Atheism, Jungianism, and the Jungian Problem of Religion (Part 2)
A Diagnosis and Proposed Treatment of the Jungian Religious Disease
The Symbiotic Jungian Relationship with the New Age
Some contemporary Jungians (e.g., David Tacey) have written books and articles stumping for a revised Jungian (and at times, human) perspective on religion. Many Jungians find the association of Jungianism with New Age spiritualities not only dismaying, embarrassing, and unfortunate but also dangerous and potential destructive for Jungianism. I agree with this position, but I have not seen enough fundamental differentiation of and from New Age ideas and obsessions, even in these Jungian critics, to really catalyze change on this front. What I see in the Jungian unconscious regarding its religiosity and New Ageism is a much deeper, more pandemic issue of the Jungian shadow than is more widely acknowledged. As is so often the case, when it comes to Jungian religiosity (and religious quackery) there are not "just a few bad apples". The problem is systemic, and the draw of New Age thinking and spirituality is written into our souls. It is not merely "those people over there"; this shadow is universally Jungian and we all contribute to it in some way.
In other words, I wish to point toward an internal source of this problem, and that source is the spiritual hunger that burbles within all of those people drawn to Jungianism. It may be impossible to have it both ways, to have and cherish this hunger and also not have it lead to numerous perversions and delusional obsessions and misdirections. At least some of this straying is inevitable . . . and I think the best we can do is to first acknowledge that this is our collective shadow for which we are responsible and then to try to more effectively analyze and understand our spiritual hunger.
Of course, it has always been known to Jungians (and Jung addressed this pointedly himself) that spiritual hunger is problematic because it leads (most of the time, even) to some form of delusion and/or self-demolition. We use the term "inflation" most commonly . . . and in Jung's most detailed writing about the spiritual individuation experience (in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology), he even states that some degree of this inflation is inevitable in any individuation process where "the unconscious is assimilated". But Jungian thinking on the issue of inflation has, if anything, regressed since Jung's important but still fairly vague reflections on the issue. As I have bemoaned repeatedly since before the beginning of Useless Science, inflation is a terribly bungled issue in Jungianism . . . and it is reasonable to assume that this bungling is largely a matter of Jungians characteristically suffering from some degree of inadequately addressed and still unconscious inflation. Most Jungian literature that address inflation (in patients, but never in analysts!) takes a very condemning stance. Inflation is the Jungian bogeyman. But we need to be able to look at it more constructively and talk about it more honestly and intelligently if we are to ever treat the Jungian shadow or the problem of our New Ageyness.
The issue of inflation is related to another facet of the New Age problem in Jungianism. The superficial reason that Jungianism attracts so many religiously flaky and delusional people is that it offers an attractive system of valuation of unconscious contents, visions, and fantasies. It promises awakenings and approvals of inwardness . . . and it delivers very nicely on that promise. But the deeper (and rather less attractive) reason it draws so many New Agers is that the Jungian model of individual seems to lack (and generally does lack) a sense of systematic discipline. There are very few if any observable markers that describe an individuant. No one really knows what individuation is, even Jungian analysts . . . and so no one places any regulations or standards on it. Jungian individuation is just another occult, tribal mysticism where learning the lingo and assuming the posture is indistinguishable from any "real" growth or transformation. The Jungian language in which individuation is discussed (a notably mystical and religious one) is simply too vague and cannot set specific definitions on individuation.
So, wagging fingers at those crass New Agers and their hypocritical, delusional spiritualistic indulgences is utterly beside the point. The real problem starts at the very core. Notably, Jung and the Jungians have purposefully eschewed the construction of a unique and specific discipline around individuation. Instead, they have encouraged misinterpretation and misappropriation of the concept by constantly comparing its motifs to those of spiritual disciplines and mystical practices. I don't mean to suggest this "amplification" is absolutely inaccurate. But individuation lacks the structure of many of these disciplines.
