u/safasfSAFASFFSAF

​

Hi, so I'm 22 years old. I have a sponser whom I deeply respect, but he is trying to get me to take radical responsibility for my life and to fight against my instincts. Every time I try to do this (what he calls "doing the opposite"), things start out well, but after a certain period of time I sink back into depression. He claims that eventually these defects will be removed from me and that I will regain control over my life. But do I really want a life in which I constantly have to fight?

I really don’t like the way he tries to change me. I really like Eastern philosophy, and it feels like he gets me more dissociated from God. ​I want to try to rent a house, which is an extreme act of trust in God since I am afraid of it. ​But now he wants me to fill out a table with my planned schedule to have for when I move into a new house of my own. What’s spiritual about that?!

Hi, so I'm 22 years old. I have a therapist whom I deeply respect, but he is trying to get me to take radical responsibility for my life and to fight against my instincts. Every time I try to do this (what he calls "doing the opposite"), things start out well, but after a certain period of time I sink back into depression. He claims that eventually these defects will be removed from me and that I will regain control over my life. But do I really want a life in which I constantly have to fight? Is that truly what it means to be mature?

A dragon appeared in a cave. A prince was hypnotized by it, but he managed to break free from the hypnosis and beheaded the dragon with a sword. The dragon then transformed into a much smaller, primitive-looking man who handed me a potion and said, "Here, this is what you wanted."
Only for the dragon to return to its original form afterward, and for the prince to become hypnotized once again.

Jung

Hey, I haven't read Psychological Types, though it seems that introverts, especially the intuitive ones, have a very difficult time expressing their wisdom in the world.​Here, I can truly express myself and have time to articulate my words, but in the real world, I sound like an absolute dumbass — there is no depth to what I am saying. It's really sad that not a lot of people are going to get to really know me.

Feel free to share anything that comes to your mind about it.

Hey, so I'm in an environment where a lot of self motivational talks are happening. Anyway, what's even the point of it? From my own experience, you can't rush anything into existence. You can't talk someone out of anxiety, and you can't rush someone's healing from depression... Maybe the Eastern traditions were right—there isn't much point in trying to control. It seems that the more you try to fix things, the easier they break. When the student is ready, the right teacher would appear.

Jung gave us a map, but no clear way to navigate it.

So here I am again. All of my plans—to study, to work, to rent a home, to find a partner—have fallen apart. Theres no hope on the horizon, and no solutions. Everything keeps bringing me back to the point where it started. I've decided to give up, to sit with the suffering, no plans. I sit in what feels like emptiness. The only thing keeping me going is my past experience—the experience that taught me that there is always a future, even when I cannot see it, and that the way out is inward.

Today, by chance, I met a writer. I am in the process of trying to translate a book by Jung, and he offered me his guidance and experience. I have gone through so many failures in life that I no longer know what to believe. Perhaps this is just another false hope.

Hey, I was wondering if anyone else has experienced a situation where the words people say seem to have a double, secret meaning—usually of an aggressive or sexual nature. For instance, someone could say, 'I need my acne to disappear.' To me, it could sound like that person's shadow actually wants the other person to disappear. Am I the only one experiencing this? What would Jung say about it?

Hi,

For a long time, I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with me, and I would appreciate help understanding it because I cannot make sense of it myself.

I experience what seem like small psychotic episodes. During these episodes, I believe that a Jungian psychologist whom I met in the past is trying to cast a spell on me and make me go blind. When I met him during my first and only psychotic episode, he showed me various symbols. Later, when I tried to get back at him by sending him a picture of myself looking angry, as if I were coming after him, I stared into my own eyes in the photo and became filled with fear that if I closed my eyes, I would not be able to open them again. I felt as though I would become trapped in complete darkness, unable to respond or react—almost like becoming a vegetable.

Since then, these experiences have developed further. I will describe how the content of these thoughts has changed over time in order to provide material that may help with understanding or diagnosis.

I believe that he is a Trickster—that is, someone who seeks out people to harm for his own amusement. I believe that he is extremely intelligent, that he serves Satan, and that he is not bound by morality. Whenever I try to understand him through rational thinking, I fail.

In the complex relationship that I have with him in my mind, he has always helped me and pushed me to make changes in my life through fear, and those changes have always turned out to be positive. Recently, I have had far fewer of these episodes. When they do occur, I tend to believe that he wants to help me, and I see him as part of God. When I tried to use my intuition to find a solution, I ended up quitting smoking cigarettes.

I have spoken with psychiatrists, and none of them seem to know exactly what is going on with me. I have also tried antipsychotic medications, but they have not helped.

I read The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious and found some interesting information there regarding the Trickster archetype, particularly its unconsciousness, lack of seriousness, and the connection between the shaman and the Trickster. In addition, in the chapter on the Spirit archetype, the figure that seems to be attacking me strongly resembles him, especially the negative aspect of the Spirit. I also read that the inferior psychological function can sometimes appear as an annoying or troublesome demon-like figure.