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Interview

Jeffrey Raff

Jungian psychoanalyst and author, shares some insights and analysis with Arianna Marchetti.

Over the past three hundred years, Western societies have embarked on a path of relentless scientific discovery and technological development that has led to an unprecedented increase in living standards and material wealth. Mesmerized by the fruits that the scientific mindset produced, people have started to believe that all human problems could be successfully relieved by finding the right formula. Through this expectation, rationalism and materialism are progressively conquering all aspects of human life, leading finally to an outright rejection of the irrational, including any experience that eludes rational explanation. However, from the perspective of Jungian psychology the rejection of the irrational, and the consequent dismissing of the unexplained, especially the spiritual, has not freed man from credulity. In fact, it has made us even more disoriented, since irrational drives, symbolism and intuition are necessary components of the psyche that, like rationality, help us make sense of our experiences and navigate the world.

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