Ego and Archetype

Notebook: Books
Created: 13/12/2019 6:53 CH Updated: 28/12/2019 10:37 SA
Author: Phùng Tuấn Long

THE INFLATED EGO

He could do anything but can't decide on one thing in particular. The problem is that he is
all promises and no fulfillment
In order to make a real accomplishment he must sacrifice a number of other
potentialities. 
He must give up his identification with original unconscious wholeness and voluntarily
accept being a real fragment instead of an unreal whole
To be something in reality he must give up being everything in potentia
The puer aeternus archetype is one of the images of the Self, but to be identified with it
means that one never brings any reality to birth
The fruit is clearly symbolical of consciousness. 
The serpent represented the spiritual principle symbolizing redemption from bondage to
the demiurge that created the Garden of Eden and would keep man in ignorance.
Psychologically, the serpent is the principle of gnosis, knowledge or emerging
consciousness.
The serpent's temptation represents the urge to self-realization in man and symbolizes
the principle of individuation.
All utopian psychological theories which assume that the human personality can be whole
and healthy if only it is not subject to sexual and instinctual  repressions in childhood are
wrong.
The innate and necessary stages of psychic development require a polarization of the
opposites, conscious vs unconscious, spirit vs. nature.
The recovery of our lost wholeness can only be achieved by tasting and assimilating the
fruits of consciousness to the full.
Something larger than life infuses the human -- if they can break themselves open and
accept it. Then, that which infuses the human infuses the work, which then in turn infuses
the culture.
When a dream has several scenes they can usually be best understood as varying ways to
describe the same central idea.
In other words the stream of images in dreams circumambulates certain nodal centers
rather than proceeding in a straight line as does rational thinking.
Both the fire and the fruit symbolize consciousness which leads to a measure of human
autonomy and independence from God
Pain and suffering and death do exist prior to the birth of consciousness, but if there is no
consciousness to experience them, they do not exist psychologically.
Any step in individuation is experienced as a crime against the collective
One cannot presume to set his own course safely until he knows what he is doing.
Dependence on the superior wisdom of others is often an accurate appraisal of the reality
situation.
Dream or symptom-images of airplanes crashing, falling from high places, phobic fear of
heights, etc. all derive from the basic psychic set-up represented by the myth of Icarus.
Again the myth tells us that inflation has, as its inevitable consequence, a fall.
The wheel is the Self, the state of wholeness, but it is a torture wheel so long as the ego
remains unconsciously identified with it 
THE ALIENATED EGO

At any rate Cain is an archetypal figure representing the experience of rejection and
alienation.
The crucial point is that at the root of violence of any form lies the experience of
alienation -- a rejection too severe to be endured
Just as the experience of active inflation is a necessary accompaniment of ego
development, so the experience of alienation is a necessary prelude to awareness of the
Self
The classic symbol for alienation is the image of the wilderness.
"Man's extremity is God's opportunity"
As long as one is unconsciously identified with God he cannot experience His existence.
The child experiences parental rejection as rejection by God. The experience is then built
into the psyche as permanent ego-Self alienation.
The fact that the ego cannot experience the support of the Self until it has been freed of
its identification with Self.
The body has a built-in process of homeostasis or self-regulation which will not permit
the basic body constituents to get too far out of proper balance
Like the body, the unconscious psyche has an instinctive wisdom which can correct the
errors and excesses of consciousness if we are open to its messages.
Happiness equals what we have, divided by what we expect.

ENCOUNTER WITH THE SELF

THE ROLE OF THE COLLECTIVE

Although collective methods protect man from the dangers from the psychic depths, they
also deprive him of the individual experience of theses depths and the possibility of
development which such experience promotes.
Each individual project his inner God-image (the Self) to the religion of the community.
The reality of the transpersonal life-forces is mirrored in the external imagery that the
church embodies in its symbolism, mythology, rites and dogma.
As long as it is functioning adequately, the church protects the society against any
widespread inflation or alienation.
IF now the outer church loses its capacity to carry the projection of the Self, we have the
condition which Nietzsche announced for the modern world, "God is dead!"
All the psychic energy and values that had been contained in the church now flow back to
the individual, activating his psyche and causing serious problems.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

When a woman (or the anima in a man's psychology) encounters the Self it is often
expressed as celestial impregnating power.

