Le Quatrième Pentamètre

Etna

Inflation. A state of mind characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, often compensated by feelings of inferiority. Inflation, whether positive or negative, is a symptom of psychological possession, indicating the need to assimilate unconscious complexes or to disidentify from the self. Inflation is a regression of consciousness into unconsciousness. 

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An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. Paradoxically enough, inflation is a regression of consciousness into unconsciousness. This always happens when consciousness takes too many unconscious contents upon itself and loses the faculty of discrimination, the sine qua non of all consciousness. 

~CG Jung, Epilogue

[Inflation] should not be interpreted as ... conscious self-aggrandizement. Such is far from being the rule. In general we are not directly conscious of this condition at all, but can at best infer its existence indirectly from the symptoms. These include the reactions of our immediate environment. Inflation magnifies the blind spot in the eye.

 ~CG Jung, The Self

[...and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.] 

If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against... Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.

 ~CG Jung, Psychology and Religion

Nothing has a more divisive and alienating effect upon society than this moral complacency and lack of responsibility, and nothing promotes understanding and rapprochement more than the mutual withdrawal of projections.

~Carl Jung; The Undiscovered Self

In most mythological texts, fire has the quality of purification and transformation, and is therefore used in many religious rituals. In alchemy fire is used (as it literally appears in some texts) to ′′ burn everything that is superfluous ", so that only the indestructible core remains. Consequently, alchemists start by calculating most of the substances they use, destroying what needs to be destroyed. What resisted fire, the solid residue that survives calcination, has the symbol of immortality. Fire is therefore the great transformation agent. In certain gnostic texts, fire is also called ′′ The Great Judge ", because it judges, so to speak, determining what has value to survive and what should be destroyed. All of this also applies to psychological significance, because fire means the heat of emotional reactions and affections. Without the fire of emotion no development occurs and no greater awareness can be achieved. And that's why God says, ′′ I wish you were cold or hot, but because you are warm and you are neither hot nor cold, I am to throw you up from my mouth ′′ (Revelation 3,16). If in therapeutic analysis, someone who is indifferent to them appears , if you are disliked, if you do not suffer, if there is no fire of despair, no wrath, no conflict, no anger, no annoyance, or anything of this kind, you can be sure that almost nothing will be constellated and that it will be an analysis chocha, insipid, an eternal ′′ bla-bla-bla ". So fire, even if it's a destructive form of fire (conflict, hatred, jealousy, or any other emotion), speeds up the process of maturing, truly being one ′′ judge ′′ who clears things up. People who have fire get into problems, but at least they try something, even if they fall into despair. The more fire, the more the dangers of destructive effects, emotional explosions and all kinds of errors and diabrures, but at the same time, that's what keeps the process going. If the fire goes out, all is lost. This is why alchemists always say you shouldn't let the fire out. The lazy worker, who lets his fire out, is lost: these are the kind of people who only bump into analytical treatment, but never enters head, or rather, with an open heart. He has no fire and so nothing happens. So, fire is the great judge that determines the difference between the corruptible and the incorruptible, between what is and what is not relevant. Consequently, all magical and religious ritual fires have the sacred quality of transformation.~ The Interpretation of Fairytales, Marie Louise von Franz