Vacation!

I'm taking a short break - I'm on vacation starting today (woop!) I'll be back in two weeks, though. Have a great two weeks my friends! I'll see you on the other side.  :)

Glossary: Archetypes

[The archetype is] a dynamism which makes itself felt in the numinosity and fascinating power of the archetypal image.

Psychologically… the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.

- "On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414 & 415


The archetype is the spiritual/mental aspect of a universal symbol; it is the “primary structural element” of the human psyche. Primordial images. Archetypes live in the collective unconscious and are passed down the generations along with the physical body and it's instincts. They’re deep, invisible, universal psychic structures made up of image and emotion and they're the roots of religion and myth. Archetypes live in the unconscious, but their existence and effect can be deduced from dreams, religion, and personal experience. When an archetype has become activated in this way we say it has “constellated,” and the specific image of the archetype is called an “archetypal image.”

Jung believed that archetypes are the “spiritual” end of the instinct, that they’re the psychic equivalent of instincts (e.g. a woman may experience the mother archetype either as a bodily instinct of nurturing and protection, or as a dream or vision of The Great Mother.) Other examples of archetypes are the classic Jungian archetypes (shadow, anima/us, Wise Old Woman/Man, etc.); universal archetypes that appear across cultures (the maiden, the hero, the child, the trickster); and animal and other non-personal archetypes (birds, wind, flood, death, rebirth). As archetypes and instincts are two ends of the same phenomena, they are deeply connected; anything done to one side affects the other as well. Suppress an archetype and it will make an appearance in the instinctive end, and vice versa.

Archetypes also often make their presence known by sneaking up on us and taking over the ego during possession; this happens automatically and unconsciously, without us even being aware of it. Neuroses are often caused by refusing to confront an archetype which is trying to make it's way into consciousness; this often manifests in the instinctive realm. Although archetypes can cause great problems for individuals, they are, at the same time, the means through which we achieve individuation, as well as being the bridge to the Unus Mundus.

Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain structure - indeed they are its psychic aspect. They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation. They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche… that portion through which the psyche is attached to nature.

- "Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 53.

The dynamism of instinct is lodged as it were in the infra-red part of the spectrum, whereas the instinctual image lies in the ultra-violet part... The realization and assimilation of instinct never take place at the red end, i.e., by absorption into the instinctual sphere, but only through integration of the image which signifies and at the same time evokes the instinct, although in a form quite different from the one we meet on the biological level.

- "On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.

We can never legitimately cut loose from our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing suicide. If we cannot deny the archetypes or otherwise neutralize them, we are confronted, at every new stage in the differentiation of consciousness to which civilization attains, with the task of finding a new interpretation appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists

- "The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267.


Link:
Jungian archetypes

Glosary: Participation mystique

A term used by anthropologists when talking about primitive, or archaic, psychology; a form of consciousness in which the subjective and objective are unconsciously united. Jung specifically used it to refer to the tendency to project personal contents of one’s unconscious out into the world (e.g. a tree that talks). An inability to separate oneself and other people or outer objects. Associated with concretistic thinking, compulsiveness, and the fusion of psychological functions (thinking with feeling, feeling with sensation). Everyone, even a person with the most differentiated thinking is, at their base, archaic. See also projection.

Glossary: Anthropos

"The Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci

Image from World Mysteries


The original, whole human; the symbol of archaic unity and completeness. From Gnosticticism. See also Self.

There is in the unconscious an already existing wholeness, the "homo totus" of the Western and the Chên-yên (true man) of Chinese alchemy, the round primordial being who represents the greater man within, the Anthropos, who is akin to God.

- "The Personification of the Opposites," CW 14, par. 152

Glossary: Animus

The man in the woman; the masculine counterpart that lives within women. The spirit of a woman. Carries both the archetypal masculine qualities (drive, thinking, etc.) as well as the individual woman’s shadow qualities. When unconscious, he’s projected onto her father, lover, husband, etc. and regularly creates mischief in her life and relationships. Often expresses himself as rigid, irrational opinions that merely reflect collective ideas rather than real thinking on the woman’s part.

The embodiment of the unconscious of a woman as a figure of the opposite sex, the animus, also has positive and negative features. The animus, however, does not express itself so often in women as an erotic fantasy or mood, but rather as "sacred" convictions. When these latter are expressed loudly and energetically in a masculine style, this masculine side of a woman is easily recognizable. However, it can also manifest in a woman who appears very feminine externally as a quiet but relentless power that is hard as iron. Suddenly one comes up against something in her that is cold, stubborn, and completely inaccessible.

