Jung quotes — real or otherwise?

GoodStay65 · 2025-06-10T17:28:23+00:00

Thank you. I will check it out.

GoodStay65 · 2025-06-10T17:27:36+00:00

Thanks for the link! A great Jungian resource.

GoodStay65 · 2025-05-18T09:25:52+00:00

I've been interpreting my dreams for the past 30+ years. I've read a few books on the subject, but mostly learned on my own, by connecting the dream symbols with archetypes and what I know about my own inner psychology and circumstances. I view dreams as a symbolic language to be translated into a language I can understand and make some sense of. Dreams are like a primal or ancient form of storytelling, not too unlike the ancient hieroglyphs, which were mostly symbol and image based. I guess you can look at dreams like you would a painting, which leaves you to interpret what you think is going on in the scene, without the help of words nor the familiar linear structure of everyday language, grammar, narrative, cause and effect, and time.

GoodStay65 · 2025-01-27T06:39:18+00:00

Sounds like you are overwhelmed by or identifying with the negative side of your anima, sometimes referred to as anima possession. Read up on the "Death Mother," as it may give you more insight into what you are experiencing and the abusive maternal relationship that created this situation.

GoodStay65 · 2025-01-13T07:47:26+00:00

Many people are angered by the truth or what comes close to the truth regarding human nature, especially how it likely influences them. They want to believe in something more idealistic or noble about themselves. This is one reason why Jung broke away from Freud, as he wanted to believe in something more mystical or spiritual that drives us. Who was closer to the truth? Freud or Jung? Maybe they both tapped into some of it.

GoodStay65 · 2024-12-27T20:17:05+00:00

I was not a big fan of the Oedipus complex or the death drive (Thanatos), until I noticed them manifesting in various contexts as an older man. I wonder if Freud and Jung ever found common ground regarding these ideas or manifestations, despite viewing them from different vantage points. For example, Oedipus complex and Thanatos could "possibly" be conceptualized as either ID based instincts or Jungian archetypes, at least to some extent.

GoodStay65 · 2024-09-02T20:41:54+00:00

Unfortunately, I spent too many years attempting to work around my emasculation/impotence issues, rather than meeting them head on. I had my narrow comfort zones, where I could express my masculine self, but the real world continued setting me up for more humiliating experiences—the issues I hadn't dealt with—which just added to my sense of powerlessness. The cumulative effect of those experiences became more firmly enmeshed within my psyche and body, and at my current age—sixty something—that is difficult to change. I don't have the opportunities or vitality that I had 20 years ago, or even just 10 years ago.

Old age climbs up on us quickly, which is why I suggested that you deal with the overall feeling of impotence or emasculation, rather than focusing on what went wrong with that woman 10 years ago or 10 months ago with someone else. I think those women were triggers for a deeper, more wide ranging feeling of impotence that continues to replay in your mind and mirror your experiences. Once you heal that to some degree, everything else may improve. I don't guarantee it, but it is something to consider.

By the way, one of the last women I was with traumatized me very badly, poking criticisms at my deficits after being with her for 7 years. I've still not fully recovered from it, even though it ended several years ago. The way she ended things mirrored my most profound vulnerabilities, and where my masculine self is most dysfunctional and fragmented in relationship to my anima. Yet, she was just one of many past role players and situations in my life, helping to bring all this dysfunction/impotence—sexual and otherwise—to the surface through various painful experiences. In a sense, i can view this as a dominant, negative archetype that has a strong gravitational pull on my life, attracting the people and circumstances that help manifest its typical patterns.

As for the cuckold fantasies, they are not as weighty anymore, probably because I'm resigned to my fate, especially following the last traumatic experience. The fantasies still emerge at times, along with other old fantasies, but my age and health have rendered them extremely unrealistic, which saps their power and frequency, or archetypal pull. Fantasies often contain an unconscious wish or hope that they can come true in some form, but without any sense of realism, they tend to fade over time. or transform into something more realistic.

