Carl Jung on War and Violence

No one can stop what's coming

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Two works by Carl Jung immediately changed my life:

• Answer to Job

• Wotan

I'd love to focus on the former, but it is the latter that is a steroid injection into our understanding of modern society.

"Wotan" is an essay on Hitler and why we fight wars.

It explains the war in Ukraine, 9/11 — even our recent situation with Covid-19; it’s the deep psychological and spiritual wounds that drive us to violence.

Here is why "Wotan" is one of the great essays of the 20th century.

Odin still walks the earth, he never left.

Jung believed that Hitler was the spirit of Wotan, also known as Odin the war God, and he made himself manifest in the German people through his idea of the 'Collective unconscious.'

Oh boy.

Are we going off the deep end today?

Sometimes a work of Jung can seem like it's coming from a lunatic who smears feces on the wall and calls it the Mona Lisa.

But it's not as crazy as we might think.