AN ARCHETYPAL VIEW
OF WORLD DISTRESS
LAURA SUE DODSON
Efforts to address political and social concerns such as environmental issues, political elections, mass accumulation of nuclear weapons, national and international strife—have long carried a high level of frustration for me. This is not unlike the difficulties experienced in dealing on a symptomatic level with a client who comes in for counseling. The symptom is indeed important and must be responded to, often with acute and urgent focus. However, we must look at the problems behind the symptoms if we are to do more than put out fires that smolder only to recur again. Can we identify issues behind the manifest problems on national and international levels? Perhaps a psychological perspective would help us to understand specific problems in a new light and respond more fully and more productively to current crises.
The psychology of C. G. Jung describes primordial, a priori energy forces that can grip persons and motivate behavior in individuals, groups and cultures. These archetypal energies lie behind our cultural attitudes, including, for example, our attitude toward war. They are potentially the most destructive that exist, and can offer the possibility for a positive transformation, when met with conscious awareness and a strong ego. In contrast to Arnold Toynbee, who saw the destruction of cultures as inevitable in time, Jung holds out hope for the transformation of cultures through consciousness of the archetypal energies that emerge periodically in their psyches.
Even the possibility that Jung’s concepts may hold some truth for us demands that we attempt to understand what he was saying to see whether it has relevance for our time. It is therefore essential to consider what lies behind our approaches to nuclear arms, our attitudes toward Russia and theirs toward us, our efforts to maintain the image of our nation as hero, and many other issues which concern us.
Jung’s concepts are complex and extensive, comprising more than eighteen volumes of work. From this material reference is made here to his writings in two areas: the archetypal phenomenon behind Germany in World War II and the archetype of influence on our world as we approach the year 2000.
In retrospect we can look at pre-World War II Germany and acknowledge that something enormously powerful was happening in the people, swaying them to follow Hitler even, as it turned out, to the killing of six million Jews. Economic, political, social or historical analysis, while throwing light on the phenomenon, still leaves a vacuum in understanding the power of such destructive forces and how they could possess the minds and the very beings of so many people.
During the pre-war period Jung extended his theory of personal complexes to the study of collective phenomena. From his work on energy as a motivating force behind human behavior, Jung came to his theory of the archetypes and the transformation of energy.
For our purposes an archetype is a core energy force which is behind all human activity. It exists a priori and has a life of its own. It is never fully knowable. Each archetype has a polar nature of seeming opposites. The positive creative power of the archetype is unleashed when both ends of a continuum are in consciousness. Then the energy flow takes the form of a circle rather than opposing polarities. The destructive aspects of the archetype are unleashed when the seemingly opposite tensions are not in consciousness. The repressed or unconscious aspects are said to be the “shadow,” or in the dark, where they can be extremely destructive to conscious life.
For example, the mother archetype, while initially carried by the personal mother, is a greater energy force and a priori to the personal mother. The mother archetype has, as do all archetypes, a positive and a negative side—the good mother, and the bad mother. To the extent that both aspects are integrated, that is in consciousness, the full power of the archetypal energy works for us creatively in mothering. When one aspect is repressed, it could be described as a “wounded” expression of the archetypal energy. Healing the wounded expression (or positive transformation) is when the seemingly opposite poles of energy come together in consciousness.
Jung saw that individuals and groups could become “possessed”—their usual ego functioning overcome by archetypal energy erupting into consciousness. The effect of this is an absolutely profound phenomenon when it overcomes a group of people simultaneously. He felt that just such an occurrence had gripped the psyches of the German people prior to and during World War II.
When Christianity made its way into the Germanic countries, the people had suppressed Wotan, their ancient Teutonic god of creativity and war. The archetypal energy of this god remained in the unconscious of the people. But repressed archetypal energy must be dealt with and cannot forever be contained in the unconscious. The “God is dead” movement in Germany and the deflation of the German people in the early 1920’s caused major cracks in the ego structure of the latter, through which this primordial force could emerge.
Jung calls our attention to the extremely dynamic and potentially disrupting power of archetypal energies when he says, “It has always been terrible to fall into the hands of a living god.”1 To meet a “living god” with a strong ego, conscious of what is happening, and to maintain a dynamic tension between ego and the emerging unconscious material, holds the potential for positive transformation and a higher level of consciousness for the collective and the individuals involved. The vast majority of Germans, Jung contended, were not conscious of the archetypal force that was erupting and therefore could not meet it in a manner that might have moved them toward positive transformation. The destructive aspects of Wotan overcame their egos and possessed them, leading to mass destruction.
