Introduction
Would you ever dare to venture into a
grave yard late in the night and spend the whole night there? A very bad idea
isn’t it? We would rather choose a Mafia don’s hide out despite the possible
danger of being shot dead if discovered, snooping around; but the grave yard
with nothing but the dead securely confined with in the concrete tombs sounds
much eerier. Why? Despite all the scientific and technological advancement, its
razor sharp reasoning and logic.
Now let’s put the question aside for a while.
We are all familiar with Freud and his idea of the Unconscious – that part of
mind the place for all repressed and forgotten content but all that is
repressed and forgotten as per Freud is concerned only with one’s own life. In
other words it is the Personal Unconscious but beneath this layer there is another
layer that is universal - contains all the aspirations, beliefs and ideals we
all mankind commonly share, that is Collective
Conscious. It is inherited from our ancestors. We not only inherit the
biological structure of our ancestors but also their experiences and beliefs
that’s why we don’t venture into graveyards late in the night though our modern
science has denied the existence of any such thing as the ghost.
Therefore a new born baby’s mind is
not empty it comes into the world with all knowledge and psychic content of all
the innumerable previous generations. This also explains why some people say
they are remembering their past life. Unfortunately these people are either
branded as lunatics or sages. What’s happening is the collective unconscious is
brought into consciousness (This can also be the reason behind “Dejavu”).
However the reasons that lead to this process are not clearly stated yet.
Mental exercises like Meditation and Yoga can be the causes too.
The contents of this Collective
Unconscious when brought into the consciousness and assume an image they are
called Archetypes become embedded in
Literature and Folk Lore. For
example when we say holy the image that immediately strikes is an illuminating
figure dressed in white, with wings and a hallow. When we say evil the image
that comes into picture is a dark, hefty figure with protruding, sharp teeth,
horns and bones hanging round its neck. The Archetypes though common to every one
their functioning differs from each individual psyche.
The Archetypes
There are several Archetypes but in
this book Carl Jung discussed four important Archetypes, they are:
·
The Great Mother
·
Rebirth Concept
·
Spirit
·
Trickster
The Great Mother
The picture of mother involuntarily
evokes feelings of love, comfort, protection and support. Also anything that
shelters and is fertile, fruitful and life giving are compared to mother. Like
one’s own country, institution, rivers, land, trees and many other objects.
However The Great Mother also has some negative qualities attached to her
image, like impulsiveness, darkness and secrecy, ambiguity, fickle mindedness
and malice. The demon and witch images (Bhadra Kali and Hecate) are also
products of the Great Mother Archetype. The reasons for the positive qualities
are obvious but those for the negative ones are complicated. One immediate
reason is “The Mother Complex”
The
Mother Complex
Mother is the first person a child
comes in contact with. Hence she has an immense influence on the psychological
development of the child. Any flaws on her part or her own internal
disturbances and conflicts lead different complexes in the child.
I. Mother
Complex in Son
Mother complex in the son is very
complicated than that in the daughter because of the Anima projections, that is
the feminine side of a man. Jung himself is not clear about this complex and
calls for further research in this direction. Mother complex in son has the
following phenomena.
Ø Homosexuality
As said
before Mother is first person a son comes in contact with. As an infant his
contact with her is physical. He becomes aware of her feminity and responds to
it by instinct. He develops an identity with mother. He takes her as an example
and develops all the qualities she has. Thereby he attains a feminine character
and literally feels he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. Naturally a woman
should have sexual attraction towards men. Hence this man gets attracted to
another man.
Ø Donjuanism
Here the
son tries to find his mother in every woman he finds but in vain. No one is
match to her beauty, grace and virtue. We find this complex in Higgins, a
character in Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” also in the protagonist of “Sons
and Lovers”.
II. Mother
Complex in Daughter
Mother complex in daughter is simple
compare to that in son. Here also if the Animus that is the masculine side of a
woman interferes it becomes complicated.
Ø Hypertrophy
of Maternal Instincts
Women with this
complex do not have their own individuality. They themselves are secondary
compared to their children even the husband is just a means for reproduction
and another object of her care. A thought for self doesn’t even occur to them.
It’s always the children, husband and household and her responsibility towards
them but there is a secrete will for power behind this sacrifice and
responsibility. Such women devour not only their personality but that of their
children. They are not allowed to go out of her hold. Hence we have the images
of Witch, Hecate and kali.
