Loss of soul

1. Etymology

Loss of soul is a concept borrowed from anthropology, referring psychologically to a state of general malaise—the sense that a soul has “gone off.” Related: abaissement-du-niveau-mental; midlife prelude.

2. Plain summary

Samuels marks it unnatural, neurotic, pathological: severance of relationship with one’s individual psychic life; often midlife; may prelude further individuation. Teleologically, values the person lacks may be found in the neurosis itself. Accompanied by lack of energy, loss of meaning and purpose, diminished responsibility, preponderance of affect, and eventual depression or regression with a disintegrating effect on consciousness. Unchecked, personality may dissolve into the collective psyche.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common loss-of-soul motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
anthropological borrowing; fugitive soul / medicine man; civilized synonym abaissement-du-niveau-mental; general malaise; midlife onset; prelude to individuation; values in the neurosis; lack of energy / meaning; affect preponderance; depression / regression; dissolution into collective psyche.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology loss of soul is anthropological figure for psychic malaise / abaissement—CW 9i rebirth essay. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4. Prefer CW 9i ¶213; CW 7 ¶93 (Samuels cite).

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Loss of soul. A concept borrowed from anthropology, referring psychologically to a state of general malaise. … Something similar can happen to civilized man, only he does not describe it as "loss of soul" but as an "abaissement du niveau mental."

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 9i ¶213 ("Concerning Rebirth") in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — loss of soul p. 88 (house vessel neighborhood.

loss of soul An unnatural, neurotic and pathological condition that has threatened man from the beginning of time; the severance of relationship with one's individual psychic life. It is marked by, though not synonymous with ABAISSEMENT DU NIVEAU MENTAL. Often manifesting at midlife, the condition may be the prelude to further INDIVIDUATION…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. 88)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

See also: abaissement-du-niveau-mental; depression; individuation; collective; neurosis (no polished leaf on disk this pass — prose only); self.

References

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.