Symbolism: Wise Old Woman/Man

One of the primary Jungian archetypes; after dealing with the Shadow and the Animus/Anima, the Wise Old Woman (or for men, the Wise Old Man) makes her appearance. They are the archetype of wisdom, of the collective unconscious itself, of the Self. The Wise Old Woman is the great Earth Mother or the Wise Crone, the Wise Old Man is the Sage.

Wise Old Man: in men, the archetype of "meaning" or "spirit." Magician, master, teacher, moralist. The Self made flesh. First projected onto the father, it usually appears after a man integrates the personal part of the anima, but anima and Wise Old Man (or "soul" and "meaning") often appear together afterwards. He is her father but also her son. Identifying with this archetype produces the mana personality and a dangerous ego inflation. In Jung's fantasies, the prophet compensates the blind anima: "When you assume the anima is due to the preponderance of the differentiated function in the conscious, the unconscious is balanced by a figure within itself that compensates the anima figure. This is the old man Elijah."

- A Glossary of Jungian Terms

The figure of the wise old man can appear so plastically, not only in dreams but also in visionary meditation (or what we call "active imagination"), that . . . it takes over the role of a guru. The wise old man appears in dreams in the guise of a magician, doctor, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather, or any person possessing authority."

- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," CW 9i, par. 398

The wise old woman may appear as a grandmother; ones mother in old age; a goddess; a female figure depicting fertility; naked female with large breasts, vagina or buttocks; queen or princess; old woman who radiates wisdom, authority and unconditional love.

In general these archetypal figures offer guidance and feeling wisdom gleaned from personal and cultural experience. One may even note from the wise old woman, the signs of deep wisdom that is a synthesis of what has arisen out of the pain and strength of the women in your family, stretching back through time, but sometimes they push you beyond your fears to a new level of experience.

- Tony Crisp, Archetype of wise old woman – wise old man

What qualities then define the "Wise Old Woman"?  She embodies both qualities of light and darkness within one character.  The "Wise Old Woman" is kind, compassionate and wise, and also mysterious, magical and prophetic.  We see her in folktales as the protective old woman who comes to the aid of the hero and as the one who test the worthiness of that same hero.  We also occasionally see her as the unlikely hero in her own right.  She is the keeper of traditions and knowledge, the voice of nature, independent, and respected, eccentric, intuitive and instinctive.  She is the one to be listened to, for she knows the truth and can see through any illusion.  At times she is benevolent while at other times she appears detached, cryptic and even cruel.  She is both judge and jury and dispenses justice to those who are found by her to be unworthy.

Kathy Shimpock, Who is the "Wise Old Woman"? Exploring the Archetypes...

Crone is "a phase in which you can be more authentic, more capable of making a difference in your family and in the greater world. Life gives you experience, and when you draw from it, that's true wisdom. By the time a woman is in her crone years, she is in an amazing position to be an influence. To change things for the better, to bring what she knows into a situation, to be able to say, 'Enough is enough.' You don't have to just go along with things, which is often a part of the middle years. You're often something of a loose cannon."

- Jean Shinoda Bolen



See also:
Crone
Senex

Image by Robert Henri

Glossary: The Shadow

“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”

- Jung


All the traits and personal qualities that are split off from the ego and left in the personal unconscious because they are incompatible with the way the ego sees itself, or wishes to see itself. Corresponds with Freud's unconscious. This can be the result of actively repressing qualities that one sees as undesirable in some way (weak, repellent, or reprehensible), or it can simply be the natural result of compensatory qualities being pushed down into the unconscious by the development of their opposites, as with one's dominant and inferior functions.

The shadow, along with the animus/anima, are common sources of projection; the more one denies a particular quality, the more one will hate it in others... and, at the same time, the more one will unconsciously act out those very qualities one despises (unconsciously to you, but others around you will be very aware of your acting out.)

One of the first tasks of individuation is to gather back to ourselves all the dismembered parts that we projected out into the world, onto others. Only when this task is complete can we progress to the more difficult ask of integrating the animus/anima.

But he who goes into the one and not also at the same time into the other by accepting what comes toward him, will simply teach and live the one and turn it into a reality. For he will be its victim. When you go into the one and hence consider the other approaching you as your enemy, you will fight against the other. You will do so because you fail to recognize that the other is also in you. On the contrary, you think that the other comes somehow from without and you think that you also catch sight of it in the views and actions of your fellow men which clash with yours. You thus fight the other and are completely blinded. But he who accepts what approaches him because it is also in him, quarrels and wrangles no more, but looks into himself and keeps silent.

- Carl Jung, Red Book

All we deny, fear, or hate in ourselves collects in the shadow, which appears in dreams as a frightening figure of the dreamer's gender (because it's part of his or her ego). "Realization of the shadow" means growing fully, emotionally conscious of the shadow's contents, a moral problem evaded by people whose respectable conscious selves deny the shadow and project it into personal, family, or cultural scapegoats. The shadow is often contaminated by inferior function/attitude, anima, etc., identification with the shadow produces a kind of amoral, inflated craziness.

- Craig Chalquist, PhD, "A Glossary of Jungian Terms"

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real.

- Jung, "The Shadow," CW 9ii, par. 14

There is no generally effective technique for assimilating the shadow. It is more like diplomacy or statesmanship and it is always an individual matter. First one has to accept and take seriously the existence of the shadow. Second, one has to become aware of its qualities and intentions. This happens through conscientious attention to moods, fantasies and impulses. Third, a long process of negotiation is unavoidable...

Responsibility for the shadow rests with the ego. That is why the shadow is a moral problem. It is one thing to realize what it looks like - what we are capable of. It is quite something else to determine what we can live out, or with.

- Daryl Sharp, M.A., "Jung Lexicon"

If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against… Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.

- “Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.140

When people learn to know their shadow and to live their shadow a bit more, they become more accessible, more natural, more roundly human. People without shadows, who are perfect, inflict an inferiority on their surroundings, which irritates others. They act in a manner superior to the "all-too-human". That's why one is relieved when something nasty happens to them. "Aha!" we say, "Thank God, he's only human."

- Marie Louise von Franz

Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it.

- The Integration of the Personality (1939)

Holidays and the new year

I hope everyone's holidays have been pleasant and full of joy! I've been having some difficulties keeping up with my daily postings during the holidays, and the new year is going to bring more responsibilities, so I will be reducing the number of posts I write for this blog. I plan on doing 2 or 3 a week from here on out, maybe more, maybe less depending on my schedule and if something strikes me.

Best wishes for the new year!

Glossary: Persona

A person’s mask. A socially acceptable façade one uses when dealing with the world, primarily based on one's dominant function. It’s “both a protective covering and an asset in mixing with other people. Civilized society depends on interactions between people through the persona…” “It is, as its name implies, only a mask of the collective psyche, a mask that feigns individuality, making others and oneself believe that one is individual, whereas one is simply acting a role through which the collective psyche speaks…” “To the extent that ego-consciousness is identified with the persona, the neglected inner life (personified in the shadow and anima or animus) is activated in compensation. The consequences, experienced in symptoms characteristic of neurosis, can stimulate the process of individuation.” (1)

There's a danger of confusing one’s persona with one’s self, especially if the persona has been well rewarded (or if one is an extrovert, as a result of the extrovert’s tendency to focus on the external world). A persona is valuable when dealing with the outside world but interferes with individuation if one identifies with it; in the same way that one’s animus or anima is one’s link with the unconscious, one’s persona is one’s connection with the outer world, and is positive only when it fulfills this task.

The persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.

- “Concerning Rebirth,” CW 9i, par. 221

There are indeed people who lack a developed persona… blundering from one social solecism to the next, perfectly harmless and innocent, soulful bores or appealing children, or, if they are women, spectral Cassandras dreaded for their tactlessness, eternally misunderstood, never knowing what they are about, always taking forgiveness for granted, blind to the world, hopeless dreamers. From them we can see how a neglected persona works.

- “Anima and Animus,” CW 7, par. 318

When we analyse the persona we strip off the mask, and discover that what seemed to be individual is at bottom collective; in other words, that the persona was only a mask of the collective psyche. Fundamentally the persona is nothing real: it is a compromise between individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. He takes a name, earns a title, exercises a function, he is this or that. In a certain sense all this is real, yet in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned it is only a secondary reality, a compromise formation, in making which others often have a greater share than he.

- “The Persona as a Segment of the Collective Psyche,” pars. 245f

A man cannot get rid of himself in favour of an artificial personality without punishment. Even the attempt to do so brings on, in all ordinary cases, unconscious reactions in the form of bad moods, affects, phobias, obsessive ideas, backsliding vices, etc. The social "strong man" is in his private life often a mere child where his own states of feeling are concerned.

- “Anima and Animus,” par. 307

There is, after all, something individual in the peculiar choice and delineation of the persona, and… despite the exclusive identity of the ego-consciousness with the persona the unconscious self, one's real individuality, is always present and makes itself felt indirectly if not directly. Although the ego-consciousness is at first identical with the persona - that compromise role in which we parade before the community - yet the unconscious self can never be repressed to the point of extinction. Its influence is chiefly manifest in the special nature of the contrasting and compensating contents of the unconscious. The purely personal attitude of the conscious mind evokes reactions on the part of the unconscious, and these, together with personal repressions, contain the seeds of individual development.

- “The Persona as a Segment of the Collective Psyche,” par. 247

(1) Jung Lexicon

Season of wonder

Happy Holidays...    :)

Expressing one's truth

It is true, of course, that inability to express oneself is a defect and in a deeper sense a fault in so far as it is incumbent upon people to realize their psychic contents whether in words, images, or deeds.

But since different types do in fact exist, and men and women besides, one simply cannot imagine any form of words or any image that could express a content with absolute validity and absolute conviction.

What is the most perfect and clearest expression for one person can be a dead formula or a bewildering complication for another.

This is due partly to the fact that human beings are defective in some way, but also to the fact that every conceivable expression is necessarily one-sided, for what is idea is not word and what is word is not deed, though all three should be one.

Such completeness and perfection is only a religious legend but unfortunately never a reality in the usual sense of the word.

- C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol I, Pages 230-231


Link:
"Carl Jung: It is correct to say that women are more dependent on the idea and men more dependent on the Primordial image."

The greatest unknown

Personality No. 2 is what modern depth psychology calls the unconscious – something in which we are all psychically contained and in which we all live, but which we really do not know; it is truly unconscious. It is so unknown to us that we cannot even say my unconscious; for we do not know where it begins or where it leaves off. Our dreams come from this realm. Contrary to various other schools of psychology, Jung never let himself be pushed into “explaining” this unconscious by way of a theory or a religious teaching; for him it always remained literally that which is unknown to us, of an immeasurable depth and breadth.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 24

Arbiter Mundi

In Jung’s view big dreams are the primal substance in which all religions have their origin. Dreams also play an important role in the Old Testament. In the Middle Ages the church acknowledged that certain dreams can be sent by God, but admitted only those which were in accord with the teachings of the church; so dreams were censored. Jung did not accept this. He says, “Anyone who can square it with his conscience is free to decide this question as he pleases, though he may be unconsciously setting himself up as an arbiter mundi (judge of the world). I for my part prefer the precious gift of doubt, for the reason that it does not violate the virginity of things beyond her ken.” By these “things beyond our ken” Jung refers to the mysterious world of the unconscious, from which dreams emerge and whose depths we can never truly fathom.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 30

Feeling one’s way into the dream

The problem of “weight and measure” appears also in psychological work. This motif often alludes to one of the difficult problems in analysis, namely the extent to which a dream motif should be taken concretely and/or the extent to which it should be taken symbolically. There is no rule for that. If, for instance, someone dreams that he is insulted by or insults someone who personifies the shadow, one does not know how far that person represents the inner shadow or to what extent the dreamer – taken concretely – should avoid the real person. This is exactly a problem of weight and measure. Jung says that one must feel one’s way into a dream; it is a question of feeling, which is a weighing and valuing function, a feeling-like distribution of weight and measure. The meaning of the dream is never found by logic alone.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 90

Dialogues between equals

This is indicative of how much the interpretation of dreams depends on an exact agreement between the two partners. Jung suddenly felt that his dream meant him, his life and his world, and that he had to defend it against any theory derived from other presuppositions. It was for this reason that later he also allowed others the freedom which he claimed for himself; he never forced an interpretation on anyone. When it did not naturally click with the dreamer, when, in a sense, it did not produce an invigorating, liberating “Aha!” reaction in the latter, then the interpretation was not correct, or if, later on, it proved to be “right,” then the dreamer was not far enough along in his development to be able to recognize it. For this reason dream interpretation for Jung always remained a dialogue between two partners with equal rights and never became for him a medical method.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 26

The mirror of our dreams

If one takes them seriously as subjective dramas, dreams constantly provide us with new insights about ourselves. Some intuitive arts, such as horoscopy, graphology, chiromancy, phrenology, and the like, can indeed also often provide surprising bits of self-knowledge, but dreams have a great advantage over these techniques in that they give us a dynamic, continuous, self-diagnosis and also clarify smaller fluctuations and momentary erroneous attitudes or specific modes of reaction. For instance, a person can, in principle, be modest, never overvaluing himself, but can become momentarily inflated as the result of some success. A dream will correct this immediately and in doing so will inform the dreamer not only that he or she may, as a general rule, be such-and-such, but that “yesterday in connection with that matter, you were on the wrong track in such-and-such a way.” Through constantly taking dreams into consideration something is produced which resembles a continuous dialogue of the conscious ego with the irrational background of the personality, a dialogue by means of which the ego is constantly revealed from the other side, as if there were a mirror, as it were, in which the dreamer can examine his own nature.

'- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 5

Glossary: Subjective level

Interpreting persons and objects in one's dream as if they were inner personalities of the dreamer (i.e. a dream about one's husband is really about one's animus). This level of dream interpretation is more concerned with the dreamer's relationship to their inner world, as opposed to objective dream interpretation which is more concerned with their relationship to the outer world. These kinds of dreams are much more common than objective dreams; what is important is that the dreamer come to terms with complexes, etc. that are making trouble or need some attention.

Glossary: Objective level

Interpreting a dream in such a way that persons and objects are understood to represent the objectively existing persons or objects (i.e. a dream of one’s husband is actually about one’s husband). This is a fairly rare occurrence; usually, a subjective interpretation is the more accurate one. Sometimes, though, the dream is actually conveying things about the specific person or object. These dreams are often prophetic, and either provide the dreamer with important hidden information, or, occasionally, information about the future.

