Who’s Chasing Who?

by Richard Reeve on January 25, 2009

in AziMuth

HDR Eye
Image by ?Felix? via Flickr

This response on Twitter to my previous post “Leaks” has to be shared.

MattSearles @CCSeed lol, stockhausen syndrome, ha? ;) about 1 hour ago

Matt has an eye for the shadow and his comments on this blog could be the basis of an entirely separate blog.  So his point, direct and cutting, is a great place to dig in and continue with some amplification.

The syndrome as I understand it is when a captive falls in love with the captor and will not take the opportunities for escape when they manifest.  It does seem that the dynamic I present in “Leaks” has this as the goal.  But if the relationship that ensued was built on that type of abuse, I’d want no part of it.  So to that end, I’d like to consider the dynamic at play from the other end of the spectrum, just to add a twist.

The story goes like this:
“I had dreamed once before of the problem of the self and the ego.  In that earlier dream I was on a hiking trip.  I was walking along a little road through a hilly landscape; the sun was shining and I had a wide view in all directions.  Then I came to a small wayside chapel.  The door was ajar, and I went in.  To my surprise there was no image of the Virgin on the altar, and no crucifix either, but only a wonderful flower arrangement.  But then I saw that on the floor in front of the altar, facing me, sat a yogi -in lotus posture, in deep meditation.  When I looked at him more closely, I realized that he had my face.  I started in profound fright, and awoke with the thought: “Aha, so he is the one who is meditating me.  He has a dream, and I am it.” I knew that when he awakened, I would no longer be.” Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, pg. 323
So the hunt and the hunted…who’s chasing who?
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  • that they must be suffering from* --opps

  • I think I must have a bad habit of teasing people that must be suffering from stockhausen syndrome.

    The way I think about psychology.. or maybe anything really.. it's like we have this definition of a thing or a concept.. and the definition delineates a shape.. and if the concept is true in the terms of the shape, you can apply it any where you see that shape.. and the truth of the original thing will still speak. Language and cognition breaks reality up into shapes.. so there's some question of if this process has anything to do with reality.. accept as a part of a critique of experience.. err, something.

    I think.. well you know.. I'm sorta just getting to know you.. and I always feel like when you're getting to know someone or something.. one mustn't take ones.. lets say impressions.. though that's not the right word, too seriously.. because our understanding of the ecological context of that which we are having the impression.. is different from the context it takes in the evolving revelation we are having of the thing in question.. so about the only thing I take seriously in this kind of thing is a kind of intuition.. So you know..

    To complicate matters one step further.. I think it's important that we regard everyone, and everything, including our selves.. and the ones and things that we regard as the most well known ones and things to us.. as being more mystery then known.

    So all this is to say.. don't take my teasing too seriously! I guess?

    The thing about your post on leaks.. It strikes me as very much a matter of our collective consciousness.. errr..

    There's a certain part of me that is very suspicious of psychology, particularly clinical psychology.. and even more so of medication for mental disorders.. not that I think there are no merits to these things.. but I have read a little Foucault.. and I do think.. well what is it that defines x as a disorder in the first place?

    Much of this might have to do with how evolution doesn't work as well as it used to in "the good old days" in the sense that... the passing on of genes isn't really effected by environmental factors in the same way it once was.. and this does present certain challenges...

    But what is a disorder? As Nietzsche would say 'beware in throwing out your demons that you don't throw out the best thing you got going for you.' How painfully immature, it seems to me, our current collective understanding of our selves is.. and what damage might our stupidity be causing us?

    We live in a world where things are managed by quantification systems.. where what is difficult to quantify doesn't "work" in our systems.. essentially rendering them a disorder.. We have no idea what Buddha was doing sitting at the center of the universe... cause everyone knows the ego is at the center of the universe! Perhaps we say to the eastern philosopher "well really you're problem is that you're not able to differentiate between ego and id."

    But of course ego isn't at the center of the universe.. and to think it is does create a collective psychosis.. that we try and plug up.. with our pop psychology, a few pills, and whatever.... When the real answer to our problems is probably to rage against the machine!

    Of course there's some danger that raging against the machine won't lead to our freedom ether...

    As an artist.. the problem is one of creating a new vision.. which means a journey into the deep dark unknown.. and I think all of us have this problem.. and it does create a kind of stockhausen syndrome.. a kind of neurotic relationship to a possible way our destinies could unfold.. a could that requires the heroic..

    On the who's chasing who I think of Schoepenhouer's reflection on "who has written the plot of my life anyway?" Neurosis would suggest that he, or at least his plot, is the captor.. and interestingly enough.. the super old school yogi wouldn't disagree with that too much.. seeing as the ultimate goal of all those breathing exercises was to stop breathing!

    Err, I'm not quite sure what I'm driving at in all this.. For some reason my head keeps producing an image of Woody Allan parodying, or commenting, on Socrates... and his shtick about if even in the cage... if you're really a captor.. which I suppose is me questioning the idea of the stockhausen syndrome... leading me to feeling like a tail eating snake...

  • Very interesting, Richard! You are indeed an expert at weaving thoughts into words!

    Not sure who said this or where I heard it but it goes something like this...

    "I dreamed I was an equisite and rare flower and then I awoke. Was I a woman dreaming I was a flower? Or was I a flower dreaming I was a woman?"

    Keep them coming, Richard! I'm getting used to coming by for the "snacks!" :-)

  • Hey Henie,
    Jung had a similar experience as a child with a big rock out in his back yard. He'd lay his head against the rock and have the though "Am I thinking the the rock or is the rock thinking me." In a very serious way matter has become conscious with us, but it's still matter. Identification with primates, and dogs, dolphins etc is quite easy. But the most basic forms of matter, not even life, is the "junk" we are knitted from. From clay, to clay we will return.

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