Carl Jung: There can be no doubt that Dr. X.'s statements are projections of his "Jewish" anima

To Jolande Jacobi

Dear Dr. Jacobi, 31 December 1941

I am sorry to be answering your letter only now.

Everything has got in arrears because all sorts of things have gone wrong.

Also the postal service here is very slow.

There can be no doubt that Dr. X.'s statements are projections of his "Jewish" anima.

This anima is anti-Semitic, i.e., feels the need to correct a Christianity that looks "Jewish."

Dr. X. is more Protestant than he suspects, like very many educated German Catholics.

Indeed at the time it needed merely the dogma of infallibility-tame enough and perfectly
logical in itself-to throw Germany into a veritable uproar and let loose a second schism.

The "Jewish" anima is therefore projected upon Jewesses, not because they are Jewish
but because they are still pagan in their eroticism, or at least this is suspected.

But this eroticism goes together with an unconsciousness which an intelligent Jewess does not have.

She upsets people by her heightened consciousness.

Naturally you have no hallucinations of memory, but Dr. X. has.

Of course these projections are all wrong, but they are symptoms of resistances due to the
above-mentioned unconscious assumptions.

It doesn't matter what your convictions are: you affect him as a Jewess.

Anyone who has unconscious assumptions must be treated like an insane person: one must
let him have them until he comes into conflict with himself.

You mustn't want to do anything with him, just let him talk.

Important conversations you should immediately note down at home so as to correct any
falsifications of memory.

You shouldn't worry about him too much, as you work far too intensively and penetratingly.

Don't forget that

you are playing the all-powerful mother role.

You must also be able to lose him, otherwise he will prove himself the eternal son by seeming
indispensable to the mother.

He detests this sweet submission and dependence and yet longs for them.

You can't have any total attitude to this paradox so you must treat him like a phenomenon
and want nothing for yourself.

Everything you give must be given as though given up for lost, that is, sacrificed.

If you have the feeling it's all been wasted, that is as it should be.

He wants to get out of his mother complex, so he has to experience it again on you.

And if you still haven't taken to your heels, perhaps he will discover the human
being in you. Interpret and explain nothing.

Watch your tongue, for it can sting.

I can receive you this coming Sunday at 10 a.m. in Kusnacht.

With best regards,

Yours, C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 308-309

To Jolande Jacobi

Dear Dr. Jacobi, 31 December 1941

I am sorry to be answering your letter only now.

Everything has got in arrears because all sorts of things have gone wrong.

Also the postal service here is very slow.

There can be no doubt that Dr. X.'s statements are projections of his "Jewish" anima.

This anima is anti-Semitic, i.e., feels the need to correct a Christianity that looks "Jewish."

Dr. X. is more Protestant than he suspects, like very many educated German Catholics.

Indeed at the time it needed merely the dogma of infallibility-tame enough and perfectly logical in itself-to throw Germany into a veritable uproar and let loose a second schism.

The "Jewish" anima is therefore projected upon Jewesses, not because they are Jewish but because they are still pagan in their eroticism, or at least this is suspected.

But this eroticism goes together with an unconsciousness which an intelligent Jewess does not have.

She upsets people by her heightened consciousness.

Naturally you have no hallucinations of memory, but Dr. X. has.

Of course these projections are all wrong, but they are symptoms of resistances due to the above-mentioned unconscious assumptions.

It doesn't matter what your convictions are: you affect him as a Jewess.

Anyone who has unconscious assumptions must be treated like an insane person: one must let him have them until he comes into conflict with himself.

You mustn't want to do anything with him, just let him talk.

Important conversations you should immediately note down at home so as to correct any falsifications of memory.

You shouldn't worry about him too much, as you work far too intensively and penetratingly.

Don't forget that

you are playing the all-powerful mother role.

You must also be able to lose him, otherwise he will prove himself the eternal son by seeming indispensable to the mother.

He detests this sweet submission and dependence and yet longs for them.

You can't have any total attitude to this paradox so you must treat him like a phenomenon and want nothing for yourself.

Everything you give must be given as though given up for lost, that is, sacrificed.

If you have the feeling it's all been wasted, that is as it should be.

He wants to get out of his mother complex, so he has to experience it again on you.

And if you still haven't taken to your heels, perhaps he will discover the human being in you. Interpret and explain nothing.

Watch your tongue, for it can sting.

I can receive you this coming Sunday at 10 a.m. in Kusnacht.

With best regards,

Yours, C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 308-309