Psychology Quotes

We shall probably get nearest to the truth if we think of the conscious and personal psyche as resting upon the broad basis of an inherited and universal psychic disposition which is as such unconscious, and that our personal psyche bears the same relation to the collective psyche as the individual to society.

We have long observed that every neurosis has as its result, and probably therefore as its purpose, a forcing of the patient out of real life, an alienating of him from reality.

The sexual life of adult women is a ‘dark continent’ for psychology.

The psychical, whatever its nature may be, is in itself unconscious.

The psychic development of the individual is a short repetition of the course of development of the race.

Psychology is the description of the reflection of the terrestrial world in the heavenly plane, or, more correctly, the description of a reflection such as we, soaked as we are in our terrestrial nature, imagine it, for no reflection actually occurs, only we see earth wherever we turn.

Psychoanalysis is in essence a cure through love.

Like the physical, the psychical is not necessarily in reality what it appears to us to be.

Cold, hunger and the shame of poverty are more likely to affect one’s psychology.

Astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call ‘projected’- this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations. This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them. I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind.

Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to [abandon exact science] put away his scholar’s gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world.

A psychologist should not pretend to understand what he does not understand. Moreover, a psychologist should not convey the impression that he understands what no one understands. We shall not play the charlatan, and we will declare frankly that nothing is clear in this world. Only fools and charlatans know and understand everything.[Не дело психолога понимать то, чего он не понимает. Паче сего, не дело психолога делать вид, что он понимает то, чего не понимает никто. Мы не будем шарлатанить и станем заявлять прямо, что на этом свете ничего не разберешь. Всё знают и всё понимают только дураки да шарлатаны.]