The favorite themes that the animus of the woman dredges up within her sound like this: "I am seeking nothing but love, but 'he' doesn't love me." Or, "There are only two possibilities in this situation," both of which of course are unpleasant (the negative animus never believes in exceptions). One can seldom contradict the animus, for it/he is always right; the only problem is that his opinion is not based on the actual situation. For the most part he gives utterance to seemingly reasonable views, which, however, are slightly at a tangent to what is under discussion.

He embodies a form of the animus that lures a woman away from all human relationships and especially holds her back from love with a real man. A dreamy web of thoughts, remote from life and full of wishes and judgments about how things "ought to be," prevents all contact with life. The animus appears in many myths, not only as death, but also as a bandit and murderer, for example, as the knight Bluebeard, who murdered all his wives.

As the anima does with men, the animus also creates states of possession in women. In myths and fairy tales this condition is often represented by the devil or an "old man of the mountain," that is, a troll or ogre, holding the heroine prisoner and forcing her to kill all men who approach her... In such cases, the heroine can often do nothing but wait patiently for a savior to deliver her from her plight. Through her suffering, the animus (for both the demon and the savior are two aspects of the same inner power) can be gradually transformed into a positive inner force.

When brought into consciousness he becomes a guide to the world of the spirit; rather poisoning her mind with rigid and trite social bromides, he serves as a bridge to the inner world of insight and creativity of the collective unconscious.

In real life, too, it takes a long time for a woman to bring the animus into consciousness, and it costs her a great deal of suffering. But if she succeeds in freeing herself from his possession, he changes into an "inner companion" of the highest value, who confers on her positive masculine qualities such as initiative, courage, objectivity, and intellectual clarity.

[H]e embodies the mind and becomes a mediator of creative and religious inner experiences, through which life acquires an individual meaning. At this stage he confers on a woman a spiritual and intellectual solidity that counterbalances her essentially soft nature. He can then act as a liaison connecting her with the spiritual life of the time.

Integrating the anima or animus is one of the most difficult but most important accomplishments we can achieve. Jung said that while coming to terms with the shadow was the “apprentice-piece,” doing the same for the animus is one’s “master-piece."

Posts:

The Dark Animus
The Integrated Animus
Dark Animus or bright?
The Cutting Animus
The piggish, Trumpian animus
The cruel, jealous lover
The Tall Man
Dealing with the negative animus
Possession by the anima/us
The anima of the animus
A new God
The fertile masculine
The redeeming hero
Own your parts
The creative in woman and man
Make art



Further reading:

Animus Possession: Are you a ball busting bitch?
(Note: The title sounds horrible but honestly, this, and the corresponding article on anima possession, are two of the best articles about Jungian psychology I’ve read online.)


All quotes above are from Marie Louise von Franz; see this link for further information and more quotes.

We are dust

We are just a particle of dust, somewhere living on a particle of dust, somewhere in the cosmic universe. If we look with scientific and collective standards at our life, it is completely transient and meaningless. But if we look within and we look at the stars, then we come to realize that within that cosmic infinity, we have a unique task to fulfill, which we generally experience as what we call the meaning of our life.

- Marie Louise von Franz (from Fraser Boa’s The Way of the Dream)

The role of analysis

Question: Is that part of the role of the analyst in modern society, to reconnect the individual to his own instinctive inner life?

Yes. That’s why in Jungian therapy we offer the patient an opportunity to establish a unique relationship which is not a technique of therapy, but a personal encounter. That’s why Jung said to forget all psychological theories when you meet the patient. Just meet him with your heart and your mind as a unique human being. Then every encounter is an adventure and the dream is that direct encounter. Among the thousands of dreams I’ve interpreted, I’ve never met the same dream twice. The dream is always unique and always comes at the right moment. It’s a message from the powers of the instinct, the powers of the collective unconscious, a message which comes at a specific moment during a particular night which is meant specifically for the dreamer. The alchemists would say it’s a message from the unique to the unique. Namely, from the divine center of the psyche to the unique individual pertaining to the unique situation one is in. That’s why you can never predict dreams. You can never go to bed and say, “I’ll probably dream about this or that.” You will always dream about something completely different.

So at the source of the dream there is a creative mystery which we cannot rationally explain. It’s the creativity of nature. It’s the same creativity which has created what man could never invent: the millions of species of animals and flowers and plants on the earth. The dreams are also like flowers or plants. They are something unique which you can only marvel at.

