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KS2Problema t1_j085a33 wrote

Reply to comment by ButeoJamaicensis- in [Image] "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” ~ Carl Gustav Jung by Butterflies_Books

Whoever said this, I don't think it was intended as a scientific observation -- but rather as an evocation of a personal ethos.

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ButeoJamaicensis- t1_j08ikx9 wrote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung

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KS2Problema t1_j08op76 wrote

I phrased it that way because I'm so used to people attributing quotations to famous folks that they never said, and I suspected that that might be the case here.

And that appears to be true:

https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/01/29/popular-carl-jung-quotations-and-quotations-attributed-to-but-never-uttered-by-dr-jung/#.Y5pASmSIZzA

According to that site, what Jung said was;

"It is not I who create myself, rather I happen to myself."

-- Carl Jung, Collected Works 11, paragraph 391

Clearly, those are expressions of very different sentiments.

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Northernman25 t1_j0awkhp wrote

The funny thing is, what he actually said is almost the opposite of what is said in this post.

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KS2Problema t1_j0csdzd wrote

Yep. I've learned the hard way that the snappier, pithier, more 'quotable' the alleged quotation attributed to some notable, estimable person, the more skeptical I should probably be.

People find a great maxim or aphorism, but they don't seem to have enough faith in the truth of it to let it stand on its own merit, so they go looking for some cultural authority figure to attribute it to...

Now, I think there's value in the ethos that the misattributed quotation suggests, just as I think there's value in Jung's very different take on the process.

(I'm no expert on Jungian thought, but I think it's safe to say that Jung felt that much human behavior and character development is driven by mental processes beyond or beneath the arena of consciousness; in his view, I think it can be said, the person is formed by his own, mostly subconscious emotions, fears, and desires, more than a conscious, ego layer driven decision process.)

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