Carl Jung: Too much of the animal distorts the civilized man, too much civilization makes sick animals.

Yet things are not quite so simple as that. Eros is a questionable fellow and will always remain so, whatever the legislation
of the future may have to say about it.

He belongs on one side to man’s primordial animal nature which will endure as long as man has an animal body.

On the other side he is related to the highest forms of the spirit. But he thrives only when spirit and instinct are in right harmony.

If one or the other aspect is lacking to him, the result is injury or at least a lopsidedness that may easily veer towards the pathological.

Too much of the animal distorts the civilized man, too much civilization makes sick animals. This dilemma reveals the vast uncertainty that Eros holds for man.

For, at bottom, Eros is a superhuman power which, like nature herself, allows itself to be conquered and exploited
as though it were impotent.

But triumph over nature is dearly paid for.

Nature requires no explanations of principle, but asks only for tolerance and wise measure. Carl Jung, CW 7, Para 32