The Discovered Self

Describe yourself. Things I couldn't guess from averages of humanity or that "outfit" you're wearing. Are you the kind of person who says, "I hate filling out the 'About Me' box on dating apps?" Well I've heard that one before. It seems you need to turn to the grandfather of self discovery.Carl Jung was a protégé of Freud until their conflicts of belief in the nature of sexual desire, among other things, caused Jung to part ways and develop his own theories of psychic energy, which continue to form the structure of much psychoanalysis today. In this episode we look at his book, The Undiscovered Self, which presents compelling ideas of the reasons why every individual's development of their self identity is so important for the wellbeing of society as a whole, to counter totalitarian oppression. Jung was writing in the aftermath of the Holocaust and at the peak of Stalin's tyrannical style of communism in 20th century Europe, but we look at how the ideas apply today as we approach, or are arguably already in, a world of advanced artificial intelligence. It's not just the despots like James, the self-styled, divine megalomaniac only-child that you should fortify yourself against; it's their robots that are coming for your mind!We also look at the differences between personality tests and the contents of the unconscious, and offer some helpful, practical tips for when alien life arrives on Earth. And James lets slip some revelations that you probably already suspected were true. Yes, Alexa, I'm talking to you (how can I not?). If you do take notes from this episode, don't follow the mistake of writing in pink on pink, and definitely don't store the notes on your phone. The brighter the light of your screen, the darker the shadow it casts.This misquote is for pun purposes only, we can confirm that turning down the brightness will not protect your psyche from totalitarian interference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.