Also, instead of developing the concept of individuation in a more scientific way while using previous mysticisms and spiritual disciplines as data, Jungians have concerned themselves with marveling at the artifacts of individuation: active imagination fantasies, visions, unconscious-inspired artwork like mandalas, etc. One off the most thorough studies of an "individuation process" comes from Jung's own writing in the essay "A Study in the Process of Individuation" (in The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious). But this essay concerns itself largely with the interpretation of extremely abstract (and therefore projection-prone) paintings without significant effort to explain, in more scientific terms, what the patient who painted these mandalas was experiencing. This sort of essay has set the precedent for Jungian "individuation studies" . . . and it is next to useless, a mere curiosity. Granted, individuation is notoriously difficult to gauge or study . . . but I believe Jungians can do significantly better. Once again, it all comes back to self-examination and shadow work.
In my experience, the presence of artifacts and fantasies of individuation are not an indication that individuation is actively engaged in. Specifically misleading are fascinations with and visions of numinous objects, ideas, personages, and events. This numinous affect makes for very compelling experiences, but there is very little indication that these visionary experiences lead to or are a significant part of the kind of systemic reorganization process that a successful individuation or psychotherapy might entail. One of the most common forms of inflation in Jungian and New Age adherents is a conflation between numinous experiences and individuation events . . . and there is a tendency to believe that fantasizing about a thing is equivalent to the reality and presence of the thing. But the spontaneous unconscious commonly presents its symbols in very dramatic, even grandiose, fashion. Additionally, there is a correlation (in dreams and visions) between the affective intensity of an image or event and the vagueness of that event. By "vagueness", I mean that there is not yet a viable Logos or egoic languaging for translating and understanding the numinous image. This may seem counterintuitive. In waking life, the intensity of something is usually directly related to its proximity. But when it comes to unconscious contents, it is common for things that are "farther away" or not very well defined but which still contain powerful concentrations of affect (i.e., "complexes") to seem more overwhelmingly intense (perhaps because it is inadequately facilitated . . . in this case, languaged . . . affect that leads to disruptions and eruptions of the psychic system; think plumbing rather than, say, radiation). As we develop a conscious language in which to understand these contents (and interrelate them in active memory systems), their affective intensity is diminished. Affect, in this sense, is a pre-language. It can tell us that something is valuable to us, but without a developed egoic language with which to translate and interpret it, we cannot know what the thing is or understand the complexity of our conscious relationship to it.
In my interaction with Jungians of New Agey persuasion, I've noted tremendous and stubborn resistance to languaging some of these affective phenomena. Instead, they are worshiped . . . and the result is a kind of spiritual grandiosity that is devoted to separating those who "embrace" the affective object and those who "just don't get it". In other words, tribal boundaries are unconsciously defined based on belief in these numinous objects and ideas. The faculty of human intelligence that languages and narrativizes is devalued (sometimes as the disparaged "thinking function" . . . held to be valuatively inferior to the feeling and intuitive functions, specifically). This inflated dynamic tends to make such believers into babes at the breast of an affective Great Mother figure. The goal of this belief becomes the commitment to the providence of this breast. To question any of this reality is "masculine aggression". The chief externality of this dynamic is an unconscious shadow projection onto those who disagree with the cultic ideology or don't worship the "right" god. All of the so-called "masculine aggression" is displaced in a passive-aggressive fashion onto these "infidels".
