Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites.

Carl Jung, Two Essays (1928), I, ch. V 'The Personal Unconscious and the Super-personal or Collective Unconscious'

What it means

In midlife many people throw out everything they believed and swing to the other extreme. Jung says that only repeats the old mistake in reverse. Keep what was true and add what you ignored.

The source

"Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites." Carl Jung said it in Two Essays (1928), I, ch. V 'The Personal Unconscious and the Super-personal or Collective Unconscious'. Translated by H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928.

"The solution of the problem lies not in a conversion into the opposite, but in the retaining of the former values together with a recognition of their opposites."

H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928, Two Essays (1928), I, ch. V 'The Personal Unconscious and the Super-personal or Collective Unconscious'. Text read at archive.org.

Who said it

Carl Jung (1875–1961). Swiss psychiatrist who broke with Freud and founded analytical psychology. He mapped the persona, the shadow, the collective unconscious and the lifelong work of becoming yourself, which he called individuation. Our lines come only from his writings published before 1931, in our own translations from the German or in English translations of the time.

Questions

What does "Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites." mean?: In midlife many people throw out everything they believed and swing to the other extreme. Jung says that only repeats the old mistake in reverse. Keep what was true and add what you ignored.
Who said "Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites."?: Carl Jung (1875–1961). Source: Two Essays (1928), I, ch. V 'The Personal Unconscious and the Super-personal or Collective Unconscious'.
What is the original wording?: The solution of the problem lies not in a conversion into the opposite, but in the retaining of the former values together with a recognition of their opposites (H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928). Translated by H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928.
Is "Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites." on a shirt?: Yes. We print it to order on our tees in 7 illustrated looks, from $44, with free US shipping.

Cite this line

"Don't flip to the opposite. Keep your values and own their opposites." (Carl Jung, Two Essays (1928), I, ch. V 'The Personal Unconscious and the Super-personal or Collective Unconscious', trans. H. G. and C. F. Baynes, 1928). https://spartansurfers.com/quotes/dont-flip-to-the-opposite-keep-your-values