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.
Jung teaches that dreams have both a compensatory and a prospective aspect.
“But when the individual deviates from the norm in the sense that his conscious attitude is unadapted both objectively and subjectively, the – under normal conditions – merely compensatory function of the unconscious becomes a guiding, prospective function capable of leading the conscious attitude in quite a different direction…” Carl Jung, General Aspects of Dream Psychology, CW VIII, par. 495.
When working with a dream it’s useful to consider how the same images might be expressing either of these perspectives. Often the very thing that people will term crazy or odd about a dream is that it points to something that consciousness is missing, and in the effort to render an image of what is not understood, the results seem preposterous. But only at first.
The compensatory aspect of a dream can be thought of as the unconscious attempting to provide a counter-balance to the conscious standpoint. For instance, if one is getting too self absorbed, a dream might demonstrate this by an overly extroverted scenario.
The prospective aspect attempts to provide a plausible outcome to a situation that the conscious standpoint seems to be essentially blind toward. When people respond to the prophetic nature of dreams, it’s this uncanny ability of the unconscious to sense the full dynamics at play in a given scenario that allude consciousness.
In a superficial, superstitious way, this is what folks refer to when they judge a dream as good or bad and let it shape their attitude towards the following day. This common reaction to dreams misses that the dream is actually referring to specifics in the dreamers life. Without taking the time to ask questions of the images, this approach only measures the emotional reaction to the dream as it either promotes or detracts from conscious desires. When such a reactionary practice is in play, it’s important to ask “but what is the dream saying?”
Rigidity takes many forms: locks, barriers, iron gates, button-down shirts and ties, dogmas…repetitive responses to similar situations. It’s sticking to the plan at any cost. It lacks a human smile. You know, the kind of smile that conveys you are actually beening seen.
Another challenge occurs when faced with the obstacle of rigidity. We instinctively reach for the hammer, dynamite…war. Anything to smash the oppression of the fixed. Yet this reaction is a rigid as that which it opposes.
What to do when caught in the midst of such entrenched attitudes? The need is to loosen up, to find the spontaneity of laughter, to generate a relaxed atmosphere. But loosening up does not mean going to pieces…so we must be mindful of not pushing to far in this direction. The “chilling out” itself becomes rigid in the opium den.
Like a Spring cleaning, it takes something as outlandish as the unexpected tickle to allow a breath of fresh air to flow though the fortress known as rigidity
How might you tickle these ticklish situations?
As The Red Book gets celebrated with its publication during the upcoming month, it feels appropriate to spend some time exploring the psychological concepts which were seeded in its pages.
Carl Jung spent a decade as he neared the end of his life writing his masterpiece Mysterium Coniunctionis. The entire volume explores the psychic implications of the combination of the opposites.
“The obvious analogy, in the psychic sphere, to the problem of the opposites is the dissociation of the personality brought about by the conflict of incompatible tendencies, resulting as a rule from an inharmonious disposition. The repression of one opposite leads only to a prolongation and extension of the conflict, in other words to a neurosis. The therapist therefore confronts the opposites with one another and aims a uniting them permanently.” Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW XIV, pg. xv.
hot/cold – male/female – old/young – life/death…
Experientially, these categories feel a bit elusive. Not so with stress/ease. Much of our cultural energy alternates between these opposing poles. What would the combination of both of these feel like simultaneously? Clearly, it would be a new thing.
Jung’s experience of the combination of the opposites is one of the plots which emerges in the pages of The Red Book.
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