I had a terrifying dream wherein I was a child and I was being experimented on by these manipulative entities down by a lake. They turned me into a monster to fight in some arena. It was painful. It was as if i had been naive when I was young to trust them and they turned out to be evil. Also had some dreams where I fell off a cliff and from high buildings. I was horrified. Also had dreams. I was back in school and I was playing old video games. Didn't like it.

What do the dreams mean

I’ve been exploring ways to map emotional regulation and thought patterns in a structured way, leading me to develop what I call the Suspended Sphere Framework—a model designed to make emotional balance more observable and adaptable.

Along the way, I’ve been using AI as a reflective partner, not as a replacement for self-awareness, but as a tool to externalize and debug my thought processes. A recent comment compared this to the rubber duck debugging method used in coding, and I think that analogy captures something powerful about how AI can support emotional intelligence.

For those unfamiliar, rubber duck debugging is a method where programmers explain their code line by line to a rubber duck (or another object) to catch errors and clarify their logic. The act of externalizing thoughts often makes problems obvious before even needing external feedback.

With AI, this process becomes even more dynamic where, instead of simply listening, AI mirrors patterns back, prompting deeper self-reflection.

It helps identify entanglement, where emotional reactions (Offset 1: Overactive / Offset 2: Passive) cause cognitive instability.

It encourages harmonization (Offset 3: Balanced State) by prompting clarity in unresolved thought loops.

This aligns with the Suspended Sphere Framework, which visualizes thought regulation as a sphere influenced by dynamic tension—with AI acting as a tool to redistribute and stabilize that tension.

Using AI in this way isn’t about outsourcing self-awareness; it’s about enhancing the feedback loop between thoughts, emotions, and decisions. Much like a structured framework (IFS, CBT, etc.), AI can: Make cognitive & emotional balance observable. Help restructure thought spirals by revealing unseen connections. Act as an external thought-processing tool to refine emotional responses.

I know AI in emotional intelligence work can be a controversial topic, but I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you ever used AI to reflect on your own thought patterns? Do you think structured frameworks like this could enhance self-regulation?

**** happy to interact

<:3

Does an infj get's depressed at any point in their lives? Because they are so complex that a nervous breakdown is inevitable for them due to complete mental exhaustion from extreme stress and anxiety they carry around their lives. I can clearly say that the fall is inevitable if one doesn't take care about their mental health. It can results from internal struggles that they have in everyday lives. Sometimes it can happen if they use too much or bypass one of their cognitive functions. It can also happen if they think they are other mbti personality and then finding the patterns that they represent in their day to day lives.

Because I was one of them who was unhealthy infj using too much of their introverted intuition and introverted thinking which can lead to a complete psychotic breakdown because of the inner overload of their minds. I'm curious to know what happens after they hit mental breakdown. What happens to their cognitive function? How do they function after mental breakdown? Do their mbti personality changes. Let me know your thoughts because I'm still processing my severe breakdown.

Please help me analyze this dream 😭

I had a dream that felt deeply symbolic, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. It took place in NYC, where the adult version of me was searching for direction. I came across a sugar daddy website, where a man would either pay me for sex or to sit, smile, and be touched by him and his friend. I felt uneasy and decided to reject the offer. When I told a female friend (who seemed to have experience in this), she appeared slightly envious but also dismissed my choice as if I were “too good for this life.” Still, I knew it wasn’t for me.

Later in the dream, I saw a confident young girl—around five years old—leading her parents and baby brother through a busy street. She knew exactly what she wanted and commanded the world around her effortlessly. She asked for food without hesitation, and it struck me how unwavering she was in her sense of self.

Can one become 100% in touch with the hero archetype? If so when?

I heard that we don't integrate archetypes but just learn to express them at will, but isn't there a 100% attunement to the archetypes - or at least a most one can reach?

When one integrates their shadow, how much attuned is he to the archetype? And if not at a 100% precision, where is the circle drawn?

My modified manuscript which is much improved in currently under peer review.

But this is my draft preprint https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t6mgd_v1

I discover the unus mundus and its fractal and symbolic character. The Mandelbrot set is an archetype. Jung and Pauli taught to find the unifying mathematical framework - this is it. Archetype, synchronicity and symbol are all fractal.

Concerning the personal unconscious, I am confused about something. By its definition, that which is unconscious is that which we are not aware of, since it is not in our conscious awareness. That means we are not aware of things that are in the shadow. Which also means that those things remain unintegrated.

My question is: Are there deeper layers to the shadow? Because we can often have thoughts or desires that we're aware of but reject and don't make part of ourselves. Aren't these unintegrated aspects part of our shadow? But if so, why are we aware of what's in our unconscious; shouldn't we be blind to them?

I know there are aspects of the shadow that we remain completely unaware of, like trauma or repressed memories. But what about content that we can be at least vaguely aware of but reject?

If the shadow contains all unintegrated content, then it would make since for the shadow to have layers of both surface-level content of unintegration (thoughts and feelings the ego could acknowledge but actively chooses to suppress), and deeper content of unintegration (completely buried memories, emotions, or complexes that the conscious mind has no access to).

Is there a Jungian concept for this or am I missing something?

I am currently reading The Red Book (Sonu Shamdasani translation) and while I personally appreciate the immense amount of work that has gone into producing this book, I have to say it is borderline unreadable. Has anyone else that has read this book felt this way? The book will bounce between topics constantly and it feels incredible in-cohesive to me, I find myself rereading pages constantly to try and understand what I would personally describe as borderline irrelevant points being made. Am I being overly harsh here? I am curious to hear other peoples opinions on the book. I hate to be so critical of something that took so much effort to produce, but good god this book feels like it was written by 10 different people trying to race through a college paper on 300mg of caffeine.

Edit: I actually find all of the parts that were written by Jung to be perfectly digestible, what I am criticizing is the inbetween parts that have been injected in afterwords by Sonu. I thought I would clarify this.

I think the mature psyche has more defences to collective energies. Because of this, they have a better chance of providing a balanced insight to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Most importantly, they do not become easily possessed by collective neurosis but are close enough that they can recognize when others have fallen prey to collective possession. Furthermore, I think the skillful mature person can sway those who have the potential to become swept up by the collective, acting as a temporary lifeboat vessel.

In this new series, I’d like to devote some time to explore one of the main problems of our zeitgeist, many people have been refusing to grow up and remain childish for too long. Marie Von Franz foresaw this issue in the 70’s with her incredible book, The Problem of The Puer Aeternus.

This is one of those books that can completely change your life if you apply its knowledge, and since I read it, my life took on a new course and I was finally able to accept my call to adventure and mature. As you may notice, this is a subject very dear to my heart since it mingles with my personal story.

I dare to say that, in people under 40, most of their psychological problems stem from avoiding truly becoming an adult and fully taking responsibility for their lives. I even analyzed people approaching their 60s still dealing with this very same problem. That’s why I felt the duty to share everything I’ve personally learned from overcoming this condition and all the insights I’ve gained after having analyzed people from over twenty countries.

Before we start, I want to clarify that many people conflate this complex with things like CPTSD and personality disorders. Although they often blend, being identified with the Puer Aeternus and Puella Aeterna means that you have a childish view of the world and relationships. According to Jung, this infantile conscious attitude is the main factor that causes problems.

That said, I want to focus precisely on helping you transform this conscious attitude by providing tools and insights based on Jungian Psychology. As someone who overcame CPTSD, I understand that by addressing this complex, we may also heal ourselves directly or indirectly from trauma, but I emphasize that these areas are not all the same thing but can be interrelated. Lastly, you'll also understand how this archetype possesses an invaluable mission.

• You'll enjoy this series more if you also read - The Definitive Shadow Work Guide.

Overcoming The Mother and Father Complex

“Life calls us forth to independence, and anyone who does not heed this call because of childish laziness or timidity is threatened with neurosis. And once this has broken out, it becomes an increasingly valid reason for running away from life and remaining forever in the morally poisonous atmosphere of infancy” (C. G. Jung - V5 – §461).

Carl Jung says the first challenge life proposes to everyone is to free themselves from the protection of their mothers and fathers and take their call to adventure. However, to do so we must draw our sword and kill the dragon of desire for eternal childhood and develop authority, independence, and take responsibility for our own lives. This is popularly known as “The Hero's Journey”.

The ones that rise up to this archetypal challenge finally uncover their individuality, unique talents, and carve their own paths. But if you choose to remain childish, you start living regressively, blindly striving to recreate the illusions of childhood.

The popular term for this condition today is the man-child or the woman-child, in Jungian Psychology, we call it the Puer Aeternus and Puella Aeterna. In other words, these are people who refuse to grow up and they avoid taking any responsibility for their lives. They do this because they're constantly looking for the easy way out and never want to put any real effort into anything. The payoff is a mediocre and meaningless existence.

I must tell you, until you psychologically emancipate yourself from your parents, you’ll never be your own person and you will be forever doomed to repeat their stories and live under their shadow. If you want to truly own your life, you must make your own decisions, go your own way, and face the consequences of your actions.

That said, we'll begin our exploration by uncovering the dynamics of the mother and father complexes, as they're arguably, the two archetypal principles that have the most influence over our psyche. Jung says the mother is the embodiment of the collective unconscious and is connected to the Eros principle, the sensual and chthonic realm, and is about pleasure and nourishment.

From the unconscious springs our life force, creativity, and the possibility for renewal and rebirth. The mother opens the possibility for a relationship with our inner world and our soul, and usually determines how we relate with our own emotions and build relationships.

In contrast, the father embodies the Logos principle and the spiritual realm. It’s about authority, responsibility, tradition, and preservation. The father is the law and represents the world of moral commandments and prohibitions, that is why he opposes the instinctual tendency of the unconscious. The father also gives us the possibility to overcome the mother, develop our faith, and relationship with the external world.

Both principles balance one another and a compensation to any side will invariably lead to problems. To make things simple, for both men and women, too much of the father principle kills absolutely everything that’s related to the feminine principle, and too much of the mother principle kills every quality of the father principle.

Moreover, in the son, the father serves as a model for the persona, and the mother as a model for the anima. In the daughter, things are switched, the mother serves as a basis for the persona while the father serves as a basis for the animus. But don't worry about this now, you can check the animus and anima series later.

That said, it's a common mistake to associate the real mother or father as fully responsible for these complexes, as this is only partially true. Jung says “Interpretation in terms of the parents is, however, simply a façon de parler. In reality the whole drama takes place in the individual’s own psyche, where the “parents” are not the parents at all but only their imagos: they are representations which have arisen from the conjunction of parental peculiarities with the individual disposition of the child” (C. G. Jung - V5 – §505).

This evokes an important realization because everyone believes they know their parents, or caregivers, extremely well, but this couldn't be further from the truth! This relationship is mediated by an archetypal projection that evokes a cloud of misjudgments and gives the parents an illegitimate power over their child.

Moreover, we always have to account for someone's conscious attitude and individual pre-dispositions, in other words, how one reacts to their parents and environment is also determinant to the development of these images or as I like to call it, “inner parents”.

A classic example is the devouring mother, the kind of smothering woman who is constantly sabotaging every attempt of their child to become independent. I can't dispute that this is truly suffocating, but even though she might objectively be “devouring”, you have to realize that she only has this much power over you because this triggers something within. In reality, you’re the one devouring yourself when you refuse to grow and take ownership for your life.

In that sense, our own inabilities and fears of adult life are projected upon the parents and over time become a maneuver to avoid dealing with reality and realizing that the struggle is internal. At first, this understanding might bring shame and frustration, but this is exactly what can set you free. If you can shift internally, the overbearing effect of your parents will not only diminish, but you'll harness the necessary strength to conquer authority over your own life and relate to these archetypal principles healthily, free from parental influence.

Because "The more a person shrinks from adapting himself to reality, the greater becomes the fear which increasingly besets his path at every point. Thus a vicious circle is formed: fear of life and people causes more shrinking back, and this in turn leads to infantilism and finally “into the mother.” The reasons for this are generally projected outside oneself: the fault lies with external circumstances, or else the parents are made responsible. And indeed, it remains to be found out how much the mother is to blame for not letting the son [or daughter] go. The son [or daughter] will naturally try to explain everything by the wrong attitude of the mother, but he would do better to refrain from all such futile attempts to excuse his own ineptitude by laying the blame on his parents” (C. G. Jung - V5 - §456).

The Life Script

In practice, we can understand the effects of the parental complex in terms of a life script. Simply put, when our ego-complex is formed, it comes with a rooted desire for positive regard and appreciation, this is not only an emotional need but a biological one. We're wired to bond with our caregivers and to do so, we unconsciously seek to match their expectations about us to receive love, validation, nurturing, and protection.

These expectations take the form of a script. From an early age, we receive a set of rules, guidelines, and ideals that must be followed. These scripts includes things like how a man or lady should behave, what kind of work is acceptable, how one should dress, who you're allowed to date, a concept of god, and even how one should clean their house. In summary, it's a manual detailing how you should live your life.

Now, I want to take a step back and emphasize that the relationship with our parents can be enriching in many ways, they can teach us important lessons and good values. However, regarding this script, it’s tricky for parents to respect their children’s individuality while providing healthy discipline. So much so that Jung says the biggest burden on a child is the unlived life of the parents. In her book Psychotherapy, Von Franz also explores how children tend to live out their parent's shadows and repressed desires, but I digress.

That said, usually, when we fulfill this script we tend to be praised or at least avoid altercations, and when we don't, we're usually shunned and feel abandoned and rejected. It's also important to highlight that everything is being filtered through a childish ego that is extra sensitive to everything that happens.

In some cases, mild altercations can leave a profound impact since they mingle with individual pre-dispositions, while in other cases, traumatic experiences are undeniable, but discussing this is out of the scope of this book.

Over time, the presence of the mother or father isn't required anymore and the script becomes internalized. Many people can even hear this set of rules in their parents' voices inside their heads, usually in the form of a vicious inner critic.

The problem is that this script comes with fears, limitations, toxic relationship patterns, and in many cases a lack of permission to achieve financial success. Not only that, but this script often has nothing to do with our personalities, so we live a life suppressing our authentic selves in hopes of feeling loved and accepted, which inevitably leads to depression, anxiety, toxic relationships, and a generalized sense of feeling lost.

Before this script, there are two main routes we can adopt. The first group will spend their lives trying to fulfill this ideal image, while the other will spend their lives trying to antagonize their parents and do the exact opposite.

These positions aren’t static and an individual can switch poles from time to time, but either way, it’s not a conscious decision and both are living their lives in reaction to their parents. It’s a childish position that sabotages all your attempts to become truly independent and create your own life.

In that sense, Jung states “An individual is infantile because he has freed himself insufficiently, or not at all, from his childish environment and his adaptation to his parents, with the result that he has a false reaction to the world: on the one hand he reacts as a child towards his parents, always demanding love and immediate emotional rewards, while on the other hand he is so identified with his parents through his close ties with them that he behaves like his father or his mother. He is incapable of living his own life and finding the character that belongs to him” (C. G. Jung - V5 – §431).

Another kind of infantilism is when someone is able to acquire some adaptation to outer life but remains childish when it comes to emotions and relationships. We have plenty of examples in TV shows like Frasier, Chandler from Friends, or the character Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.

Regardless of the position you might identify yourself with, certain patterns are common for everyone under the influence of the parental complex. The most pungent one is a weak ego and having an external sense of self-worth. Because we learned that there are a lot of conditions to receive “love”, we unconsciously start playing a character and adopt the values and traits we believe will give us the most praise or will help us cope.

We unconsciously believe that if somehow we can become perfect, we'll finally be fully loved and accepted. In this process, we inevitably repress talents, our true desires, and important personality traits. If we take this to an extreme, we might feel like there's something inherently wrong with us or even that we're broken.

Now, I don't want to reduce everything to the parental complex as these feelings of shame and inadequacy can also be amplified by experiences such as bullying, comparison between siblings, emotional neglect, cultural standards, environments that foster competition, and also by individual tendencies.

That said, all of these experiences tend to happen while we're still maturing psychologically and our egos aren't strong enough to differentiate between someone's projections upon us and who we truly are. Because we need to maintain a bond with our caregivers, we tend to internalize all of this shame and start to believe that we're the problem, instead of realizing that they might be wrong for placing all of this upon us.

Consequently, we never develop the capacity to make our own judgments, and we're constantly subject to the opinions of others. We allow their limitations and fears to define us and despite our best attempts, we never feel good enough, we hate being in our own bodies, and sometimes it's almost impossible to find one good trait in ourselves.

To compensate for this shame-based identity, we tend to develop an immaculate persona and over-identify with everything that we do. If we're less than perfect, we're plagued by feelings of inferiority and a hostile inner dialogue.

In From Surviving To Thriving, Pete Walter also explores how we tend to fall prey to “salvation fantasies” to cope with these feelings. This basically means that we usually elect a certain practice or habit that must be executed with absolute perfection otherwise, we dramatically feel like the world is about to end. This involves things like having the perfect morning routine, a spartan exercise regiment, or a flawless diet.

These practices promote an illusory sense of control, give us an ego boost, and we feel like we can somehow be redeemed. But since it always tends to be extreme and compulsive, it always generates a backlash. Thus, this vicious circle fueled by toxic shame and self-hatred continues. To end this cycle, one needs to learn how to engage with these practices from a place of self-love rather than punishment.

Toxic shame is also the origin of many violent and destructive fantasies. All of this internalized anger turns into poisonous self-hatred and the desire for revenge when it should be directed to help us break free from the parental complex. Anger is just like any other emotion, it shouldn't be demonized because it always turns against us, instead, we should find healthy ways to express it, such as placing boundaries and transforming it into a drive to pursue our autonomy and accomplish our goals.

The Archetypal Challenge

In the end, the problem is that we're constantly judging ourselves through the lenses of our parents, other people, and cultural standards instead of crafting our own values and finding our own character. Resisting this task evokes a feeling of being lost, not knowing who we are, unbearable loneliness, and an irrational fear of living life.

The choice of blaming the parents or even god for our own ineptitudes is always there. For a moment, we feel justified, but in doing so we’re simply perpetuating a childish existence and the only certainty is that things will never get better. I get it, you probably had a tough childhood and many things you went through are objectively unfair, it's not your fault, and I know it hurts.

For some time, it’s understandable to be a rebel, seek revenge, want someone to be held accountable, and expect that other people make things better for you. But over time this becomes poisonous, corrodes your soul, and you start hurting people who care about you.

I know it’s scary, but you have to realize that now you’re an adult and you have everything you need to turn your life around. When you take responsibility, you stop relating to the world as a child and you gain a new powerful perspective that gives you agency. You’ll never be able to change what happened or other people, but you can change how you experience everything internally and this will set you free.

Psychological knowledge is a double-edged sword, some people use it to perpetuate even more their childish behaviors, but the wise ones see it as a map to better understand themselves and do everything they can to change.

Becoming an adult is an archetypal challenge everyone has to endure. However, if you play the victim and refuse to take life by its horns, I'm sorry to tell you but all you’ll be able to see is darkness. Or perhaps you’re just floating in a bubble that’s about to pop, it’s a half-life that I don’t wish for anyone.

Listen to that voice that wants more and take your call to adventure. The dragon you must kill lives within. It’s time to let go of your childishness because every time you hesitate this dragon gains power. When you truly go all in and decide to take responsibility, your life acquires meaning and your relationships become enriching.

Commit to fully living life but remember that this is a process, take one step at a time, and you might fall, but that’s ok. Be gentle with yourself and pick yourself up. Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of decisiveness and small increments, that’s how significant changes come to be.

Lastly, this section about the parental complex is meant to give you clarity about these unconscious dynamics, but the only thing that matters is if you act upon your insights. But I believe you're asking yourself what happens when you hesitate to become an adult and allow the dragon to win.

Well, this takes us to the problem of the Puer Aeternus and Puella Aeterna. In the next posts, we'll cover the main patterns and I'll share validated tools to help you conquer it.

PS: These guides will be part of the 2nd edition of my book but you can still download the first edition for free here - PISTIS - Demystifying Jungian Psychology

Rafael Krüger - Jungian Therapist

Hello everyone, can you help me?

I have been interested in psychology since my university years. Since my financial situation was not sufficient, I tried to heal myself by reading and learning. Over the past ten years, what I have learned has helped me love myself.

For the past nine months, I have been in a very turbulent relationship where I experience everything in extremes. I recently realized that my girlfriend has borderline personality disorder. At the beginning, I thought our shared history of trauma brought us closer. I shared all the resources I had with her, believing that the path that helped me would help her as well. Sometimes this approach worked, but other times, it led to absolute hopelessness and distress.

At some point, I realized that my urge to be a “savior” was leading me and that I was not actually in a true relationship. I love her deeply—not in an addictive way, but in the sense that I truly enjoy the simple moments we spend together.

However, just when things seem to be going well, the winds suddenly change. She often dreams that I am cheating on her. The other day, she told me that she had a dream in which she cut off my genitals.

As you can imagine, things sometimes reach a frightening level. She has no control over her anger and can easily resort to swearing when she is upset.

I try to remain as calm and reasonable as possible in these moments. Sometimes I deceive myself into thinking that I have developed awareness and control over the situation.

There is a five-year age gap between us (27-22), and I console myself with the hope that she will mature over time.

I don’t have any interaction with women—not in my close circle, not on social media, and not in my professional life.

I spend most of my time at home, and I don’t even go out at night with my male friends because I fear it might make her feel uneasy. She also makes similar efforts for me.

But I believe that love should also mean freedom and not sacrificing one’s individuality.

Sometimes, I feel trapped. She has a lost father and an alcoholic mother. She has no hope for the future and feels very lonely—I am aware of this. When I think about all of this, no matter how bad I feel, I just can’t bring myself to end our bond, and I have started losing hope.

I cannot fully talk about this issue with anyone. I also have a tendency to blame myself, and I am afraid of making a decision that I will regret later.

Thank you all in advance.

Found in The Art of C. G. Jung, p. 154

Found in The Art of C. G. Jung, p. 131. There are 6 spheric visions.

Found in The Art of C. G. Jung, p. 138

Found in The Art of C. G. Jung, p. 141

Found in The Art of C. G. Jung, p. 145

Following similar posts on the Nigredo and Albedo, here's the same theme for Citrinitas.

Cittrinitas is a transition stage between Albedo and Rubedo, skipped by some of the alchemists.

Jung equated this stage with an ego inflation, understandable off the back of a numinous anima experience. The archetype of the wise old man or magician is prominent, suggesting the need to not just be wise, but find the right sort of wisdom and apply it in the right way.

Here's some suggested musical inspiration for this stage - any other ideas?

Songs for the Citrinitas

1.      Karma Police by Radiohead.  An ego inflation song.

2.      Kashmir by Led Zeppelin. A psychedelic song that meditates on experiences outside of time and space.  The question is what to do with the experience?  

3.      Drops of Jupiter by Train.  A song that touches on the value of returning to love and life after transcendent experiences.  Arguably the song the alchemists needed to hear.

4.      More Than This by Roxy Music.  A song that suggests there is only so much in life we can control and that other transcendent forces may be at work.

5.      Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones for its recognition that transcendent evil can operate through us and must be carefully handled by the individual.

6.      Dweller on the Threshold by Van Morrison.  A sense of the transcendent, approaching a fullness that has yet to be fully achieved.

I keep meeting people who are just not kind or are on complete opposite wavelengths than me. I met this girl recently who I thought I could be friends with and it turns out she was so strange and not kind when I met her the second time. She made me feel super uncomfortable and upset by some of her actions.

I just wonder why not so nice people exist and why sometimes we encounter such different people than us in life. What would Jung’s take be on it? I don’t think being nice is relative, some people are just not kind and are more secretive and closed off and create a lot of discomfort for others and I just wonder why they are that way and why they exist.

Is the recent Gothic horror movie which offers a remake of the original Nosferatu inspired by Jung's theories? Or maybe a metaphor of the tension between Western Europe and Eastern Europe ( the villain seems a bit the caricature of a Slavic man)? Or both?

Pretext: Hi there a little but about me I am an ENFP with CPTSD and please note I am speaking in generality and in good faith to ask, gain insight and discuss...

During and since the COVID peak (but one could point to earlier) I have a theory from my own experiences (forgive this but would love to share anyways) that GENERALLY the resultant isolation, division and slide away from social cohesion, normalisation of possessing a psyche of politicisation, influencership and ideology over self identity and independent agency and a turn from the pursuit of self-actualisation which was socially compelled in many ways from all aisles, lack of opportunity/discontinuity of education, compulsion to withdrawal into dopamine activating devices containing marketed (psychological) messaging causing the brain to prefer these technologies to human interaction, an uptake in persons committing mass radical acts of violence as well as a large statistic of mistrust and distrust in society, other cultures and religions, institutions, corporations, media and Government. I note anectdotally at arms length (and with bias) that Long Covid also has some symptoms that overlap with some psychogenic symptoms as well as head injury/PTSD.

