Definitions HQ

Reduction (n.) explains ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a cry for help by the danger and a feast-dream by hunger — but reduce Peter's or Paul's vision that way and the explanation sends us away empty.

The Reduction (n.) treats ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the unconscious product as a sign, not a symbol — tracing it back to its elements and thereby annihilating its real significance.

The Reduction (n.) leads ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠back to the primitive's subjection to supra-personal powers — instincts, affects, demons, gods — which civilized man hoped he had escaped; it ends at the religious question.

Reduction (n.) reassures ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠us: shrink a vision to a personal experience and the teeming chaos becomes a psychic disturbance, and we turn back to our picture of a well-ordered cosmos.

Reduction (n.) or ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠any retreat from the path of civilization makes of a human being a crippled animal, never a so-called natural man; the neurotic is helped only by joining the strenuous work of culture.

Reduction (n.) makes ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a symbol's meaning impossible to grasp, whether to chemical substances for the alchemist or to personal problems for modern man, since a symbol compensates an unadapted conscious attitude.