Note 314

The ESF is the especially characteristic psychosomatic - as a result of our elaboration [conceptual development of the concept of ESF] having become, so to say, "physical" or at least scientific, - constituent of the  " I ", without identifying it with the latter completely (which is of course merely a matter of definition). Because namely the ESF is only an individual phenomenon embedded within the overall world phenomenon, the philosophically psychological  " I "  still carries with it elements of the embedding. But the ESF approximately matches with the more comprehensive psychic substrate which C.G. Jung has called "self " and in which his brilliant contemplation pairs itself off with the no less brilliant ability of creating suggestive conceptualizations.

Jung, who, in spite of his medical background, has followed his gift for natural philosophy, and, regrettably, being too much of a spiritual psychologist and a bit too little of a (psycho)physiologist, places as the great task of human development the distinction of the  " I "  from its psychic contents, the purification of the soul from all introjections and projections, the appreciation of the  " I "  against inflation by the images of the collective unconscious. These mentioned shortcomings undoubtedly stem from the analytically synthetic concept of the soul, that is, especially from the  bundle image of psychology, as well as from the I-concept of the system view. The ESF-al notion of soul and  " I "  is free from these mentioned phenomena. It satisfies Jung's demands in so far as one has in mind the essential, and insofar as one doesn't misinterpret the fact that in the ESF-al view there is supposed to be an unbreakable unity between the  " I "  and the soul. This  natural  unseparability Jung hasn't in mind, but rather the arbitrary, -- and not taking into account, as to sequentional order and as to significance, the genetic factor, -- combinatorical summarizing of partly historically psychological elements. [The content of the "I" is not some arbitrary sum of contingent psychological elements, i.e. it is not a sum that isn't based on heredity as to sequence (of psychological elements) and significance.]

Back to main text