Finding Destiny in the Personal Threads of Trauma

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Analysis is a descent into the well of one’s being, exploring the many landmark’s that anchor the personal story and welcoming the archetypal motifs that rise to meet and color one’s perspective. It’s a process where the depths take precedence. As the mystery unfolds session after session, different arcs begin to relate in the most uncanny way, so that a power best defined as destiny begins to emerge.

“If this concept of destiny is used as a working hypothesis, a reevaluation of some of our present clinical assumptions is suggested. Relevant events in a patient’s history which we have habitually considered to be causes of his present psychopathology may now perhaps be viewed as manifestations of an emergent life-pattern. Traumatic events of childhood which we associate with the genesis of neurosis or psychosis, and therefore regard as quasi-accidental or avoidable under “ideal” circumstances, may perhaps be seen as essential landmarks in the actualization of the pattern of wholeness.” Edward Whitmont, The Destiny Concept in Psychotherapy, Spring 1969, pg. 74.

The constellation of the victim archetype seems to me much more powerful than any reaction to specific incidents of one’s past. The prevailing power which can color one’s perception is instead to be found in how one incorporates or rejects the reality of destiny as it manifests in one’s life.

jamenta

Excellent few paragraphs Richard about the role of "destiny" in Jung's view of the unconscious. It is likely one good reason why a few "mainstream" therapists/psychologists dismiss Jungian thought outright. It is also one of the major reasons why Jung split with Freud, as Freud insisted for a long while: all unconscious processes were "reductive" "cause-and-effect" rather than "prospective" in nature.

Sometimes I cannot blame those hosts of academia psychologists who refuse to bite the bullet on this one.

And yet - as one exams the unconscious, both from looking within yourself via your dreams or active imagination, and reading a mountain of accounts provided by Jung and others - you really do have to conclude there is something within us that not only is capable of anticipating the future, but as Jung and others so clearly have elucidated over these last few decades: a definable pattern and impetus that comes from the unconscious - a prospective pattern or "destiny".

Western philosophy has been so dominated this last century by the belief in a randomly generated reality of which we our also randomly generated - and we are just a product of our past.

But let me quote a recent quite well known new age medium speaking for her trance personality Seth:

"It is somewhat humorous that such a vital consciousness could even suppose itself to be the end product of inert elements that were themselves lifeless, but somehow managed to combine in such a way that your species attained fantasy, logic, vast organizational power, technologies, and civilizations."
-Seth, Mass Events

You know what - I agree with Seth. It is humorous and a bit preposterous that so-called Western academia and psychologists today insist that reality is nothing but random and reductive in nature, and nothing more. That we are only products of our past and are victims of past traumas that have made us what we are.

It is funny too that Carl Jung has turned that view on it's head. We are what have made the past traumas what they are so we could self-realize ourselves to our fullest potential and destiny. The ego thinks it is the one controlling it's destiny - it is the great mistake of Western civilization and culture. But in truth our destiny lies within the unconscious, where Jung insisted the regulating element of the psyche lies - in our dreams and the synchronicity that we experience in outer reality.

The unconscious - prospective and far-seeing, not bound by time or space, propels us forward to our unique destinies. And though from an ego viewpoint, we may not see the deeper purposes of events that unfold in our lives, that does not mean they do not exist. There are many planets in this universe of ours, and many galaxies - and even though we've never been to one, or seen one, doesn't mean they do not exist. And even though the unconscious cannot be seen or touched, we know it exists.

"Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by."

-Christina Rossetti

Jeb Dickerson

I struggle so much with this Richard. Was something in my past just a chance accident that led me down a path I now fight to make relevant to my own growth? Or was it an intentional part of a larger process that's hard to understand from the view I have on the ground, but critical to my individual journey?

It feels like both, at different times. And in the search for that meaning, I find my worldview on many things changing rapidly. Partly, at least at first, out of confusion I suppose. But slowly...too slowly it seems...I'm beginning to see order in the chaos. The gathering of scattered pieces.