The problem of evil – CD 1 of 2

This is CD 1 of 2, total run time 42'34", of a lecture presented by Dr. Edward Whitmont, MD at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. He approaches the formidable subject of evil in a deep, comprehensive, but human and accessible way. He opens by saying that our conception of good and evil is largely based on Christian tradition and the prohibition of evil there. This makes for our chronic internal conflict between the pressure to be good and the facts of of human nature which include both good and evil By contrast, he points to the Cabbalist idea that as long as all elements of the person, even contradictory ones, stay in relationship with each other, there is a harmonious balanced whole. The largest part of the lecture is devoted to C.G. Jung's conception that human wholeness includes realization of one's evil as well as one's goodness. The goal is not for us to become evil, or course, but to know our nature and to live with its paradox, rather than repressing evil, becoming unconscious of it, and then indignantly ascribing it to others. The lecture is threaded with many examples, illuminating the complicated, two-sided nature of what we repress as evil and showing that growth and creativity are often embodied there as well.