marginalianoun
notes written in the margins; peripheral commentary;


[marginalium]

Carl Jung's Midlife-Crisis Notebooks

15 Nov 2024

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Carl Jung’s Midlife-Crisis Notebooks:

Often, The Black Books read like an epic fantasy, especially when Jung encounters characters that guide him. These characters are archetypes— general characters or themes that we fill with our own personal experiences.

According to Jung, we develop our own unique identity by conversing with these archetypes … Within the Black Books, Jung meets Philemon—a pagan old man. Jung saw Philemon as a guru, someone to lead him through his visions and dreams … Philemon’s father, named Ha, also communicated with Jung. Ha was a “black magician,” who understood the runes, letters from an ancient Germanic alphabet. But Ha’s runes are completely new—they do not exist in history … Ha describes the runes as “…my science.” Jung wants to learn the runes, but Ha refuses to teach him. Instead, Ha flashes images of the runes across Jung’s vision and explains their symbolism … Soon, Jung is covering the Black Books with Ha’s runes

Wild. Maybe a solution for those, like me, with so little internal visual world.


Anthologies: Gratification, Spiritual Architecture, On Aesthetics, Great Thinkers, Neurotypica

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More about Dorian Minors' project btrmt.

btrmt. (text-only version)

The full site with interactive features is available at btr.mt.

btrmt. (betterment) examines ideologies worth choosing. Created by Dorian Minors—Cambridge PhD in cognitive neuroscience, Associate Professor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Core philosophy: humans are animals first, with automatic patterns shaped for us, not by us. Better to examine and choose.

Core concepts. Animals First: automatic patterns of thought and action, but our greatest capacity is nurture. Half Awake: deadened by systems that narrow rather than expand potential. Karstica: unexamined ideologies (hidden sinkholes beneath). Credenda: belief systems we should choose deliberately.

The manifesto. Cynosure (focus): betterment, gratification, connection. Architecture (support): inner (somatic, spiritual, thought) and outer (digital, collective, wealth).

Mission. Not answers but examination. Break academic gatekeeping. Make sciences of mind accessible. Question rather than prescribe.

Writing style. Scholarly without jargon barriers. Philosophical yet practical—grounded in neuroscience and lived experience. Reflective, discovery-oriented. Literary references and metaphor. Critical of systems that narrow human potential. Rejects "humans are flawed"—we're half awake, not broken.

Copyright. BTRMT LIMITED (England/Wales no. 13755561) 2026. Dorian Minors 2026.

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About Dorian Minors. Started btrmt. in 2013 to share sciences of mind with people who weren't studying them. Background: six years Australian Defence Force (Platoon Commander, Infantry); Gates Cambridge Scholar; PhD cognitive neuroscience, University of Cambridge (2018-2024); currently Associate Professor, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Research interests: neural basis of intelligent behaviour, decision intelligence, ritual formation/breakdown, ethical leadership, wellbeing.

External projects (links also available via Analects):