I do not believe that It is humanly possible to differentiate all four functions (thinking, feeling, sensation, intuition - M.) alike, otherwise we would be perfect like God, and that surely will not happen. There will always be a flaw in the crystal. We can never reach the perfection. Moreover, if we could differentiate the four functions equally we should only make them into consciously disposable functions. Then we would lose the most precious connection with the unconscious through the inferior function, which is invariably the weakest; only through our feebleness and incapacity are we linked up with the unconscious, with the lower world of the instincts, and with our fellow beings. Our virtues only enable us to be independent. There we do not need anybody, there we are kings; but in our inferiority we are linked up with mankind as well as with the world of our instincts. It would not even be an advantage, to have all the functions perfect, because such a condition would amount to complete aloofness. I have no perfection craze. My principle is: for heaven's sake do not be perfect, but by all means try to be complete.
C.G. Jung, Analytical psychology, its theory and practice. Routlege and Keagan, London, 1989, pp. 109-110.
This is the idea we find in many spiritual writers, from St Paul to Calvin and Paul Tillich… I think Jung’s “complete aloofness” is what Christian tradition calls Pride: a state of total self-sufficiency; and it also could be called “Hell”, because such total autonomy cuts the individual from the community (commun des mortels) and alters and distorts his or her perception of reality. To be fully human, we need our weaknesses just as we need our strengths; we ought to value them and be grateful for them too.
As someone who has suffered terribly from perfectionism, I find this very interesting. It is counter-intuitive, and in a certain mood of laissez-faire could be seen as willfully lazy if you give up trying to improve weaknesses through giving in to them. BUT where I like it is in applying a notion of celebration to the weakness - for when I am weak, then I am strong. This notion of celebration has the power to life oneself out of dismay or depression and see weakness as essence. Then, perhaps, having a shot in the arm from celebration, that weakness could actually be transformed. Just a thought - a newly minted one...
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