Be assured of my love, and the love of those here. The World as it is, the reality principle, adamantine sanity, these reassuringly solid phrases may furnish just the firm ground one needs to embark on a consideration of the role of the unconscious, that realm of chaos and shadows, in creative activity. To see things as they are when they are not as we would like them to be is the sternest task to which as rational beings we are called. In the service of this stern necessity, conscious thought and reflection, discrimination, memory, judgment, logic, and experiment. To be able to doubt methodically while suspending judgment, to explore alternative explanations in the light of certain canons of evidence and criticism, is the essence of scientific attitude. Pristine common sense is the everyday form of this attitude; the physical sciences and mathematics are its most rigorous and pure embodiment. It is no news that many scientists, and especially the very best, are odd people. As we have suggested elsewhere, they are in the very forefront of the direction in which evolution is taking us, and as such they exemplify in their works such qualities as dryness of judgment, meticulous attention to details, distinctions and small differences, radical questioning of common assumptions, a distrust of the unfortified senses, and a preference for the abstract and the qualitative, and the immediately natural. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14

We are all children of Adam, however, if I may so show my hand, and even the most scientific of scientists usually has a streak of irrationality a yard wide up one’s back, which makes one’s oddness complete. The distinguished historian of science, A.C. Crombie, has given us in his monumental presentation of the history of the science revolution literally hundreds of accounts of how superstitions, whims, bizarre images or convictions lead finally to scientific advances and important break-throughs. The point of all this is that Necessity may be as stern as she wishes, and when we are called to the task we must go, but we rarely go quietly. There is something in the human mind that does not like things as they are, something that will make up its own little World in whatever way seems to that individual piece of mind to be an improvement. All things transitory but as symbols are sent; Earth’s insufficiency here grows to event. The symbol presents a reality transcended. It is the medium trough which superior vision of reality is attained; it amplifies the less affluent real World through the act of imagination. Life, it seems, is but a dream, and even dream are dreams. Players and painted stage took all my love and not the things that they were emblems of. Symbols, dreams, play, light-heartedness—these are the stuff of a part of mind that gives little service to syllogism, evidence, judgment, classification, prediction, law, and stern necessity. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14

However, stern necessity calls: let us consider the way in which unconscious and preconscious forces may influence the mental apparatus, which might just as well be called the mind, both topographically and dynamically. The topography does not, of course, have anything to do with the central nervous system, but is concerned solely with hypothetical spatial arrangements in formal theoretical system, irrespective of their possible situation or neurological correlates in the body. The mental apparatus, then, like all Gaul, is divided into three parts: the unconscious, the preconscious, and the conscious. Unconsciousness is a regular and inevitable phase in the process constituting our mental activity; every mental act begins as an unconscious one, and it may either remain so or go on developing into consciousness, according as it meets with resistance or not. Between the unconscious and the preconscious there occurs a kind of testing process, which is called the censorship. The mental act in the unconscious has two alternative fates open to it: upon being scrutinized by censorship it may be rejected, not allowed to pass into the second phase, in which event is said to be repressed and must remain unconscious. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14

If, however, it passes this scrutiny it enters upon the second phase, the preconscious, and becomes capable of entering consciousness. The rigorous censorship exercises its office at the point of transition from the unconscious to the preconscious. Once in the preconscious, the thought my now, without any special resistance and given certain conditions, become the object of consciousness. The core of the unconscious consists of instinct-presentations having the sole aim of discharging the energy with which they are invested. In other words, they are the mental representation of impulses, or drives, or physiologically-based excitations which seek discharge. A tension or imbalance exists, and the tendency of the organism is to regain balance and stability by a discharge of energy. These ideational representations of drives that—because of the nature of the external World as well as of the organization of consciousness—are denied discharge become related to one another by laws quite different from those that govern logical thought. For one thing, they are exempt from mutual contradiction; quite opposite feelings about the same object may exist simultaneously in the unconscious. Time, place, and custom have no effect upon them. Moreover, they are continually seeking short-cuts to discharges of their energy, and this they achieve by such mechanism as displacement, condensation, substitution, and symbolization. These mechanisms are exhibited most clearly in dreams. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14

Several persons whom the dreamer knows in one’s waking state may be condensed into a single dream personage; one person may be substituted for another, and feelings displaced from the original object of them to another object; situations that trouble the dreamer in one’s waking life may undergo a symbolic transformation which serves to make them almost unrecognizable. Our studies of the psychology of literary creation persuade us that ideas from the unconscious play a large part in furnishing the material out of which the work of art is made. Art differs from dreams and neurosis, however, in that its elaboration requires conscious effort, criticism, judgment, and a sense of form that is quite alien to the chaos of the unconscious. What appears to happen is this: the censorship momentarily suspends its function and an unconscious idea passes into the preconscious. This idea at first seems vague and appears to have no relationship to other conscious content. Often it finds its first fleeting representation simply as a momentary visual or verbal image. In then somehow begins to pull along with it various associated ideas, feelings, and symbols from the unconscious, which then enter into relationship to one another in the preconscious, as well as with other ideas already in the preconscious. The complex of ideas thus elaborated may finally come to conscious expression almost fully formed, or, more commonly, they come in fragments, and it is the task of conscious thought to relate them to one another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14

