Only separated things can unite. By this separation Dorn obviously meant a discrimination and dissolution of the "composite," the composite state being one in which the affectivity of the body has a disturbing-influence on the rationality of the mind. The aim of this separation was to free the mind from the influence of the "bodily appetites and the heart's affections," and to establish a spiritual position which is supraordinate to the turbulent sphere of the body. This leads at first to a dissociation of the personality and a violation of the merely natural man. This preliminary step, in itself a clear blend of Stoic philosophy and Christian psychology, is indispensable for the differentiation of consciousness.
Modern psychotherapy makes use of the same procedure when it objectifies the affects and instincts and confronts consciousness with them.
But the separation of the spiritual and the vital spheres, and the subordination of the latter to the rational standpoint, is not satisfactory inasmuch as reason alone cannot do complete or even adequate justice to the irrational facts of the unconscious. In the long run it does not pay to cripple life by insisting on the primacy of the spirit, for which reason the pious man cannot prevent himself from sinning again and again and the rationalist must constantly trip up over his own irrationalities.
Source - C.G. Jung, The Conjunction, CW 14: Mysterium Coniunctionis, pars. 671-672.
One is – hélas – never at the end of that seemingly endless animal tail, which one cannot cut off but only tolerate or suffer.
- C.G. Jung, Letter to Mrs. N., 6 September 1943. C.G. Jung Letters 1906-1950 (Routledge 2015), Vol. 1, p. 337.
Instinct as seen from a biological standpoint is something 'extremely conservative,' so much so that it seems to be almost inalterable. This is a fact one should not overlook in talking to a scientist. It is a regular fact in the animal kingdom. It is only man that shows a certain unreliability concerning the functioning of his instincts, and it is only civilized man who is capable of losing sight of his instincts to a certain extent and under certain conditions.
If he is nothing but instinctive he collides with his civilization, and if he gets a bit too far away from his instinctive basis he gets neurotic.
There is a certain optimum between the two extremes. Transformation of instinct, therefore, can only concern a small part of it and it takes untold thousands of years until a noticeable change is effected. This is the transformation envisaged by the biologist. But the kind of transformation which the psychologist has in mind is something else and cannot be compared to the biological effect, as it is not a "real" change such as is understood by a natural scientist. It is rather a "psychological" change, a change brought about by a psychological superstructure: a relatively small amount of instinctive energy (i.e., energy of the instinct) is led over into another form, i.e., a thought- or feeling-form (idea and value) upon the basis and with the help of a pre-existing archetype.
Source - C.G. Jung, Letter to Father Victor White, 13 February 1946. Ibid., p. 413.
Art: Caitlyn Grabenstein