[lit-ideas] On the misrepresentation of Carl Jung
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 14:41:49 -0800
JL, you wrote, "I haven't been following this thread too closely. . . ." I
must object to its being called a thread. It might have become one, but
Mike cut it and created a tangent of his own based upon the word,
"Oversoul." What I actually wrote was : "When I read this [Rorty's
quotation], I immediately thought of Jung. Jung hypothesized a sort of
"Oversoul" for each species. The Oversoul manipulates the general or
collective actions of the individuals of a given species for its own good.
It takes responsibility for a specie's 'survival strategy.'
Geary read that, and seemed to assume "Oversoul" must be a technical term
and must mean what Emerson meant by it - sort of like the drunk looking for
his keys by the street light rather than further down the street where he
actually lost them - because the light was better. The book I got Jung's
thesis from was, Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.
I read this book perhaps 45 years ago and don't recall it vividly. I no
longer have it so I can't look up the precise term Jung used. That is why I
called it "a sort of 'Oversoul.'"
Back then, another bored Engineer and I resolved to do our own investigation
of Flying Saucers. We divided up all the books we could acquire and began
reading. We also accumulated articles and we each joined a Flying Saucer
organization. He joined NICAP and I joined APRO. We learned that there
were three major schools. The NICAP (National Investigation Committee for
Aerial Phenomena formed by Donald Keyhoe) believed that something was out
there because of all the sightings by pilots and others, but contact had not
been made. The next group believed contact had been made and the aliens
were friendly, perhaps trying to save us from ourselves - precursors to the
ET idea. The third group, epitomized by APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research
Organization formed by Coral Lorenzen) believed contact had been made and
the aliens were hostile - a precursor to the X-Files idea.
My friend ended up believing in the NICAP position. I ended up disbelieving
all the positions, but the most memorable book I read was the one by Carl
Jung. It didn't describe anything that could be believed or disbelieved, at
least not by me, but it was an interesting and plausible explanation for the
existence of flying saucers. Could the Jungian Oversoul be demonstrated?
Perhaps not, but in the absence of physical evidence that Flying Saucers
exist or ever existed, the idea of mass hallucination isn't very satisfying
either.
While I don't believe Jung's theory in any active sense I think it elegant -
something to be admired if not believed - not something to be misrepresented
and then caricatured.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 12:32 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Over-Implicature
In a message dated 1/1/2010 1:14:14 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Lawrence:
>The Oversoul isn't God....
Emerson (who coined the word Oversoul) wrote: "That Unity, that OVER-SOUL,
within every man's particular being is contained and made with all other;
----
I haven't been following this thread too closely. But hey, this is a good
polemic.
When my mother opens her mouth and says words like "very" or, never mind,
"too", I KNOW she is in one of her negative moods.
I have very SELDOM heard someone used "too" positively:
"You're too f-cking nice", perhaps
or
"Too true".
"Very", to me, is equally 'negative': "Her dress was _very_nice".
Now, 'over' possibly has 'negative' connotations too.
She overindulged him
He overestimated her.
He's an overman (Nietzsche)
Emerson: "That Unity, that OVER-SOUL,
within every man's particular being is contained and made with all
other."
Philosophers have forever tried to annhiliate the pre-Platonic myth that
the soul is immortal. "Immoral, maybe -- writes Aristotle -- but immortal?
Bullshit!"
In Aspects of Reason Grice admits that the soul _is_ possibly immortal:
"Hey, you cut the head of a chicken, and she keeps on running for a while:
if
that's not a proof that the soul is immortal, I don't know what is" --
googlebooks.
But the _over-soul_, sic hyphenated too? Give me a break!
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
The Swimming-Pool Library
The Villa Speranza
Bordighera
00
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