- Marie Louise von Franz (from Fraser Boa's "The Way of the Dream," p. 71)

Glossary: Anima

The woman in the man; the feminine counterpart that lives within men. Carries both the archetypal feminine qualities (nurturing, feeling, etc.) as well as shadow qualities cut off from the ego. When unconscious, the anima is projected onto important women in a man’s life (first the mother, then the lover and wife, etc.) She often creates mischief when projected, but when brought into consciousness she becomes the guide to the spiritual world. The soul of a man.

When the anima is directed outward – when a man is identified with his persona, or one-sidedly masculine (i.e. “macho”), or when she’s simply not well integrated into the conscious personality – the anima causes many problems in a man’s life. Anima possessed men are moody, sulky, and irrational. She poisons his life, causes him to doubt himself and his experiences. He may be harsh and brutal… or he may be the opposite, a weak-willed coward. Such a man will often be obsessively attracted to inappropriate women when he unconsciously projects his anima onto them (as illustrated in Vladimir Nabokov’s book Lolita.) However, when the anima is directed inward, she connects him with the source of life and meaning, the Self.

Integrating the anima or animus is one of the most difficult but most important accomplishments we can achieve. Jung said that while coming to terms with the shadow was the “apprentice-piece,” doing the same for the anima is one’s “master-piece."

There is [in man] an imago not only of the mother but of the daughter, the sister, the beloved, the heavenly goddess, and the chthonic Baubo. Every mother and every beloved is forced to become the carrier and embodiment of this omnipresent and ageless image, which corresponds to the deepest reality in a man. It belongs to him, this perilous image of Woman; she stands for the loyalty which in the interests of life he must sometimes forego; she is the much needed compensation for the risks, struggles, sacrifices that all end in disappointment; she is the solace for all the bitterness of life. And, at the same time, she is the great illusionist, the seductress, who draws him into life with her Maya-and not only into life's reasonable and useful aspects, but into its frightful paradoxes and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his greatest danger she demands from a man his greatest, and if he has it in him she will receive it.

- The Syzygy: Anima and Animus," CW 9ii, par. 24

Further reading:
Anima Possession: Are you a spineless wimp?

Glossary: Amplification

Exploring myths, fairy tales, religions, etc. to add depth to dream images while interpreting them. The image is expanded upon by comparing it with its appearance in collective stories; this allows one to explore not only it’s personal meaning (through association) but also its collective meaning. This is especially useful in more archetypal dreams where the dreamer has few or no associations with the dream image.

The Purpose of Amplification (ARAS)

Glossary: Affect

A strong emotional reaction caused by a complex being touched. They usually flare up where adaptation is weakest; a particular sore spot for people is in their inferior function. Affects are different from feeling - i.e. the feeling function – in that the former causes disturbances in thinking and in the body, while use of the feeling function does not.

On the one hand, emotion is the alchemical fire whose warmth brings everything into existence and whose heat burns all superfluities to ashes (omnes superfluitates comburit). But on the other hand, emotion is the moment when steel meets flint and a spark is struck forth, for emotion is the chief source of consciousness. There is no change from darkness to light or from inertia to movement without emotion.

- Jung, "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype," CW 9i, par. 179

Glossary: Adaptation

Fitting oneself to both the internal and external world. Learning how to meet basic social, collective expectations. There are two broad modes of adaptation; these are the attitudes of introversion and extroversion; both are necessary. Adaptation to the external world without adaptation to the inner world leads to meaninglessness and a tendency to compulsively act out inner conflicts; the reverse also leads to self deception and, in addition, an unhealthy (and usually problematic) separation from reality. Adaptation is a constant process, as conditions are always changing. Failure to adapt leads to neuroses.

Man is not a machine in the sense that he can consistently maintain the same output of work. He can meet the demands of outer necessity in an ideal way only if he is also adapted to his own inner world, that is, if he is in harmony with himself. Conversely, he can only adapt to his inner world and achieve harmony with himself when he is adapted to the environmental conditions.

- "On Psychic Energy," ibid., par. 75.

Glossary: Active imagination

A method of contacting unconscious contents using art, dance, visualization, etc. Used as a means of bringing unconscious contents into consciousness and integrating them into oneself. By focusing on an affect or image from a dream, one directs one’s energy into the image or affect. Eventually, the image begins to act on its own and one is able to interact with the autonomous content. The purpose of this activity is to give these unconscious parts of the personality a way to be brought into a relationship with the conscious self.

Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important advance… [I]f you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real.

