thers are merged with the collective unconscious.

This would amount to

identification with or possession by the archetype, in particular, the god-image.
We see this in religious, idealistic, or political fanaticism – anything with
an ism after it has you.

In any one of these situations, the true

individual gives way to the collective. We have to extricate ourselves
from both collectives in order to discover and embrace that “innermost, last,
and incomparable uniqueness,” something which is innate in each of us.

When Jung speaks of embracing our innermost, last, and incomparable

uniqueness, he did not mean that we should embrace “some supposed
peculiarity rather than … collective considerations and obligations”. That, he
called individualism. While individualism is essentially the opposite of
collectivism, both have the same effect: alienation of the true individual.