Carl Jung and 9/11

Paper Summary:

In this article the author looks at the events of 9/11 and its aftermath through the eyes of Carl Jung. He examines how Jung would have reacted to the events of 9/11. He points out that Jung believed very strongly in coincidence. But, would he have thought that 9/11 was a coincidence, something hidden in the collective unconsciousness. Maybe the unconscious beliefs of government officials, the CIA and FBI who knew that there was something going to happen, but didn't know when or where or even how. The paper goes on to describe how Jung would have categorized the different reactions of the American people after 9/11 in his terms of introvert and extrovert personalities. The author examines the different archetypes that Jung proposed in terms of 9/11. The paper concludes with the statement that even Jung would have not have been able to explain the "why?" of the terrorist attacks and what they hoped to accomplish.

From the Paper:

"Jung dreamt a great deal about the dead, the land of the dead, and the rising of the dead. These represented the unconscious itself -- not the "little" personal unconscious that Freud made such a big deal out of, but a new collective unconscious of humanity itself. It would be interesting to assume that the thousands who died at the World Trade Center, the Pennsylvania field and at the Pentagon were somehow part of a Jungian dream. But, while we might think of Freud and Jung as seeing psychosis in dreams, Jung was more realistic. "Jung felt that, if you want to understand the jungle, you can't be content just to sail back and forth near the shore. You've got to get into it, no matter how strange and frightening it might seem" (Boeree 1)."

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