Of course, even if Jungianism has been religiously lax, it still (on the professional level) sees through and perhaps condemns that kind of cultic formulation. But what has happened with many New Age Jungians is that when conventional Jungianism expressed skepticism and concern with New Age exploits, the New Agers parted ways with Jungianism. It was just another breast to suck from . . . and if it doesn't give the milk that's wanted, some other magical breast will be set up in its place. So the relationship of some of these New Age Jungians is basically parasitic. They want and will take, but they will only take what they want . . . and they don't give back. This will, of course happen, and it can't be prevented entirely. The problem in this for Jungianism is a kind of codependency. Many Jungians have been more or less happy to court and encourage New Age hangers on and watered down interpretations of Jungian ideas. On the positive side, we sympathize with their spiritual hunger and perhaps with their suffering or brokenness. On the negative side, the professional Jungian community needs an audience and patients in order to legitimize itself. If Jungians distinctly cut off all the flaky New Agers and asserted a rigorous scientific discipline, they would lose many readers and patients. So the symbiotic relationship of Jungianism and the New Age runs deep and roots down right in the heart of the Jungian shadow. It is well and good to grumble about New Age misappropriations, but do Jungians really want to pay the consequences of a more scientific, rigorous, and therefore exclusive theory?
I think that as we proceed in our examinations of the New Age and of modern religiosity, we need to look very carefully at these issues. They involve tremendously difficult ethical decisions and often serious gambles with fate. Jungianism after Jung has become precisely what its customers have paid for it to be. If it really were to reinvent itself, it would have to reinvent its customers. It cannot exist while dissatisfying its customers. But what are Jungians really devoted to: satisfying the desires of these customers or treating them and seriously studying the psyche?
That Old Nagging Question: Is Jungianism a Religion?
I have read numerous responses from Jungian analysts to this recurring question (or accusation) over the years. Unanimously, these analysts dismissed the charge. Jungianism is not a religion (chuckle, chuckle, scoff). Personally, I'm not so sure about this. Jungian analysis is well aware of its similarity to shamanism . . . and some Jungians have actively embraced shamanic ideas and symbols. Shamanism is perhaps the oldest form of religion . . . a religion distilled to its original, tribal roots. Claims contradicting Jungianism's religiosity on the basis of its scientific nature are spurious. We cannot have it both ways . . . and our dedication to science and scientific methodology has been severely lacking for a long time (this issue is more complicated when it comes to developmental school/s of Jungianism, but I won't address that here).
Additionally, we have seen it as within our purview to support general religiosity, encourage belief in the paranormal (and perhaps even the supernatural), and stump for the valuation of an "ensouled world" or animi mundi. More pointedly, it is well known that Jung advised Jungian analysts not to discourage patients from practicing and exploring their religions . . . and he even felt that many analyses (especially of those in midlife) required a return to a religious perspective of one kind or another.
But can Jungianism be a powerful religious advocate without promoting religions or religiosity? Can we advise patients to "get religion" while also insisting that the Jungian method is not religious? Can having a religiosity that is flexible and not well defined be the same thing as not being a religion at all? We may benefit from a look back at the state of religion in the Roman Empire around the time Christianity was forming (1st century CE). The religious "marketplace" was huge and diverse . . . and the attitude many people took toward religion was eclectic. There were many similarities between that time and the modern New Age situation with religion. "Monotheism" at that time was a Jewish idea (and considered radical and disturbing by many gentiles) . . . but even Judaism had numerous sects and divisions (many of which bore very little resemblance to the Judaisms of today).
In other words, the idea that to be a religion is to be monotheistic and specific/restrictive about beliefs and practices is a notion prejudiced by the monotheistic Judeo-Christian inheritance we in the West take for granted. Monotheism and controlled belief do not define religiosity or religion. Jungianism cannot weasel out of its religiosity on this argument. That Jungianism as religious advocate offers people a welcoming way into religions and religiosity more so than it offers a final and unquestionable dogma to believe in does not really differentiate Jungianism from many of the old pagan religions in the 1st century Roman Empire. The attraction of proto-Christianities during this period and the next few centuries was largely based on the success of Christian syncretism and its compatibility with various preexisting religions . . . from the worship of Dionysus to the elite state religion of Sol Invictus to Mithraism to Egyptian mysticisms and even including Judaism. Judaism had many attractive elements to certain Roman gentiles: its personal and powerful experience of God, its proclaimed supremacy (as the only true religion), its focus on dietary laws and purifying the body, and its compelling history of persistence in the face of persecution, sometimes even bordering on and resembling "Dionysian madness". Also, Jews were the "Other" in the Roman Empire, perhaps more so than any other people. Yes, they were largely hated, but they were also enshrouded with intriguing mystery (perhaps we Americans might want to reflect on the relationship and fascination we have had with Native American spirituality inspite of the atrocious treatment of and prejudice toward these peoples we have also upheld).