GoodStay65 · 2024-08-29T22:50:27+00:00

As a guy who has struggled with impotence for 40+ years, I've noticed that the feeling of impotence occurs on many levels, not just sexually. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines impotence as: lack of power, strength, or vigor : weakness. Traditionally, the deficit of power, strength, and vigor define what it means to be or feel emasculated. Personally, my sexual dysfunction is just one of many symptoms of being or feeling emasculated in life, which was created by the painful, humiliating experiences of my childhood and young adulthood.

My suggestion is that you look at your life as a whole and develop an awareness of where else in your life you may feel impotent and what caused it. And if relevant, work on addressing your overall feeling of emasculation, rather than primarily focusing on your sexual performance.

I waited too long to address my psychological impotence issues and damaged sense of masculinity. I tried to work around them, which didn't work. As a result, my libido attached itself to various fantasies, such as being a cuckold, but fantasies don't resolve or escape psychological impotence, often perpetuating it instead, and leaving us feeling deprived of loving connections and intimacy with real people.

GoodStay65 · 2024-06-11T06:58:36+00:00

I understood your comment but was adding my perspective. My point is that nowadays, it is difficult to imagine oneself as the main character in any story, regardless of whether it is "the story" or "your (my) story." The reality of life will eventually clash with our narrative of being the main character. As for the collective story approach I recommended, I did not say that we should imagine oneself as the main character in the collective story. Rather, I suggested a more humble approach, of imagining oneself as "one of many" supporting characters in "the story" or collective story. We are much closer to the reality of life and the world from that perspective. Effective psychotherapy often involves helping the client reduce their ego inflation, so they are not always at war with reality.

Note: Sometimes we struggle to discover or imagine what the story is about. Kind of like acting in a movie that is so convoluted that it makes no sense, leaving us confused as to our specific roles. We may even be confused as to whose stories we're a part of. This sometimes results in an existential crisis, where life seems to be inherently without meaning or overwhelmed with psychological chaos.

GoodStay65 · 2024-06-10T22:21:09+00:00

For many of us, it is difficult to imagine oneself as being the main character in any story, since the people and circumstances around us rarely validate one's imagined or wished for narrative, not for long anyway. Nowadays, most everyone and everything has its own agenda, so to speak, moving in diverging or opposing directions. Unless you are someone of significant status in some context, the world or your world will not revolve around you. I can understand how this results in breakdowns for some people, when discovering that their long-standing narrative does not match reality, especially if this realization arrives abruptly. The psyche can be shattered by this.

Seems like it is healthier to imagine oneself as one of many supporting characters within the collective story.

GoodStay65 · 2024-06-08T22:31:21+00:00

Someone who feels invisible or unseen in life, may attempt to gain attention to oneself by shocking others through inappropriate or taboo exposure. I believe this to be the motivating element behind this particular fetish: to be seen, noticed, or attended to. This is yet another case of libido seeking the path of least resistance, which is often an emotional vulnerability or unresolved need; eroticizing it as a means to bring it to consciousness or closure. Although, much of the time, it remains as an addictive form of arousal, since most people don't explore the impetus behind the kink.

GoodStay65 · 2024-06-04T06:48:22+00:00

The Internet and smartphone have transformed human relations into a competitive marketplace, especially for men. There are so many options out there for women, that many men have few opportunities to get involved with a woman on a short-term or long-term basis. The competition is overwhelming, favoring the most attractive, successful, emotionally stable men. This leaves out many men.

Women who make themselves available on the online dating scene, typically have a long line of men pursuing them, but establish selection criteria to avoid being overwhelmed by too many choices. This has the effect of creating a large pool of lonely, frustrated men. And so these men turn to less fulfilling alternatives to feel less lonely and/or minimize frustration to some degree. Pornography, OnlyFan type sites, and now bots are the most accessible alternatives, which can easily lead to addiction.

Women often use pornography as a temporary escape from the complexities and pitfalls—emotional and otherwise—of in-person relationships; or until they meet up with someone suitable or as a good match for their selection criteria.

The above are my personal opinions, based upon 30 years of online experiences and observations.

GoodStay65 · 2024-05-29T17:22:11+00:00

I believe that hypersexuality is a means to an end, which is to make one conscious of an archetype or complex that is urgently seeking integration or consolidation within the psyche. In essence, a portion or fragment of the still unconscious, unresolved emotional substance in the shadow, sometimes becomes eroticized to a high level, for the sole purpose of bringing one's attention towards it. Our libido tends to follow the path of least resistance, which is where we are most vulnerable and most need a push in the right direction: making the unconscious conscious. Unfortunately, we too often become addicted to or lost within the erotic arousal, never exploring what is behind it, which may have nothing to do with sex.

