THE WOLF

"Healing may be called," Jung says
"A religious problem
In the sphere of social or national relations
The state of suffering may be civil war
And this state is to be cured by the Christian virtue
Of forgiveness and love of one's enemies
That which we recommend
With the conviction of good Christians
Is applicable to external situations
We must also apply inwardly in the treatment of neurosis
This is why modern man has heard enough about guilt and sin
He is solely beset by his own bad conscience
And wants rather to know

[Chorus]
How he is to reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother
To reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother

The modern man does not want to know in what way he can imitate Christ
But in what way he can live his own individual life
However meager and uninteresting it may be
It is because every form of imitation
Seems to him deadening and sterile
That he rebels against the force of tradition that would hold him to well-trodden ways
All such roads for him lead in the wrong direction
He may not know it
But he behaves as if his own individual life
Were God's special will which must be fulfilled at all costs
This is the source of his egoism
Which is one of the most tangible evils of the neurotic state
But the person who tells him he is too egoistic
Has already lost his confidence
And rightfully so
For that person has driven him still further into this neurosis

[Chorus]
How he is to reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother
To reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother

If I wish to affect the cure for my patients
I am forced to acknowledge the deep significance of their egoism
I should be blind indeed
If I did not recognize it as a true will of God
I must even help the patient to prevail in his egoism
If he succeeds in this, he estranges himself from other people
He drives them away
And they come to themselves as they should
For they were seeking to rob him of his sacred egoism
This must be left to him for it is his strongest and healthiest power
It is, as I have said, a true will of God
Which sometimes drives him into complete isolation
However wretched this state may be
It also stands him in good stead
For in this way alone, can he get to know himself
And learn what an invaluable treasure
Is the love of his fellow beings?
It is, moreover only in the state of complete abandonment and loneliness
That we experience the helpful powers
Of our own natures

[Chorus]
How he is to reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf with his brother
To reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother

[Chorus]
To reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother
To his reconcile himself with his own nature
How he is to love the enemy in his own heart
And call the wolf his brother

When one has several times seen this development at work
One can no longer deny that what was evil
Is turned to good
And that what seemed good
Has kept alive the forces of evil
The arch demon of egoism
Leads us along the royal road to that in gathering
Which religious experience demands
What we observe here is a fundamental law of life: enantiodromia
Or, conversion into the opposite
And it is this that makes possible the reunion of the warring halves of the personality
And thereby brings the civil war to an end"
End of quote