There is, additionally, a second kind of objective level that I have been encountering. It's almost a middle stage between subjective and objective levels of interpretation. In this case figures in a dream represent outer figures but not in a one-to-one way but, rather, are representative of a general group. For instance, dream figures of a certain type of popular woman can represent a general group of people in the dreamer's outer life that the they perceive as popular.

Glossary: Dream interpretation

Jung held that dreams have a structure, similar to a stage play or a book. This structure consists of four stages:

Exposition
Which sets up the drama, introduces the cast of characters and setting, and sets out the problem to be solved.

Development
The second stage of the drama, during which the drama unfolds. There may be some actions, or a journey, or task. This progresses the story until the third stage..

Culmination
A crisis point, to which the dream ego responds. The climax of the drama, in which there is a fundamental change in the situation.

Lysis
The resolution of the drama: either the result of the situation if it continues in the direction it’s headed, or a possible solution to the problem as outlined in the dream.

Jung considered the lysis the most important part of the dream because it showed where the dreamer’s energy wanted to go. Daryl Sharp writes, “Where there is no lysis, no solution is in sight” (Jungian Psychology Unplugged).

- The Third Eve (see link below "Jungian Dream Interpretation")


Links:
Jungian Dream Interpretation
10 Steps Toward Interpreting Your Dreams

Glossary: Enantiodromia

Whenever anything is taken to it’s extreme, it will flip over into its opposite. This is enantiodromia. “Cold things warm, warm things cool, wet things dry and parched things get wet.” (Heraclitus) “Everything arises in this way, opposites from their opposites.” (Plato) It’s typically associated with neurosis. The only way to avoid enantiodromia is by refraining from excessive one-sidedness; at the same time, an enantiodromia can also lead to a rebirth of the personality.

This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.

- Definitions, ibid., par. 709

The grand plan on which the unconscious life of the psyche is constructed is so inaccessible to our understanding that we can never know what evil may not be necessary in order to produce good by enantiodromia, and what good may very possibly lead to evil.

- The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales, CW 9i, par. 397

Glossary: Individuation

The goal of Jungian analysis; the process of becoming the unique individual that you were born to be. The opposite of neuroticism. This is done by reclaiming and integrating all the lost, projected parts of ourselves. It doesn’t lead to a “perfect” person but one who is perfectly themselves. Some characteristics of people who have progressed far down the path of individuation are: a flexible and resilient personality, deep humanity, and an acceptance of oneself and others.

Individuation means becoming a single, homogenous being, and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood” or “self-realization.”

- Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, Collected Works, Vol. 7, p. 171

The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand, and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other.

- The Function of the Unconscious, CW 7, par. 269

Again and again I note that the individuation process is confused with the coming of the ego into consciousness and that the ego is in consequence identified with the self, which naturally produces a hopeless conceptual muddle. Individuation is then nothing but ego-centredness and autoeroticism. But the self comprises infinitely more than a mere ego, as the symbolism has shown from of old. It is as much one’s self, and all other selves, as the ego.

- On the Nature of the Psyche,” CW 8, par. 432

In this way there arises a consciousness which is no longer imprisoned in the petty, oversensitive, personal world of the ego, but participates freely in the wider world of objective interests. This widened consciousness is no longer that touchy, egotistical bundle of personal wishes, fears, hopes, and ambitions which always has to be compensated or corrected by unconscious counter-tendencies; instead, it is a function of relationship to the world of objects, bringing the individual into absolute, binding, and indissoluble communion with the world at large.

- The Function of the Unconscious, CW 7, par. 275

The goal of the individuation process is the synthesis of the self.

- The Psychology of the Child Archetype, CW 9i, par. 278

Glossary: Neurosis

An inability to adapt appropriately to internal or external reality. A breakdown of the personality created by the psyche in order to bring the personality back to its limits when it’s gone to an excess, or, in the opposite situation, to drive it to achieve its potential. Caused by excessive one-sidedness of the personality, or by the refusal by the ego to undergo one’s authentic, necessary suffering. In youth neuroses generally result from the failure to adapt to the collective; in old age, from an inability to let go of one’s youth and take up one’s second-half-of-life tasks. Jung held that neuroses were an attempt by the unconscious to cure oneself.

I myself have known more than one person who owed his entire usefulness and reason for existence to a neurosis, which prevented all the worst follies in his life and forced him to a mode of living that developed his valuable potentialities. These might have been stifled had not the neurosis, with iron grip, held him to the place where he belonged.

- The Problem of the Attitude-Type, CW 7, par. 68

I no longer seek the cause of a neurosis in the past, but in the present. I ask, what is the necessary task which the patient will not accomplish?

- Psychoanalysis and Neurosis, CW4, par. 570

Overcoming evil

This creative spontaneity which springs from the essential depths or center of the personality is represented by a horse, and because it is a kind of semi-unconscious reaction, it is the one thing which can overcome the attack of evil when that has taken form, when it has combined itself with a certain intelligence and with the tradition of the past. We are now, to my mind, in such a situation. Mankind is not threatened only by brutal murderous impulses, though they do break out here and there, as probably always will occur where the mob gets wild and animal forces get loose. The real danger for us is when these forces combine with high scientific intelligence. In atomic physics they combine with the highest achievements of scientific knowledge. This combination cannot be compared practically, but our story says there is, in spite of everything, one thing superior to it: a return to the innermost genuineness of the depths of our own psyche with its invincible clairvoyance and natural knowledge. With that we can possibly overcome even these diabolical forces.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, p. 294

The brutality of intellectual-ism

At this point it becomes easier to understand why Jung always required of analysts that they should ultimately work the most on continuing to make progress in their own individuation. In so doing, they take their analysands along with them on their journey, without trying to influence them directly (which would be an abuse of power). In an early letter, Jung even goes so far as to say that the therapist should only analyze the pathological aspect of the patient’s psyche. This is because intellectual understanding is destructive. Understanding (Latin comprendere), after all, means “taking hold of,” “grasping,” and thus corresponds to an exercise of power. When the patient’s being and destiny are at stake, one should relate to his unique mystery with wordless respect. As Jung said, “We must understand the divine in us, but not in another insofar as he is capable of getting on and understanding on his own.”

- Marie Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy, p. 8

Glossary: Coniunctio

A term from alchemy referring to the unification of the opposites; the sacred marriage. Symbolized by the marriage of the Sun and Moon, King and Queen, Animus and Anima; in religion, Christ and the Church, Shiva and Shakti. One of the main ways we experience the sacred marriage within is in the union of conscious and the unconscious in the process of individuation, but any time the opposites are united is a coniunctio. Connection by love. Out of a successful coniunctio, new possibilities are born. See also Heirosgamos, Syzygy, Unus Mundus.

The coniunctio is an a priori image that occupies a prominent place in the history of man's mental development. If we trace this idea back we find it has two sources in alchemy, one Christian, the other pagan. The Christian source is unmistakably the doctrine of Christ and the Church, sponsus and sponsa, where Christ takes the role of Sol and the Church that of Luna. The pagan source is on the one hand the hieros-gamos, on the other the marital union of the mystic with God.