In 1958 Jung wrote of a newly emerging archetype of influence. He warned that if we do not become conscious of it, its negative aspects could overcome us, as with Wotan in Germany.2 His stimulus for writing about the new archetype of influence was the phenomenon of flying saucers, a phenomenon which occurred in over forty nations.
In a little essay called “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies,” Jung interpreted the sightings of spherical and cigar-shaped objects from outer space, moving toward the earth and away again, as projections. Flying saucers seen symbolically were objects representing wholeness, or mandalas, in the sky. Jung humorously noted that space is an acceptable place for “modern” human beings to project. We continue to do this today. “E.T.” is an example of outer space as the place to “phone home,” and “the Force” in the Darth Vadar stories is the god that heals. The archetype of archetypes—the archetype of wholeness—is moving in on the psyches of the human race, demanding attention and asking for integration into the ego. We are being asked—pushed if you will—toward greater wholeness.
What does such a vague and over-used term as wholeness mean? Though Jung never attempted to define it closely or to convey that it was fully attainable (perhaps it is God Him/Herself), he did describe it as “masculine-feminine antithesis (as seen in) the Chinese symbol of the One Being, Tao, consisting of yang and yin.”3 The collective issue of the people of the world, as we approach the Age of Aquarius, can be described as the need for integration of the masculine and feminine principles or yang-yin energies. The Western world, with its overdetermined masculine, must integrate the feminine; while some third world countries, with a more highly developed feminine, must integrate the masculine. Releasing the unconscious side of the masculine-feminine polarity is our task. It is the repressed opposite that is erupting from the unconscious and shaking our world, shaking all of us collectively and individually. Unless we meet the primordial force of this archetype with a strong ego and an understanding of what it really is, Jung warned, we don’t stand a chance for transformation. We will, rather, experience its destructiveness.
On the other hand, if enough people can meet this archetypal energy with consciousness of what is happening and the ego strength to withstand its force, its potentially creative power can bring us long-lasting transformation of the collective psyche. If we can accept this belief of Jung’s, we are pressed to become clearly conscious of what masculine-feminine antithesis is and how it is moving in the world. It is more than equality of sexes and role changes, though these are aspects of the issue. The transformation of which Jung speaks is far deeper than this, effecting a new reality of the psyche and causing dramatic social and cultural changes. It is therefore necessary to focus on the meaning of the yin-yang aspects of the archetype and its impact on today’s world.
By masculine and feminine principles, Jung does not refer to men and women, but rather to energy that is thrusting, conquering, assertive, outgoing, divisive (masculine or yang) relating to energy that is receptive, gestating, yielding, containing, undifferentiated (feminine or yin). He does not see these energies as polar opposites. Rather, they are perfect complements of one another. Like the positive and negative poles of electrical current, together they create powerful transforming energy.
|
Extreme |
Naive |
Yin in Relation |
Mature Yin |
Yang.in Relation |
Naive |
Extreme |
|
Yin |
Yin |
to Yang |
Mature Yang |
to Yin |
Yang |
Yang |
Masculine and feminine energies on a continuum.
To take a closer look at these energies, I have placed them on a continuum with a meeting place in the middle. The yin is divided into unconscious or extreme yin, naive yin, and yin in relation to yang; yang is divided into unconscious or extreme yang, naive yang, and yang in relation to yin. “Mature” yin-yang in balance lies in the middle of the continuum. There follows a definition of each position and a description of how it operates mythologically and culturally.
The unconscious or extreme yin is characterized in Greek mythology by Gaea, the victim. She is receptive, yielding, cool, enclosing, undifferentiated. She constellates her opposite, the unconscious yang, characterized by Ouranos, her husband. Ouranos in his aggressive manner rejects Gaea’s children and pushes them back into her. Her utter passivity allows this to happen. Initially each is behaving so out of compulsion that there is not sufficient consciousness to bring about conflict, but later Gaea rebels.
This degree of unconsciousness in yin and yang relationships can be seen sometimes in the beginnings of relationships between primitive cultures and world powers. The British as well as other nations were initially met with a surprising lack of resistance in some African tribes and in some sectors of the Indian population. Those positions were present in the Matabele’s overrun of the Shona in Zimbabwean history. The Shona hid, allowing the capture of their cattle and worldly goods and surrendering what was asked of them by their indiscriminate, driving, aggressive opponents. Each tribe was completely consumed by one extreme of the energy system. The Nazis, in their slaughter of Jews, might also be seen as acting from unconscious, driven yang energy.
Naive yin can be seen in Hera’s relationship with Zeus. Hera is naive in the sense that she does not see the nature of her mate; she relates instead to an image of what she wants her husband to be, and consequently considers herself abused and hurt. There is denial of her own power, yet her innocence and sense of being abused carry enormous force. She denies her power and projects it onto her hero, Zeus.
