Jung believed that the human psyche is a self-regulating system that strives for growth and seeks to maintain a balance between conflicting potentialities (polar opposites) in the process of ‘individuation’. An important aspect in this process is the Ego-Self Axis, the vital connecting link between Self and ego. If the relationship between Ego and Self is injured, we may experience a sense of alienation, a lack of belonging (being at home with ourselves) and a loss of meaning/purpose.
 
The memory of an original sense of wholeness, which Jung named the archetype of the Self, lies in our deep mind. Out of this primordial ‘oneness’ or paradisal state, a separate ego-consciousness developed as an adaptation to life’s demands (which necessitates repression), anchoring us in the external world. This is the task of the first half of our lives.
 
The Self is the ego’s origin and source of energy, representing the god-image within the psyche. A strong ego or ego strength (not the same as egotistical) is necessary to function effectively in the world as well as to engage in the exploration of our personal and the collective unconsciousness, including shadow work. Jung saw the second half of our lives as a continuous return to the Self or what Edward Edinger called the Ego-Self Reunion, which lies at the heart the process of individuation.
 
The ego is the centre of the field of ordinary consciousness and constitutes our subjective sense of identity. It dictates a selective awareness which directs our attention and what is subsequently remembered. Ego organizes our thoughts, feelings and intuition, informing how we relate to the external world as well as to our own internal world. The ego is just one small part of the Self.  The Self is the sum total of the whole psyche, the centre of the total personality with all its potential, including shadow and other unconscious processes or patterns.
 
The dialogue between ego and Self is pivotal in psychic development and a move towards wholeness. As such we learn to negotiate a balance between the conflicting demands of outer reality, and the internal world with its own inner conflicts.  
 
Written for @jungsouthernafrica

Image Credit: The world soul by Robert Fludd

Sources:
https://healingintheblur.com/ego-self-axis-separation-reunion-and-trauma/
https://sirseth.net/the-ego-self-axis/
https://thisjungianlife.com/episode-162-ego-self-axis-reconnecting-with-source/
http://psychoanalyticmuse.blogspot.com/2013/01/edward-edinger-ego-self-axis.html
http://journalpsyche.org/jungian-model-psyche/
 
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Our beginnings are rooted in the mother. We are born from her body, imprinted with her DNA (combined with the father’s) and biologically programmed to seek and recognize her. According to Jung, this innate need for mothering is a universal archetypal pattern.
 
‘Good enough mothering’ is important for the psychological and physical well-being of a growing human being. A nurturing, caring and psychologically present mother person (not necessarily the biological mother) during infancy and early childhood is a keystone of optimal adult human health.
 
But what if the mother figure is either emotionally, physically, or psychologically absent?
 
The mother’s impact on her children can be enlivening or deadening as reflected in the positive and negative mother complexes. “The negative mother complex can include self-alienation… It adversely affects confidence, promotes idealization of others and erodes life energy; feeds an internalized cycle of self-hatred, oppression, and vengeance.”  (p. 7)
 
“At the core of the mother complex is the mother archetype, which means that behind emotional associations with the personal mother, there is both an archetypal image of nourishment and security on the one hand and an archetypal negative of devouring possessiveness, darkness and deprivation on the other.”(p. 3) The mother archetype can manifest as the ‘loving’ mother, demonstrating nurture, wisdom, fertility, birth and growth (Jung, 1990, par. 158), but may also manifest as the ‘terrible’ mother (Jung, 1990, par. 157), devouring, engulfing or suffocating her children emotionally  
 
Allan Score’s Interpersonal Regulation Theory, grounded in developmental neuroscience and attachment theory/research emphasizes how our sense of self as well as brain development are formed via our early relationships.  Early interpersonal trauma such as loss, rejection, absence and insufficient holding may lead to feelings of being flawed, inadequate and ‘not good enough’.
 
Awareness of how mother images live within is us integral to becoming more conscious. Join us this month as we explore the relationship with the mother, whether personal or collective, and the impact on one’s sense of self.

​A post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
Image credit: Gustav Klimt
 
References:
Susan E. Schwartz, Ph.D. THE ABSENCE OF MOTHER
https://speakingofjung.com/podcast/2019/1/18/episode-40-susan-schwartz

 
#jungsouthernafrica #jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #archetypes #individuation #shadow  #mother #positivemother #negativemother #mothercomplex #motherarchetype#archetypalmother
#capetown #capetownsouthafrica #capetownlife #capetownliving

How do you remember your father? Was he a kind, loving presence in your life, fully engaged with your upbringing? Or was he partially or completely absent and you were brought up by your mother, grandmother, extended family or other caretakers? Was there the mystery of a biological father and a much harsher reality of a stepfather? Or was your stepfather the light in your life?

The impact of a real father or father figure, or the lack thereof, on our psyche is enormous. It may empower or disable us.  Our fathers (or father figures) are our first introduction into the world of the masculine, shaping our perceptions of the wider world as we venture from the relative safety of the maternal circle. Our relationships with our fathers shape our views of the feminine, and how we respond to the feminine world, whether we value or dismiss it. This may play out in our relationships with woman, whether in intimate relationships, friendships, social situations or work environments. The relationship we witnessed between our father and mother becomes a blueprint for future relationships.

Our own relationship with our father figures repeats in many other relationships, especially in the form of a father complex, whether negative or positive.  The complex is based on the specific conditioning or programming we received as children though the real interactions with a father figure. This may compel us to search for father figures all our life, sometimes ruthlessly competing for their attention.