The real work, of course, comes in making out of this material a communication, for instance, giving it a social reality, which involves discrimination, selection, technique, purpose, and understanding both of the material itself and of an audience of at least one other person who can appreciate it. Most fictions, including many that are published in book form, are not works of art and do not possess social reality in the sense of which I have spoke of it. The World of the psychotic, and to a lesser degree of the neurotic, is a private World, and the creator of it is bond to feel alone in it. Probably the feeling of isolation is the most poignant aspect of neurotic suffering, rather than the effects that we designate as symptoms. It is obvious to everybody that we are in a process of cultural self-destruction. What is left is also not secure any more. It still stands because it was not exposed to the destructive pressure to which the rest has already succumbed. However, it too is built on gravel. The next landslide can take it along. The cultural capacity of modern mortals is diminished because the circumstances which surround them diminish them and damage them physically. The industrial being is unfree, unconcentrated, incomplete, and in danger of losing their humanity because society with its developed organization exercises a hitherto unknow power over mortals, mortal’s dependency on it has grown to a degree that one almost has ceased to live a mental existence of one’s own. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14

Thus we have entered a new Middle Ages. By a general act of will freedom of thought has been put out of function, because many give up thinking as free individuals, and are guided by the collective to which they belong. With the sacrifice of independence of thought we have—and how could it be otherwise—lost faith in truth. Our intellectual-emotional life is disorganized. The overorganization of public affairs culminates in the organization of thoughtlessness. The industrial society is characterized not only by a lack of freedom but also by overeffort. For two or three centuries many individuals have lived only as working begins and not as human beings. The human substance is stunted and in the upbringing of children by such stunted parents, an essential factor for their human development is lacking. The overoccupation the adult person succumbs to leads more and more to the need for superficial distraction. Absolute passivity, diverting attention from and forgetting of oneself are a physical need for modern humans. As a result, people need to make the most of the resources, make them last longer, and focus on the spiritual so they have more time to develop and grown. However, mortals are not to retire into an atmosphere of spiritual egotism, remote from the affairs of the World, but to lead an active life in which one tired to contribute to the spiritual perfection of society. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14

If among modern individuals there are so few whose human and ethical sentiments are intact, not the least reason is the fact that they sacrifice constantly their personal morality on the altar of the fatherland, instead of being in constant living interchange with the collective and giving it the power which drives the collective to its perfection. The present cultural and social structure drives toward a catastrophe, from which only a new Renaissance, much greater than the old one, will arise; we must renew ourselves in a new belief and attitude, unless we want to perish. Essential in this Renaissance will be the principle of activity, which rational thinking gives into our hands, the only rational and pragmatic principle of historical development produced by mortals. If we decide to become thinking human beings, I have confidence in my faith that this revolution will occur. We must have a reverence for life. As the basis of ethics, people have generally ignored that the decay of human society and the World is being brought about through the practice of industrialized life; at the beginning of this century we already saw the weakness and dependency of the people, the destructive effect of obsessional work, the need for spiritual development and less consumption. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14

The necessity for a Renaissance of collective life will be organized by the spirit of solidarity and reverence for life. If one takes the World as it is, it is impossible to endow it with meaning in which the aims and goals of mortals and of humankind make sense. The only meaningful way of life is activity in the World; not activity in general but the activity of giving and caring for fellow creatures. There must be a demand for giving up the having orientation, and for more of a social activity in the spirit of care and human solidarity. A radical inner human change is the only alternative to economic catastrophe. There must be a New World consciousness, a new ethic in the use of material resources, a new attitude toward nature, based on harmony rather than on conquest, and a sense of identification with future generations. For the first time in mortal’s life on Earth, they are being asked to refrain from doing what one can do; they are being asked to restrain their economic and technological advancement, or at least to direct it differently from before; humans are being asked by all future generations of the Earth to share their good fortune with the unfortunate—not in a spirit of charity but in a spirit of necessity. Humans are being asked to concentrate now on the organic growth of the total World system. Can mortals, in a good conscience, say no? Without these fundamental human changes, Homo sapiens are as good as doomed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14

