Man and His Symbols - Evergreen State College



You are NOT what you eat!!!

You are what you BELIEVE about what you eat!!!

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Vocabulary –

Ineffable

1) Too great, powerful, beautiful, etc., to be described or expressed. (Unspeakable)

2) Incapable of being expressed in words. (Indescribable)

3) Not to be uttered. (Taboo, the ineffable name of Jehovah)

Self – the total person, Conscious and Unconscious. It is also the

PRE-consciousness totality.

Eschatological – 1. a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world. 2. A belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind; specifically : any of various Christian doctrines concerning the Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, or the Last Judgment.

Transference - the redirection of feelings and desires, especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood, toward a new object (such as a psychoanalyst conducting one’s therapy).

Countertransference is defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.

Cosmogony or Cosmology - A theory of the origin of the universe.

Analysand – a person undergoing psychological analysis.

Imminent vs. Transcendent God – Imminent means that God is in all things (Animism, etc.). Transcendent means that God is “elsewhere” and is a controller (to greater or lesser degree).

Creatio Ex Nihilo – Creation out of nothing

Identification - A Jungian word for being unable to tell (aspects of) one’s Self from those of another person (often seen in children, where they are very closely linked with their parents or siblings).

Individuation – A Jungian word for the overall process of maturation, from dependent child into a fully realized individual whose beliefs are completely their own (p.17 Creation Myths).

Differentiation – A Jungian word for the process of “breaking away” from psychological content that is not truly one’s own (a process children must go through in order to individuate). Also used specifically to refer to clearly defining the Jungian “types”.

Active Imagination – A path of cognition that uses the imagination as a means of understanding or to expand one’s understanding (p. 219 in Man and His Symbols, p. 26 in Creation Myths).

Dream Amplification – The process of expanding upon the content of a dream, usually by engaging Active Imagination techniques (p.58 Creation Myths).

Deus Faber [God (as) Maker]

Our whole tradition has trained us to think always of God as being outside the world and shaping, enlivening its dead “material” in some form. But upon making a general survey of creation myths, we see that this understanding of God mirrors a rare and specific situation; it mirrors a state where consciousness has ALREADY markedly withdrawn from the unconscious (a modern mentality). It has become an independent entity, and therefore can turn toward the rest of its unconscious material as if that were composed of dead objects (“material”). It also already shows a definite separation between subject and object; God is the subject of the creation and the world. Its materials are the dead objects with which he deals. By contrast, a craftsman in primitive societies never imagined himself to be doing the work by himself. A modern carpenter or a smith is in a position to feel himself as a human being with independent consciousness, who has acquired from his teacher a traditional skill with which he handles inanimate material. He feels that his skill is a self-made possession, which he owns. If we look at more primitive societies, we see that they still tell many beautiful tales which show that mankind never invented any craft or skill, but that it was revealed to them; that it is the Gods who produced the knowledge which mankind now uses when doing anything practical.

Chiaroscuro - the Interface of Dark and Light

English pronunciation: kjarosˈkuːro. ("light-dark")

Characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark to achieve a sense of proportion.

Strong contrasts between light and dark - which is now the primary meaning.

The analytical division of light and shadow - often called "shading".

Archetypes (Jung – Inner aspects of Behavioral Patterns). They are NOT Harmonious. They require consciousness to mediate between them. In fact, remember that one of the theories of how we acquired consciousness says that it was born out of strife between archetypal urges in individuals (i.e. the reason for the birth of Consciousness and Ego formation was to mitigate this strife. Heraclitus: “We are all born out of war”. He means the war between the internal archetypes/behaviors). Ego is needed to manage (dominate) archetypal identities.

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Teacher’s Pets:

“Jung is describing the difference between that which we give meaning to (in this case calling them signs) and that which we gain meaning from (the symbols) (P. 41)”. - Colton Meriedith, student

“When one considers a sign, one is looking back at something, condensed to the single point on a map, on a sign, on a page. The idea has been reduced as far as it can be, and stripped of its meaning, serving only as a reminder of the genuine article. A symbol, on the other hand, is the opposite. Where a sign is something that has been tapered to a fine and uninteresting point, a symbol is a seed of meaning whose many potential maturations may only be cursorily similar to one another, based on whose garden it takes root in. – Jeremy Miller, student

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Man and His Symbols

MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ

- and her Chapter on INDIVIDUATION

(1915 – 1998), Daughter of an Austrian baron

“If you notice an unconscious fantasy coming up within you, you would be wise not to interpret it at once. Do not say that you know what it is and force it into consciousness. Just let it live with you, leaving it in the half-dark, carry it with you and watch where it is going or what it is driving toward.”

(M-L v F)

The first half of life is about building a healthy Ego. The second half is about moving BEYOND it – by reconnecting effectively with the Unconsciousness.

