From 'The Book of the It' by Georg Groddeck
I stumbled across 'The Book of the It' in the medical library at Furness General Hospital a long time ago. One of those volumes that creeps onto the shelves, the purchase requested by an enthusiast and read by hardly anyone else - 'Psychosynthesis' by Assagioli was one I recommended and when no one else had taken it out after fifteen years or so, I brought it home as a remainder.
Groddeck's thinking would fit well with the analytical psychology model structured into a distinct discipline by Assagioli. For the 'It' read the 'Self' archetype - the central organising psychic principal. A ghost in the machine if you like.
Groddeck is considered to be a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. I was amused to find that his Wiki article says that this book is 'an unusual work in which each chapter is form of a letter to a girlfriend, addressed as 'my dear'.
Health, disease, talent, action and thought, but above all, perception and will and self consciousness are only achievements of the It, expressions of life. About the It itself we know nothing whatsoever.
But do no forget that this original mistake of separating individuals, living or non-living, from the Universal, is a part of all human thought and that our every utterance is burdened by it.
For every event in life there is an internal and an external cause.
Life begins with childhood, and by a thousand devious paths through maturity attains its single goal, once more to be a child, and the one and only difference between people lies in the fact that some grow childish, and some childlike.
What is the purpose of your illness?
For he alone will die who wishes to die, to whom life is intolerable.
Only the truly unbearable is forgotten.
Blame not me!
Blame yourself alone
And if I am at fault
Then make yourself a better man.
Groddeck's thinking would fit well with the analytical psychology model structured into a distinct discipline by Assagioli. For the 'It' read the 'Self' archetype - the central organising psychic principal. A ghost in the machine if you like.
Groddeck is considered to be a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. I was amused to find that his Wiki article says that this book is 'an unusual work in which each chapter is form of a letter to a girlfriend, addressed as 'my dear'.
Health, disease, talent, action and thought, but above all, perception and will and self consciousness are only achievements of the It, expressions of life. About the It itself we know nothing whatsoever.
But do no forget that this original mistake of separating individuals, living or non-living, from the Universal, is a part of all human thought and that our every utterance is burdened by it.
For every event in life there is an internal and an external cause.
Life begins with childhood, and by a thousand devious paths through maturity attains its single goal, once more to be a child, and the one and only difference between people lies in the fact that some grow childish, and some childlike.
What is the purpose of your illness?
For he alone will die who wishes to die, to whom life is intolerable.
Only the truly unbearable is forgotten.
Blame not me!
Blame yourself alone
And if I am at fault
Then make yourself a better man.
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