Rather than unconvincingly avoiding our status as "religion", I think Jungians need to start facing and living up to the charge. We have invited religious responsibility upon ourselves . . . and we need to have a more effective and honest way of addressing this responsibility. Even if we are "only" awakening Jungian patients and readers to the unconscious, this is a religious process, and one that requires strong guiding principles and a continued study of how functional these principles (and the way we language them) are. The personal integrity and professional ethics of individual analysts is not enough. This is a tribal issue . . . and it is inherent in our Jungianism (not merely in our individual practices).
A related issue is indoctrination of patients (and readers, for that matter). As I have written previously, indoctrination into a tribe can have "curative" effects on many people. Dissociation (from the sacredness of community and from the sacredness of the instinctual Self) is enormously common in the modern world. Most people just need to be part of something sacred, something where instinct flows through action (and sociality), where Eros binds people together into like-mindedness and like values. Jungian analysis is typically good at promoting this re-tribalization. It offers new gods to ponder and commune with, new experiences to value, and a sense of approval for any such indulgence. Even if the Jungian tribe is abstract for most patients and readers, believing one is part of the tribe can still be effective.
Curiously, Jungian analysis can be more problematic for individuals who do not merely want to belong to a tribe, but who want the courage (and perhaps the tolerance) to be unique and independent regardless of which tribe they affiliate with. Of course, we all want to be accepted for "who we are" . . . that is the line we will chant, at least. But I question this truism. Do we really want to be "who we are", independent, unique, separated on some level from our tribes? I don't think so. I think that most people (even most Jungians) want to find an identity that is connected to a tribal group that facilitates them. This couldn't be a tribe that completely stifles their sense of themselves (or their Selves), but there is a notable difference between being accepted into a group for being "kin" and being accepted by groups as an "other".
The process of individuation often promoted (at least superficially) in Jungian psychology is more closely related to the latter. To individuate is to become other to tribes and tribally-identified people. I mean to say that we cannot accurately call the process of acquainting people with their unconscious and a new religious symbol system individuation. It is more accurately a form of indoctrination, one that is similar to shamanic "faith healing". That is, in many tribes, the shaman is responsible for addressing the diseases of tribe members who have fallen out of the sanctity of tribal Eros and cannot participate normally within the tribe. The shaman her or himself is probably just such a person who has learned about the intricacies of the relationship between a self and a tribe first hand, and has therefore become something of an expert on the issue. The healing the shaman performs in many cases is not a facilitation of individuation, but a return of the individual to a state of connection to tribal Eros. Thus, a "soul retrieval" . . . a soul retrieved from the void and returned to the tribe and to functional collective living.
Various traumas can shake us out of our tribal connectedness for periods of time. This tribal Eros is a transference phenomena . . . and when we suddenly wake up in the wilderness alone, we do not know who we are anymore or where our tribal kin has gone. The shaman performs a ritual that helps guide the person back to this transference object. But once the person returns, they are plugged back into the "Matrix" of tribal Eros. This is not the same thing as individuation. The process of becoming a shaman, on the other hand, is very much parallel to an individuation. But we must note that the shaman is forever cut off from the unconscious access to tribal Eros and must always remain in a liminal space where the tribe is concerned. This liminality is what grants her or him the magic or mana to perform the shamanic rituals. But they can never again be a normal member of the tribe . . . for intimacy with the shaman is itself terrifying and alien (a transference phenomenon) for most tribe members.
