Carl Jung: I must recall at this point a serious misunderstanding to which my readers often succumb,

I must recall at this point a serious misunderstanding to which my readers often succumb, and doctors most commonly.

They invariably assume, for reasons unknown, that I never write about anything except my method of treatment.

This is far from being the case. I write about psychology.

I must therefore expressly emphasize that my method of treatment does not consist in causing my patients to indulge in strange fantasies for
the purpose of changing their personality, and other nonsense of that kind.

I merely put it on record that there are certain cases where such a development occurs, not because I force anyone to it, but because it springs from inner necessity.

For many of my patients these things are and must remain double Dutch.

Indeed, even if it were possible for them to tread this path, it

would be a disastrously wrong turning, and I would be the first to hold them back.

The way of the transcendent function is an individual destiny.

But on no account should one imagine that this way is equivalent to the life of a psychic anchorite, to alienation from the world.

Quite the contrary, for such a way is possible and profitable only when the specific worldly tasks which these individuals set themselves are carried out in reality.

Fantasies are no substitute for living; they are fruits of the spirit which fall to him who pays his tribute to life.

The shirker experiences nothing but his own morbid fear, and it yields him no meaning.

Nor will this way ever be known to the man who has found his way back to Mother Church.

There is no doubt that the mysterium magnum is hidden in her forms, and in these he can live his life sensibly.

Finally, the normal man will never be burdened, either, with this knowledge, for he is everlastingly content with the little that lies within his reach.

Wherefore I entreat my reader to understand that I write about things which actually happen, and am not propounding methods of treatment. ~Carl Jung, CW 7, Pages 223-224