There is no doubt that this work by Goethe is a Masterpiece of psychology in the soul of man. The soul within the confrontation between dark and bright side. We can easily compare it with ours and our wishes, and learn a lot about it: Our Unconsciousness.

Faust is a tragicplay in two parts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two. Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. Faust is considered by many to be Goethe’s magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature. Wikipedia

First, let’s have a little part from the beginning, which I translated from the original.

MEPHISTOPHELES (alone):
From time to time I like to see the old man,
And be careful not to break with him.
It is very nice of a great gentleman,
So human to speak to the devil himself.

Faust: (at night)
I have now, alas! Philosophy,
Law and medicine,
And unfortunately also theology
Thoroughly studied, with ardent effort.
There I stand now, poor fool me!
And am as smart as before;
Hot masters, hot doctors even
And already pulling for ten years
Up, down and across and crooked
Fool my students and see that we can know nothing!
It just wants to burn my heart.
I am smarter than all the monkeys
Doctors, masters, clerks and priests;
I have no scruples or doubts
Don’t be afraid of hell or the devil, for that all joy has been torn from me
Don’t imagine what is right to know
Don’t think I can teach
To reform and convert people.
I also have neither goods nor money,
Still the honour and glory of the world;
No dog would like to live this longer!
That’s why I surrendered to magic
Whether through the strength of the spirit and my mouth
Not many secrets would be revealed;
That I no longer have sour sweat
Need to say what I do not know;
That I know what the world is

We have all our wishes, in certain unknown. But wishes are always uncertain! Let’s have a deep look.

I know how difficult, is to read and understand Jung. Therefore, I try to make it as short and easy as I can understand myself. He goes in this way to explain his (amazing) point of view on the Complex in the personal identity. It could be everyone. I’ll give my best to translate it understandable.

A very common case is the humourless identity of many men, whether it be their occupation or their titles. Certainly, my office is the activity that belongs to me, but at the same time, it is also a collective factor that has historically come about from the cooperation of many and owes its existence to this dignity, only to a collective consent. When I identify myself with my office or title, I behave as if I were the whole complex, a social factor that an office represents, as if I were not only the bearer of the office but also the consent of the Society. With this, I have expanded myself unusually and usurped properties that are by no means in me, but outside of me. L’état-ç’est moi, that’s the motto for such people.In the case of inflation through knowledge, it is in principle similar but psychologically more subtle. It is not the dignity of an office, but significant fantasies that cause this inflation. What I mean by that, I want to explain with a practical example: I choose the case of a mentally ill person whom I knew personally and who mentions Maeder (Psychological examinations on Dementia Praecox sufferers) in a publication. The case is marked by high inflation (in the case of the mentally ill, one can namely observe all those phenomena, which are only hinted at in the normal on a coarsened and enlarged scale.)

Surely I will come back to this later, more fully. But right now, I add this short paragraph as an anecdote for the explanation of his thought.

just follow the old saying and my aunt, the snake. One day you will certainly be afraid of your divinity. In the case of the mentally ill, one can observe all those phenomena that are only hinted at in the normal, on a coarsened and enlarged scale. When I was still a doctor at the psychiatric clinic in Zurich, I once guided an intelligent layman through the medical department. He had never seen the inside of an asylum before. When we finished our tour, he exclaimed: But listen! That’s a small city of Zurich! A quintessence of the population! It’s like having all the guys you meet on the street every day collected here in their classic specimens. Loud owls and splendid specimens from all depths and heights! I had never looked at things from that side, but the man was right to a not inconsiderable degree.

And in German:

folg nur dem alten Spruch und meine Muhme, der Schlange. Dir wird gewiss einmal bei deiner Göttlichkeit bange bei Geisteskranken kann man nämlich alle jene Phänome, die beim normalen nur andeutungsweise vorhanden sind, in vergröbertem und vergrößertem Maßstab beobachten. Als ich noch Arzt an der psychiatrischen Klinik in Zürich war, führte ich einmal einen intelligenten Laien durch die Krankenabteilung. Er hatte noch nie eine Irrenanstalt von innen gesehen. Als wir unseren Rundgang beendet hatten, rief er aus: Aber hören Sie mal! Das ist ja eine kleine Stadt Zürich! Eine Quintessenz der Bevölkerung! Es ist, wie wenn man alle Typen, die man täglich auf der Straße trifft, in ihren klassischen Exemplaren hier gesammelt hätte. Laute Käuze und Prachtexemplare von allen Tiefen und Höhen! Ich hatte allerdings die Sache nie von dieser Seite betrachtet, aber der Mann hatte in nicht unerheblichem Maße recht.

Take care and be you! I have this requiem, by Mozart, all day long. I just put it here as a finishing point!