You Are Not Your Thoughts

A thought arrives at three in the morning: you are failing. It feels like information. It feels like you.

Carl Jung faced the same trap in the private book he began in 1913, The Red Book. In one scene he talks with a figure from his imagination, the prophet Elijah. Jung says he is wary of a disturbing thought, because people are “accustomed to seeing thoughts as their very own, so that they eventually confuse them with themselves.” Elijah answers him. It is Elijah speaking here, inside Jung’s vision, not Jung in his own voice.

A page later Jung gives his own account, after describing how closely he had identified with his thoughts. “On account of my thoughts,” he writes, “I had left myself.”

What this does and does not say

It does not say your thoughts are meaningless. Jung says you only imperfectly recognize their meaning. Take a thought seriously enough to look at it, and not so seriously that it becomes you.

The editor of the edition adds a note on this page. Years later, in a 1925 seminar, Jung said that learning to see thoughts as events was what let him say to a patient, “Be quiet, something is happening.” (Jung, quoted in the edition’s note 188, p. 249.)

A one-line practice

This step is ours, not Jung’s, and we have no study to offer for it. It simply puts his idea into a sentence.

1. Catch the thought. “I am failing.”
2. Say it as weather. “I notice the thought that I am failing.”
3. Look once. Is there a real event behind it, such as a missed deadline? If yes, that is a task. If no, let the thought pass.

It will not stop the thought. It only changes where you are standing when it arrives.

When to stop

If your thoughts are frightening, constant, or push you toward harming yourself, this is not a technique problem. Please speak to a doctor or a crisis service. For the overnight kind of looping, see our piece on overthinking at 2am.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who says that thoughts are outside the self in The Red Book?

On p. 249 the line is spoken by Elijah, a figure Jung meets in his vision. On p. 250 Jung gives his own version in the first person: his thoughts are not his self.

Does Jung say thoughts do not matter?

No. He says their meaning is only imperfectly recognized. The point is to look at a thought without taking it for yourself.

Is this a proven technique?

No. The Red Book passages are Jung's reflection, and the one-line practice here is our own simple rendering. We do not claim it is a tested treatment.

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