Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group

Saturday. Liber Primus, chapter 3, “On the Service of the Soul” (LN, p. 137).

On November 21 Jung had given a presentation to the Zurich Psychoanalytical Society on “Formulations regarding the psychology of the unconscious.”

The minutes report:

At first there was a short explanation of the libido concept.

Psychological phenomena are manifestations of an energy.

In psychology we call this energy libido, and it can roughly be compared to Schopenhauer’s will, the platonic eros, the elan vital, or the like.

The libido, which does not imply any sexual meaning, is not a power in the old sense, but an imperceptible thought, a numeric factor, which cannot be attributed to the objective Reality.

The libido concept corresponds to the energetic perception of conservation and transformation of energy sums; yet the equivalent transformation do not have to be similar in character, as, for instance, in the old chemistry everything was related to the same phlogiston.

It is a similar fallacy to talk of religion as sexuality, because sexual manifestations are replaced by religious ones.

There are different states of energy; first they have to be looked at kinetically.

The object is occupied and that way a conditioning influence on the subject is created.

But the occupying energy emanates from the subject.

That way the outer world obtains a larger emotional value, like extraversion, which is not the same as transference.

Next to this there is Introversion, where the subjective holds the upper hand.

Extraversion and introversion can be conditional, e.g., in the case of conditional extraversion.

The occupation of the outer ·world is only temporary, e.g., the ideological system is supported by reality, but the end goal is of introverse nature; everything goes sub specie of the system.-In the case of conditional introversion the outer realm dominates, because the end goal is extraverted nature; that is why, for instance, the empiricist goes only so far as his experience allows him to.-The normal waking state is of extraverted nature, but it might be a conditional introversion in order to turn toward nature.

The sleeping state is entirely introverted.

Even in the case of abnormal fluctuations the energetic interpretation does not assume absolute vacillations.

Where there is no manifestation one must assume an inner equivalent.

In the case of dementia praecox the patient erects a reality inside; also in the case of melancholy a major part is occupied with the inner equivalent.

In the case of the neurotic the unconscious is always occupied with the creation of a new form of adaptation; this might also be the case for the melancholy.

The abnormal extra- and introversion. In the former case absolute valence is bestowed upon reality through an occupying energy that is lost to the subject.

The occupation of the subject is practically zero.

From that follows an immense lack of balance.

The libido moves into the object, subjectivizes and anthropomorphises the object.- The abnormal introversion withdraws energy occupation from the object.

Because the contemporary reality function ceases, a former is activated. Infantilisms gain an absolute value.

That is the reason for the longing for the childhood land cf. Holderlin.

In the case of hysteria the hysterical symptoms have to be grasped as reactive attempts of the nervous system.

They lend themselves to arouse compassion, e.g., the barking cough in order to fill the inner lack of the hysteric patient.

To be bound to bed by symptoms equals a compulsory introversion, i.e., a useful biological reaction.

It is a conditional introversion.

In contrast dementia praecox is linked with conditional transference (extraversion).

The negativism leads to the exclusion of the conditioning influence of the outer world, the delusional systems serve to establish a connection with reality.

The transference is an involuntary extraversion that exceeds every limit.

If it is arbitrary, it can lead to a cultural achievement as it intentionally exceeds the doubt.

In the same way the introversion is only pathological at first, but it can also represent an intentional immersion in itself, in order to assert itself anyway.

In so far as the introversion is abnormal, i.e., ·with the loss of the reality function, it is always regressive, i.e., with historical equivalents of reality, passive movement of libido.

Infantile things are the primordial seeds.

This was followed by a lively discussion involving Alphonse Maeder, Franz Riklin, Alexander von

Muralt, Oskar Pfister and Hans Schmid. ~The Black Books, Book 2, Page 158-159, fn 48