Zeus also is in a naive position. He relates to his anima image, not to Hera as she actually is. He too can be described as “innocent” in his own eyes, for he remains certain of Hera’s wrongdoings and unaware of his own. He feels himself to be her innocent victim.
Today the naive yang and naive yin positions can be seen after a culture has offered its soul in exchange for development. The developing nation feels abused and victimized—not unlike Hera—resentful of its “helper,” who is in turn caught in a naive yang position, puzzled at the anger of the nation it “helped” so much.
Some third world nations are developing a stronger sense of the combined yin-yang energies and are dealing with these energies internally rather than reacting against one aspect on a continuum which they have projected on another culture. The United States has vacillated in doing the same thing. On the one hand, we can point to the withdrawal of projection as exemplified in the rising of the people against the Vietnam war and against nuclear arms. (Perhaps we cast out our own inner Nixon in the threat of impeachment, a Nixon who said, “We will not act like a pitiful, helpless giant,” and who said, as he forged ahead in Vietnam, “We will not be humiliated.”) On the other hand, Reagan, perhaps, exemplifies a regression toward a naive yang position, as we once again lean into the hero myth and yang energy. The fundamentalist Christians behind Reagan might be seen as sincerely but naively believing God is on our side. To them, as to other reactionaries, we are the innocent hero, while at the same time we build support for crushing the oppressed in Latin America.
What is required to move on from the naive yin position toward more consciousness is greater assertiveness and thrusting power without loss of the ability to be receptive and yielding. Otherwise the pendulum will simply swing in the other direction, precluding transformation and integration of energies.
For the naive yang, what is required is acceptance of inner inferior qualities, an act of repentance and humility. Preoccupation with personal honor and strength coupled with despising of weakness is inevitable and necessary in the early stages of ego development in individuals and cultures. The ego must learn to assert itself in order to come into existence at all. The more mature ego, though, has learned that there is neither need for shame or denial of failures and weaknesses nor for exaggerating strengths. There must be a sense of one’s self and one’s power beyond comparative, elevating, or demeaning criteria.
The position of yin in relation to yang and yang in relation to yin can be characterized as an intellectual awareness in an individual or a culture of what the energy opposite to ego consciousness “looks” like. The ego perceives the persona of the opposite energy and develops an ability to behave in a persona manner like the “opposite” energy. There is, however, no integration of this energy into the ego. Usually such behavior is uneven, clumsy, and awkward.
This position is evidenced more in relation to movements within a culture than in cultures as a whole. A “liberated” woman who attempts to behave in the manner of a man, yet periodically collapses into her “inner little girl,” is an example of a woman without an integrated animus. She manifests “masculine” behavior superimposed on an underdeveloped feminine. Similarly, the man who is attempting to “get in touch” with his femininity by acting gently, speaking softly, or wearing long hair and beads to suggest gentleness may in fact be wearing a false persona of the yin placed upon an underdeveloped yang. This “phase,” as with all the positions on the continuum of yin-yang, is necessary and important for a further integration of the masculine and feminine. It should not be belittled, but rather understood as part of the larger picture of the task before us.
The mature yin-yang, in the middle of the continuum, represents wholeness or individuation in a culture or an individual. Here the opposites come together in a dynamic and creative tension with each other and energy is transformed. This position represents a different reality. Wholeness is not a matter of will, rather it “happens” at moments when the ego and the Self are in “right” relationship. We cannot make it happen, but we can hold images of it and identify ways in which we draw near to the experience. We can recall occasions when we have experienced it, holding on to these as our “real” reality in times of confusion or lesser consciousness.
In this mature yin-yang state, the hard and soft, logos and eros are present and available to choose from, dependent on the time, place, and situation, but not on lack of awareness. In a political situation, leadership asks not only, “What do we need and want?” but equally, “What is it that the other party needs and wants?” Leadership and individuals ask, “What are my feelings about this issue and those of the people I represent, and what are the feelings of the ‘opposition’?” Leadership would look for its own values in a situation and strive equally to see those of the other.
There would be in this mature yin-yang position a constant search for the shadow in any situation. The questions would be, “What is missing in this situation?” and, “What would the missing aspect bring to make the situation more complete?” In political negotiations leadership would be present to the moment, yet perceive the moment in a dimension of timelessness as well as in a context of history and trends.