It is to be hoped that the Club of Rome comes to grips with the problem of those social and political changes that are the preconditions for attaining the general goals. It is time for an ethical World change, not as a consequence of ethical beliefs but as the rational consequence of economic analysis. Material increase of consumption does not necessarily mean increase in well-being; a characterological and spiritual change must go together wit the necessary social changes; unless we stop wasting our natural resources and destroying the ecological conditions for human survival, catastrophe within a hundred years if foreseeable. Our failures are the result of our success, and our techniques must be subordinated to our real human needs. Economy as a content of life is a deadly illness because infinite growth does not fit into a finite World. Economy should not be the content of life, and that fact that it cannot be is evident today. If one wants to describe the deadly illness in more detail, one can say that it is similar to an addiction like alcoholism or drug addiction. It does not matter too much whether this addiction appears in a more egotistical or more altruistic form, whether it seeks its satisfaction only in a crude materialistic way or also in an artistically, culturally, or scientifically refined way. Poison is poison, even if wrapped in sliver paper. If spiritual culture, the culture of the inner mortal, is neglected, then selfishness remains the dominating power in a mortal and a selfishness fits this orientation better than a system of love for one’s fellow beings. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14

Considering present technology and patterns of behavior our planet is grossly overpopulated now. The large absolute number of people and the rate of population growth are major hindrances to solving human problems. We are seeing climate change, not only because it is natural, but because there are more people on the planet. The limits of human capability to produce food by conventional means have very nearly been reached. Problems of supply and distribution already have resulted in roughly half of humanity being undernourished or malnourished. Some 20-30 million people are starving to death annually now. Attempts to increase food production further will tend to accelerate the deterioration of our environment, which will eventually reduce the capacity of the Earth to produce food. It is not clear whether environmental decay has now gone as far as to be essentially irreversible; it is possible that the capacity of the planet to support human life has been permanently impaired. Such technological success as automobiles, pesticides, and inorganic nitrogen fertilizers are major causes of environmental deterioration. There is reason to believe that population growth increases the probability of a lethal Worldwide plague and of a thermonuclear war. Either could provide an undesirable death rate solution to the population problem; each is potentially capable of destroying civilization and even driving Homo sapiens to extinction. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14

There is no technological panacea for the complex of problems composing the population-food-environment crisis, although technology properly applied in such areas as pollution abatement, communications, and fertility control can provide massive assistance. The basic solutions involve dramatic and rapid changes in human attitudes, especially those relating to reproductive behavior, economic growth, technology, the environment, and conflict resolution. The real problem for people in our day is preparatory to love itself, namely to become able to love. To be capable of giving and receiving mature love is as sound a criterion as we have for the fulfilled personality. However, by that very token it is a goal gained only in proportion to how much one has fulfilled the prior condition of becoming a person in one’s own right. Assuming the premise is right—that only a fundamental change in human character from a preponderance of the having mode to a predominantly being mode of existence can save us from a psychological and economic catastrophe—the question arises: Is large-scale characterological change possible, and if so, how can it be brought about? I suggest that human character can change if these conditions exist: We are suffering and are aware that we are, we recognize the origin of our ill-being, we recognize that there is a way of overcoming our ill-being, and we accept that in order to overcome our ill-being we must follow certain norms for living and change our present practice of life. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14

There needs to be a historical development that will liberate human beings from those socioeconomic and political conditions that make people inhuman—prisoners of things, machines, and their own greed. When patients consult a doctor, it is because they have suffered and they are aware that they have suffered. However, they are not usually aware of what they suffered from. The goal is to help the patient become aware of what causes their ill-being. As a consequence of such knowledge, patients can arrive at the next step: the insight that their ill-being can be cured, provided its causes are done away with. However, I do not believe anything lasting can be achieved by persons who suffer from a general ill-being and form whom a change in character is necessary, unless they change their practice of life in according with the change in character they want to achieve. For instance, one can analyze the dependency of individuals until doomsday, but all the insights gained will accomplish nothing while they stay in the same practical situations they were living in before arriving at these insights. To give an example: a woman whose suffering is rooted in her dependency on her father, even though she has insight into deeper causes of the dependency, will not really change unless she changes her practice of life, for instance separates from her father, does not accept his favors, takes the risk and pain that these practical steps toward independence imply. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14

Insight separated from practice remains ineffective. Be very careful, because if you should pass over something important through your own fault it would be a pity. This should make one see intellectual honesty in a new light. It is not opposed to faith, but in some people there are obstacles to the faith, impure obstacles, such as prejudices, and habits. One must face the whole question of faith, doctrines and covenants, and the sacraments, this will oblige them to consider them closely and at length with the fullest possible attention, making once see them as thing which they have obligations to discern and perform. And there is a great blessing of another order when one gains friendship by charity, as it will provide one with a source of the most compelling and pure inspiration that is to be found among human things. For nothing among human things has such power to keep our gaze fixed ever more intensely upon God, than friendship for the friends of God. Nothing will better enable an individual to measure the breadth of a true friend’s charity than the fact that they bore one for so long and with such gentleness. It may seem like a joke, but that is not the case. A friend may not have the same motives as self, but you will know that their patience can only spring from a supernatural generosity. “Learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God,” reports Alma 37.35. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14