Underlying our relationships with the father lies the father archetype. A pattern with numerous potentialities as reflected in the many fathers from history, mythology, fairytales and observed in the world around us. The devouring father who shallows his children such as Kronos from Greek mythology. The Greek goddess, Athena who was born from the head of her father after he shallowed her mother. The father that cuts off his daughter’s hands or banishes his lame son to the underworld.
The relationship with the father, whether personal or collective, impacts profoundly on one’s sense of self. 

Written for #@jungsouthernafrica

Image credit: Shante Young 

 #jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #archetypes #individuation #shadow  #father #positivefather #negativefather #fathercomplex #fatherarchetype#archetypalfather
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​Awareness of how mother and father images live inside us is vital in being conscious of how they influence our current relationships.  Being cognizant of your parental complexes allows you to take back what you unconsciously project onto an intimate partner, a boss or other important relationships.
 
The parental complex is cluster of emotionally charged images, ideas, thoughts, feelings and behavior patterns originally associated with the parents. The activation of a complex is always marked by the presence of an intense emotion… like when your buttons were pushed!  We all have mother and father complexes, but they differ from person to person. The internalized imago of the parents comprises the individual’s experience of the personal parents as well as the culture and historical era in which we live.  James Hillman (2) reminds us not to confuse the mother complex with our real flesh-and-blood mother. It rather refers to the way in which our psyche has integrated the personal mother within the structure of the archetypal mother.  
 
At the core of any parental complex there is an archetypal image of the primordial parents residing in every psyche. “For instance, behind emotional associations with the personal mother (that is, the mother complex), there is the archetype of the mother— an age-old collective image spanning humanity’s experience of mothering, from nourishment and security (“positive” mother) to devouring possessiveness (“negative” mother). Similarly, behind the father complex there is the father archetype—all the experienced diversity of fathering down through the ages, from authoritarian to permissive and all shades between.” (3)
 
A parental complex can have enlivening and deadening features. A negative father or mother complex, for instance, may have been formed due to a father and/or mother who was physically or emotionally absent, self-absorbed, detached, disengaged from and disinterested in the child. A negative parental complex can manifest in self-doubt and/or idealization of others but may also include profound self-alienation which may manifest in self-hatred and/or dissociation.  

References:

1. Carl Jung, “Mind and Earth,” CW 10, par. 74.
2. https://thefeministwire.com/2011/08/resurrecting-the-great-mother/
3.  Sharp, D. (2001). Digesting Jung: Food for the journey. Toronto: Inner City Books. Chicago

 
Image Credit:

1.  'My Parents', David Hockney, 1977 / Tate
2. Cartoon by NICO ARMENTI. IllustrazioneAccademiaBARI.
3. Katie M. Berggren https://shop.kmberggren.com/
   

 
A post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica

#jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology 
#analyticalpsychology #consciousness #unconscious #archetypes #shadow #symbolism 
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The process of ‘othering’ has allowed humans to treat Nature as a mere object instead of a living organism with its own organizing intelligence. Philosopher and author Charles Eisenstein refers to this as the myth of separation which underlies our modern civilization (1). He blames this dualistic view for setting people against each other, but also turning Nature into something we want to control, dominate and dissect. The age of enlightenment or reason, borne from the cultural and industrial revolutions, catapulted our consciousness into overvaluing of left-brain rational consciousness and moved us away from embodied awareness and resonance with all living things.

Carl Jung recognized that ‘We are Nature’ - that the natural world is important for the development of consciousness and wholeness (2). “He linked the loss of our mystical identity and the de-spiritualization of nature with the atrophy of our phylogenetic roots, or survival instincts, which have fallen back into the unconscious psyche.” (3) Jung stated that in the “civilization process, we have increasingly divided our consciousness from the deeper instinctive strata of the human psyche.” (4) Eisenstein’s myth of separation parallels Jung’s view of modern mans’ alienation from our two-million-year-old archaic original nature when we lived in a more participatory process with nature.
 
“African and other indigenous belief systems see the human psyche as whole and nondualistic, both containing and being embedded in relationships with others—people, ancestors, descendants, society, animals, nature, the cosmos as well as the spiritual and transpersonal realms. This fundamental interconnectedness between self and others, broadens the idea of what it means to be a human being—in contrast to the Western individualistic view. This holistic view is captured in the South African concept of Ubuntu, meaning a person is only a person through others, giving priority to the interdependence of relationships as an embodiment of our humanity. It is precisely this interconnected relationship with nature that many of us have lost.” (3)
 
Image credit: “Spiral Matrix’ - Sam Brown - https://www.fineartnewmexico.com/sam-brown
 
Sources:
(1) https://charleseisenstein.org/video/separation-vs-interbeing/
(2) Sabini, Meredith, ed. 2002. The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C. G. Jung.
Berkeley: North Atlantic books.
(3) Denise Grobbelaar (2020) The White Lion as Symbol of the Archetype of the Self and the Cannibalization of the Self in Canned Hunting, Jung Journal, 14:2, 11-29,
DOI: 10.1080/19342039.2020.1742550Grobbelaar
(4) Jung, C. G., and Marie-Louise von Franz. 1964. Man and His Symbols. New York: Dell
Publishing Co. p. 36.

I post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
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