On the hazards of being a stranger to oneself

Abstract

This paper traces out the socio-political consequences of self-ignorance and self-deception. These consequences were clearly recognized more than 2,000 years ago by early Greek philosophers, in part along the lines of ‘a conceit of wisdom’. The consequences were more recently spelled out in striking ways by Carl Jung in his psychoanalytic analyses of ‘mass-minded man’ who, through self-ignorance and self-deception, wreaks havoc and cruelty on others. The paper also points up the challenge of attaining self-knowledge and possible paths to its attainment that bolster or augment classic psychotherapeutic approaches.