Carl Jung’s disturbing truth about why other people irritate you might change your life
An antidote to becoming a more integrated version of yourself
According to a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and analytical psychologist Carl Jung, my irritations, and everything I dislike about others are projections of my own unresolved issues, fears, and insecurities.
The first time I came across his statement about that reality-shifting observation, I had a deep think about why some things irritate me so much. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves,” says Jung.
How I understood it: annoyance is an insight into self-awareness. Irritation doesn’t have to be an end in itself, especially when it disturbs my inner calm.
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part yourself. What isn’t part ourselves doesn’t disturb us. — Hermann Hesse
Little things can quickly get on your nerves. Daily annoyances can leave us frustrated, depleted, and ready to scream. Seemingly trivial annoyances can soon escalate into frustration and anger.
Irritation triggers like people who cut in line, arrive fashionably late, public transportation delays, loud noises in quiet spaces, empty coffee pot…
