What wrong is with hardened groups of individuals
Are today's happenings already a warning to us? Are we back to a time when Jung wrote this:
"The inevitable psychological regression within the group is partially counteracted by ritual, that is to say through a cult ceremony which makes the solemn performance of sacred events the centre of group activity and prevents the crowd from relapsing into unconscious instinctuality. By engaging the individual’s interest and attention, the ritual makes it possible for him to have a comparatively individual experience even within the group and so to remain more or less conscious. But if there is no relation to a centre which expresses the unconscious through its symbolism, the mass psyche inevitably becomes the hypnotic focus of fascination, drawing everyone under its spell. That is why masses are always breeding-grounds of psychic epidemics, the events in Germany being a classic example of this.”
Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed., translated by R. F. C. Hull. Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9, Part I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968, para. 227.
Jung is warning about the psychological effect of losing individual consciousness within a crowd. In his view, large groups can amplify unconscious emotions, instincts, and archetypal forces, making people more susceptible to collective excitement, fear, or ideology. His phrase “psychic epidemics” describes the way a psychological state can spread through a group almost like a contagion.
Importantly, Jung was not saying that every group or crowd is inherently harmful. In the same passage, he acknowledges that groups can also produce courage, solidarity, and positive enthusiasm. His central concern is the loss of individual awareness and responsibility when a person becomes psychologically absorbed into the collective.
"The inevitable psychological regression within the group is partially counteracted by ritual, that is to say through a cult ceremony which makes the solemn performance of sacred events the centre of group activity and prevents the crowd from relapsing into unconscious instinctuality. By engaging the individual’s interest and attention, the ritual makes it possible for him to have a comparatively individual experience even within the group and so to remain more or less conscious. But if there is no relation to a centre which expresses the unconscious through its symbolism, the mass psyche inevitably becomes the hypnotic focus of fascination, drawing everyone under its spell. That is why masses are always breeding-grounds of psychic epidemics, the events in Germany being a classic example of this.”
Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed., translated by R. F. C. Hull. Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9, Part I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968, para. 227.
Jung is warning about the psychological effect of losing individual consciousness within a crowd. In his view, large groups can amplify unconscious emotions, instincts, and archetypal forces, making people more susceptible to collective excitement, fear, or ideology. His phrase “psychic epidemics” describes the way a psychological state can spread through a group almost like a contagion.
Importantly, Jung was not saying that every group or crowd is inherently harmful. In the same passage, he acknowledges that groups can also produce courage, solidarity, and positive enthusiasm. His central concern is the loss of individual awareness and responsibility when a person becomes psychologically absorbed into the collective.
