Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.

Jung’s aphorism treats “addiction” as a psychological pattern rather than a substance-specific problem: any compulsive reliance on a single means of regulating inner life becomes destructive. By placing “idealism” alongside alcohol and morphine, he warns that lofty ideas and moral or spiritual enthusiasms can function like drugs—providing intoxication, certainty, and escape from conflict, ambiguity, or suffering. The target is not ideals as such, but the compulsive use of an ideal to avoid individuation: the difficult work of integrating shadow, limits, and contradictory impulses. The line underscores Jung’s suspicion of one-sidedness and his emphasis on balance, reality-testing, and wholeness.