One of the missteps of becoming more conscious is identifying with an archetype, which can be temporarily useful, as it opens up a wider story of who we are, but can then trap us if we think we have reached the ultimate level of consciousness. An example of a symptom of archetypal inflation is when you think you alone know the truth.
“An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. This ‘consciousness’ is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. Paradoxically enough, inflation is a regression of consciousness into unconsciousness. This always happens when consciousness takes too many unconscious contents upon itself and loses the faculty of discrimination, the sine qua non of all consciousness.” -Epilogue, CW 12, par. 563 (Jung)
However:
“Inflation is not conscious and should not be interpreted as … conscious self-aggrandizement. Such is far from being the rule. In general we are not directly conscious of this condition at all, but can at best infer its existence indirectly from the symptoms. These include the reactions of our immediate environment. Inflation magnifies the blind spot in the eye.” -“The Self,” CW 9ii, par. 44
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