CSS 2005 Solved Precis

• Polarity (Noun)
  • Meaning: The condition of having two opposed principles or tendencies held in relation to one another
  • Contextual Explanation: Disorder is defined as the failure to maintain "a balanced or equated polarity" in conducting one's life, meaning the psyche can no longer hold its opposing tendencies in equilibrium and tilts entirely toward one of them.
• Sublimate (Verb)
  • Meaning: To redirect a blocked impulse or energy toward a socially acceptable alternative
  • Contextual Explanation: Regression follows when a person, repressed from one life goal, is "further unable to sublimate himself toward another goal." Unable to channel the thwarted drive into an acceptable substitute, he falls back on aims neither he nor society sanctions.
• Persona (Noun)
  • Meaning: In Jungian psychology, the outward social mask a person presents to others
  • Contextual Explanation: Neurosis may follow when the persona "becomes so dominant as to create a totally one-sided ego," the outward mask growing so strong that it displaces the rest of the personality.
• Alienation (Noun)
  • Meaning: The state of being estranged or separated from something one properly belongs to
  • Contextual Explanation: Psychoses and neuroses are called "an alienation of the self from its true goal of self-actualization," meaning the self is cut off from the fulfilment that constitutes its proper end.
• Inoperative (Adjective)
  • Meaning: No longer functioning or in effect
  • Contextual Explanation: When thinking, feeling, intuiting, or seeing assumes a superior role, it renders "the other three inoperative," meaning the remaining mental functions cease working altogether rather than merely weakening.

The passage explains, in Jungian terms, how emotional disorders of every severity arise from the psyche's inability to keep life's polarities in balance, which tilts the ego wholly to one side. Its purpose is to draw the consequence: because all such disorder alienates the self from self-actualization and conduct normal in one culture may be judged neurotic in another, disorder must be defined by discord with oneself rather than by deviation from cultural norms.

Main Idea of the Passage

• Emotional disorder as the psyche's failure to balance life's polarities rather than deviation from cultural norms
  • Psychoses and neuroses alike arise from one incapacity, the failure to hold life's opposing forces in balance, which drives the ego wholly to one side, and since this alienates the self from self-actualization regardless of cultural setting, disorder is defined by discord with oneself rather than by departure from social norms.

Supporting Ideas Helping the Main Idea

• All emotional disorders as failure to maintain balanced polarity, leaving the ego one-sided
  • Psychoses and neuroses alike represent an inability to maintain balanced polarity in conducting one's life, so that the ego becomes decidedly one-sided.
• Psychosis as total collapse of the ego, driven by blocked goals and failed sublimation into archaic behaviour
  • In psychoses, the ego collapses completely back into the recesses of the personal and collective unconscious, for a person repressed from one life goal and unable to sublimate toward another regresses into goal structures acceptable neither to himself nor to society, the entire psyche reverting to archaic, animal behaviour.
• Milder disorder through one mental function or the persona overpowering the rest
  • In less severe disorders, the ego survives. But one of the four mental functions may become so overpowering as to render the other three inoperative, or the persona may grow dominant enough to create a wholly one-sided ego.
• Every disorder, whatever its severity, alienating the self from self-actualization
  • Whatever its type or severity, therefore, emotional disorder amounts to a failure of the psyche to maintain proper balance between life's polarities, and so to an alienation of the self from its true goal of self-actualization.
• Culture immaterial, since normality in one society counts as neurosis in another
  • In this respect culture is of no consequence, since emotional disorder is a matter of being out of tune not with one's culture but with oneself; behaviour acceptable in one culture being considered neurotic in another.
• Inner imbalance, not cultural deviation, as the true criterion of disorder
  • For Jung, then, deviation from cultural norms is not the point; the inability to balance personal polarities is.

Confused About Main and Supporting Ideas?

If you are still struggling to identify the main idea and supporting ideas of a precis passage, please make sure to revise all Precis Writing lectures that I have already delivered. These lectures were designed to build your understanding from the very basics to the advanced techniques required in CSS and PMS examinations.

• What a precis is and why examiners ask it.
• How to read and analyse a precis passage effectively.
• How to identify the main idea of a passage.
• How to distinguish supporting ideas from examples, illustrations, and minor details.
• What a Precis Map is and how to build it before writing.
• How to coordinate the main idea and supporting ideas logically.
• Etc. 

Moreover, please revise the 20 to 30 solved examples shared in the WhatsApp groups during your English Essay and Precis Course. These examples clearly demonstrate the Dos and Don’ts of Precis Writing and show how the concepts discussed in the lectures are applied in actual passages.

Precis 1

Psychoses and neuroses show one failure: a man cannot balance life's polarities. His ego turns one-sided. Then, psychosis collapses it inward into the personal and collective unconscious. Barred from some purpose and incapable of sublimating, he adopts aims neither he nor society approves of, and his whole psyche sinks into primitive, animal behaviour. Milder illness differs; one mental function may dominate and disable the remaining three, or the persona swells until the ego is lopsided. Every disorder, whatever its severity, severs selfhood from self-actualization. Hence, culture decides nothing: what one society accepts, another calls neurotic. Disorder is discord with the self, not with cultural norms.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 324
• Precis Word Count: 105
• Title: Mental Illness as Lost Inner Balance

Precis 2

Because equilibrium among life's polarities eludes him, a man's ego inclines to one extreme. Psychosis buries that ego in the personal and collective unconscious, so a man debarred from his aim and unable to redirect it adopts purposes society disowns, the psyche reverting to primitive animal conduct. Although milder disorders spare the ego, a single mental function may overpower its three companions until they cease operating, or the persona dominate until one-sidedness results. Whatever the severity, the self stands alienated from self-actualization; and since conduct tolerated by one culture is judged neurotic elsewhere, disorder lies in inner imbalance rather than cultural deviance.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 324
• Precis Word Count: 102
• Title: The Psychic Origins of Emotional Disorder

Precis 3

Psychoses and neuroses, differing in degree alone, express one incapacity: balancing life's polarities. The ego, canting to one extreme, dissolves in psychosis within the personal and collective unconscious; repressed from a governing goal and powerless to sublimate, a man pursues ends his society disowns, the whole psyche reverting to primaeval animal conduct. Milder disorders differ. One mental function, overpowering the remaining three, renders them inoperative; or the persona, grown dominant, leaves the ego wholly one-sided. Severity aside, selfhood is estranged from self-actualization. Conduct countenanced by one culture being elsewhere reckoned neurotic; therefore, the criterion is inner discord, not cultural deviance.

• Precis Passage Word Count: 324
• Precis Word Count: 100
• Title: Disorder as Discord with the Self