Jung, the Red Book, and a Reckoning in the Middle of War

"Life today moves too fast to stop and look back. We rarely ask: What were we? What did we want to become? In youth, we are too busy studying, working, and keeping up. But in midlife, or at the doorstep of old age, looking back becomes urgent. Because if we don't, we may reach the end with nothing but regret."

"The developer brought in a companion for examination. The man who was with him had no serious problem, and after prescribing something simple, the rich man asked the doctor: "Since I'm here, could you check this stiffness on the right side of my belly? It doesn't hurt." The doctor examined him. His liver was severely enlarged. Tests and scans that same night at the nearby hospital revealed a large malignant tumor spreading through his liver and digestive system."

"The developer asked the doctor for the truth, and he gave it to him: even with the best treatment in the world, he had only months. The scared man walked to the window, visibly shaken. "Half of those towers you see out there, I built them," he said. "But is this all life was?""

"Carl Jung was at the peak of his early fame, Freud's star student, well-placed in the psychoanalytic world, when he suddenly turned inward. He began to doubt Freud's method. He felt Freud's psychoanalysis was not science, but he did not know what it was. In one of those"

Life moves too fast to pause and reflect on what people were and what they wanted to become. Youth often focuses on studying, working, and keeping up, while midlife and the approach of old age make looking back urgent. Without reflection, people may reach the end with regret and empty goals. A doctor recounts a late-night visit from a wealthy developer who asked for a minor check, only to learn he had a malignant tumor with only months to live. The developer’s shock came with the question of whether building famous towers was all life amounted to. Carl Jung, at the peak of early fame, turned inward, doubted Freud’s method, and spent years recording inner voices.

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