I Fought the Good Fight

About this poem

Life is a battle that offers each of us challenges with obstacles to overcome. Towards the end of his public career, and reflecting on his life’s journey, its impact as a psychiatrist on others, and its wider impact on the entire world, the eminent Swiss analytical psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), is reputed to have once remarked about himself: “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” Carl Jung’s subjective self-appraisal reflects the humanistic perspective of individuation or self-actualization demonstrative of the attainment or the teleological desire to achieve a fully functioning, purposeful, healthy psychological outcome. This desire, this goal suggests that, as thinking, self-reflective individuals, each of us has the capacity to make important choices, despite the obstacles that may come our way; to be able to say at the end of our life’s journey, along with Carl Jung and Saint Paul of Tarsus, a Jewish man of deep learning: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race victoriously.” more »