QuoteProject
A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.
Carl Jung
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

A creative individual often feels compelled by an inner drive that limits their autonomy.

Carl Jung suggests that creativity is not solely a choice but rather a descent into a powerful drive or instinct, referred to as 'daimon.' This indicates that a creative person's life is heavily influenced by their creative urges and inspirations, which can make them feel less in control of their own destiny.

Themes

CreativityInner DriveDaimonFreedomLife Control

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about artistic challenges, one might say, 'As Carl Jung noted, a creative person has little power over his own life.'

More from Carl Jung

Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.
Carl JungRead
The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
Carl JungRead
Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
Carl JungRead
We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.
Carl JungRead
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
Carl JungRead
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Carl JungRead

Similar quotes

You should not be carried away by the dictation of the mind, but the mind should be carried by your dictation.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupadaRead
All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.
Virginia WoolfRead
What is it we value? Innovation. Originality. Novelty. But most importantly...timeliness. I fear you may be too late, my confused, unfortunate, friend.
Brandon SandersonRead
Your character defects are not where you're bad, but where you're wounded. But no matter who or what causes the wound, it's yours now and you're responsible for it.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.
Robert CollierRead
I feel I'm doing what I should've done a lifetime ago. For a little while I'm not afraid. Maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last. Maybe it's because I've done a rash thing and don't want to look the coward to you.
Ray BradburyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.