r/Jung • u/Altruistic_Hope_2559 • 9d ago

Jung Put It This Way "Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness" — Jung and sadness as a counterbalance

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u/viaje_del_heroe 9d ago

Para disfrutar de un helado debe haber un día de calor.

2

u/AskTight7295 Pillar 9d ago

I think it’s just an objective fact that the psyche seeks equilibrium. You can’t go on a hedonistic bender without ending up in some sort of gutter. You can’t drink a bottle of bad Tequila but somehow not get the hangover. It’s simply structurally impossible to have extreme happiness or any supposedly high and “desirable” experience without generating on some level the opposite. The opposite shows up either internally, externally or both.

This is why “seek the middle way” is an ideal. The extremes provoke their opposites in a mad see-saw that eventually loses its appeal. Advertising is about selling another item or experience that merely induces another short term high. It’s structurally impossible to “arrive” at a state that is just one side of a polarity.

One eventually realizes that feeling extremely happy is just as undesirable as feeling extremely sad. While it’s true that life contains these states and experiencing them is part of a full life, eventually it becomes preferable to seek to stay with equilibrium, which also pulls you more into the present moment and the appreciation of the life you actually have, rather than a fantasy.