Transcript The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man

In The Spiritual Problem of
Modern Man, Carl Jung
hypothesizes the following:
To be “modern” is to be fully aware of the present and distanced
from the collective unconscious/the spiritual
This is alienating to the modern man
Science has destroyed our faith, even in ourselves, and made
even our own unconscious minds disgusting---but unavoidable---to
us (a jab at Freud)
We seek comfort, and we can look to the artist, who often
intuitively represents oncoming changes in the collective psyche
One way Jung saw this change in his time was through
the resurgence of interest in psychic phenomena,
including astrology, magic/witchcraft, parapsychology,
etc. He felt that this interest represented a psychic and
collective need on the part of human beings, a need that
the old religions could no longer fulfill.
Using Jung’s theory, one might find a means to
explain the phenomenal success of Harry Potter
among children and adults alike.