Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

Search for the Self 65
I looked at Arnold and Rachel. They were motionless. Bored?
Enthralled? I could not tell. Norman had left the room. Sunny was
asleep in the corner.
For another half hour or so, Brillig continued to expound on the
differences and similarities between these three king-pins, as he
called them, turning now and then to Norman, who provided him
with a text to quote from. 70 Sometimes he used the easel to support
a book to which he referred, though I believe this was merely for
show, since as often as not it would be upside down.
“For a long time,” said Adam, “I put all my efforts into a comparative
study of these gents, with only an occasional foray into the
work of others. It was a thrilling enterprise until the day finally
came when I realized I had no ground of my own.
“I knew what others thought I was or should be, but now the old
question, ‘Who am I?’ came back with renewed vigor and grabbed
me by the throat. I succumbed then to a severe and lengthy depression,
during which time I became familiar with Jung. Only then did
my research assume a psychological dimension, and considerably
more depth.”
Here Brillig took a healthy swig from the glass at hand.
“Gentlemen, I think you know what I mean. I needn’t spell out
to you the many ways in which Jung was balm to my troubled soul.
Suffice to say, in terms of my personal quest, that his fundamental
distinction between Self and ego was an eye-opener, for it is a distinction
that everybody else either blurs or doesn’t make at all. I
was astounded at the idea that what I had always thought of as ‘I’
was merely the dominant complex of my conscious mind; and
moreover that this ‘I’ was both answerable to, and dependent upon,
a greater, transpersonal power, namely the Self.” 71
Arnold stirred. To his credit, he had been quiet for over an hour.
Of course, he may have nodded off; you never know with Arnold.
“You would like to say something?” said Brillig.
“Jung’s Self is as close to God as dammit,” said Arnold.
70 This account is deliberately abbreviated, since an edited transcript of the complete
oration (which Norman had the foresight to tape) will appear in a later volume
of Brillig’s collected papers.
71 Jung originally capitalized Self when using it in this sense, as do I.