:35
so he said the just as it is the silent 00:17:39
pause which gives sweetness to the chant 00:17:41
so it is suffering and so it is evil 00:17:45
which makes possible the recognition of 00:17:48
virtue 00:17:48
this is not as young tries to explain a philosophy of condoning the evil to take 00:17:54
the opposite position he said and to 00:18:00
agree with the patient offhand is also 00:18:03
of no use but as strangers him the 00:18:06
doctor or exchanges him the patient as 00:18:09
much as condemnation let me continue 00:18:16
further reading from this extraordinary 00:18:18
passage healing may be called hyung says 00:18:24
a religious problem in the sphere of 00:18:27
social or national relations the state 00:18:31
of suffering may be civil war and this 00:18:34
state is to be cured by the Christian 00:18:37
virtue of forgiveness and love of one's 00:18:39
enemies that which we recommend with the 00:18:45
conviction of good Christians as 00:18:46
applicable to external situations we 00:18:49
must also apply inwardly in the 00:18:51
treatment of neurosis this is why modern 00:18:55
man has heard enough about guilt and sin 00:18:58
he is sorely beset by his own bad 00:19:01
conscience and once rather to know how 00:19:04
he is to reconcile himself with his own 00:19:07
nature how he is to love the enemy in 00:19:09
his own heart and call the wolf his 00:19:12
brother the modern man does not want to 00:19:16
know in what way he can imitate Christ 00:19:18
but in what way he can live his own 00:19:21
individual life however meager and 00:19:24
uninteresting it may be it is because 00:19:28
every form of imitation seems to him 00:19:31
deadening and sterile that he rebels 00:19:33
against the force of tradition that 00:19:35
would hold him to well trodden ways all 00:19:40
such roads for him lead in the wrong 00:19:42
direction he may not know it but he 00:19:45
behaves as if his own individual life 00:19:47
were God's special will which must be 00:19:49
fulfilled at all costs this is the 00:19:53
source of his egoism which is one of the 00:19:56
most tangible evils of the neurotic 00:19:58
state 00:20:00
but the person who tells him he is too 00:20:03
egoistic has already lost his confidence 00:20:06
and rightfully so for that person has 00:20:08
driven him still further into his 00:20:10
neuroses if I wish to effect a cure for 00:20:15
my patients I am forced to acknowledge 00:20:17
the deep significance of their egoism I 00:20:21
should be blind indeed if I did not 00:20:24
recognize it as a true will of God 00:20:26
I must even help the patient to prevail 00:20:30
in his egoism if he succeeds in this he 00:20:34
estranges himself from other people he 00:20:36
drives them away and they come to 00:20:39
themselves as they should for they were 00:20:41
seeking to rob him of his sacred egoism 00:20:44
this must be left to him for it is his 00:20:47
strongest and healthiest power it is as 00:20:51
I have said a true will of God which 00:20:54
sometimes drives him into complete 00:20:55
isolation 00:20:57
however wretched the state may be it 00:21:00
also stands him in good stead for in 00:21:03
this way alone can he get to know 00:21:05
himself and learn what an invaluable 00:21:08
treasure is the love of his fellow 00:21:10
beings it is moreover only in the state 00:21:14
of complete abandonment and loneliness 00:21:16
that we experience the helpful powers of 00:21:20
our own natures end of quote 00:21:26
this is a very striking example of 00:21:31
Young's power to comprehend and 00:21:34
integrate points of view as well as 00:21:37
psychological attitudes that seem on the 00:21:39
surface to be completely antithetical 00:21:42
for example even in his own work when he 00:21:46
was devoting himself to the study of 00:21:48
Eastern philosophy he had some 00:21:50
difficulty in comprehending the let's 00:21:54
say the Buddhistic denial of the reality 00:21:57
of the ego but you can see that in 00:22:04
practice in what he was actually trying 00:22:06
to get at he was moving towards the same 00:22:09
position that is intended in both the 00:22:13
Hindu and Buddhist philosophy about the 00:22:17
nature of the ego just for example as 00:22:19
the Hindu will say that the eye 00:22:23
principal in man is not really a 00:22:26
separate ego but an expression of the 00:22:28
universal life of Brahman or the Godhead 00:22:32
so Jung is saying here that the 00:22:35
development of the ego in man is a true 00:22:38
will of God and that it is only by 00:22:41
following the ego that one and 00:22:46
developing it to its full extent that 00:22:49
one fulfills the function which this you 00:22:54
might say temporary illusion has in 00:22:57
man's psychic life for he goes on and 00:22:59
says here when one has several times 00:23:01
seen this development at work one can no 00:23:04
longer deny that what was evil has 00:23:06
turned good and that what seemed good 00:23:09
has kept alive the forces of evil the 00:23:12
Archdemon of egoism leads us along the 00:23:14
Royal Road to that in gathering which 00:23:17
religious experience demands what we 00:23:21
observe here is the fundamental law of 00:23:23
life in an teardro mia or conversion 00:23:28
into the opposite and it is this that 00:23:31
makes possible the reunion of the 00:23:32
warring halves of the personality and 00:23:35
there 00:23:35
I brings the civil war to an end and of 00:23:40
course in other words he was seeing that 00:23:46
as Blake said a fool who persists in his 00:23:49
folly will become wise that the 00:23:52
development of egoism in man is not 00:23:54
something to be overcome or better 00:23:57
integrated by opposition to it but by 00:24:02
following it 00:24:03
it's almost isn't it the principle of 00:24:05
Judo not overcoming what appears to be a 00:24:09
hostile force by opposing it but by 00:24:12
swinging was the punch or rolling with 00:24:15
the punch and so by following the ego 00:24:21
the ego transcends itself and in this 00:24:25
moment of insight the great Westerner 00:24:30
who comes out of a whole tradition of 00:24:33
human personality which centers it upon 00:24:34
the ego upon individual separateness by 00:24:40
going along consistently with this 00:24:43
principle comes to the same position as 00:24:46
the Easterner that is to say to the 00:24:53
point of view where one sees conflict 00:24:59
which at first sight had seemed absolute 00:25:01
as resting upon a primordial unity 00:25:07
thereby attaining a profound unshakable 00:25:13
peace of the heart 00:25:13
which can nevertheless contain conflict not a piece that is simply static and 00:25:23
lifeless but a peace that passes 00:25:34
understanding 00:25:34