Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

82 The Upside of Neurosis
the world of the infant. The unconscious compensates this regression
by producing symbols which, when understood objectively, that
is, by means of comparative research, reactivate general ideas that
underlie all such natural systems of thought. In this way a change of
attitude is brought about which bridges the dissociation between
man as he is and man as he ought to be. 67
Jung called his attitude toward neurosis energic or final, since it
was based on the potential progression of energy rather than the
Freudian view that looked for causal or mechanistic reasons for its
regression. The two views are not incompatible but rather complementary:
the mechanistic approach looks to the personal past for the
cause of psychic discomfort in the present; Jung focused on difficulties
in the present with an eye to future possibilities. Thus, instead
of delving deeply into how and why one arrived at an impasse,
he asked: “What is the necessary task which the patient will
not accomplish?” 68
Jung did not dispute Freudian theory that Oedipal fixations can
manifest as neurosis in later life. He also acknowledged that certain
periods in life, and particularly infancy, often have a permanent and
determining influence on the personality. But he found this to be an
insufficient explanation for those cases in which there was no trace
of neurosis until the time of the breakdown.
Freud’s sexual theory of neurosis is grounded on a true and factual
principle. But it makes the mistake of being one-sided and exclusive;
also it commits the imprudence of trying to lay hold of unconfinable
Eros with the crude terminology of sex. In this respect Freud
is a typical representative of the materialistic epoch, whose hope it
was to solve the world riddle in a test-tube. 69
The psychological determination of a neurosis is only partly due to
an early infantile predisposition; it must be due to some cause in the
present as well. And if we carefully examine the kind of infantile
67 “The Philosophical Tree,” Alchemical Studies, CW 13, par. 473.
68 “Psychoanalysis and Neurosis,” Freud and Psychoanalysis, CW 4, par. 570.
69 “The Eros Theory,” Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, CW 7, par. 33.