Vitality

The fact that the myth was assimilated into Christianity by interpretation is proof, first of all, of the myth's vitality; but it also proves the vitality of Christianity, which was able to interpret and assimilate so many myths.

Jung identifies vitality as the criterion by which a living tradition is distinguished from a dead one — its capacity to absorb and transform myth across time.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955thesis

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boredom might be described as a malady affecting external objects and consisting of a withering process; an almost instantaneous loss of vitality … The feeling of boredom originates for me in a sense of the absurdity of a reality which is insufficient

McGilchrist, via Moravia, frames the loss of vitality as the phenomenological signature of left-hemispheric devitalisation and the Cartesian reduction of the world.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009thesis

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The man of insufficient vitality. His prevalence would put the human type in danger … they it is, the weakest, who are undermining the vitality of the race, poisoning our trust in life

James transmits Nietzsche's equation of saintly self-abnegation with biological and psychological deficiency, making insufficient vitality the index of a pathological human type.

James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience Amazon, 1902thesis

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In the human body, the vitality, spirit, soul, psyche, and intent all belong to yin and all take orders from the human mentality. When the human mind is calm, they all are calm, and when the human mind is agitated, they all are agitated.

Liu I-ming locates vitality as one among five yin constituents of the person, each of which is governed by the quality of the presiding mind, making inner cultivation the precondition of vital harmony.

Liu I-ming, The Taoist I Ching, 1986thesis

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These external expressions can be defined as 'vitality affects' or as 'categorical affects,' revealing the primary or the differentiated nature of the emotional states, respectively.

Siegel distinguishes 'vitality affects' — the dynamic, kinetic qualities of affective expression — from categorical emotions, placing them as the more primary layer of felt emotional life.

Siegel, Daniel J., The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020thesis

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The puer himself has movement and vitality, but he is the spiritual dimension of a woman; and the woman herself, her femininity, is frozen and static when the puer dominates her.

Greene demonstrates that the puer archetype carries vitality as archetypal energy but that its dominance paradoxically arrests the very life-force it animates in the carrier.

Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas, The Development of Personality: Seminars in Psychological Astrology, Volume 1, 1987supporting

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she ruined herself psychologically and physically with a Christian attitude of self-mortification … the uppermost principle being the Christian attitude which served death rather than life.

Von Franz diagnoses a pathological loss of vitality rooted in the imitatio Christi as a life-negating orientation, contrasting it implicitly with the resurgent feminine principle that restores life.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, 1974supporting

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striving for elevation by conveying the vitality up to boost the brain, or conveying the energy up into the head … knowing how to go ahead but not how to withdraw, one is like a bird flying to the greatest heights unable to stop itself

Liu I-ming warns that forcibly directing vitality upward in Taoist inner practice is a misuse that leads to catastrophe, insisting on regulated withdrawal as the counterpart of cultivation.

Liu I-ming, The Taoist I Ching, 1986supporting

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a greater effect of PF (k = 3) in the variables 'physical role', 'vitality' and 'social function'

This meta-analysis treats vitality as an SF-36 subscale differentially improved by physical fitness programs versus oriental practices in substance-use disorder populations.

Giménez-Meseguer, Jorge, The Benefits of Physical Exercise on Mental Disorders and Quality of Life in Substance Use Disorders Patients. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, 2020aside

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