- The Psychology of the Transference," CW 16, par. 355

Glossary: Eros

The psychological function of connectedness, relationship, and feeling; associated with the feminine whether in women or in the anima of men. When unconscious it expresses itself as a will to power. Eros is the feminine Yin: the moon, darkness, water, matter, intuition, emotion, the body, soft, curving, uniting, and Earth. Eros is concerned with the individual person and relationships. As everyone contains contrasexual traits anyone, male or female, can be characterized by eros. The psychological function associated with eros is the Feeling function. It's opposite is logos.

Woman's consciousness is characterized more by the connective quality of Eros than by the discrimination and cognition associated with Logos. In men, Eros… is usually less developed than Logos. In women, on the other hand, Eros is an expression of their true nature, while their Logos is often only a regrettable accident.

- "The Syzygy: Anima and Animus," CW 9ii, par. 29

Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other: the man who adopts the standpoint of Eros finds his compensatory opposite in the will to power, and that of the man who puts the accent on power is Eros.

- "The Problem of the Attitude-Type," par. 78

Eros is a questionable fellow and will always remain so… He belongs on one side to man's primordial animal nature which will endure as long as man has an animal body. On the other side he is related to the highest forms of the spirit. But he thrives only when spirit and instinct are in right harmony.

- "The Eros Theory," CW 7, par. 32

Glossary: Logos

The psychological function of logic, reason, and discrimination; associated with the masculine, whether in men or in the animus of women. Logos is Yang: the sun, light, fire, air, spirit, practicality, reason, the mind, hard, straight, dividing, and Heaven. The meaningful word, logical decision or judgment, human intellect; divine reason, world reason, God's Word as the force which created the world; revelation. Logos is impersonal and not influenced by feeling; it’s concerned with the search for universal, impersonal truth as opposed to individual, personal relations. As everyone contains contrasexual traits anyone, male or female, can be characterized by logos. The psychological function associated with logos is the thinking function. It's opposite is eros.

Woman’s psychology is founded on the principle of Eros, the great binder and loosener, whereas from ancient times the ruling principle ascribed to man is Logos. The concept of Eros could be expressed in modern terms as psychic relatedness, and that of Logos as objective interest.

- Carl Jung, Aspects of the Feminine, Princeton University Press, 1982, p. 65

There is no consciousness without discrimination of opposites. This is the paternal principle, the Logos, which eternally struggles to extricate itself from the primal warmth and primal darkness of the maternal womb; in a word, from unconsciousness.

- "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype," CW 9i, par. 178

After middle life, however, permanent loss of the anima means a diminution of vitality, of flexibility, and of human kindness. The result, as a rule, is premature rigidity, crustiness, stereotypy, fanatical one-sidedness, obstinancy, pedantry, or else resignation, weariness, sloppiness, irresponsibility, and finally a childish ramollissement with a tendency to alcohol. After middle life, therefore, the connection with the archetypal sphere of experience should if possible be re-established.

- C.G. Jung, "Aspects of the Masculine," p. 136

By Logos I meant discrimination, judgment, insight, and by Eros I meant the capacity to relate. I regarded both concepts as intuitive ideas which cannot be defined accurately or exhaustively. From the scientific point of view this is regrettable, but from a practical one it has its value, since the two concepts mark out a field of experience which it is equally difficult to define.

As we can hardly ever make a psychological proposition without immediately having to reverse it, instances to the contrary leap to the eye at once: men who care nothing for discrimination, judgment, and insight, and women who display an almost excessively masculine proficiency in this respect. . . . Wherever this exists, we find a forcible intrusion of the unconscious, a corresponding exclusion of the consciousness specific to either sex, predominance of the shadow and of contrasexuality.

- “The Personification of the Opposites," CW 14, pars. 224f

The Dog

As usual, whenever I'm working on an issue I end up synchronistically running across a bunch of related topics at around the same time. Since working on the The Cat series I found some interesting dog quotes. I will also be posting a meditation I had a while back about "cats" and "dogs." This is all particularly applicable to what we've been going through recently here in the U.S., I think.

Also, a random observation: I think it's really interesting how people who like dogs tend to very dog-like, i.e. more conservative, fall more in line with the old Emperor; while "cat people" seem to generally be more progressive, feminist, and to value independent thinking more. Symbolism in action!

The dog has lost his independence and become dependent on human beings. Both Saint Barnard and Saint Dominic were also servants of a master: Christ. This is the motif of the katoche. They are the prisoners of a special fate; every impulse to live their own life is controlled; they are really the dogs of Christ, serving him in this world and as dogs leading to hope of the other world. They are also responsible for keeping the flock together, since heretics are the wolves or "the little foxes, that spoil the vines."

These particular "dogs," however, have a negative aspect as well, for they served only one point of view; they did not deal with the problem of their time. Bernard was incapable of engaging in discussion with Abelard, he only "barked" at him! And Dominic "barked" at the Albigenses. We must not overlook the fact that this was the beginning of the Inquisition, which attempted to eliminate, through sheer power, every heretical movement. As a result, however, the religious confrontation became increasingly fanatic. Such a solution of the conflict is no solution; but at that time man was not yet capable of dealing with the problem in an individual, human manner.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 101

The Cat: Redeeming the feminine

X-ray of "Susanna and the Elders," Artemisia Gentileschi

[Image from Kathleen Gilje]


The following are selected excerpts of Marie-Louise von Franz's short but standout book exploring the fairy tale “The Cat,” and what is needed to redeem the feminine soul of the West.

So now we see that the cat is a shadow of the Virgin Mary. It is that part of feminine nature that the Virgin Mary did not represent but which would belong to a complete image of the feminine. Therefore you could say that the Virgin Mary herself has a cat shadow, and in our story, in eating the apples the empress penetrates into the mystery of good and evil within the feminine. The tension is not so much the tension between good and evil, but between the impersonal, collective sublime and what is personal, individual, vital and natural. It’s another polarity which is typical of the feminine realm. And Mary therefore curses the unborn girl and says she has to become a cat.

In fairy tales, the established powers – God, the Trinity, the Virgin Mary and very much also the Devil in Hell – always act against children. That means they want to block future development, and that inertia is typical. Established god-images, established religious archetypal systems and images, are liable to prevent further development and that’s why the curse of the Virgin Mary does not fall on the empress. She could have cursed the empress for having stolen the apples, but instead of that she curses her child. That means she does not want a new form of femininity to develop. And so the girl becomes the cat, which is just the new form of femininity

-----

The Virgin Mary has no contact with the flesh. She is never represented naked in sacred pictures. She is always well veiled and her body is not visible. Her flesh is discreetly hidden. So that is one part of the unredeemed shadow side of the feminine from the Christian standpoint. Our hero is quite naively and naturally hungry for that flesh and so far that would be easy. You could say the cat catches him by his physical desires and that, in a way, if we take it from a man’s standpoint, is natural because generally the anima first appears in a man as physical desire, for instance a sexual fantasy. Then when he goes after it, he finds it isn’t flesh but only a mirage of flesh and is actually a lot of precious stones.

It is a tantalizing situation and I’ll jump ahead now to say that we know the story from the man’s standpoint is about the assimilation of the anima, her redemption, and from a woman’s standpoint redemption of the feminine. The dead flesh is only a tease, a mirage, which the unconscious uses as bait but then takes away. We have to put the accent on the dead aspect. The anima and the feminine body is of no value if the man looks at it as being dead meat he can eat. If a man treats a woman as a good beefsteak to eat, then he misses the anima.