Ø Overdevelopment
of Eros
Freud defined to
Eros to be life instinct it can also mean the sexual instinct. Women with
overdeveloped Eros naturally develop an incestuous attraction towards father and
jealousy and hatred towards mother. Hatred towards mother results in resistance
to anything mother like thereby they lack maternal instincts. Since such
attraction towards father is not accepted in society as she grows older she
gets attracted to married men only. Only married men because her vengeance for
her mother can be gratified through the wife of the man she is attracted to, by
wrecking that marriage. As soon as the marriage is wrecked her interest for the
man evaporates due to lack of maternal instincts. If she has to continue
relationship with the man she should have the nurturing and comforting womanly
nature which she does not have. Hence she finds another prey and this goes on.
Interestingly Jung says these women are designed by nature with a purpose. It’s
good if a man is separated from a woman with Hypertrophy of Maternal Instincts
since such women make him a mere tool for reproduction and confined with in the
comforting hold of the wife. When separated from her he realizes his own
personality and attains higher consciousness.
Ø
Identity with Mother
Women who share a
strong identity with the mother idealize her to an extent that they are
helpless with out her. They are sensitive, delicate, innocent and confused and can
never take any decisions by themselves. They are very suggestible and do not
have a personality of their own. Even when married they try to find their
mother in the husband. They make excellent wives for men who crave for
authority and superiority.
Ø Resistance to
Mother
These women are in
outright opposition to anything that’s mother like. They marry but that’s only
an escape from the mother. They are disinterested in sex and hate childbirth.
Marital responsibilities are met with impatience. This may cause biological
changes too like disturbed menstrual cycles and impotency. These women usually
are intellectual and career oriented only to ridicule the educational and
intellectual deficiencies in the mother. They are masculine by nature.
The Rebirth Concept
It is difficult to define rebirth
precisely as it includes a wide horizon of meanings and concepts. It is beyond
sense perception and is purely psychic. Jung enumerated five forms of rebirth
they are:
·
Metempsychosis
This means a
transmigration of souls. Ones life is prolonged in time by passing through
different bodily existences or in a different point of view it is a life
sequence interrupted by different reincarnations.
·
Reincarnation
Here the
human personality is regarded as continuous and accessible to memory, so that
when one is incarnated or born, one is at least potentially able to remember
that one has lived through previous existences and that these existences were
one’s own, that is they had the same ego form as the present life.
·
Resurrection
This means
re-establishment of human existence after death. Here there is a transformation
of ones being. The change may either be essential that is the resurrected being
is a different one or non essential that is only the general conditions of
existence have changed, as when one finds in a different place or in a body
which is differently constituted.
·
Rebirth (Renovation)
This is
rebirth wit in the span of the individual life. It’s whose atmosphere suggests
the idea of renovation, renewal or even improvement brought about by magical
means. Rebirth may be renewal with out any change of being there is no change
in its essential nature only its functions or parts of personality are subject
to healing or strengthening. Another aspect of this fourth form of rebirth is
essential transformation that is total rebirth. Here the renewal implies a
change of his essential nature and may be called a transmutation.
·
Participation in the process of transformation
Here there
is an indirect rebirth. It occurs by participating in a process of
transformation that is taking place outside the individual. In other words one
has to witness or take part in some rite of transformation, such as a mass.
Through his presence at the rite the individual participates in a divine grace.
The
Psychology of Rebirth
Rebirth is actually a transformation
in the psyche. These transformations may occur with in the individual due to
reasons within him or as said before due to events happening outside him which
inspire and influence him. Now we shall discuss about certain important
subjective transformations. They are:
Ø Diminution
of Personality
This was called
as “Loss of Soul” by people of stone ages and middle ages. Here the person
becomes numb, depressed, mute and paralyzed. The consciousness loses its unity;
the individual parts of the personality make themselves independent and thus
escape from the control of the consciousness.
Ø Enlargement
of Personality
The personality is
seldom what it is earlier. The events occurring outside influence the person
and new vital contents enter the personality and get assimilated but here the
transformation is not only due to external cause. The person must have the
capacity to receive them. Something in him makes him receptive to them and
allows him to take them.
Ø Change
of Internal Structure
A part of the
personality takes control of the ego consciousness. It can be The Persona, The
Anima and Animus, The Inferior Function or The Shadow or an Ancestral soul.
·
When the “Persona”, that is the
outward demeanor of the person, his way of dealing with the outside world takes
hold of the ego consciousness. The person becomes what he appears to be and
completely suppresses his original personality. Example a Police man will
remain tough and ruthless as he is expected to he may forget the soft and jovial
part of him.
·
When the “Anima and Animus”
that is the female side of a man and a male side of a female respectively take
possession the man or the woman possessed lose their original charm and value;
they retain them only when turned away from the world; in an introverted state
they serve as the bridges to unconscious.
·
The “inferior function” or the “shadow”
is the dark side of a human personality. It is a window to the unconscious. A
man possessed by it always makes an unfavorable impression on others and makes
himself fall into troubles out of his own will.
