“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.”
“And because we want and yet cannot think out what it is we really want, the . . .conflict is largely unconscious, and thence comes neurosis. Neurosis, therefore, is intimately bound up with the problem of our time and really represents an unsuccessful attempt on the part of the individual to solve the general problem in his own person. Neurosis is self-division.”
Vlado Šolc