-----

“Take the serpent, and place it in the chariot with four wheels, and let it be turned about on the earth until it is immersed in the depths of the sea… And there let the chariot with the wheels remain, until so many fumes rise up from the serpent than the whole surface… becomes dry."

What is so important about the carriage is the four wheels. The carriage is a mandala with four wheels around it, and that can be compared to the chariot vision of Ezekiel. You can say that the total structure of consciousness is the carriage, because it is man-made. It doesn’t have much to do with instinct. As the structure of consciousness the carriage serves the gods. Through the vehicle of ego-consciousness the gods are incarnated or actualized. They cannot move a finger if human consciousness does not carry them. That, for instance, is the deeper reason for these processions where the gods are moved through the crowd on carriages; it is to remind people that the god is in a way banished in his temple, and he can’t do anything if he doesn’t move. He has to be carried by the consciousness of the people. That’s why in India, still today, sometimes people throw themselves under the carriage. That would be an unconscious gesture, as if to say, “I sacrifice my life to serve a consciousness that promotes the life of the gods.” That’s more or less what that gesture means. “I have to give up my ego. I sacrifice myself so that the gods can move, can go on living.”

If we are not conscious of the automonous life of the archetypes in the psyche, then they are seemingly nonexistent and, in fact, even destructive. That is why in a society where the archetypes are no longer honored in any way, believed in or taken care of consciously, you have surrogates, morbid political ideas, isms of all kinds, or drugs. You have all the destructive powers overtaking people, because the gods cannot move without humans. They are paralyzed if we don’t carry them.

-----

So, to come a long way back to her, if our cat is capable of calling up a fire or lightning carriage with a crack of a whip, she reveals in that moment that she’s a goddess and not just a cat. She is a goddess and she is the virgin Mary’s shadow, not a woman. And now you see more what the jewels behind the meat are. Our hero wanted the flesh and instead he fell into the jewels, the eternal or the divine. He has to realize that divine aspect of the flesh. It is not enough for instance, for a Christian who has up until now despised the flesh, to say, “now I’m going to throw my prudish prejudices overboard. I’m going to have juicy sex and enjoy it.” That would be eating the flesh. That’s nothing. If he does that he doesn’t move one inch out of the old kingdom, he’s still caught in it. He only adds the dimension of so-called sin to it. But nothing has happened. He has to realize that the flesh is a form of the divine, a divine revelation, and that sexuality is divine.

That’s what Jung fought with Freud about. He agreed completely with Freud that sex should be liberated and should be lived, not treated with prudish repression, but he wanted to say that sex is a religious experience as in Tantra. And if you live it, therefore, only with the idea, “That’s very healthy for my hormones and makes me physically better,” then you have missed the whole point. Then you have eaten dead meat, rotten meat. The redemption of the feminine means not the redemption of the flesh; it means the redemption of the divinity of the flesh, of the divine, archetypal, godlike aspect of the flesh…

-----

The old emperor is the old conscious Christian attitude. And if the old conscious attitude now wants to have that newly redeemed feminine for himself, that would look like Susanna and the elders, the lecherous old men; that’s a common theme of art and literature. Concretely it exists. We all know it exists. If you take it as symbolic, it’s the new wine in old bottles. The emperor symbolizes the old principle of consciousness that wants to integrate or to profit from the renewal of life that has come forth in another domain. He wants to assimilate it and would kill it if he could. The poor cat lady would be like an unhappy old hag within a year if she married the old man.

She has the intention of making [the prince] a man and forcing him to take an absolute stand against the old emperor, not just to go away from it but to really say what is what. That is absolutely on the mark of what I feel too, namely that something new must not be peacefully inserted into the old habits. There are certain new things that one must have the honesty to call new and to stand up for, because otherwise the new energy is lost.

Jung once said something to me after I had been to visit a lot of old relatives and had a catastrophic dream that night. Now consciously I thought they were all old horrors and I made fun of them and went home, but that wasn’t enough. The unconscious said, “No, this is really dangerous,” and Jung said, “Yes. If one does not constantly walk forward, the past sucks one back. The past is like an enormous sucking wind that sucks one back all the time. If you don’t go forward you regress. You have constantly to carry the torch of the new light forward, so to speak, historically and also in your own life. As soon as you begin to look backward sadly, or even scornfully, it has you again. The past is a tremendous power.” So the overcoming of the old emperor means to be absolutely inexorable, ruthless about what is different and new.

There is a sense in this fairy tale that she, the cat, is the linen which the old emperor had yearned for and sent his sons out to find. The old order knows in some unconscious or fantasy way what it lacks, and when it comes into view it wants to take it over and claim it for its own, even though a generation has come between. There one has to leave the old emperor alone. One has to leave the past to itself. “Let the dead bury the dead,” as Christ said.

- Marie Louse von Franz, The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption, pg. 61

"We are all deplorables"

Walking to work, and thinking about all the people who voted for Trump but claim not to be racist... who believe his promises to bring back coal jobs (he can't) and build a wall to keep the immigrants out (he won't) and Make America Great Again (too late.) These are the same people who say that they're angry at liberals because they look down on them and think that they're stupid and uneducated... but I'm thinking that I'm not wrong in thinking that they are, in fact, so ignorant and so lacking in the ability to think critically. So what's missing??? I know it has to do with my inferior feeling function, so what is it??

Then later that day I read this article, and I felt it:

My relatives in Maine are deplorables. I cannot write on their behalf. I can write in their defense. They live in towns and villages that have been ravaged by deindustrialization. The bank in Mechanic Falls, where my grandparents lived, is boarded up, along with nearly every downtown store. The paper mill closed decades ago. There is a strip club in the center of the town. The jobs, at least the good ones, are gone. Many of my relatives and their neighbors work up to 70 hours a week at three minimum-wage jobs, without benefits, to make perhaps $35,000 a year. Or they have no jobs. They cannot afford adequate health coverage under the scam of Obamacare. Alcoholism is rampant in the region. Heroin addiction is an epidemic. Labs producing the street drug methamphetamine make up a cottage industry. Suicide is common. Domestic abuse and sexual assault destroy families. Despair and rage among the population have fueled an inchoate racism, homophobia and Islamophobia and feed the latent and ever present poison of white supremacy...

Those cast aside by the neoliberal order have an economic identity that both the liberal class and the right wing are unwilling to acknowledge. This economic identity is one the white underclass shares with other discarded people, including the undocumented workers and the people of color demonized by the carnival barkers on cable news shows. This is an economic reality the power elites invest great energy in masking.

Martin Luther King Jr. understood the downward spiral of hating those who hate you. “In a real sense all life is inter-related,” he wrote in “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” “All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. …”

It's empathy... but it goes beyond empathy; it's a "feeling with" that accepts weakness and reality, but opens the picture, away from cold, simple facts to a fuller world and relationship. It's sympathy but goes beyond sympathy; it's not mere compassion or pity, not a looking down upon, but a taking in of another's experience, a removal of the glass that's between us to allow us to connect, as one warm human animal to another.

