Prologue to the history of Western Consciousness
Extract from Chapter Five of "Primitive Materialism".
I am drawn into this enquiry by my previous enquiry into the split-consciousness problem, or the problem of the Christian shadow complex. The study of history suggests that the collective psyche acts as if it were a single person, as if there were a World Soul. Suppose, by way of analogy that the collective psyche of the West may be said to form a single, supra-conscious being; then the study of this being’s history – or life – indicates that it is suffering from a spiritual-mental illness. We can write a history for the West as if Western consciousness were a single personality. This collective psyche acts as the framework to our lives as individuals – it is the underlying structure of individual identity in the West. Its history is the history of our collective spiritual illness. We are born with a sick cognitive-emotional structure that is inherited from all past ages, of which we are unconscious at birth. This illness moulds and directs the course of our lives, and it is imperative for our health, both collective and individual, that we bring it into analysis.
Questions
1. Does it make sense to talk of a "World Soul" - "as if Western consciousness were a single personality?"
2. Is it true that "we are born with a sick cognitive-emotional structure that is inherited from all past ages"?
2. Is it true that "we are born with a sick cognitive-emotional structure that is inherited from all past ages"?