THE BOOK OF JOB

Behemoth and Leviathan represent the primordial concupiscence of being

Satan is here truly Lucifer, the bringer of light. He brings man the knowledge of God, but
through the suffering he inflicts on him
Satan is the misery of the world which alone drives man inward, into the "other world"
Wisdom puts her sons to the test just as Yahweh did Job, through the agency of Satan
The favorites of God receive the severest ordeals, i.e., it is one's potential for individuation
that causes the test.
We all have an underlying resentment against fate and reality which is a residue of
inflation.
Job asked why his misery should happen to him. The answer that emerges from the Book
of Job is so that he may see God.

THE INDIVIDUATED EGO

Individuation is a process, not a realized goal

 dream interpretation, the method of amplification which brings similar images from
mythology to amplify and clarify dreams.
It is completely erroneous to apply such a primitive mode in dealing with outer reality;
that would involve us in magical and superstitious practices of all kinds.
But it is precisely the right approach to deal with the unconscious and to make contact
with the archetypal psyche.
In dreams the image of an animal, a primitive, or a child is commonly a symbolic
expression for a source of help and healing.
To be primitive in our relation to the outer world is to be superstitious; but to be primitive
in relation to the inner world of the psyche is to be wise.
The secret of the world is the tie between person and event

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

THE FUNCTION OF THE SYMBOL

Physical is not the only criterion of truth: there are also psychic truths which can neither be
explained nor proved nor contested in any physical way.
The dynamism of the unconscious symbol is experienced only as a wish or an urgency
toward some external action.
The ego, identified with the symbolic image, becomes its victim, condemned to live out
concretely the meaning of the symbol rather than to understand it consciously.
I was living in a constant state of tension... To the extent that I managed to translate the
emotions into images -- that is to say, to find the images which were concealed in the
emotions -- I was inwardly calmed and reassured
To the extent that one is unaware of the symbolic dimension of existence, one experiences
the vicissitudes of life as symptoms.
It is meaninglessness which is the greatest threat to humanity.
To gain release from the painful symptoms one must also relinquish the pleasurable
symptoms.

THE SYMBOLIC LIFE

Dreams are expressions of the ego-Self axis.

We may not be able to read the letter, but at least we should open it and make the effort.
Only by awareness and acceptance of out weakness do we become conscious of
something beyond the ego which supports.

CHRIST AS PARADIGM OF THE INDIVIDUATING EGO

THE ACCEPTANCE OF SEPARATENESS

Parents have power over their grown children only because the latter continue to project
the images of the archetypal parents to their personal parents.
To call no man father means to withdraw all projections of the father archetype and
discover it within.
Jesus demands a commitment to the Self which transcends loyalty to any personal
relationship.
It is no easy matter to live a life that is modeled on Christ's, but it is unspeakably harder to
live one's own life, as truly as Christ lived his.

THE ETHICAL TEACHING

The ego which is aware of its own emptiness of spirit ( life meaning ) is in a fortunate
position because it is now open to the unconscious and has the possibility of experiencing
the archetypal psyche ( the kingdom of heaven ).
If the ego serves the reconciling function of peacemaker, it is acting in the interests of
totality, the Self, and hence as "son of God".
The ego needs to endure pain and hurt without succumbing to bitterness and resentment
in order to be related to the objective inner law. Such an ego attitude is rewarded by
contact with the archetypal psyche and its healing, life-giving images.
 According to Jesus' teaching the ego must be emptied of such inflated identifications
before it can perceive the transpersonal psyche as something separate from itself.
We are being instructed to love our inner enemy, to make friends with our inner accuser,
and to offer no resistance to that within us which we consider evil (inferior, unacceptable
to ego standards).
The shadow must be accepted. Only then can wholeness of personality be approached.
The inner beggar is the deprived, neglected aspect of the personality, what Jung calls the
inferior function. It needs its place in consciousness and should be given what it asks.
The inferior function which has been lost to conscious life needs to be given special value
if one's goal is the wholeness of the Self.
The treasure is the Self, the suprapersonal center of the psyche. It can be discovered only
through a total commitment. It costs all that one has.

