Carl Jung and The Most Important Rule of Life

Carl Jung and The Most Important Rule of Life

Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss psychologist  who closely collaborated with Carl Jung from  

1933 until his death in 1961. One of von Franz’s  primary topics of interest was fairy tales. For  

like myths, fairy tales contains timeless wisdom  that teaches us about the human condition. Jung  

believed that so much wisdom was contained  in the fairy tale that he once told von Franz  

that “when you study fairy tales you can study  the anatomy of man.” (Marie-Louise Von Franz,  

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales)  After years of interpreting fairy tales from  

cultures spanning the globe and throughout all  periods of history, von Franz came to an important  

conclusion concerning the lessons they teach.  No matter the message contained in a fairy tale,  

you can almost always find a contradicting message  in another fairy tale. von Franz called this the  

rule of contradiction. Or as she explains:    “I can tell you stories which say that if you  

meet evil you must fight it, but there are just as  many which say that you must run away and not try  

to fight it. Some say to suffer without hitting  back; others say don’t be a fool, hit back! There  

are stories which say that if you are confronted  with evil, the only thing to do is lie your way  

out of it; others say no, be honest, even towards  the Devil, and don’t become involved with lying.  

For all these I could give you examples, but it  is always a yes and a no. There are just as many  

stories which say the one as the other.” Marie-Louise Von Franz,  

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales Upon discovering the rule of contradiction  

von Franz was disappointed as she hoped to find  lessons that were timeless and indisputable.  

But after further reflection she came to realize  that the rule of contradiction makes sense. The  

challenges and predicaments of life are countless,  there is no one path that is right for everyone,  

and when faced with an ethical dilemma  it is in choosing between contradictory  

ways of dealing with it that we become an  individual. Or as von Franz explains:  

“. . . if collective material [found in  fairy tales] is completely contradictory,  

if our basic ethical disposition is completely  contradictory, only then is it possible for us  

to have an individual, responsible, free conscious  superstructure over the basic opposites. Then we  

can say that in human nature it would be right  to do this or that, but I am going to do this,  

the third thing, which is my individuality. There  would be no individuality if the basic material  

were not contradictory. That was my comfort  after having discovered the terrible truth of  

the contradictory structure!” Marie-Louise Von Franz,  

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales There is, however, one exception to the  

rule of contradiction, one lesson that no fairy  tale ever went against and as von Franz tells us  

this exception is “. . .that one must never hurt  the helpful animal in fairy tales.” (Marie-Louise  

Von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales)  In this video we look at what this rule means  

in practical terms, why Jung believed  it is so important to live in accordance  

with this rule and how most people  break it and suffer as a result.  

According to von Franz unpacking the meaning  of this rule is simple. The helpful animal in  

a fairy tale represents the intuitive inner voice  that helps us distinguish between right and wrong,  

good and evil, and which pushes us toward  certain paths in life and away from others.   

“. . .obedience to one’s most basic inner being,  one’s instinctual inner being, is the one thing  

which is more essential than anything else. In all  nations and all fairy tale material I have never  

found a different statement.” Marie-Louise Von Franz,  

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales The helpful animal in fairy tales,  

in other words, represents man’s  conscience and as Jung writes:  

“The etymology of the word “conscience” tells  us that it is a special form of “knowledge” or  

“consciousness.” The peculiarity of “conscience”  is that it is a knowledge of, or certainty about,  

the emotional value of the ideas we have  concerning the motives of our actions.”  

Carl Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience When faced with a moral dilemma, or significant  

life decision, our conscience often manifests  as strong emotions and gut feelings impelling  

us toward certain actions and away from others.  Sometimes these emotions will be of a negative  

sort, warning us not to do something,  at other times they will be positive  

and encourage us to take a certain action. In  his essay A Psychological View of Conscience,  

Jung notes that many cultures consider  conscience to be an expression of god’s will,  

which reveals the power of this human faculty.  Obeying one’s conscience is easy so long as its  

commands align with the ethical code of our  society and the expectations of one’s family  

and peer group. But sometimes our conscience  conflicts with these things, creating a dilemma.  

Do we obey our conscience, or do we conform to the  moral code of our society and the expectations of  

our social group? Or as Jung writes:  “Conscience – no matter on what it is  

based – commands the individual to obey  his inner voice even at the risk of going  

astray. We can refuse to obey this command  by an appeal to the moral code and the moral  

views on which it is founded, though with an  uncomfortable feeling of having been disloyal.” 

