Carl Jung: There you will find a formulation of my views on the place of our psyche in the cosmos.

To Pastor W. Arz

Dear Pastor Arz, 10 April 1933

Of course I have no objection to your discussing my private communications
to you among your circle of friends.

Scientifically speaking, nothing whatever can be made out about the phenomenon of the spirit.

These things are so delicate that they completely elude our scientific grasp.

The idea that man alonepossesses the primacy of reason is antiquated twaddle.

I have even found that men are far more irrational than animals.

Since we know from experience that the psyche can be grasped to only a very limited degree, it would be best to regard it as a tiny conscious world influenced by all sorts of unknown factors lurking in the great darkness that surrounds us.

Among these factors we can perhaps include what we call spirit; thus far science may go, but no further.

I have discussed what spirit means to me in my essay "Geist und Leben" (Seelenprobleme der Gegenwart, Rascher, Zurich, 1931).

There you will find a formulation of my views on the place of our psyche in the cosmos.

It seems to me therefore quite right if man, conscious of his limitations, feels himself only in modest degree a creator, but in far higher degree a creature or object of a ( scientifically unknown) factor that evidently has the tendency to realize itself in human life.

One should never confuse oneself with this determinant, otherwise there is always an inflation.

In this connection I would like to draw your attention to my book Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten, published by Reichl ( Darmstadt [ 1928]).

Perhaps you also know the book I brought out together with the late Richard Wilhelm, Das Geheimnis der goldenen Blute.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Page 119