The Problem of the Puer
Essentially, everything that the puer adores he must abandoned. The puer is a free spirit and hates to be bound to anything. He would much rather talk about deep questions and have serious conversations. He doesn't want to be bound to the mundanity of life, but rather promises himself a future full of life and adventure, but this life of adventure never truly comes. He delights in the world of fantasy and high imagination and hates when he is forced to land. To be bound to earth is to be bound to reality - which is quite disagreeable for the prince. He searches for the perfect girl who never really exists - he searches for the perfect virgin Mary, and only when he gets entangled deep enough he realizes that the girl is actually a human and not an archetype, so he moves on. He promises himself he will finish his novel or his music or his YouTube videos or that he will finally start learning French - but when he sits down at his computer and works for 5 minutes and realizes the work that must be put in, he relinquishes, for to work is to be bound. "Maybe not French, no Spanish" he says, and the process repeats itself.
The puer loves to analyze his dreams. He loves to sift in the psychedelic wonders of his imagination. He searches for the philosophers stone without realizing that it only exists in his imagination. "Maybe this next dream I will find the answer, maybe on this next trip I find God", he says, without realizing every time he does so he sinks deeper into the womb of his mother, reversing the process of manhood and losing his masculine edge. He wants to be formless - boundless potential - just like a fetus is. If he does not act, he will become just that: nobody, a gelatinous-like fetus who isn't really anything but an idea. He hates the cold and prefers the warmth of the womb.
He is, in effect, stuck in the mothers womb psychologically - known as the 'devouring mother'. The puer aeternus and the mother complex are closely linked, so closely linked that I personally would consider the puer a sub-category of the mother complex, although maybe von Franz would disagree.
Jung provides one simple to this answer: work. Simply do your work. Everyday. Regardless of if it's a lazy day, regardless of if you don't want to do anything and regardless of any excuse you can conjure up. Do your work. Spend time in reality. You must leave the womb of the mother at all cost. She will kill you.
Leave behind, for however long it takes, researching the esoteric, researching the beyond, looking inward and finding meaning in dreams. This is only something someone who is well adjusted to the world should do. The puer must look outward, not inward - for there's nothing to be found of any use for the puer inwardly unless he has looked outward for far too long. The puer doesn't have much to look inward at after doing it for so long. "The Problem of the Puer" is solved in one's life and in the work they do."