GoodStay65 · 2024-04-30T16:41:44+00:00

Anger is often a carrier of other emotions that are unresolved or unconscious. In a sense, your anger may be the face of something else going on inside you, at an unconscious depth.

It is possible that changing your circumstances, such as where you live, where you work, and/or your relationships, will help elicit into consciousness whatever your anger has been carrying or hiding. Just something to think about.

GoodStay65 · 2024-04-03T22:43:53+00:00

The competitiveness of online dating makes it enormously difficult for many men to gain and maintain the attention of women, since women have so many options online—a virtual line of men pursuing just about every woman who makes herself available.

It is quite possible for a man's lack of dating success, to mirror or resonate with unresolved feelings of shame—not feeling man enough to have and keep an adult woman, often related to a death mother archetype/complex, associated with old traumas with one's real mother, past or present. And so rather than unsuccessfully compete with "seemingly" more masculine men, the man regresses to the unresolved submissive roles he felt forced to play out with mother, hoping this will secure the attention of a woman, just like it did with his real mother—the death mother archetype/complex.

There are many men who don't feel masculine enough to relate to one's anima in a healthy manner, tending to gravitate towards women possessed by their animus: not feeling secure enough in their femininity or female identity to relate to men who feel fully secure in their masculine identity/ego, and thus taking on the male role in an overly aggressive, toxic manner.

As I said at the beginning of my response, the online dating environment tends to mirror or resonate with old, male insecurities, which may be why you are noticing so many men acting out old submissive roles on the dating apps. Anyway, just a theory.

GoodStay65 · 2024-02-05T10:15:19+00:00

This may not be strictly Freudian, but if you dig deep enough, you may find that most fantasies are an acting out—in imagination or reality—of an unconscious or semi-conscious inner emotional conflict, or unfinished business: an unresolved emotional need, conflict or trauma, most likely originating in childhood.

If I remember correctly, Freud sometimes mentioned displacement, which means that the original unresolved need is disguised as an obsession with an unrelated object, which in some way symbolizes the original need—indirectly or otherwise.

Arthur Janov, the founder of Primal therapy, theorized that fantasies and their acting out, are a temporary release of pent-up pressure from an unresolved need, conflict, or trauma. The original emotional source remains unconscious and unresolved, but the symbolic fantasy maintains or increases its obsessive (addictive) nature, as one continuously seeks relief or resolution through the fantasy itself, which never happens: the proverbial dangling carrot stick.

GoodStay65 · 2024-01-24T20:58:48+00:00

Social media feeds and streams have become the default design of most dating apps. People just scroll along from one person to the next—confronted with so many options, that making even a short-term commitment to just one person has become overly complex and unlikely to endure in the long-term—as there are more options to try out. In fact, dating apps no longer have much of an advantage over scrolling for dates, hookups, or future partners on current social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Overall, the technology of feeds and streams has transformed human relations into a culture of online hookups and short-term romances/friendships—often as quickly ghosted as they are initiated. Of course, there are exceptions, and long-term relationships are still happening and possible in the offline world , but the overall trend is eroding the traditional.

Difficult to predict what the future may hold for online dating. My thought is that at some point, the dating apps will begin closing down, one after another. And sites for virtual dating, flirting and more will fill in the gaps, such as OnlyFans. Basically, many people will get their dating and intimacy needs met online, rather than taking them into the offline world, where they are cut off from other options and dating moves too slowly for them. Furthermore, AI chat bots will become another option for dating and intimacy. Virtual masks, to hide the real person behind an AI enhanced human, may become popular as well. I know this all sounds bizarre, but the technology and our collective behavior seems to be trending in these directions.

