As a practicing psychologist and keen observer of the western world Carl Jung noticed that many people in his day were afflicted by
debilitating feelings of insignificance,
inadequacy and hopelessness.
Over several chapters in Volume 10 
of his collected works,
Jung examined this issue and came to conclude that such feelings were caused by what he called a spiritual problem.
This spiritual problem continues to be an issue for many people in the modern world.
And it's widespread existence poses a great threat to the freedom and prosperity of western societies.
For not only do those afflicted by it suffer as individuals,
but as more fall victim to it,  
the stability of a society falters,
and the potential for political 
and social unrest increases.
Jung observed the social ramifications 
of this problem play out [firsthand]
in the form of two world wars and 
the rise of totalitarian States.
He was so appalled by these events that he tried his best to Convey his insights to others
in the hope of averting similar 
occurrences in the future.
Jung believed that the emergence 
of this spiritual problem coincided with
 the declining influence that traditional religions,
most prominently Christianity, have had on western societies over the past several centuries.
Casting aside these religions
 has had many effects
But the one which Jung saw as most pressing was the fact that it forced countless people to face the existential dilemmas [of] human life
without the helpful crutch
 of religious dogma.
How totally different did the world 
appear to medieval man!
For him the Earth was eternally fixed and 
at rest in the center [of] the universe.
Men were all children of God 
under the loving care of the most high 
who prepared them for
eternal blessedness and all knew
 exactly what they [should] do
and [how] they should conduct themselves
 in order to rise from a corruptible world to
 an incorruptible and joyous existence.
Such a life no longer seems real to [us]
 even in our dreams.
In addition to the rise of secularism
Jung suggested that the development
 of modern mass society also played a role
 in the emergence of the spiritual problem.
Modern Society came into existence during the industrial [revolution]
when large portions of the population were driven from small towns into big cities - in search [of] work and opportunity,
instigating the birth of a mass society.
While the development of a mass society generated benefits through the intensification of [the] division of labor it also brought perilous problems.
This new form of existence, Jung wrote, produced an individual who was unstable, insecure, and suggestible.
The insecurity of the individual in a mass society is a function of the sheer quantity of people which surround him-
the bigger the crowd, the more
 nullified the individual feels.
But this insecurity was also instigated, according to Jung, by the rise of a rational and scientific mindset
which accompanied the industrial revolution and [overtime]
Saturated more and more corners of society . In the [19th] and even more so in the 20th century
social planners, politicians, 
and leaders of various industries,
mesmerised by the fruits which scientific inquiry was producing in the fields of industry and medicine,
came to believe that the methods of science could be used to remodel society.
The result of this movement was a massification [of] society that is-
increase in uniformity and a drastic decrease in the importance of the individual.
For in order to model and subsequently remake society based on scientific and rational
principles, the uniqueness of the individual must be negated [in] favor of statistical averages, and the
redesign of Society enacted by
 a group of elites, or Technocrats,
who view humans as
 nothing but abstractions,
homogeneous social units to be managed and manipulated.
The perilous effects of this attempt to use science to remodel the individual and society,
effects still in play today, 
were described by [Jung].
"Under the influence [of] scientific assumptions, not only the psyche
but the individual man and
 all individual events whatsoever
suffer a leveling down and a process of blurring that distorts the picture of reality into a conceptual average.
We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world-picture:
It thrusts aside the individual in favor of anonymous units that pile up into Mass formations...
As a social unit. he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics.
He can only play [the] role of an interchangeable unit of infinitesimal importance."
The existential uncertainty brought by the decline of religions and the diminished importance of the individual in mass society
have combined to create a situation where the vast majority of people view themselves as insignificant and impotent beings.
This mindset can be very detrimental, for as young discovered, "When the conscious attitude of the individual is deficient in a manner
which is detrimental to psychological health, the self-regulating mechanism of the pSyche will produce an unconscious compensation -
in the attempt to correct the faulty conscious attitude, and bring the psyche back into relative balance
Those suffering from a spiritual problem due to their feelings of insignificance
lack the proper levels of self-efficacy required for psychological health.
Jung proposed that to compensate for this deficiency the unconscious produces a compensation in the form of a strong hunger for power.
The individuals feeling of weakness, 
indeed of non-existence,
is compensated by the eruption of
 hitherto unknown desires for power.