Link:
We Are All Deplorables, by Chris Hedges (Truthdig)

Glossary: Ego

The center of the field of consciousness; the “I” of consciousness. The ego is just one complex among many but it’s very important as it organizes all other contents in the conscious. It's based on the archetype of the Self (the central complex of the total person, both conscious and unconscious); however, the ego is the central complex only of the relatively tiny, conscious part of the psyche. Can be the cause of many problems but necessary for individuation; a weak ego is too “small” to serve as a container for unconscious contents but a strong ego is able to both hold these experiences as well as make the necessary moral choice to undergo the often difficult and even painful experiences required for individuation.

The ego's chief job is discrimination; what is “me” and what is not me? Was that me or was that the persona, or animus, or some other complex? Again, a solid ego is necessary to discriminate the various complexes and relate to them without getting possessed or absorbed into the unconscious.

Anyone who has any ego-consciousness at all takes it for granted that he knows himself. But the ego knows only its own contents, not the unconscious and its contents. People measure their self-knowledge by what the average person in their social environment knows of himself, but not by the real psychic facts which are for the most part hidden from them. In this respect the psyche behaves like the body, of whose physiological and anatomical structure the average person knows very little too.

- The Undiscovered Self," CW 10, par. 491

The ego stands to the Self as the moved to the mover, or as object to subject, because the determining factors which radiate out from the Self surround the ego on all sides and are therefore supraordinate to it. The Self, like the unconscious, is an a priori existent out of which the ego evolves.

- Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," CW 11, par. 391

Through being realized, [the Self] "incarnates" itself, so to speak, in the moral life of the ego. If I had a gift for music like Beethoven's but never discovered or made use of it, it might as well not exist. Only the conscious ego is capable of realizing psychic contents. Even something as great, even divine, as the Self can only be realized by the ego. That is self-realization from a Jungian perspective.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy, p. 8

Jungianism: The eternal theory?

Jungian psychology is another such ship. Jung made a ship by creating certain hypotheses to which one can cling when one doesn't know up from down. When one is in danger of drowning in the unconscious, of having a huge inflation or something of the kind, falling into a possession or being overwhelmed by an affect, then such psychological concepts as Jung's can help.

- Marie Louise von Franz, The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption


If every "ship," every religion/theory of the unconscious wears out, will Jungian psychology not also wear out and have to be replaced?

Maybe... maybe not? The ideas in the unconscious live for a long, long time. We're still finding riches in alchemy, and Greek and Egyptian myths. Maybe it's not the specific ideas which need to be replaced but the emphasis on the one side or the other, as originally we needed to get out of the Mother, and now we need to move back to Her. Certainly, as we collectively integrate more and more of our projections, and are able to see more of the world as it is, our understanding of things, including the unconscious, will change.

However, one thing won't change; the technique. The theory may evolve or even be completely replaced, but the technique of listening to the unconscious, and of the importance of relationship in overcoming psychological problems, will always be true.

Glossary: Dream Series

A series of dreams related by content or subject. Over a person’s life their relationship with internal content changes and grows, and these changes are reflected in the way they change in our dreams. The dreams show the progress of the dialogue between one’s ego and the unconscious. Each individual dream is just one page in a person’s life; you have to look at how the dreams change over time to understand the story of their life.

Glossary: Dream Analysis

Interpreting the symbolism of one’s dream in order to understand the unconscious’s view of a one’s situation. This is done by both looking at the individual’s personal associations with the person or object being looked at as well as through amplification.

Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse.

- Jung, Collected Works Volume 10, paragraph 317

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego consciousness may extend… All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. Out of these all-uniting depths arises the dream, be it never so infantile, never so grotesque, never so immoral.

- Jung, Civilisation in Transition, Collected Works, Vol. 1

Glossary: Primary Function

A person’s strongest function; the one that comes easiest and therefore the one that’s the most highly developed and differentiated. The most socially adapted function, it allows us to survive and even succeed in the world. Because our primary function is the most developed of our four functions we tend to rely on our it the most. The opposite function will always be one’s inferior function.

Experience shows that it is practically impossible, owing to adverse circumstances in general, for anyone to develop all his psychological functions simultaneously. The demands of society compel a man to apply himself first and foremost to the differentiation of the function with which he is best equipped by nature, or which will secure him the greatest social success. Very frequently, indeed as a general rule, a man identifies more or less completely with the most favored and hence the most developed function. It is this that gives rise to the various psychological types.

- Definitions," CW 6, par. 763

The superior function is always an expression of the conscious personality, of its aims, will, and general performance, whereas the less differentiated functions fall into the category of things that simply "happen" to one.

- General Description of the Types," ibid., par. 575.

In deciding which of the four functions - thinking, feeling, sensation or intuition - is primary, one must closely observe which function is more or less completely under conscious control, and which functions have a haphazard or random character. The superior function (which can manifest in either an introverted or an extraverted way) is always more highly developed than the others, which possess infantile and primitive traits.

- http://www.psychceu.com/jung/sharplexicon.html


See also:
The plumb line of personality

Glossary: Countertransference

In analysis, the emotionally charged projection of unconscious contents by the analyst onto the analysand. See transference.

Even if the analyst has no neurosis, but only a rather more extensive area of unconsciousness than usual, this is sufficient to produce a sphere of mutual unconsciousness, i.e., a counter-transference. This phenomenon is one of the chief occupational hazards of psychotherapy. It causes psychic infections in both analyst and patient and brings the therapeutic process to a standstill. This state of unconscious identity is also the reason why an analyst can help his patient just so far as he himself has gone and not a step further.

- “Appendix," CW 16, par. 545

A transference is answered by a counter-transference from the analyst when it projects a content of which he is unconscious but which nevertheless exists in him. The counter-transference is then just as useful and meaningful, or as much of a hindrance, as the transference of the patient, according to whether or not it seeks to establish that better rapport which is essential for the realization of certain unconscious contents. Like the transference, the counter-transference is compulsive, a forcible tie, because it creates a "mystical" or unconscious identity with the object

- “General Aspects of Dream Psychology," CW 8, par. 519

Glossary: Contamination

The propensity for unconscious contents to blend with and get mixed up with each other. Part of the work of analysis is to differentiate these contents.

As these archetypal images are produced directly by the unconscious, it is not surprising that they exhibit its contamination of content to a very high degree. The best instances of this interconnection of everything with everything else can be found in dreams, which are very much nearer to the unconscious even than myths"

- CW 14, p. 293

Glossary: Constellation

Activation of an archetype or complex. E.g. feelings of vulnerability or abandonment can activate the child complex. A time-bound grouping of events.

This term simply expresses the fact that the outward situation releases a psychic process in which certain contents gather together and prepare for action. When we say that a person is "constellated" we mean that he has taken up a position from which he can be expected to react in a quite definite way… The constellated contents are definite complexes possessing their own specific energy.

- "A Review of the Complex Theory," CW 8, par. 198

Glossary: Analytical Psychology

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."
 - C.G. Jung


A form of depth psychology that, like Freud’s psychoanalysis, theorizes that psychological problems (neuroses) arise from the unconscious. Therefore, the only true solution to such problems is to enter into a dialog with one’s unconscious. This begins with paying attention to one’s dreams, since dreams are one of the few places where the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche meet.

