Carl Jung on Healing a Sick Society

Is Humanity Doomed? | Carl Jung on Healing a Sick Society

Interesting use of the word "vocation". The word is derived from the Latin for "voice", and can even be traced as far back as Sanskrit, but it has always been used in the sense of a "calling to" something rather than a "calling out". It has often been used as a spiritual calling, then expanded to include the professions. But the individual here is actually a listener and not a speaker - more passive than active.

It therefore does not strike me as having the character of a self-generated desire, but rather the magnetic attraction of an individual for some state of being. This is not to belittle those who do have a vocation, but to highlight that, within the context of the video, and the largely Jungian analysis, it is perhaps the wrong word to describe the turning inwards of an individual to seek self-knowledge.

I have struggled to even find a word that describes such a desire. Many words to describe the state, such as independence or autonomy, or even gnosis, but I fail to find a word to describe the motivation to do so. The words that do exist all have a prefix to specify the turning inwards - self-reflection, self-analysis, self-motivation, self-discipline - there's a pattern there!

Perhaps the best word I could find is "contemplation"; the etymology is perhaps less obvious here, being formed of com + templum, the creation of a sacred space within which to divine knowledge. This can be any space, such as an actual physical temple or church, or something more intimate, such as a magic circle... within one's mind - the inner temple.

Maybe Dabrowski was right, that for most people their development may have to be triggered by some crisis. That strikes me as somewhat tragic for the species, that turning inwards should only happen when the inner-self is screaming!