We have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul - the daily need of the soul, mind you! And because people have no such thing, they can never step out of this mill - this awful, banal, grinding life in which they are "nothing but." . . . Everything is banal; everything is "nothing but," and that is the reason why people are neurotic. They are simply sick of the whole thing, sick of that banal life, and therefore they want sensation. They even want a war; they all want a war; they are all glad when there is a war; they say, "Thank heaven, now something is going to happen - something bigger than ourselves!"
Carl Jung - The Symbolic Life
There is a need to relate to an overarching narrative of who we are and why we are. If not, then we all to easily sink into the malaise of consumerism and sensation seeking, or even a state of ennui. Is there a need for a sense of mission, for a rubric to live by?
This is the vulnerability that cults and demagogues feed on: "I will lead you; I will save you: I will inspire you and give meaning to your life."; and whilst intoxicated by the newly found sense of purpose, of being valued, people are induced into 'the cause' much to the benefit of its hierarchy, its leaders.
It is a serfdom of the soul engendered by a profound abdication of responsibility for finding your purpose in life; and there are always those ready to profit from it.
[The Guild of Pastoral Psychology: Guild Lecture No. 80: “The Symbolic Life”: Prof C G Jung: a seminar talk given on 5th April 1939: transcript from shorthand notes of Derek Kitchen: April 1954, reprint 1964]
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