In analytical psychology the important thing is that the analyst be psychologically healthy, as Jung held that the crucial healing factor was the analyst’s personality itself, not any technique that they may bring to the therapeutic encounter. The aim of therapy isn’t to “fix” a person but to provide support as they go through a time of challenge and growth and come out the other side a more integrated human being.

Analytical psychology is characterized by a radically anti-authoritarian approach. The analyst is to approach every encounter with an open mind and an open heart, with no pre-conceived notions of what the analysand needs. This is partly to avoid infantalizing the analysand but mostly because we never know what the unconscious is planning.

The aim of analysis is a widening of the conscious personality by integrating parts of ourselves that have fallen into the unconscious, usually starting with the shadow; continuing to the animus or anima; the Wise Old Woman/Man; and, finally, the Self. This leads to a strong, flexible, lively ego, and a life that is felt as deeply meaningful.

[Analysis] is only a means for removing the stones from the path of development, and not a method… of putting things into the patient that were not there before. It is better to renounce any attempt to give direction, and simply try to throw into relief everything that the analysis brings to light, so that the patient can see it clearly and be able to draw suitable conclusions. Anything he has not acquired himself he will not believe in the long run, and what he takes over from authority merely keeps him infantile. He should rather be put in a position to take his own life in hand. The art of analysis lies in following the patient on all his erring ways and so gathering his strayed sheep together.

- “Some Crucial Points in Psychoanalysis," CW 4, par. 643

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…

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



Quotes on Jungian, or analytical, psychology:

The Jungian approach observes that our personality spontaneously produces images which symbolically communicate the means of resolving a given impasse and — more generally — the unique life course for each individual in pursuit of meaning and satisfaction to follow. In practical terms the Jungian focus studies dreams as a way of getting at this deeper source of knowledge. Such has been my enduring fascination: to learn the nature of our symbolic language, to understand its value in the therapeutic setting and to discover its relevance to solving human problems in general.

- J. Gary Sparks

Jungian analysis is the psychotherapeutic process of re-establishing a healthy balance between the conscious and unconscious parts of our personality as we strive towards wholeness, not perfection. In the process, our ego is strengthened by integration of what we call the shadow, or the unconscious parts of our personality. We strive to establish a healthier relationship with our contra-sexual side and ultimately to develop a connection with the greater personality, the Self. This is accomplished through work with dreams, which reveal what is missing from our conscious perception, through discussion of everyday events and problems and through any other creative medium, ie. sandplay, art, movement, etc. The result of this work is a mitigation of unhealthy behavior patterns and greater consciousness, leading to a healthier, more filling life.

Nancy Furlotti, M.A.

Analytical Psychology focuses on attending to the soul and thriving toward wholeness through the individuation process, the process of differentiating and integrating unconscious contents

Meredith Mitchell, Ph.D.

Jungian analysis supports the work of individuation by fostering a reciprocal relationship between conscious and unconscious, personal and transpersonal, spirit and matter, all of which includes the religious function of the psyche as the transforming agent.

Rose-Emily Rothenberg, M.A.

- C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles


Posts:

"What a Shaman Sees in a Mental Hospital" 



Further information:
The Society of Analytical Psychology


See also:
Only the individual can heal the individual, and only the individual can be healed


(Image from Jung Utah)

Why are dreams so hard to understand?

Question: If dreams are messages sent to inform our consciousness, why are they so obscure?

That has puzzled me too. I have often asked reproachfully, “Why does this damned unconscious talk such a Chinese difficult language? Why doesn’t it tell us clearly what’s the matter?” Now Jung’s answer was that it obviously can’t. It doesn’t speak the language of the rational mind. Dreams are the voice of our instinctive animal nature or ultimately the voice of cosmic matter in us. This is a very daring hypothesis, but I’ll venture to say that the collective unconscious and organic atomic matter are probably two aspects of the same thing. So the dreams are ultimately the voice of cosmic matter. Therefore, just as we cannot understand the behavior of atoms (look at the Chinese language modern physicists have to use to describe the behavior of an electron), so we have to use the same kind of language to describe the deeper layers of the dream world.

The dream takes us into the mysteries of nature strange to our rational mind. We can compare it to atomic physics, where the most complicated formulas are not sufficient to describe what is happening. I don’t know why nature has constructed our rational mind in a way that prevents us from understanding the whole of nature. We are born with a brain which seeming can understand only certain aspects., Perhaps there will be later mutations on another planet where Nature will invent a brain which can understand these things.

- Marie Louise von Franz (from Fraser Boa’s The Way of the Dream), p. 216

Glossary: Consciousness

The part of our psyche that we’re consciously aware of. Consists of all the thoughts and feelings that are presently inside the field of awareness. Things that are conscious are within the field of awareness of the ego, but this is a tiny fraction of what’s accessible to the Self. The aim of Jungian psychology is to bring into consciousness, i.e. to integrate into one’s ego, that which was split off from the ego and pushed down into the unconscious. We say we “become conscious” by bringing these split off parts of ourselves back into relationship with our conscious selves. The Jungian concept of consciousness differs from Freud in that while Freud believed that unconscious contents originated in conscious experience, Jung believed that the unconscious came first, creating consciousness, like an egg born from the primordial chaos.

Consciousness does not create itself-it wells up from unknown depths. In childhood it awakens gradually, and all through life it wakes each morning out of the depths of sleep from an unconscious condition. It is like a child that is born daily out of the primordial womb of the unconscious… It is not only influenced by the unconscious but continually emerges out of it in the form of numberless spontaneous ideas and sudden flashes of thought.

- "The Psychology of Eastern Meditation," CW 11, par. 935

There are two distinct ways in which consciousness arises. The one is a moment of high emotional tension, comparable to the scene in Parsifal where the hero, at the very moment of greatest temptation, suddenly realizes the meaning of Amfortas' wound. The other is a state of contemplation, in which ideas pass before the mind like dream-images. Suddenly there is a flash of association between two apparently disconnected and widely separated ideas, and this has the effect of releasing a latent tension. Such a moment often works like a revelation. In every case it seems to be the discharge of energy-tension, whether external or internal, which produces consciousness.

- "Analytical Psychology and Education," CW 17, par. 207

When one reflects upon what consciousness really is, one is profoundly impressed by the extreme wonder of the fact that an event which takes place outside in the cosmos simultaneously produces an internal image, that it takes place, so to speak, inside as well, which is to say: becomes conscious.

- CG. Jung, Basel Seminar, privately printed, 1934, p.1

The secret place

Legend has it that when the gods made the human race, they fell to arguing where to put the answers to life so the humans would have to search for them.

     One god said, “Let’s put the answers on top of a mountain. They will never look for them there.”
      “No,” said the others. “They’ll find them right away.”
      Another god said, “Let’s put them in the center of the earth. They will never look for them there.”
      “No,” said the others. “They’ll find them right away.”
      Then another spoke, “Let’s put them in the bottom of the sea. They will never look for them there.”
      “No,” said the others. “They’ll find them right away.”
      Silence fell…
      After a while another god spoke, “We can put the answers to life within them. They will never look for them there.”

      And so they did that.

- From Fraser Boa’s The Way of the Dream, p. 218

Glossary: Complex

Everyone knows nowadays that people "have complexes." What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.

