Reflections on Jung's "Scrutinies" from the RED BOOK

 

I have long been interested in the “Scrutinies,” a part of C.G. Jung’s RED BOOK.  He began this section of his journaling in April 1914, five months after he embarked on his “confrontation with the unconscious.”

In the “Scrutinies” some part of Jung is taking Jung to task, that is, taking Jung’s ego consciousness to task for its sins, so this section is really a deep examination of consciousness.  This part of Jung is giving him a really hard time.  It tells Jung he has no correct self-esteem, that he must learn some skills if he is ever going to become capable, but warns he may not be teachable.  It is the very stern voice of conscience telling him he knows nothing about love or being loved  It won’t even allow Jung’s ego to speak because “if you speak, you will jump in and claim to be the soul speaking.”  

So, Jung, his ego consciousness, cannot be trusted by this conscience.  The voice tells Jung (paraphrased):  You are my bare, empty nothing.  You’re not even able, you are so worthless that you cannot even consider yourself worthless.  You are sensitive.  You’re filled with desirousness; you are righteous, unruly, mistrustful, pessimistic, cowardly, dishonest with yourself, venomous, vengeful.  You’re filled with unspeakable childish pride.  You crave power and esteem.  You are ambitious; you thirst for fame.  

It is a scathing indictment.  This conscience is very, very critical, tells Jung he is forever acting, that he is filled with pomposity; that he likes to tell people what to do and even tells people to do that which he himself is incapable of doing. He is vain, likes to complain about others.  He likes to complain about injustice; he enjoys being not understood and complaining about that.  He likes to think of himself as misinterpreted.  He is hurt easily.  He doesn’t like being ignored.  He doesn’t like being unrecognized, and he hates being falsely accused.  He lacks patience and seriousness.  He tells Jung that his “I” has ridiculed, blasphemed, and worst of all, he tells Jung “I am angry with you because “I am bound to you to the grave, and I cannot tolerate you.  I hate you.”  He even tells Jung that it is good that the old God is dead because if that God were still alive, it would have had pity on Jung and would have granted Jung mercy, thus letting him off the hook.  

The voice of conscience goes on to tell Jung that “your progress since the middle ages appears to have been minuscule, your ego consciousness historical and collective.  There is no individuality to it.”

When my class read Jung’s “Scrutinies,” we all agree that everyone is guilty of some of this stuff, but hardly any of us ever takes ourselves seriously to task as Jung does in his “Scrutinies.”

Another Interesting Conversation

 My grandnephew, John, now in graduate school, again visited me last Sunday.  We always have engrossing conversations when he comes through St. Louis.  (See my Blog entry dated October 13, 2025, for an example.). One of his interests is music, and our conversation included my telling him that for days I had had the Beatle song refrain, "Mother Mary came to me, speaking words of wisdom, 'Let it be. Let it be.'"  He looked the song up on an app (Genius: Song Lyrics Finder) on his phone that provides background for the lyrics of a song. 

Turns out Paul McCartney, whose mother died when he was 14, had a dream in 1968 during a troubling period in his life.  His mother appeared to him in the dream and delivered a simple message (essentially, "Let it be.")  that he translated into song.  His mother's name was Mary McCartney. I better understood why that song was playing over and over in my head.

FOUR FIRES IN MY LIFE

 The fire of vision that was kindled in me at a young age has mostly served me well.  Even when I lost sight of it, it seems not to have abandoned me.  Rather, it waited patiently for my attention and devotion to return, for me to take up the tasks it required for its fulfillment.  Though it has often found me lacking, it has never totally given up on me.  I am both its victim and its tool.

The fire of the heart has its own knowing and chooses its own objects of affection whether they be people, clothing, furniture, cars, gadgets, whatever.  This fire is prone to burnout and changing its mind, never a problem with things for which were a passing fancy, but sometimes a cause of heartache in relationships.   Not always discerning, the fire of the heart sometimes confused love and lust, sometimes sought the wrong kind of fuels to keep itself going.  It particularly likes bonfires and can grow impatient at the slow,  careful feeding the home hearth requires. The fire of the heart is in love with love.

The creative fire seems to have peculiar characteristics.  It seeks out and engulfs extremely odd and inchoate things in its expression.  Or it finds something, tucks it away in the recesses of memory, and brings it up at odd times for its own purpose.  It insists on an image, a book, a song, an article, an experience and sets aside some tidbit to be incorporated into a future work.  Over my life, the creative fire has built its own artist's studio of fuels.  It has often made garish pieces which it later tore up, but it never throws away anything.  The creative fire consumes but does not destroy that which fuels it.  Of the four, the creative fire seems the most patient, waiting sometimes decades for its fulfillment. 
The soul's fire has always given me the most trouble.  Often its agenda and my own were vastly different, and so we suffered through decades of conflict.  Only in the last fifteen or so years have I come to recognize, ever so reluctantly, that our agendas are more alike than different.  My soul's fire seems to need conflict as a way of clarifying what it truly wants.  And I need the conflict with my soul in order to understand and know myself and my soul.  In this troubled journey, my soul and I have come to discover that we are one.

In tending to myself, to my relationships, to my daily wants and needs, to the creature comforts my body demands, to the small tasks that living and working with others require,  I am able to rejuvenate myself and tend to the keeping of these four fires.  Long walks, engrossing conversations, rewarding work, taking up of responsibility for the things life places squarely in my path, some willingness to risk, adequate rest, good nutrition--these are the ways of renewal for me.  

If I could condense all this to a simple message, it is this: I have learned to say "yes" to loving this one, fleeting, precious fiery life.

This in-person event was cancelled due to a winter storm, and the lecture/discussion was instead held virtually.  A similar in-person event will be scheduled for sometime in the spring, 2026.  Information about it will be posted here.

Fundamentals of Jungian (Analytical) Psychology

Sunday, January 25, 2026 — 2:00 to 3:30 PM Central

Location: St. Louis County Library – Clark Family Branch, 1640 S Lindbergh Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63131 (Room A)

Join us at Saint Louis County Library’s Clark Family Branch for this free, in-person-only offering! Jungian analyst Rose Holt outlines some of the history of the Freud-Jung relationship in the early 1900s and the differences that led to the rupture of that friendship, then turns her focus to the contributions that Jung made during his decades-long work in the field of psychology and psychotherapy.

Topics will include: 

(1) the broad scope of Jungian Psychology as it is practiced today; 

(2) Jung’s Association Test; 

(3) his work to define personality typology (which led to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator/MBTI instrument widely used today; 

(4) views of and methods for working with dreams; 

(5) the archetypal nature of the Collective Unconscious; 

(6) the relationship between the ego and the unconscious; 

(7) the concept of individuation; 

8) the concept of synchronicity; 

(9) a psychotherapy for both well and ill persons.

Learning Objectives  

    Attendees will:

1. Gain a broad understanding of the range of human thought and creativity
2. Develop some understanding of the helpful concepts and practices of a psychological understanding that have proved to be of lasting value
3. Be able to relate to their dreams and fantasies in a fruitful manner
4. Be able to relate psychological theory to religious understanding