Post by Admin on Sept 3, 2020 10:20:57 GMT
The Sacred Dis-ease of Neurosis
www.awakeninthedream.com/articles/the-sacred-disease-of-neurosis
"If humanity is seen as a single macro-organism, it is as if there is a fissure, a primordial dissociation—a split—deep within its very core. We are living not just in the time of the splitting of the atom, but during a time of the splitting of the human psyche, and as a consequence, the sundering of the world at large as well. Humanity’s “split consciousness,” in which the right hand isn’t in touch with what the left hand is doing, C. G. Jung calls “the mental disorder of our day.” Not in touch with or at one with ourselves, our species is suffering from what Jung calls a “disunity with oneself.”[ii] This tearing apart of an inner unity, what in alchemy is called the “disiunctio” (the antonym of “coniunctio” – the coming together of the opposites) is an inner situation that is being played out collectively, writ large on the world stage.
Our fragmented and polarized world is dissociated like a neurotic – as if our world is suffering from a “neurotic break” (as compared to a “psychotic break,” which our world also might be having). Split in pieces, our species has become neurotic as hell. We can further our understanding of what’s playing out in the world—and potentially, gain insight on how to deal with our world crisis—by deepening our insight into what happens when an individual becomes neurotic.
Lying behind our neurosis (which means “split mind”) and the resultant anxiety is oftentimes concealed all of the naturally-occurring suffering that we, for whatever reason, have been unwilling to bear. We foreclose on the chance of genuine happiness if we refuse the genuine suffering that is sent our way as part of life. Jung famously writes, “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.”[iii] When we suppress the legitimate suffering that is ours to bear, however, we create an unnecessary additional form of interminable neurotic suffering that can become more painful than the initial legitimate suffering. In an anxiety-producing self-generated feedback loop whose basis is to avoid feeling our legitimate suffering, we only compound our suffering through our continual avoidance."
Paul Levy
www.awakeninthedream.com/articles/the-sacred-disease-of-neurosis
"If humanity is seen as a single macro-organism, it is as if there is a fissure, a primordial dissociation—a split—deep within its very core. We are living not just in the time of the splitting of the atom, but during a time of the splitting of the human psyche, and as a consequence, the sundering of the world at large as well. Humanity’s “split consciousness,” in which the right hand isn’t in touch with what the left hand is doing, C. G. Jung calls “the mental disorder of our day.” Not in touch with or at one with ourselves, our species is suffering from what Jung calls a “disunity with oneself.”[ii] This tearing apart of an inner unity, what in alchemy is called the “disiunctio” (the antonym of “coniunctio” – the coming together of the opposites) is an inner situation that is being played out collectively, writ large on the world stage.
Our fragmented and polarized world is dissociated like a neurotic – as if our world is suffering from a “neurotic break” (as compared to a “psychotic break,” which our world also might be having). Split in pieces, our species has become neurotic as hell. We can further our understanding of what’s playing out in the world—and potentially, gain insight on how to deal with our world crisis—by deepening our insight into what happens when an individual becomes neurotic.
Lying behind our neurosis (which means “split mind”) and the resultant anxiety is oftentimes concealed all of the naturally-occurring suffering that we, for whatever reason, have been unwilling to bear. We foreclose on the chance of genuine happiness if we refuse the genuine suffering that is sent our way as part of life. Jung famously writes, “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.”[iii] When we suppress the legitimate suffering that is ours to bear, however, we create an unnecessary additional form of interminable neurotic suffering that can become more painful than the initial legitimate suffering. In an anxiety-producing self-generated feedback loop whose basis is to avoid feeling our legitimate suffering, we only compound our suffering through our continual avoidance."
Paul Levy