Carl Jung: An insect does by itself what it has to do after hatching.




It is not we who have those images, but they are within us, and we are shaped by them. These are preordained modes of functioning.

The way it happens in us is how it happens in nature in general. An insect does by itself what it has to do after hatching.

It is not welcomed by benevolent parents or midwives, and all the same it spins its threads correctly.

It flies to the plant where it finds its food, and so on.

It just does the right thing.

Similarly, the mental functioning of human beings is not something that each individual has to learn anew for him- or herself.

We do what our ancestors have always done. It is not the school that brings this about.

On the contrary, we have to be careful that the school does not destroy the natural functioning of the psyche. Carl Jung, Children’s Dream Seminar, Page 133

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