In Joan Borysenko's book “Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson”, she quotes a Jungian analyst Theodor Seifert's analysis of Snow White, specifically about the queen in front of the mirror, wanting to be the fairest in all the land:
Here begins the difficult task of perceiving one’s own image and one’s own self without the demand—in the sense of being competitive—of being unique, the best, the most outstanding. This is an especially important question because here two principles meet head on that appear to exclude each other: On the one hand, each of us is unique, an individual who has not yet existed previously, clearly different from all other persons. On the other, however, clearly different does not mean better, more beautiful, ahead of the competition, but rather simply other, unique, “just as I am,” clearly differentiated from every other. Precisely when this uniqueness is not combined with haughtiness and pride, community is possible both with other persons and with the newness developing out of one’s own soul. But if we base our uniqueness on the devaluation of other persons, we are taking an isolating attitude that destroys community. I am placing myself apart from the community with people because I reject being like them and instead always want to be better and more beautiful. This isolation leads to loneliness, then to anxiety, and finally to the ever greater need to be better and more outstanding.
I think I'll just let it stand on its own.
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