It is the revolt of the powerless, the insatiable greed of the "Have-nots".
Compensation can [be] beneficial if one is able to integrate the compensatory
contents of the unconscious into their consciousness
thus bringing more balance to their conscious mind and an overall improvement to their pSychological health.
However - if the Unconscious contents of the compensation, which in the case of a spiritual problem take the form of a lust for power
remain hidden in the unconscious,
 the compensation can prove extremely dangerous.
" If such a compensatory move 
of the unconscious is not integrated
into consciousness in an individual, Jung wrote, it leads to a neurosis or even to a pSychosis."
If  a compensatory desire for power is not integrated into consciousness
Jung warned that one will become possessed by unconscious impulse for power and seek it at any cost.
Failing to find it in their personal life due to profound feelings of impotence, such people are very likely to gravitate toward collective
ideologies, mass movements and institutions which they view as having the power they as individuals [lack].
If the individual, overwhelmed by the sense of his own [pew] ninis and impotence,
should feel that his life
 has lost its meaning,
then he is already on [the] road to stay slavery and, without knowing or wanting it, has become its proselyte.
When this psychological process occurs on a mass scale, a society becomes highly vulnerable to the rise of state tyranny.
Jung described this process in the following chilling passage:
"Instead of the concrete individual, you have the names of organizations and
at the highest point, the abstract idea of the State as the principle of political reality.
The moral responsibility of the individual is then inevitably replaced by the policy of the State.
Instead of the moral and mental
differentiation of the individual,
you have public welfare and the 
raising of the living standard.
The goal and meaning of individual life, which is the only real life, no longer lie in individual development
but in the policy of the state, which is thrust upon the individual from outside.
The individual is increasingly deprived of the moral decision as to how he should live his own life and
instead he 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."
This form of dystopia occurred in varying degrees [in] the 20th century [and] seems to be reemerging in the west today.
While many people realized the dangers posed by the existence of centralized states,
most react to the growth of State power with feelings of hopelessness,
believing there is nothing that they
 as individuals can do about it.
Jung's analysis is profound for the reason that he suggests that the rise of state tyranny
is a byproduct of the proliferation of the spiritual problem afflicting the modern world and
thus can be subdued if more people learn to resolve the spiritual problem affecting their own lives.
Jung held out hope that many people in the west were capable of achieving this and
saw evidence of such potential in the growth of the field of pSychology in the 20th century and
in the increased desire of many to explore the depths of their psyche in search of Self-knowledge.
To [me] the Crux of the spiritual problem today, he wrote,  is to be found in the fascination which the psyche holds for modern man.
If we  are optimistically inclined
we shall see in it the promise of a far-reaching
spiritual change in the Western world.
At all events. It is a 
significant phenomenon...
Important because it touches those irrational 
and as history shows
incalculable pSychic forces which transform the life
 of peoples and civilizations in ways that are
 unforeseen and unforeseeable .
These are the forces still invisible to
 many persons today,  which are at the bottom
 of the present psychological interest.
In times of desperation
[ancient] peoples looked  to the gods which inhabited the oceans, the forests, and the skies for regeneration.
In [Jung's] view the modern individual, 
for whom all the gods are dead,
must look to the forces within for answers to the spiritual problems which plague them.
Finding answers, he thought,  one will not only be curing the spiritual sickness which afflicts them personally-
-but will also be contributing to the renewal of a world gone astray in the darkness of state domination.
Small and hidden is the door that leads inward, and the entrance is barred by countless prejudices, 
mistaken assumptions, and fears.
Always one wishes to hear grand political and economic schemes, the very things that have landed every nation in a morass.
Therefore it sounds grotesque when anyone speaks of hidden doors, dreams, and a world within.
What has vapid idealism got to do with gigantic economic programs, with the so called problems of reality?
But I speak not to nations, only to the individual few, for whom it goes without saying that cultural values
do not drop down like 
manna from Heaven,
but are created by the hands of individuals.
If things go wrong in the world
this is because something is wrong with the individual, because something is wrong with me. Therefore
if I am sensible, I shall put myself right first.
For this I need -because outside authority no longer means anything to me-
-a knowledge of the innermost 
foundations of my being,
in order that I may base myself firmly on 
the eternal facts of the human psyche."
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