Symbols as transformers of consciousness
As usual, Wikipedia has a thoroughly decent entry on Jungian psychology, which features this gem in its opening paragraph
- His ideas center around the understanding that a symbol loses its symbolic power when it is “attached” to a static meaning. The attached, and therefore static meaning renders an amorphous symbol to a mere definition; no longer does it have the ability to be active in the mind as a “transformer of consciousness,” free to associate with new experiences and thinking. “Symbolic power” transcends and permeates through all conscious thinking.
While I’m at it, here is their entry on electrical transformers. I don’t know that that’s what Jung was explicitly talking about, but it actually seems entirely relevant to me, with his whole idea of libido as being psychic energy (as opposed to Freud who viewed it strictly as sexual drive). I don’t know if anyone has done any major writing comparing Jung’s ideas of complexes and archetypes to electrical networks, but it would be a great thing to look into.




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