Dr Karl Jung - "Milton. You appear rather disturbed today."
Milton - "Angry rather. I had a very bad experience this morning."
Jung - "What happened."
Milton - "I bought a new flashlight. It was supposedly the top of the
line, an "Ever Ready" with a handle on the top and a huge battery
that came with it."
Jung - "It sounds fine so far."
Milton - "It became a nightmare. I took my 3 AM walk in the woods
and brought out my new flashlight. I put the battery in but the
cheap plastic threads would not allow me to tighten the top back on.
So I threw the wretched flashlight against the pavement and it
smashed into a thousand cheap plastic pieces."
Jung - "And you feel better now?"
Milton - "Very much so. I took my revenge on the bolshevik tzar
haters and every wretched general and orthodox prelate that forced
him to abdicate."
Jung - "All of this from a poorly made flashlight?"
Milton - "Yes, doctor Jung. I'm suffering from cosmic neurosis."
Jung - "Let's explore this a bit. At your last visit you began to
tell me that you feel responsible for the depths of irreligion
in the western world. Why would you take on such a burden?"
Milton - "I don't want it. There's a collective unconsciousness that
I am fully conscious of. I feel it. I live it. I sleep it. I breathe
it. I see it every where I go and it's making me crazy."
Jung - "And what is this collective unconsciousness that you have
identified?"
Milton - "It's not the simplistic answer "meaninglessness" that the
world of psychologists would have us to believe. It goes much deeper
than this."
Jung - "What then Milton? what is it?"
Milton - "We suffer deep in our collective psyches the firmly held
belief that our fellow man has an ulterior motive in his dealings
with us. That's the problem. And it all began in 1917."
Jung - "No Milton no. These things do not matter. It's your own
inner space that should concern you. Move into your depths like the
dream analysis we did a few sessions ago..external causes and their
effects is not your path."
Milton - "You're right doctor Jung, you're right. I could use a
glass of water."