Memories, dreams, reflections

Among the so-called neurotics, there are many people who, had they been born earlier, would not have been neurotic that is, they would not feel an inner division. If they had lived in a time when humans were connected to nature and to the world of their ancestors through myths, when nature was a source of soul experience rather than merely an external environment, then these individuals would not have experienced inner conflict.

I am speaking about those for whom the loss of myth has become a profound burden—those who cannot find their way in life relying only on scientific conceptions of it, using strange verbal speculations that have nothing to do with wisdom.

Quotation C.G. Jung, from Memories, Dreams, Reflections