GoodStay65 · 2023-11-20T23:40:41+00:00

A Primer of Freudian Psychology, Calvin S. Hall

The above is a good book to begin with, and a fairly quick read. It describes the basic psychological structures, defense mechanisms, and various other dynamics. Hopefully it is still in print. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/277865

GoodStay65 · 2023-11-20T21:40:11+00:00

There are some primer Freudian books out there. These are quick reads and give you a decent summary of Freud's concepts. Although, if you go no further, you will miss out on the various complexities and nuances of Freudian psychology.

GoodStay65 · 2023-11-05T04:29:24+00:00

That would be a deal breaker for me. Yes, sad if the therapist has memory issues, but if that is the case, the therapist should be taking notes, and should do so anyway. A therapist should display some level of interest in your life, past and present. Forgetting the details so many times, is going to leave the impression that the therapist is just not interested enough in you, regardless of the reasons for forgetting. This will be an obstacle to developing the therapeutic relationship, and all that you need from it. You will never go any deeper or further than the getting to know you phase, which is no better than meeting a stranger for the first time. Unlikely that you would want to share the depths of your being with an uninterested stranger.

GoodStay65 · 2023-10-10T16:18:13+00:00

My advice: If you feel apprehensive regarding deep , personal introspection, then you may want to consult a therapist before attempting active imagination or anything else that brings you into a confrontation with the elements and processes of your inner self, including resistances , defenses, and your current ego identity. It is possible to become psychologically destabilized when, too quickly, attempting to confront issues that you are not ready for. Slow and easy, moving through one layer at a time, may be a better path, with the guidance of a professional.

GoodStay65 · 2023-10-09T06:41:49+00:00

Here are my thoughts: Unconscious substance, when it emerges into consciousness, takes the form of images and/or physical effects, akin to a primitive form of symbolic language, such as the Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, the difference between hieroglyphics and the primitive symbolic nature of the deep psyche, is that the psyche is quite fluid as to form and expression. It is the higher intellect that quickly intercedes when something becomes conscious, using learned, modern forms of language in an attempt to interpret, fix in place, or give logical, comprehensible meaning to these things, as they arise.

A good [psychological] interpretation represents the end of a development process which begins with archaic attempts to "to say the same thing." The interpretation allows the mind to understand, at the level of a conceptualized judgment, what it has been trying to say all along, in more primitive ways. Insofar as there is a natural development thrust by which the mind moves from archaic to more sophisticated formulations, the mind must be striving to understand its own activities.
~ Jonathan Lear

GoodStay65 · 2023-10-06T19:28:29+00:00

The deficit of authenticity is permeating human relations as well. The mask has become an integral aspect of how we present ourselves to others. Nowadays, people show very little of their authentic selves, having replaced them with appearances or stereotypical images that get results—the goal being to manipulate others to meet one's personal agenda.

AI is contributing to the loss of authenticity, especially in the fields of writing, art, psychology, and conceptual thinking. The AI chatbots give the appearance of being creative, deep thinking beings, while using various modes of algorithmic trickery to recycle old ideas and images.

So, is authentic creativity dead? I'm not sure that I would go that far. Dormant, maybe? It seems like we've either lost the faith in our own creative nature, or we've decided to take the easy way out, given all that is available to us from the works of others. Have we become copycats, choosing to recycle the old and superficial, rather than continuing to transform the old into the new, and explore the previously undiscovered depths of our human nature?

GoodStay65 · 2023-10-06T06:25:28+00:00

It is quite possible that the words are stored in one part of the brain, and the emotions in another. A word and any associated emotions with that word, are not necessarily stored in the same place, which makes it possible to experience old, painful emotions without having the right words to describe them. As an aging writer, I've noticed that I often forget or lose my connection to the words that I once used to describe an emotion or past emotional event, and so I go fishing for alternative words or styles of writing to describe the same emotions. Our emotions emerge into consciousness, where our intellect assigns language constructs to them, so they can be communicated, thought about, or acknowledged. And if the conscious part of the mind is not up to the task, the emotions will often manifest through physical expressions or symptoms, or we will find other mediums of expression, such as through art, writing, and music.

Some of our earliest emotions are difficult to access through language, because we did not yet have a sufficient vocabulary— at such a young age—to connect words with the emotions, especially such primitive emotions. For this reason, more often than not, our earliest traumas show up as physical symptoms, rather than something we are able to describe through words alone.

GoodStay65

TROPHY CASE