A sense of oneness would be felt even with the “opposition” as one recognizes a common humanity and simultaneously respects uniqueness and difference. Confrontation would occur, yet compassion would be evident. Leadership would be more individuated: not pushed and pulled (for long or without examination) by moods and hurts or complexes—individual or collective. Leadership would be committed to clarifying personal and cultural complexes and to seeing these in relation to the dynamic whole of the globe There would be constant effort to acknowledge projections (toward oneself and toward others), striving to lessen reactions to the projections of others onto oneself. The process of struggling with this ability to see, coupled, of course, with socio-economics and historical and political knowledge, could aid in providing needed information on which to determine interventions and make decisions.
What is described here is a dynamic process, not a position to be attained. In this dynamic process, with the deeper integration of yin and yang energies, there would be a creative use of self in whatever context leadership finds itself, without necessarily having any precedent for how to react in that situation. An ability to live with ambiguity would be present. Ability would be manifest on the part of such political leadership to hold opposite opinions, ideologies, or values that are in current conflict in consciousness. There would be some trust that by holding to these opinions and values and exploring them, a position beyond the polarity would be reached.
Some noble moments exemplifying this description of mature yin-yang have been evidenced in politics. One example was Carter’s effort to negotiate between Egypt’s Sadat and Israel’s Begin. Carter seemed tuned to a value beyond competition, enabling him to speak to a sense of oneness and to urge embracing the shadow by facilitating dialogue between nations that had been enemies for over 3,000 years. He attempted to help them see that each had something the other needed. Gandhi and Martin Luther King approached social and political change through nonviolent behavior. This, coupled with their direct confrontation with issues of oppression, showed a mature yin-yang position.
By attempting to describe the integration of the masculine and feminine principles, we have touched on utopian ideas creating an image of a largely unattainable, indescribable, and certainly not constant state. Such an attempt in itself can move toward creating a form, but not the essence, of the needed transformation. At the same time, it is essential to try to grasp images of a political leadership and a personal process of living with masculine and feminine energies in consciousness. Einstein once said, “With the splitting of the atom and the bombing of Hiroshima everything changes save our thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” As mentioned above, Jung adds to this his concept of unconscious archetypal energy that would befriend us and make the dramatic transformation needed in our thinking. Yet without awareness of this archetypal force and ego strength to meet it, we will, he warns, fall into its destructive hands.
In summary we can say that as a nation and as a world, the energy of the archetype of wholeness pushes and pulls on us, demanding a shift in consciousness. This is most strongly reflected in the yin-yang energy split that can be seen in most cultures and in the relationship of one culture to another the world over. Cultural norms in relation to masculine/feminine energies are disrupted everywhere. This is reflected in spiritual movements, the women’s movement, minority movements, foreign policy, third world developments, and so on. One can hardly escape in a day’s time the effects of the erupting archetypal energy, its outer evidences and its inner disturbances. We have no paradigms to lead us toward the development of ego in relation to the emerging unconscious. In today’s nuclear age, a wounded expression of masculine/feminine energy poses unprecedented dangers.
Despite many artful political maneuvers, some made with the greatest of good will, the culture struggles blindly unless it becomes conscious of the energy that motivates it. Recognition of the nature of the archetype of influence and its manifestations, together with a strong ego state to meet the powerful erupting force, offers understandings that go beyond the pain of the moment and aids in meeting the struggles in more dynamic, transforming ways.
1. Jung, C.G., Collected Works, Vol. 10, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1959, par. 398.
2. Ibid., par. 389.
3. Ibid., par. 772.
4. Hannah, Barbara, Jung, His Life and Work: A biographical Memoir, New York, Putnam, 1976, p. 212.
Capra, Fritz, The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1982.
Engelsman, Joan Chamberlain, The Feminine Dimension of the Divine, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1979.
Hannah, Barbara, Jung, His Life and Work: A Biographical Memoir, New York, Putnam, 1976.
Jung, C.G., Essays on Contemporary Events, Collected Works, Vol. 10, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1959, pp. 177-245.
Jung, C.G., Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, CW 10, pp. 307-436.
Jung, C.G., The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man, CW 10, pp. 74-94.
Keyes, Ken Jr., The Hundredth Monkey, St. Mary, Kentucky, Vision Books, 1982.
Ulanov, Ann Belford, Receiving Woman: Studies in the Psychology and Theology of the Feminine, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1981.
LAURA SUE DODSON, member of Mountain View Friends Meeting, Denver, is a psychotherapist, Jungian Analyst, social worker and Ph.D. Psychologist. A member of Avanta Network, she does consultations with and for Virginia Satir. She studied for a year at the Jung Institute in Zurich and six months at Pendle Hill, the Quaker Study Center.
“Dangers at the Crossroads,” a second article by Laura Dodson, will appear in a future issue of Inward Light. Thetitle refers to the time of transition between archetypes of influence, and the problems that can occur during this time.