- "A Review of the Complex Theory," par. 200


A collection of feelings and attitudes about a thing or person (e.g. the mother complex, a power complex, etc.). The complex forms around an archetype as one’s personal experiences accrue around it, like a pearl around a seed of sand. The Oedipus complex is probably the most famous complex but nearly anything can become a complex if there’s enough emotional experience. Some common complexes are: the mother complex, the father complex, a Jesus complex, the Don Juan complex, inferiority complex, superiority complex, God complex. Not all complexes are problematic but the same complex that is useful and well adapted in one person can be poorly adapted and neurotic in another.

Complexes are autonomous partial personalities that act like independent, though simplified, personalities in one’s psyche. Possession happens when one of these autonomous complexes invades the ego and takes over consciousness. One common example of this is possession by the animus or anima. The ego is also a complex; it’s one complex out of many but a very special complex and, unlike other complexes, is (hopefully) a fairly complete personality.

The difference between archetypes and complexes is that archetypes are the unconscious, universal symbol of a thing while complexes are the emotionally tinged expression of the archetype in a specific individual’s life. The archetype of a mother encompasses all aspects of the universal mother image, from nurturing to devouring. A person’s unique mother complex is shaped by personal experience but builds on the nucleus of the archetype; the mother archetype may be all things but one’s own mother complex will only express those things that you yourself experienced in your encounter with your personal mother.

Complexes interfere with the intentions of the will and disturb the conscious performance; they produce disturbances of memory and blockages in the flow of associations; they appear and disappear according to their own laws; they can temporarily obsess consciousness, or influence speech and action in an unconscious way. In a word, complexes behave like independent beings.

- “Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour," par. 253

Complexes obviously represent a kind of inferiority in the broadest sense… [but] to have complexes does not necessarily indicate inferiority. It only means that something discordant, unassimilated, and antagonistic exists, perhaps as an obstacle, but also as an incentive to greater effort, and so, perhaps, to new possibilities of achievement.

- “A Psychological Theory of Types," par. 925

The possession of complexes does not in itself signify neurosis… and the fact that they are painful is no proof of pathological disturbance. Suffering is not an illness; it is the normal counterpole to happiness. A complex becomes pathological only when we think we have not got it.

- “Psychotherapy and a Philosophy of Life," CW 16, par. 179

A complex can be really overcome only if it is lived out to the full. In other words, if we are to develop further we have to draw to us and drink down to the very dregs what, because of our complexes, we have held at a distance.

- "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype," CW 9i, par. 184

Complexes are focal or nodal points of psychic life which we would not wish to do without; indeed, they should not be missing, for otherwise psychic activity would come to a fatal standstill.

- "A Psychological Theory of Types," CW 6, par. 925

Our entire psyche seems to consist of separate complexes which gather together into what one could call the psychic individuality, just as the Mendelian units of our hereditary factors together to form a unity.

We can clearly see in a small child, who still possesses a very labile ego-consciousness, how loosely the separate complexes live with each other in the moods which change like lightning and by means of which the youngster can switch from “loving child” to “devil” and vice versa, one moment completely affectionate, the next minute utterly engrossed in his play, one moment in deep despair, two minutes later joyful again, sucking a candy. These fluctuations decrease slowly as the conscious ego gradually builds itself up, but then the ego often experiences collisions of the individual complex-impulses within and must then learn to endure and control them. Once, when I was nine, I wanted to draw a picture of my dog whom I loved passionately, but he wouldn’t sit still. I was furious so I smacked him and shouted at him. I will never forget that dog’s innocent, offended look! I did not hit him again, but when I sat down to finish my drawing I felt clearly within me how the fury of my impatience and my love for the dog clashed painfully together. Jung conjectured once that ego consciousness first develops from collisions of the small child with the outer world and later from collisions of the growing ego with the impulses from its own inner world (as in the example of my fury with the dog). The “parliament of instincts,” as Konrad Lorenz would have called it, is not a peaceful organization within us; it is rather violent in there, and the President – the ego – often has difficulty asserting himself. From a practical point of view we can observe that whenever a complex becomes autonomous, then there always arise projections which disturb adaptation and blur the “mirror of inner truth.”

- Marie-Louise von Franz, Dreams


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"The Hidden Source of Self"

Glossary: Compensation

An automatic process by the unconscious to correct for excessive one-sidedness in the conscious personality. Counterbalance; the appearance of an opposite attitude when behavior is too one-sided. Along with dreams and neuroses, compensation is one of the mechanisms the unconscious uses to maintain balance in the psyche in its drive for wholeness.

The activity of consciousness is selective. Selection demands direction. But direction requires the exclusion of everything irrelevant. This is bound to make the conscious orientation one-sided. The contents that are excluded and inhibited by the chosen direction sink into the unconscious, where they form a counterweight to the conscious orientation. The strengthening of this counterposition keeps pace with the increase of conscious one-sidedness until finally… the repressed unconscious contents break through in the form of dreams and spontaneous images… As a rule, the unconscious compensation does not run counter to consciousness, but is rather a balancing or supplementing of the conscious orientation. In dreams, for instance, the unconscious supplies all those contents that are constellated by the conscious situation but are inhibited by conscious selection, although a knowledge of them would be indispensable for complete adaptation

- "Definitions," CW 6, par. 694

We have observed that this equilibrium is a function of the self. The Self, the innermost regulating center of the psyche, seems to aim at keeping the whole psychological system in a fluid balance. We call that the law of compensation. Whenever one takes on a lop-sided attitude in consciousness – too rational, too spiritual, too materialistic, too driven by a single drive – then the dreams compensate by bringing up that which outweigh it on the other side, that’s why Saint Augustine after his conversion to a higher spirituality said, “Thank God, I am not responsible for my dreams.” He must have had dreams which pulled him right down to earth.

This law of compensation, however, is not a mechanical compensation: if I try to be good, my dreams will be bad, or, if I try to be too cheerful, my dreams will be melancholy. It’s not a mechanical way of bringing in the opposite. Rather, it is a compensation in the service of the totality. It is as if the dream says, “You are lop-sided compared to your inner totality.” That is the essential wisdom of the dream: to preserve a balance among all our psychic opposites and establish a kind of middle ay. The unconscious seems to be in favor of the Chinese Yin/Yang philosophy, or the idea of the Tao as being a subtle balance of opposites.

- Marie Louise von Franz (from Fraser Boa’s The Way of the Dream), p. 226

Glossary: Collective unconscious

The part of the psyche that contains universal contents (the archetypes), not from personal experience but inherited from all humanity, and further back even, to our animal ancestors. The inborn, psychological aspect of our inborn instincts. Explains the universality of archetypes. In the same way that all humans have the inborn capacity for language and sight, they have inborn templates for universal human experiences (mothering, birth, death, etc.). The forms of the archetypes are hereditary and comparable to instinctive behavior patterns found in all animals. Compare with the personal unconscious.

First, fantasies (including dreams) of a personal character, which go back unquestionably to personal experiences, things forgotten or repressed, and can thus be completely explained by individual anamnesis. Second, fantasies (including dreams) of an impersonal character, which cannot be reduced to experiences in the individual's past, and thus cannot be explained as something individually acquired. These fantasy-images undoubtedly have their closest analogues in mythological types. . . . These cases are so numerous that we are obliged to assume the existence of a collective psychic substratum. I have called this the collective unconscious.

- "The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 262