economic units

compensated      global economies      religious feeling      economic units      unique individuals      www seems      postmodernism
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In "The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future)", Jung outlines the dangers of a large, abstract system governing the lives of individuals. The individual, he argues, is by definition unique - "a relative exception and an irregular phenomenon" (Jung, 1998: 352) - but cannot not treated as such by theory: "Any theory based on experience is necessarily statistical; it formulates an ideal average which abolishes all exceptions at either end of the scale and replaces them by an abstract mean" (ibid). As a mean average may not occur in reality, he argues, "The individual, ... as an irrational datum, is the true and authentic carrier of reality, the concrete man as opposed to the unreal ideal or "normal" man to whom the scientific statements refer." (ibid, 354) Within the system, however, this is not necessarily our perception of ourselves:

We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world-picture: it thrusts aside the individual in favour of anonymous units that pile up into mass formations.... The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decision as to how he should live his own life, and instead is ruled, fed, clothed, and educated as a social unit... and amused in accordance with the standards that give pleasure and satisfaction to the masses. (ibid, 354-5)

Industrialisation, urbanisation, and mass-production are all experienced as reinforcing this sense of individual replaceability, of being social units. Whether global economies actually treats us any more as social units than, for instance, the economy of the Middle Ages (our favourite utopia when we forget our love of hygiene and convenience) is immaterial: it permits ourselves to perceive ourselves as such. Jung relates this self-perception to the growth of scientific rationalism:

...one of the chief factors responsible for psychological mass-mindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignitiy. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics. (ibid, 356)

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compensated      global economies      religious feeling      economic units      unique individuals      www seems      postmodernism

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