Dr. James Hollis

It's an organic unity.

And that's what Jung meant by the self, capital S. Our sense of self is a different matter.

And so one of the things that I've tried to emphasize in therapy is you're not what happened to you.

Because we tend to be bound to our story that says either that's who I am, that's what I'm defined by, or I'm spending my life trying to differentiate myself from that, get away from that, perhaps.

So again, our sense of self is very provisional.

It evolves.

And in any given moment, there may be something in the unconscious that's triggered.

And of course, the problem with the unconscious, it's unconscious.

So I don't know that it's happened.

I have the unconscious triggered.

It has the power to rise, take over provisionally.

spin out its program, and then after a while, you know, it recedes back into the unconscious.

And as I said, sometimes people will stop and say, well, I wonder what was behind that decision, or why did I choose that path, or what in me is blocking me from doing what I know is right for me?

You know, as Paul said in the letter to the Romans, though I know the good, I do not do the good.

Well, why not?

Well, he saw it as insufficiency of will, but we know it's more than that.

We know that there are unconscious factors at work that have a certain autonomy, and the more unconscious they are, the greater their autonomy will prove to be.

Sure.

Well, those are great questions.

First of all, again, none of us rises saying we're going to be counterproductive today, but we will because of the autonomy of those clusters of energy within us.