THE SELF-ORIENTED EGO

The ego tends to identify with the newly-found wisdom or energy and appropriates it for
personal purposes.
Preoccupation with personal honor and strength and the despising of weakness is
inevitable and necessary in the early stages of ego development.
The ego must learn to assert itself in order to come into existence at all.
To recognize experiences of weakness and failure as manifestations of the suffering god
striving for incarnation gives one a very different view point.

MAN AS THE IMAGE OF GOD

The ego is the seat of consciousness and if consciousness creates the world, the ego is
doing God's creative work in its effort to realize itself through the way of individuation.

BEING AN INDIVIDUAL
THE A PRIORI EXISTENCE OF THE EGO

Each person has his own unique version of this experience which is incommunicable as
such. Yet, the form of the experience is universal and can be recognized by all men.
An absolutely original center in which the universe reflects itself in a unique and inimitable
way.
Unconscious individuality expresses itself in compulsive drives to pleasure and power and
ego defenses of all kinds.
We demand from others only what we fail to give ourselves.
If we have insufficient self-love or self-prestige, our need expresses itself unconsciously by
coercive tactics toward others.
What is required is not the extirpation of selfishness, which is impossible but rather that it
be wedded to consciousness and thus become effective.
All the facts of biology and psychology teach us that every individual unit of life is self-
centered to the core. The only varying factor is the degree of consciousness which
accompanies that fact.
As Plato expressed it so clearly in the Symposium, we love and yearn for what we lack.
Narcissism in its original mythological implications is thus not a needless excess of self-
love but rather just the opposite, a frustrated state of yearning for a self-possession which
does not yet exist.
Fulfilled self-love is a prerequisite to the genuine love of any object, and to the flow of
psychic energy in general.
Reality is hostile to the inflated state of unconscious totality ( ego-Self identity ) and
dismembers it.
Etymology is the unconscious side of language, hence it is relevant in psychological
studies.
The experience of individuality is primary; it cannot be analyzed or reduced to simpler
elements.

THE MONAD AND THE MONOGENES

 To be aware of individuality is to realize that one has all that one needs. It also means that
one needs all that one has, namely, that every psychic content and happening is
meaningful.
To be related to one's individuality means to accept all that is encountered within as
meaningful and significant aspects of the single whole.
No psychic happening is fortuitous. There is no place for chance in the meaningful world
of psyche.
If loneliness is faced instead of forgotten, it can lead over to the creative acceptance of
the fact of aloneness.
Blessed are the solitary and the elect, for you will find the Kingdom! Because you have
issued from it, you will return to it again.

THE TRINITY ARCHETYPE AND THE DIALECTIC OF DEVELOPMENT

The trinity archetype seems to symbolize individuation as a process, while the quaternity
symbolizes its goal or completed state. 
Three is the number for ego-hood, four is the number for wholeness.

SYMBOLS OF THE GOAL

METAPHYSICS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
A SERIES OF "METAPHYSICAL" DREAMS

It is the alchemical idea of extracting the soul or spirit which is imprisoned in matter and
would correspond to the psychological process of extracting the meaning from a concrete
experience.

RETURN TO THE BEGINNING

The alchemical secret was not a substance but a state of consciousness, a perception of
the archetypal level of reality.

COMPLETION OF THE OPUS

The experience of the Self is always a defeat for the ego.

THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

THE MEANING OF BLOOD

If we withhold our emotions from our fellow men... To cherish secrets and hold back
emotion is a psychic misdemeanour for which nature finally visits us with sickness - that is,
when we do these things in private.