The symbolic content of the Collective Unconscious [sometimes] takes hundreds of years to reach public, conscious understanding. That is why some many creations have no success in the artist's lifetime and are only appreciated later, when the message that they contain has come closer to general consciousness

According to Sigmund Freud the unconscious processes in the psyche and their symbolic manifestations ultimately point to the personal problems of the writer, to his Oedipus complex, or to some neurotic problem. According to Jung, all truly creative products [that are relevant to more than the artist alone] stem, on the contrary, from the transpersonal layer of the unconscious, which he called the Collective Unconscious, and therefore address or express a collective problem of a whole group of people.

REMEMBER – Jung worked very closely with the dreamer/analysand in order to come to the final interpretation of a dream. Active Imagination, Dream Amplification are two primary means to do that.

Other techniques include Roershach (Ink Blot) tests and “free writing”.

“Conclusions” in Jungian psychoanalysis are only reached very carefully and always with the input from the patient who must concur that the interpretation is truly working for them.

Depression and Creativity – Depression can function to “Lower Consciousness” in order to allow creativity to flow. This is mostly about avoiding the “Inner Critics”.

Remember – Play can wipe out Depression, AND Play can be incorporated into one’s Creative Process.

EMOTIONS (E-Motions) CAUSE PSYCHIC MOVEMENT!!!

Everything we do or think has an emotion connected with it. THEY are what motivate us.

“The Mountains Labor and Bring Forth a Mouse”

- High Stakes, because we Risk Deflation. Many prefer to remain inflated, rather than to face the reality of our actual self, or our creative output.

- Do you know anyone who lives inflated, rather than face the realities of their own lives?

There are different TYPES of dreams

The big dreams are from the Collective Unconscious

FROM WISDOM OF THE DREAM movie:

The “Second Center of the Psyche – the SELF – is ready to be discovered. The first center is the Collective Unconscious.

Culture DISGUISES archetypes, more than it reveals them.

Ego is no more the center of One’s Self than the Earth is the center of the Solar System. - Jung

The Ego is a “COMPLEX” of the Self. The Self is the totality.

The Self is not local. The Ego is. The Self is not bound by space and time. The Ego is.

The Conscious and Unconscious are NOT AT ODDS!!!

- Explain this, Terry!!!

Ultimately, all of one’s personal conflicts, at the root, are conflicts between the Ego and the Self. Even if one has been traumatized by another person, in the end, it is the meaning that the ego gives the experience that will define its reality.

HOWEVER, it is the EGO that lights up the entire system, allowing it to become CON. And thus REALIZED. P.163

SO, DON’T HATE IT. USE IT. CONDITION IT.

THE SELF DEPENDS ON THE CONSCIOUS MIND TO MAKE IT BECOME MANIFEST.

PERCEPTION, the act of defining what something means, IS CREATION. In other words, whether we are aware of it or not, conscious of it or not, we are all creating our own reality.

THE REALIZATION OF UNIQUENESS IN THE INDIVIDUAL IS THE GOAL OF THE PROCESS OF INDIVIDUATION P.163

Our belief in Causality [cause and effect] is our greatest barrier to true understanding. [“Lightening causes Thunder”, rather than “A type of electrical discharge causes both”].

MUST BE ABLE TO LISTEN -

FACE THE DARKNESS WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

ANIMA:

The Feminine Qualities WITHIN a Masculine-Defined Presence

- TRADITIONALLY Seen as THE MUSE!!!

- READ P. 195, BOTTOM

Feminine Energy became Polarized in the MIDDLE AGES -

VIRGINS: BECAUSE considered ALL-POSITIVE, WITCHES: BECAME INVESTED WITH THE ALL-NEGATIVE.

Nothing left in the middle for REAL people to be!

THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS for a REAL PERSON!

- P. 196

DANGER – “ANIMA PROJECTION”

(WORSHIP) of recognized figures (Famous People, for instance, or others who are highly visible in one’s life, but not close enough to actually be known)

REMOVES HER INDIVIDUAL ASPECTS.

AND TRAPS HER, LIKE MARILYN MONROE, PRINCESS DIANA & VIRGIN MARY…

FORCES a 2-Dimensional Restriction on a Unique 3-Dimensional INDIVIDUAL.

Deadly! Don’t fall for it! Don’t seek it (watch out for the effects of advertising…)

Historically, “Feminine Energies” TEACH MEN CIVILITY

Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Esau in the story of Jacob and Esau, and even Lenny in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are all wildmen, outliers who become “civilized” after contact with the feminine.

Von Franz’s book Creation Myths -

This book was originally the transcript of a series of lectures, a course, offered to psychologists and psychology students already familiar with the basics of Jungian psychology.

The Unconscious retells “creation myths” or parts thereof – such as a dream of an egg – to restore conscious life and conscious awareness of reality (to rebuild or strengthen the psyche).

In Creation Myths, Consciousness lives somewhere between the Material world and the Sprit World. Does this mirror your experience at all?

More modern cultures’ Creation Myths tend to portray the awakening of Consciousness as the beginning of Creation.

Ritual Must Be Cyclical Because Symbols “Age”, “Fade”, and Lose Vitality.

Ritual is used when a new attitude or Readjustment to Reality from a very basic depth is needed.

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