Jung, Freud and Christ!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the conflict between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and how their different ways of seeing the world connect to Christ’s teaching on forgiveness. It’s strange how their theories can feel so far away and academic, yet when I look at my own life — my struggles with addiction, my love for fishing since I was young, and the constant drive I’ve had to prove myself — I can see the truth of their debate playing out in me.

Freud believed religion was just an illusion, a fantasy that kept us from facing reality. He thought guilt was simply the price we pay for being human, something that could never really be lifted. And I know that feeling — the heavy weight of guilt after drinking or using, the shame that doesn’t go away even when you try to push it down. Freud could describe that perfectly, but he couldn’t offer a way to escape it. It’s like being stuck in a net you can’t climb out of.

Jung, though, saw things differently. He believed we need meaning, symbols, and stories to survive. When I think back to my younger years, standing on the riverbank with a rod in my hand, I see what he meant. Fishing wasn’t just about catching something — it was a way of belonging, of being connected to something bigger than myself. But deep inside, there was always this shadow, this drive to prove myself — to be seen, to be enough. Addiction played into that too, because every drink or drug felt like a way of hiding from the shadow or pretending I was more than I really was. Jung would say I needed to face that shadow, to integrate it, and I think he was right.

But then I look at Christ, and He takes things even further. Where Freud leaves us drowning in guilt and Jung points us toward symbols and integration, Christ steps into the mess and offers forgiveness. Real forgiveness — not as an idea, not as a symbol, but as flesh and blood on the cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Those words cut straight through the cycle I’ve lived — the guilt, the shame, the endless proving myself — and they open a way out.

When I look at the world today, I see Freud’s world with Jung’s warning all over it. Religion has collapsed, churches are empty, but people are still starving for meaning. So we chase it in politics, in technology, in movements, in addictions of all kinds. We carry guilt — ecological guilt, political guilt, personal guilt — but there’s no forgiveness. It’s just like cancel culture: you get exposed, condemned, and cast out, but never redeemed. That feels a lot like addiction too — the cycle where you fall, you hate yourself for it, and then you fall again, with no real way out.

That’s why Christ’s message still matters. Fishing taught me patience, persistence, and the mystery of the unseen world under the water. Addiction taught me how easy it is to drown in guilt and self-destruction. 

And the constant pressure to prove myself taught me how deep the wound of shame can go. But Christ speaks into all of it. Freud saw the wound. Jung traced the myth. But Christ bore the cross. And forgiveness — real, living forgiveness — is the only thing that can break the net, silence the guilt, and let a man finally breathe. 

Christ, Jung and Freud