Jung: Psychology and Religion Essay

Jung is accurate in his assessment that religion, to many, is a very personal thing. Despite the fact religious organization comprise of many millions of people, a religious experience in not exclusively a collective experience. To most people, religion remains a personal experience that is encoded and decoded in the psyche as well as the spirit. From this, derives the numerous interpretations of what should be an exclusive singular item: the bible. After all, if something is the word of God, then there should only be one religion that derives from it. The notion of taking bits and pieces from the bible, accepting what is acceptable, disregarding what are not acceptable or re-inventing variants of interpretation is absurd on a number of levels. Yet, this is commonplace when it comes to the numerous religions that exist. What occurs, essentially, is that a leader of a religion develops what he or she feels is the truth (often this notion of what is true is arrived at, at the exclusion of any other interpretation of truth) and presented to a collective whole that constitutes the remaining followers of that particular branch of religion. In speaking of religion, I must make it clear from the start what I mean by the term†¦Religion is a careful and scrupulous observation of†¦a dynamic effect†¦not caused by an act of will. (Jung 8) In other words, there is a great deal of assimilation involved with an individual’s being drawn into the world of organized and institutional religion. Since religion exists, oftentimes, as a large omnipresent shadow that envelopes people and, in short order, Jung: Psychology and Religion Pg 2 indoctrinates them. To that regard, there is no true act of will present in terms of the actual acceptance. Yes, there may appear to be an appearance of an act of will, a conscious decision, but the reality is that the true act of will designed to accept the tenants or lifestyle of a religion are in fact, manufactured by external forces. This is about as far from an actual act of will as possible, although it has the perception of being a legitimate, personal act of will. Jung outlines this in his assessment that many time people will cling to a religion as a means of escaping what is some sort of neurosis, also known as psychic forces that seek to harm or undermine the free will (thought) of an individual. Jung goes to show that people are subject to a wide variety of neurotic repressions of varying degrees of severity. While people accept these neurotic feelings as something that is part of them, they feel that the root of all neurosis come from an external source and therefore require another external source in order to alleviate the neurotic feelings that they may be experiencing. The existence of such cases does something to explain why people are afraid of becoming conscious of themselves. There really is something behind the screen. (one never knows) so people are content to consider the external factors outside their very consciousness (Jung 17) This is where the tragic irony of accepting religion as a substitute for therapy. In other words, people seem to be drawn to a source of knowledge in the form of a status quo conclusion. In order to reach the enlightenment they feel will alleviate all their Jung: Psychology and Religion Pg 3 problems in life, they become willing to accept an external force that will provide them with the security they seek. Many times, this security comes in the form of an organized religion, a commonly popular and safe method that they may be able to accept along with so many other people. This is not to say there is something inherently wrong with religion as much as it is an observation of the fact people will accept the role of organized religion as a means of providing the elements that are missing in their life as well as providing an established security from an external force. The notion of external force is highly important here. People have a tendency not to look inward for support. They are always looking for an external source and, many times, that external source is the world of organized religion. While religions have been the source of great good in the world, there is not the omnipresent solution to people’s problems. To a great degree, Jung’s criticism hedges on the fact that people have a tendency to overreach in their expectations of what religion can offer them. This is outlined extensively through Jung’s work in order to drive such a point home. This does not mean, however, that there will always be an open ended commitment to religion and faith in terms of organized religion’s ability to grasp a hold on the psyche of an individual nor does it mean the individual will forever hold on to the religious institution as a crutch. Protestantism, having pulled down so many walls carefully erected by the Church immediately began to experience the disintegrating and schismatic effect of individual revelation. As soon as the dogmatic fence was broken down and ritual lost its authority, nab had to face his inner experience without the protection and guidance of dogma and ritual. (Jung 21) Jung: Psychology and Religion Pg 4 To that regard, there will be an eventually fusion (on some people’s part) to where rational intellect may take over if religion is not able to overtake the deficiencies of institutional religion when it comes to saving people from neurosis or problems of the psyches. Of course, not everything is the proverbial â€Å"one hundred percent† and rational intellect does not automatically provide a cure for any deficiencies. To leave one form of bondage for another is not freedom. Jung contends this in his discourse on rationality. Jung addressed this problem as well and extrapolates on the limits of rationality in the following: It is a psychological rule that when an archetype has lost its metaphysical boundaries, it becomes identified with the conscious mind of the individual, which it influences and refashions in its own form. And since an archetype always possesses certain numinosity, the integration of the numen generally produces an inflation of the subject. (Jung 315) What Jung states here is significant in the manner in which he points out the fact that when what is metaphysical or supernatural loses its significance to its competition: rational reason.