-"The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 753

Although one can practice active imagination 'cold', most people do because, like Jung, they are faced with psychological distress. Paradoxically, the distress provides the best opportunity to practice active imagination, rather like an ailment containing its own cure. Jung suggests taking a bad mood, and focusing on it, making it as conscious as possible. This crystallizes it into a symbol, fantasy image, or some other representation, achieving an "enrichment and clarification of the affect" (emotion). The unconscious seeks consciousness and Jung discovered that "as soon as the image was there, the unrest or sense of oppression vanished." "The whole energy of these emotions," Jung says, "was transformed into interest in and curiosity about the image." With no exaggeration, focusing on his dark moods and transforming them into inner images saved Jung from madness.

- Gary Lachman, "Jung's Active Imagination", (Reality Sandwich)

Links:

Jung's Active Imagination, Gary Lachman (Reality Sandwich)

Active Imagination, Lawrence H. Staples. Ph.D., PsyA. (Jung Society of Washington)

Active Imagination, Robin Robertson

Jungian Active Imagination & Hypnagogia (The Mystical Experience Registry)

Carl Jung's Active Imagination (Hypnosis Alliance Network)

Glossary: Absolute knowledge

Knowledge received neither from the senses nor based on reason but received directly from the unconscious. Acausal and not limited by time or space. Commonly makes its appearance in instances of constellation, such as synchronicity.

Glossary: Abaissement du niveau mental

I'm starting a series of posts with short descriptions of common and important concepts in Jungian psychology. Here's the first one!


Abaissement du niveau mental

A slackness and relaxation of consciousness characterized by lack of attention and an inability to concentrate. Can occur spontaneously in mental illness, or it can be cultivated, as in active imagination, or the use of certain drugs. In such a state it’s easy for unconscious contents to emerge; as such, it’s important that the ego is strong enough to withstand the onslaught. An abaissement du niveau mental can lead to an enantiodromia, as the ego can no longer keep opposites apart. Such experiences require reflection and analysis to successfully integrate the unconscious contents. Also referred to archaically as “loss of soul”. (See also libido, depression, regression, and active imagination.)

It is a slackening of the tensity of consciousness, which might be compared to a low barometric reading, presaging bad weather. The tonus has given way, and this is felt subjectively as listlessness, moroseness, and depression. One no longer has any wish or courage to face the tasks of the day. One feels like lead, because no part of one's body seems willing to move, and this is due to the fact that one no longer has any disposable energy… The listlessness and paralysis of will can go so far that the whole personality falls apart, so to speak, and consciousness loses its unity…

Abaissement du niveau mental can be the result of physical and mental fatigue, bodily illness, violent emotions, and shock, of which the last has a particularly deleterious effect on one's self-assurance. The abaissement always has a restrictive influence on the personality as a whole. It reduces one's self-confidence and the spirit of enterprise, and, as a result of increasing egocentricity, narrows the mental horizon

- Jung, "Concerning Rebirth," CW 9i, pars. 213f

The piggish, Trumpian animus

Overeating, bulimia, and other eating disorders are the woman's reaction to the internalized bad father. She wants to nourish herself, feed herself. To give life and love to herself (that's what the kitchen is in the unconscious; the place where nourishment is made by someone's hands, with their love).

This is why so many women have emotional and digestive disorders. The only way for the feminine to fight this aspect of the masculine is to pull away from it, to abandon him, to deprive him of any sustenance. It's why he's so ravenous, so rape-full of everything he desires, like a piggishly greedy spoiled little boy. This is why such men are insatiable in their childish neediness; they get no real nourishment. Like irate babies they fling their food on the floor and scream and throw temper tantrums. What need did they never get fulfilled, that they scour the earth hungrily for anything to stem the tide of hunger that gnaws at their ribs, any sort of satisfaction, even if it’s only temporary (satisfaction that he, of course, denies her.) Not that he consciously denies her (although sometimes he does), it’s more that he neither knows nor cares what she thinks, because he neither knows nor cares what anyone thinks about him. He is one of those ones who deep inside is a retarded, shit covered little child, alone in the center of a vast, empty nothingness. This is why they do what they do. The only possible solution is to create a world in which they never have the ability to hurt others or to cause them any suffering. Maybe they can be reached, maybe they can't. But they should never be free to hurt others with impunity.

It's also why we women tend to love cats and their feminine nature. A cat just wants pleasure, and maybe some affection (ok, lots of affection). To care for a cat, whether in a dream or in your life, is to care for your sensual, affectionate, pleasure-loving femininity. It’s very healing, especially when dealing with the brutal Animus.