Page 56 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy
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important way of searching after something that is quested for but
unknown until it arises. Paradox and contradiction are important
psychological facts. Furthermore therapy is not about making one side
dominant, it is about synthesising and reconciling divisions from another
point of view. The ego can never become dominant it is always off the
centre of the self - we cannot have the Freudian formulation that where
the id is there the ego shall be.
It is clear that Jung gets much from the alchemists, that they deepen
tendencies within his own works, but it is extremely doubtful that he
clears up the mysteries of the texts themselves. It might be possible to
suggest that if the alchemist projected the secrets of their psyche onto
the Work, Jung projected the secrets of his Analytic Psychology onto
Alchemy.
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