“It always seemed to me as if the real milestones were certain symbolic events characterized by a strong emotional tone. You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character”
“Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.”
“One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil.”
“Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
“My work is not connected in any way with university institutes. Consequently we have no polyclinical material at our disposal. Also, you cannot possibly learn analytical psychology by studying its object, since it consists exclusively of what you don’t know about yourself. You can see in another person only what you yourself know. But what you yourself already know you don’t need to learn. Also it is quite impossible for two of you to conduct a real analysis of a third person. In that way you would never get at the other person at all. When I suggested that you work on your own material, I did so not because I was of the opinion that this is a treatment but because it is the sine qua non for learning analysis. You yourself must be able to fulfil everything you expect of your patient. If you expect him to hand out his intimate experiences, you must first of all be in a position to do it at least three times better. No analysis of another person will ever provide this unique experience which the analysis of your own material can give you. Only in this way do you learn to recognize the living psychic process which is not identical with consciousness. No one who has not experienced analysis in his own person has a right to practice it. This is my firm conviction and I shan’t budge from it under any circumstances. If you agree with this, then we can consider further possibilities.”
Vlado Šolc
