Abaissement du Niveau Mental

"When I write you I anticipate my words will have an effect on you; they will elicit an emotional response because they're being written from an emotional place. That's a large part of this: emotion.  Feelings.  Sensations.  Desires."

Another idea that has resonated with me while reading Carl G. Jung's writings is this, in it's most simplest form: emotions drain your brain. I've often heard the same notion in other ways. Emotions make you stupid. Emotions cloud your judgement. Emotions preclude rational thought.

Abaissement du niveau mental literally means "a reduction of mental level." It is a phrase coined by French psychologist Pierre Janet, and expanded upon by Jung. More specifically, it refers to a "weakening of the ego due to an unconscious drainage of its psychological energy." It can be caused by a number of things, including physical fatigue, illness, shock and yes, violent emotions. Jung doesn't mention it, but I would add drug use to this list. Typically, drugs of all kinds impede our inhibitions, smash our self-imposed filters, and cause us to not give a flying fuck about consequences. Anyone who's ever been drunk knows this.

I digress. Let's think about this, because what Jung was getting at is much, much deeper.

Experiments in psychic ability (J.B. Rhine's) and Jung's own investigations into sychronistic events lead him to conclude that a heated emotional state would lessen the rational self to the point that your mind was more likely to tap into the collective unconscious, and thus be influenced by archetypal instincts. Once connected to that great ocean of thought, time, and space, you are likely to have psychic visions and experience sychronicity.

Again, it might all be bullshit. It's probably bullshit. Bunchoffuckingbullshit. But if it isn't ...

Shouldn't we wholly embrace our emotions? Be it hate, fear, loathing, elation, warmth, love? As a logical, thinking, responsible adult, we do just the opposite the majority of the time. Adulting is about conformity, and conformity is about acting "normal" and level-headed in any situation. Strong emotions often must break through to be seen and even felt. But to know and understand this experience (life) we should give more credence to these feelings. Engage and revel in them. Then, according to Jung, we'll be more likely to tap into that magical trove of collective human knowledge. As cool as that sounds, were we to be successful, we likely wouldn't be consciously aware of the fact. But what could we learn? What truths could be imparted to us?

I'm fighting my own daily battle. Do I smile blithely through everything that happens to me? Peacefully accept that change is inevitable and life happens? Or do I fight it? Do I allow my emotions to influence my decisions? Allow the brain drain to take over?

I always thought emotional people were weak. But now that I'm thinking about it, I mean, really thinking about it, perhaps it's us control-freaks who are the weak ones. We let fear keep us from realizing and expressing how we feel. And if we don't know our true feelings, how can we attain in life that which we truly want? Maybe there's a happy medium. I'm always looking for the happy medium.

Yet another work-in-progress. This recent path I'm on is causing me to ask more questions than I have answers for. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

J. L. Dodd

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”
― Jean Racine

“One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“What is this "heart"? If I tear open that chest of yours, will I see it there? If I smash open that skull of yours, will I see it there? -Ulquiorra”
― Tite Kubo

“When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers. Breathing it in, I glance through a few pages before returning each book to its shelf.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Work Cited:

Jung, C.G. Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Bollingen Foundation, 1960.

Links:

http://www.nyaap.org/jung-lexicon/a/

http://www.rehabs.com/drunk-talk-isnt-just-nonsense-says-study/

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/emotions