In defense of Carl Jung, I have been accused of a tendency to follow people blindly and uncritically. Kresten said that I never or rarely listen to 'both sides of the issue'.
This appears ridiculous, in context. It was not that I rushed into Jung's work blindly. My rationalistic education ensured that what little I had read about him I would find incriminating of his questionable merit.
It was not until I had spent several years out of high school that I was ready to encounter him, and by then I had all ready made innumerable mistakes that, had I had his guidance and been unconditioned enough to set aside my atheistic prejudices, I would have avoided in prevention of a tragedy.
To suggest that I would simply turn my back on his work at the beck of someone who had probably never read him (a psychiatric student named Carlos) seems incredible. Carlos failed to cite even one example of a theory of Jung's that had been 'disproven'; he seemed to find the 'authority' of the Scientific Community to suffice, heedless of Jung's own warnings against a Scientific Orthodoxy, consequently unjust in his parroted denunciation.
Yet I will now address the larger issue. On a micro level, I can only speak for a few quotes I had read from Fritz Perls and possibly Erich Fromm, the former of which I had simply seen in the process of Psychoanalysis that had been videotaped (and which did not leave me impressed), and the latter of whom I had been exposed to consistently in Dr. Englund's A.P. English Language class.
On a macro level, I must speak against the reading of others' Criticism in general. Yet not for one instant do I condemn Criticism.
On the contrary, I stand in the firmest conviction that the most reliable Criticism arises Within One's Self.
This is why I take kindly rarely to personal criticisms. If I determine my own path, I can learn from my own mistakes; I do not requoire a plethora and cornucopia of outside opinions in order to find fault with myself; usually, they cloud my judgment of myself to such an extent that self-criticism feels crushingly hopeless. The consent of the Herd is not my motive, because my own pain is my own worst critic. Perhaps what sets me apart from my critics is a difference between extraversion and introversion. Maybe it is age, maturity, or even commitment and courage. I am no longer so timid as to rule those out of possibility.
At heart, the matter can be traced back to high school. I was never around anyone long enough to hear Gossip to the point of Belief. I would always prefer -- ardently -- to seek the scapegoat out for myself and get to know him or her intimately. What I discovered was the immensely arbitrary and secondary nature of outside opinions.
Opinions truly are Cheap.
Kresten may say that I am uncritical. Yet daily it must be that one of my 'gods' clashes with another. Criticism, for me, must not be learned from the Authorities; I am too familiar with running about from book to book, allowing all critical thought to dissolve into sophistry and all insight to become obscured in the mire of a merely adolescent* cluelessness.
I have no time to ferret out the Internet for criticism of Jung. I do not require it. My own studies endow me with my own criticisms.
When Jung is called into question by the thoughts of a Camus, yet not directly by Camus but rather by my own perplexion at their differences, the intellect produces its own Criticism; it requires not the secondary** opinions of a Fritz Perls, much less a psychiatry student.
The world is not divided into Prophets, False prophets, and the collective that has the authority to weed them out. It does not come ready-made with dividing lines. An issue only has 'both sides' when two people enter into debate; hitherto, Truth is a country without borders.
I know a good deal about Debate from having practiced it in high school.
I probably know more about Judging arguments as a third party than does Kresten, having worked as a Judge at tournaments.
I know what it means to see 'both sides' of an issue. Yet the moment that it comes time for me to express MY opinion, I am ardently on one side. Maybe it is true that, were I to begin competitive debate again, I would have difficulty clashing with my opponent. Yet I have little reason be believe this blindly.
*Not all adolescents have this quality, yet many 'adults' do.
** Secondary TO ME.
dm.A.A.
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