If you read this intro before…skip to the blue below.
I had this idea in my head. Maybe put three pictures up in my office, each representing something important about what I do. Counseling reminder. A touchstone for the eye of sorts. Well, like I said, it was in my head and as I realized one of the three pictures I wasn’t going to be able to get, and the others were certainly copyrighted, the three sort of evolved as I looked for alternatives. So in looking for a different way to go, in my head, we went from three reminders to 96 reminders. It’s why my wife refers to what comes out of my noggin as ‘cumbersome’ on occasion.
So. I am mostly a counselor, but I have also studied and practiced a bunch of other things including cuisine and photography. I always wanted to have an idea why some folks in every field are wildly successful compared to many of their contemporaries, so I always checked a bunch of them out. So, here come 96 people and quotes attributed to them, if there are any – 24 chefs, 24 photographers, 20 people associated with psychology directly, and then 28 none of the above people whose lives or words remind me what to strive towards as a counselor, a counseling business owner, and a general human being. The only problem was stopping. There have been a lot of people who for one reason or another inspire me, lots more names on the potential list but it had to at least pause somewhere, so here we are.
I don’t rightly know if writing these out and posting them will be of any use to anyone else but I’m reasonably sure codifying the whole thing will drive it home for me and hopefully offer some encouragement and centering for our folks. Hope you get something out of one or two of them too.
Psychology Guy – Carl Jung
While I am generally not a fan of the Freudian clan or their take on things it would be moronic to deny their influence on the importance of our minds as part of our overall health. Not that I’m not a moron, I just prefer to keep my stupidity contained in other areas. While the psychodynamic set suggest much I find bound to personal hang-ups and nonsense, many of the people associated to some degree with the group challenged different parts of the basics which has always made them more interesting and informative to me. Anna, Erik, Alfred, and so on, added things that appear much more applicable.
Carl seems to have been looking to offer something outside of Sigmund’s basic fundamentals, even though at times he might come across as a Freudian himself, although a much more poetic version. He took in the influence of society, that we all have our faults, the difference between looking outward to looking inward, and a wide variety of other ways of thinking into account. God knows, I like variety. He even seemed to seek a way to normalize and validate a some of the less pretty parts of humanity which I appreciate, especially in those who seek to acknowledge and then address what isn’t particularly pretty about us. This really seems to become applicable when viewed in the light of those who irritate us, me included. Here are some of the things he said that put him on the wall, there are a lot of quotes with this one…sorry…dude had a lot to say.
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
Carl Gustav Jung
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow. I must have a dark side also, if I’m to be whole.”
Carl Jung
“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.”
Carl Jung
“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
Carl Jung
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.”
Carl Jung
“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.”
Carl Jung
“Mistakes are the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.”
Carl Jung
“To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsuccessful.”
Carl Jung
“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.”
Carl Gustav Jung
“Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose.”
Carl Gustav Jung
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
Carl Gustav Jung
“We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgment of the intellect is only part of the truth.”
Carl Gustav Jung
“Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.”
Carl Jung
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Carl Jung
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.”
Carl Jung
So, the take away for me from Carl has been to never forget the influence of the us over the singular person in front of me and that includes their own individual understanding of religion, philosophy, myth, etc, is sometimes vital to understand. I have always felt lucky, that so many people (mostly awesome/good people) have trusted me with a much more realistic version of the things that travel through their minds on a regular basis, that when terrible things trek through mine I don’t feel as alone as most people probably do. Then I get to normalize that for people who do feel alone in their humanness. Finally, I can’t be as judgmental as I want to be of those who are different, cause I bring my own nonsense to the party. If everything about them or who they are becoming is an affront to who I intend to be, ok, cut em loose. I’ve done it recently and done it before, and may have to do it again. It’s never been fun but sometimes it’s a necessity. Otherwise, what I dislike about someone who is counting on me, has as much to do with me as it does with them, and that’s more than just important. It’s transformational. I become less of a judgmental @#%$#%. If it doesn’t make a difference, then something has to change, until then, I need to change. Makes such a huge difference. It’s on me to do all I can, and if that fails, then it’s on me to steer towards something else.
Learn more about Jung here:
