I was browsing through A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis and came across an interesting passage that got me thinking…
Jung’s main theoretical contribution to group psychology lies in his claim that it is the influence of insufficiently integrated archetypal tendencies that leads to mass phenomena such as fascism.
And that really is the bottom line.
A great leader weighs all the options and acts with his or her mind connected to the heart. But a tyrant doesn’t give a damn because he or she’s in the grip of some strange power beyond themselves, a power that Jung called an ‘archetypal influence.’
In short, the one is in control, whereas the other is controlled and wants to pass that lack of personal autonomy onto others… sort of like a disease.
Speaking of diseases, I wrote a poem called “The Disease” a long time ago, several years before 9/11. It was this kind of thing that I was alluding to.
I was out yesterday and browsed the dollar table of my favorite secondhand bookstore.
