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We are accustomed to the notion of an irrational Id and rational Ego as a basic frame of reference in our psychoanalytic thinking. By reversing the traditional value system of this cognitive hierarchy, I wish to call attention to some remedial aspects of the Irrational and its protective coating of the specifically human in sickness and in health.† In this connection, I wish to explore the Irrational as a significant psychological dimension outside the sheltering umbrella of the Unconscious.
It should be appreciated that oppositional terms frequently do not qualify as logically belonging in the same category. The Irrational is not necessarily an appropriate counterpart to the Rational, nor is the opposite universally true. This concept is alluded to by Carl Jung (1959) in his definition of the Irrational when he states that many problems elude rational solution. He goes on to say: “An exclusive presumption that for every conflict there must also exist a possibility of rational adjustment may well prove an unsurmountable obstacle to a real solution of an irrational character.” One may want to add that another problem has to do with the need to look at the Irrational as always being inferior to the Rational.