Carl Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience Most people have an innate terror of going  

against the social grain and when faced with the  dilemma of obeying their conscience or conforming,  

they take the latter path. But when we  deny the call of our conscience we are  

often left with a nagging feeling that we  are living a lie, or as Jung explains:  

“. . . the observance of customs and laws can  very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that  

our fellow human beings are unable to detect  it. It may help us to escape all criticism,  

we may even be able to deceive ourselves in  the belief of our obvious righteousness. But  

deep down. . .he hears a voice whispering,  “There is something not right,” no matter  

how much his rightness is supported by  public opinion or by the moral code.” 

Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 17 By spurring the voice of conscience,  

we break the one universal rule that von  Franz discovered in her study of fairy tales.  

The Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky went as  far as to suggest that it is our conscience  

that makes us truly human and if we disobey  it for too long, we suffer immensely. Guilt,  

regret, shame, and a feeling of being an  imposter eats us from within, and a sickness  

of self overtakes our being. Or as Joseph Frank  explains in Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt:   

“This image of conscience as a natural and  instinctive regulator of the human psyche,  

whose distortion or perversion leads to a literal  “sickness” of the self, was to become one of the  

major themes of the great works of Dostoevsky.”   Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt 

For those who allow their conscience to guide  them in the development of their individuality,  

Jung offers some words of caution. Along with  a ‘right’ or ‘true’ conscience, which prompts  

us to take actions that better our life and  which helps us properly solve moral dilemmas,  

there is a ‘wrong’ or ‘false’ conscience “which  exaggerates, perverts, and twists evil into good  

and good into evil. . .and it does so with the  same compulsiveness and with the same emotional  

consequences as the “right” kind of conscience.”  (Carl Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience)  

Our demons, in other words, can mask  themselves as the helpful animal of our  

true conscience and lead us down meaningless  and destructive paths, or as Jung writes:   

“Close beside these, beside the positive,  “right” conscience, there stands the negative,  

“false” conscience called the devil,  seducer, tempter, evil, spirit etc.”  

Carl Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience To avoid being seduced by our false conscience  

Jung recommends that when faced with a  particularly difficult moral dilemma, we slow  

down and not rush into action. Compulsive urges,  and a desire to act in haste, are a sign that we  

are being guided by our false conscience, or as  a favourite quote of Jung’s put it: “All haste  

is of the Devil.” And as von Franz writes:  “Jung has observed that if one stews long enough  

in the agonies of such a conflict, then somehow an  inner line, an inner development, becomes clear,  

which gives the individual enough certainty  to continue on his way, even at the risk of  

committing an error.”  Marie-Louise Von Franz,  

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales By slowing down, not acting in haste,  

and giving our unconscious mind enough time to  stew on a moral dilemma, we are more likely to  

connect to the signals of our true conscience.  But when making a choice as to how to deal with  

a tough moral dilemma, we can never be certain  beforehand that we are doing the right thing.  

To move forward in life we must take a leap of  faith and hope that it is our true conscience  

that is guiding us. Or as Jung explains:  “In practice it is very difficult to indicate the  

exact point at which the “right” conscience stops  and the “false” one begins, and what the criterion  

is that divides one from the other. . . But if  the voice of conscience is the voice of God,  

this voice must possess an incomparably higher  authority than traditional morality. Anyone,  

therefore, who allows conscience this status  should, for better or worse, put his trust in  

divine guidance and follow his conscience rather  than give heed to conventional morality.”  

Carl Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience But even if we are successful in detecting the  

signals of our true conscience some may wonder  if it is always worth heeding its council?  

Don’t we risk alienating other people and in some  cases being shunned or ostracized by our social  

group? The South African writer Laurens van  der Post, who was heavily influenced by Jung,  

provides a powerful passage in his novel A Far Off  Place that suggests that any costs of following  

our conscience pale in comparison to the costs  that come to those too cowardly to follow it.  

“. . .you see every human being has his own  inborn sense of contract with life. He has,  

it is true, also an important sense of  contract with the community into which  

he has been born . . .But above that is his own  special contract with life itself. This contract  

is entirely between him and life and nothing, not  even the community, can be allowed to suppress it,  

if it should drive him into conflict with it.  This contract is in the keeping of its own voice—a  

voice we call conscience and no man can refuse to  disobey this voice and ever know any peace again.  

Believe me, this unease, this disquiet and enmity  of neighbours that has come into our lives,  

because they found us guilty of having broken our  contract with society, is a peace that passes all  

understanding in comparison with what would happen  to us if we broke the special sense of contract  

that you and I have with life itself.”  Laurens van der Post, A Far Off Place