From having a lived experienced of trauma from the inside looking out (perhaps this is all a projection of mine?) my thoughts are that society at large or as a whole psychic organism (collective unconscious) has faced a trauma and has now been so far removed and influenced from 'what is/or what was' that now whilst most are in some way fractured and unable to bear looking at the fact the society is in decay (repression). The action to continue and participate in society to uphold its hopes (in that old boomer mentality) is also what is breaking it apart and keeping many stockholmed and hostage (most people dont want to work till they die anymore and not for ever increasing prices). And many aren't able to work out inter-personal conflicts from what i see online. The collective consciousness has been fractured and unable to deal with this trauma hence the overwhelming fight/flight/fawn coping responses from a society too busy to contemplate over from the 'reptile mind' to the 'mammalian mind' and instead looking for scapegoats and laughing at the actions of the distressed on youtube (Karens etc) a potential reflection of themselves and how their own shadow truly wishes to act out so the outlet is laughter at the equivalent suffering. Perhaps this can be further seen in a broader sense considering the increasing rates of incarceration, domestic abuse, drug addiction, human trafficking, abuse of power and corruption... We are like children acting out in an archetypal sense because the majority of human beings have not been taught how to deal with their emotions and love their inner child (boomers im sorry) but instead we have been distracted by the need for money, to pay for the bills and unfairly i must add mostly unwilling to explore anything other than what the ego wants when this simply is no solution but a self fulfilling prophecy of John B. Calhoun's Rat Utopia playing out before our eyes.

I'd like also to point out keeping within the whole post the triangular/circular roles of abuse (paraphrasing) where there is a triangular relationship between perpetrator, victim and rescuer. Have others also seen this playing out in and spiraling through society? (As though defense mechanisms reflecting and escalating for self-preservation).

This is an underdeveloped cultural analysis of our times from a western based perspective but i'd like to invite dialogue and know as to what others think? Perhaps it might be nonsense but maybe others can also connect and articulate more ideas where I cannot (thats whats so cool about the different perspectives of people).

What would a solution be if this is a shared experience and would it be based in a need for us to collectively grieve somehow? ... Or, finally structure our communities and institutions around human need as opposed to money and faceless systems where we are but only a number and a face ID? I also do not think AI is going to help AT ALL but maybe someone else has a different opinion?

All I know is that it's 2025 and as a human species I would have expected us to to have grown up by now considering our libraries of history, periods of peace and our ability to love! And It is not cynical, unrealistic, idealistic or dreamlike to urge the great potential of the agency in us all as individuals to look at what we are as a whole, to act for the whole mindfully that just as our forebears gave us these current societal challenges we should look forth in healing as though planting trees for the world ahead under the shade we will never stand and we should be having responsible adult conversations about our environment, development and unconscious in a shared sense not just individual.

Again could this just be my own mere reflection of personal internal conflicts as opposed to anything relevant.

Cheers! :D

Recently, I started studying and engaging in deep thinking again after a long time. While solving a set of IQ questions, I felt a strange tingling sensation inside my forehead. As I progressed, I experienced an intense sense of mental clarity—like I suddenly knew exactly what to do and how to do it. It felt as if I was in total control of my thoughts and actions.

However, once I finished, I had an overwhelming urge to scream in my car for no apparent reason. The next day, the feeling was completely gone, and I returned to my normal state. Looking back, part of me wonders if I was simply experiencing heightened cognitive function or if something else was at play. At one point, I even questioned whether I had been possessed.

Has anyone else gone through something similar? Could this have a scientific or psychological explanation?

Hi guys. I'm trying to understand this dream I had last night. It does not leave my mind for one moment. I find it weirdly significant and symbolic. And I typically don't have symbolic dreams, or I wouldn't describe them as such. Could you please offer some input? I've been going through pretty unsettling times recently. And it's the first time in a long time that I feel like my psyche is trying to tell me something and I don't want to miss it or just disregard it. I've done that before. I regret it.