·
Another form of possession is
that by the “Ancestral soul”. It is the identification with a deceased
ancestor. The ancestral elements of the collective conscious under certain
condition come to the consciousness and the individual is thrust into the
ancestral role.
Ø Identification
with group and cult hero
·
When we are in a group a kind of psychic transformation
occurs with in us but such a transformation occurs on a lower level of
consciousness. We all have an animal with in us (that is the psyche of our
stone age ancestors were almost animals) that is base, instinctual, impulsive, emotional
and uncontrollable. This animal comes out when we are in a group. We can see this
phenomenon during riots and mass violence. This reason for this transformation
is that here is no fear and no responsibility in a group besides being a part
of the group immensely boosts our self esteem. For example as a citizen of “America
·
This mob spirit is again counteracted when there is a center
of activity, such as a sermon or rite. Here the person responds to the central
activity individually as per his own perception and mindset and at the same
time get the satisfaction of being in a group.
·
This unity is personified by a leader or a cult hero. The
feeling that we all are under that one single, visible entity strengthens this
unity.
·
If this transformation happens with in an individual alone it
takes place on a higher level of consciousness. Such a transformation will
bring out individuals like Vivekananda, Christ, Gandhi and other saints.
Ø Technical
Transformation
This process
occurs due to mental exercises like Meditation and Yoga.
Spirit
The Meaning of Spirit
·
Spirit is the principle which stands in opposition to matter.
An immaterial substance or form of existence which on the highest and the most
universal level is called “God”. We imagine this immaterial substance as the
vehicle of psychic phenomena or even of life itself.
·
Spirit is also regarded as a super natural or anti- natural
phenomenon.
·
Spirit also means a sum total of all phenomena of rational
thought, intellect, will, memory, imagination, creative power, aspirations
motivated by ideals.
The
Manifestation of Spirit
Ø
The Wise old Man
·
The Spirit is often symbolized by the figure of a wise old
man. In folklore he comes into picture when ever there is a need for good
advice, guidance, insight and enlightenment. He appears at the moment when the
hero is desperate and confused not knowing what to do and gives a solution.
·
He is not only moral but tests the morality of others.
·
He sometimes appears as a dwarf and sometimes as a giant.
This extremity of proportion is due to the spatial and temporal relations in
the unconscious.
·
The wise old man as a dwarf or a lily put suggests the fact
that “Great effects come from smallest causes”. This fact is the result of
discovery of atoms which despite being minute have a devastating explosive
force.
·
Sometimes he also plays a negative role as a wizard or a
wicked king. This implies the dual nature of the spirit: Good and Evil.
Ø
The Spirit in Animal Form
The spirit in the animal
form does not devalue it but on the contrary elevates it. The animal form
suggests an extra human sphere that is on a plane beyond human consciousness:
Demonically superhuman or bestially subhuman. The animals have not constrained
their energy or the libido by the formation of ego consciousness. In this way
they are much stronger and powerful to humans. In the genesis also we see that
the emancipation of the ego conscious as a Luciferan act (the serpent tempts
eve to eat the fruit of knowledge). In folklore we find animals talking
expressing the intellect like that of human and even superior to that of a
human. This is to suggest that the combination of animal energy and human
intellect would be an excellent explanation of the powers of the spirit.
Trickster
We all are well aware of the Trickster-figure, the clown and
the simpleton who is fooled often. He is fond of sly jokes and plays malicious
pranks which reveal his low level of intelligence and fatuity. He can change
his shape, has a dual nature: Half divine, half animal; and is also humorously
called “The Ape of God”. He is exposed to all kinds of tortures. He himself
declares that is soul is in the hell which shows his inner disturbances and
conflicts. He in turn inflicts pain on others and becomes subject to their
vengeance. His approximation to a savior is due to the mythological truth that
the wounded wounder is the agent of healing. Even “Yahweh” in the Old Testament
is a kind of trickster; his senseless orgies destruction, self imposed
suffering, gradual development into a savior and his simultaneous humanization;
this gradual transformation from meaningless to meaningful shows how Trickster
is related to a Saint.
The Trickster is a personification of the primitive,
barbarous and rudimentary stage of consciousness. He reflects our inferior
character or the shadow. He is a collective shadow figure, a summation of all
the inferior traits of character in individuals. Though we have crossed that
stage of base consciousness and attained a higher consciousness through
civilization, the Trickster figure is still alive in our art and literature. When
a modern man looks back at the Trickster, he is only looking at his own lower inferior
state of consciousness (“God looked down from above upon the times of
ignorance-Acts 17:30, New Testament).
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