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I picked up Carl Jung's "The Undiscovered Self" today. I felt I needed to read more basic psychology books now that I'm two years into college. It's not news that the Persona series is largely based on the teachings of Carl Jung. However, this book in particular lays the --
-- groundwork for Persona 5 Royal's story and core themes. P5R loosely adapts the ideas of anti-capitalism and the call to strive for individualism. It also strongly ties into Jung's criticism of modern psychiatrics and the usage of theories to explain human behaviors. --
Those theories of which remain redundant to Jung. Theories are a generalization, a reason, for /x/, when /x/, man for example, cannot be explained by statistics and averages. It is through mutual understanding of the doctor and their patient that treatment can occur. --
( Persona 5 Royal Spoilers )
I bring this up because this idea, no less than 20 pages into the novel, is depicted at the end of Royal though Maruki's palace. Read this. --
I bring this up because this idea, no less than 20 pages into the novel, is depicted at the end of Royal though Maruki's palace. Read this. --
" The Doctor, above all, should be aware of this contradiction [theories vs understanding]. One one hand he is equipped with the statistical truths if his scientific training [psychology of humans], and on the other, he is faced with the task of treating a person who, in the --
-- case of psychic suffering, requires /individual understanding/. The more SCHEMATIC a treatment is, the more resistances it calls up in the patient, and the more the cure is jeopardized"
The end goal of therapy, to Jung, wasn't the "curability", but the journey of mutual --
The end goal of therapy, to Jung, wasn't the "curability", but the journey of mutual --
-- understanding between the doctor and the patient to create individuality, and therefore later happiness.
Treating patients like robots, simply attempting to hand them happiness, doesn't actually do anything.
I have reason to believe that this is what Royal was --
Treating patients like robots, simply attempting to hand them happiness, doesn't actually do anything.
I have reason to believe that this is what Royal was --
-- attempting to demonstrate in it's final arc with Maruki. In hindsight, this seems to be the case but I can't help but be excited by the similarities.
Jung goes on to say that the creation of cooperation and the State is only there because of the sacrifice of individuality. To achieve happiness, one must create a self mixed by both the conscious and unconscious (Personas).
"The goal and meaning of individual life (which is the only real life), no longer lie in individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from the outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea..."
What Jung is really trying to say here is that the prison of society (the State), dictates our happiness. Only when we find individuality and can remove ourselves from labels, brands, and being told what to do, can we achieve happiness.
It means a lot to me because I've always grown up with the idea that therapists are some sort of heroes and their goal is the treatment. Jung's perspective really helps me out. It's not about the ends, it's about the means!
This book was written in 1957, during the years of the Iron Curtain where Germany was split into two.