So in the dream I'm sitting on top of an elephant. I'm not scared but I'm unsure/unwilling/scared to touch its skin with my hands, to hug it, so to speak, in order to feel more secure. I don't know how I found myself on top of it. I'm not even sure about our exact surroundings. I end up touching the elephant, placing my hands on its delicate wrinkly skin. It starts walking forward, into the water. The water's clear with some slight sand-like murkiness here and there. It's very warm, comforting. It feels amazing. The elephant keeps walking deeper and further into the water untill I no longer feel it beneath me. It seems like it disappeared. I remain afloat. I flow with and on top of the water. I don't feel scared. The elephant is no where to be seen. It's like it dissolved into the water. Only I remained.

I have never had a dream like this. It weirdly impacted me. Somehow it means a lot to me. Somehow it feels like a sign, in these really heavy, really unsafe-feeling times that I've been going through. Could you please help me understand it? Offer insight on it. I can share some bits and pieces from my current life situation if it helps understand the meaning but I'm also interested to know what it could signify on its own, without the context, if possible.

Thank you for your time and wisdom.

• wants to live forever
• is not living now

I have been into radical life extension since I was like 18. And I've not really been living a life since then. It's just sort of endless procrastination and regret. Have you ever been in this sort of state? It's like a living death. Iirc jung calls it the provisional life. The real life will begin when... (some external criteria is met)

A few years ago I had fallen for a spiritual scam. I was in immense pain after my disillusionment, and I didn’t want anybody to go through what I did. I didn’t see anybody criticising this scam at the time, and so I decided to be one of the first voices against this movement. I created a website dedicated to my experience, and put forth arguments about how this movement is a scam, etc. I spent many months pouring my heart into building this website. One of my top posts was 10,000 words before I cut it down.

I made this website with the intention to be 100% anonymous. I didn’t want any compensation for this website (whether monetarily or through fame). I considered this my gift to the world—one that I would not receive anything in return for—and I was content with that.

Fast forward to about one year ago, more and more people start to come together to criticise this same movement. In the beginning, most of the people in the group had read my work and had praised me for it. But as time went on, the group grew bigger and bigger—exponentially so—and now I see that almost nobody in this group has read or recommends my work. I also often read people saying things such as “there is no good content disputing this scam outside of this group.”

I try my best not to promote my work, because my philosophy has always been that whoever needs to find my work is meant to find it. I haven’t even told any of my IRL companions about my website, nor about my experiences and my depression after coming out of the scam (which lasted years).

Despite this, every time I see other people promoting their work against this scam, or who produce more arguments that support this movement being a scam, I feel this unjustified inner anger towards them. What’s interesting is that I don’t feel any anger at all for people who I know have read my work, and especially when they have verbalised their appreciation of my work.

I truly hate this cognitive dissonance I’m experiencing. I really wanted my project to be done out of altruism. And initially, I really did want people to take what I’ve said and expand on it, so that it can reach even more people. The message was truly more important than the messenger. But it seems that along the way, the potential of fame has perverted my simultaneous desire to be the starving artist archetype. I never thought that I’d be experiencing my own issues of pride and yearning for a publicised appreciation of my work, to the detriment of my initial desire to have this scam exposed in whatever way possible, even if via other people.

I have had several dreams where things made sense afterwards but this time I actually saw what happened whilst in a dream. I saw this scary figure show up in a room and at first I wanted to reject it and then I said to myself, “hi that’s me!”. Then another figure came and then I understood that this was about shadow work and I understood what was going on, I need to see my shadow parts. The last scene I walk into a room with about 20-30 shadow figures patiently sitting and waiting for me to come into the room. Almost like coming into a small town local meeting and at that point I got overwhelmed and woke up.

I apologize if this is too vague for this sub, but does anyone have recommendations for media that feels dreamlike or mythological and psychological, or otherwise reminiscent of Jung? For me, Jorgos Lanthimos hits the spot. I like Paprika too. What else is out there?

Hey, so I've suffered from psychosis once, I was in a terrible state in my life (smoking weed, staying inside my house all day, and pretty much surrendering to the subconscious destructive tendencies)
I've spoken to my psychiatrist (which I hate since he only sees you as a statistic) and he told me that I am going to suffer from psychosis for the rest of my life.
now my dilemma is, how to balance between overcoming the mother complex/putting myself in risky situations, and the risk of psychosis.
my intuition tells me that the only way to overcome psychosis is to continue building. I feel the most balanced and healthy when I build.

any advice? I want to fly to Nepal (overcoming my fear) but I am scared that I will have psychosis there.
archetype