most men live lives of quiet desperation

#MOST MEN LIVE LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION FREE#

I impulsively ended a terrific friendship with a friend in a rash decision because I felt she was judging me out of context of my life situation!. My strategy seems to be working – at times, many mornings, with the help of my wife’s optimism, I feel euphoric and the world seems wonderful…other times I feel like Malcolm Lowry’s character, Geoffrey Firmin, in the novel ‘Under the Volcano’…experiencing a “crack up.” Other efforts to control my neurosis include quiet meditation, alcohol and marijuana along with an addiction for watching old classic movies as a form of escapism.

I have taken up smoking small cigars as a coping mechanism. Drama is created out of nothing.Īs in the pervasive angst of the 20th century (think of Sartre and Existentialism and his novel ‘Nausea’), in this 21st century there is pervasive anxiety – even I feel that I am suffering from neurosis which affects all my relationships –family and friends.

Part of the problem is that so few are working at steady jobs and, as a result, people are into greater and greater personal debt. People act irrationally, over-react emotionally to daily events. Getting back to Thoreau, upon further reflection, I think his words are just as relevant today as the time he originally said them in the 19th century.Įveryone today, in the middle of a once in a hundred years pandemic, seems to be stressed out and anxious – states of neurosis seem to be rampant. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to change you is the greatest accomplishment.”

#MOST MEN LIVE LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION FREE#

Their metaphysics involved a fierce fealty to one’s soul or conscience, free from religion, politics and society, in general.Įmerson wrote, in a foreshadowing of the individuation process (it could almost be a transcendental motto): They believed in a certain mysticism that defined and underlied, reality. Both Emerson and Thoreau were non-conformists and very unique individuals, self-reliant and independent. In Jungian psychology it is a process of transformation.įor me the concept of ‘individuation’ is reminiscent of the famous quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson (a fellow transcendentalist of Thoreaus, and his mentor.both men believed in the simple life and a spiritual connection to nature). It is when individuals become differentiated from all others. The process of ‘individuation’ involves the development of one’s particular individualness separate from the universal. “1) Life without passion is life without depth Ģ) Passion, while dangerous to order, predictability and sanity, is the expression of the life force ģ) One cannot draw near the gods, the archetypal depths, without risking the largeness of life which they demand and passion provides Ĥ) Finding and following one’s passion serves one’s individuation.” If we are to be fully ourselves, then surely now is the time.” We cannot approach death and infirmity hesitant and ashamed, whining about the past. Hollis also quotes the Greek novelist Kazantzakis who advised, “Leave nothing for death to take, nothing but a few bones.” Hollis continues, “We are called to this present life to live it most fully. “that he had a passion so great that he could never chip it all away.” Writes Hollis, “When he was entering his tenth decade, sculptor Henry Moore was asked how he could continue so richly and he replied. Hollis prefers “Follow your Passion” to “Follow your Bliss.” He understood that most of the time we live according to the dictates of parents and culture, losing the best part of ourselves along the way.” (This passage is from ‘The Middle Passage – From Misery to Meaning in Midlife.’)ġ993 by James Hollis Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts, Daryl Sharp, General Editor page 105).

“Joseph Campbell, when asked how one should live, was fond of saying, “Follow your bliss.”

Most men live lives of quiet desperation