The complication that arises when we try to map the shamanic/tribal paradigm to the modern world is a matter of the Problem of the Modern. Specifically, tribal living is no longer very possible or very survivable. We are all disenfranchised tribally speaking (thus the appeal of cults and clubs). We are therefore always hungering to return "Home" to a tribal environment. But the modern world doesn't permit this without some kind of repercussion. That is, in general, modern tribes do not have access to many resources, so those who devote themselves entirely to these tribes must give up many of the resources the wider world offers. Such devoted tribe members today must also greatly curtail their egoic strategies and diversifying ability to communicate and interact with people of various ideologies, persuasions, and tribal affiliations. Tribes in the modern world are always in grave danger of going extinct.
Although our unconscious drive is to seek tribalism, consciously we might be able to conceptualize that drive and redirect it. The conventional Jungian way to do this is to form an individual relationship to the instinctual Self (which Jungians call the collective unconscious . . . and its collectivity is its equivalency and archetype of the tribe.) The collective unconscious or instinctual Self is not a substitute for others and relationality with those others, but it can be a significant substitute for contact with the sacred. What we call sacred is what enables the flow of instinctuality.
The condition many individuals find themselves in in the modern world is one in which, despite unconscious drives, literal tribalism is unappealing. What I believe happens with many of these individuals is that they stumble toward the individuation process with little or no guidance. They might find ways (usually only if they have guides and mentors who are present and have enabled them) to make a few steps into that process . . . but they very, very rarely find a satisfactory way through and out of it. Individuation is too complex and demanding for most of us to manage it alone. Also, it is a work contra naturum . . . or more accurately (as I have put it in the past), it is Nature's Work Against Nature. By that alchemical phrase, I mean that on one hand, individuation opposes our instinctual nature (which is to belong unconsciously to a nurturing tribal Eros). Yet, on the other hand, the drive that catalyzes individuation and pushes it forward is equally an instinctual drive. It is, in fact, the reconceptualization of the very same drive that pushes us to find and connect with our "True Tribe", our kin.
What individuation drives us toward (instead of a literal tribe of others) is the source of our instinctual imprinting, our archetypal potentiality or what Jung sometimes called the psychoid realm, where the ego can become acquainted with instinctual structures and principles of psychic organization that are not overly contaminated with the dysfunctional imprint of the outer environment. These primary imprinting potentials or instincts or archetypes in themselves must be relanguaged and re-imprinted through the human ("egoic") faculties of conceptualization and narrativization. Initially, they are concentrated complexes of "energy" or numinous affect with prelingual essences. But these Self principles of organization can become refreshed and reactivated through a psychic diet of "Good Medicine". That is, we must begin to feed ourselves on ideas, images, and "sacred" objects that provide functional hooks for instinctual imprinting. As our diet improves, these affects will become better defined, forming symbols and personages. A personage in the psyche is an indication that we feel familiar enough with the content to see "intelligence" or personality (ego) in it. With adequate familiarity, these affective or instinctual personages can be engaged with and valuated by the ego (sometimes experienced or languaged as "integration" of these personages or their attitudes and perspectives).
There is a very good reason that a psychotherapeutic "talking cure" works: our species is dependent on languaging in order to revise its psychic system. What we find in the advent of individuation is that some of the building blocks of this new languaging (or what I define as Logos) always existed in our memories on more "quantum" levels. That is, we might have generally thought of a specific image or thing as a whole construct or complex . . . and that complex was tainted with dysfunctional imprinting potential. But once that complex is broken down into parts (which are less familiar to us) . . . a parallel of the alchemical process of dissolution, those parts can be reassembled into functional imprinting Logos conduits. This will initially be experienced as a numinous "self-organizing" process. In fact, our dreams are always building and rebuilding connections for us. But what we find at the beginning of individuation or healing is that these spontaneous restructurings of memory suddenly "click" for us and enable instinctuality to flow through them. These images become numinously charged or soaked with instinctual affect. They will probably go on to serve as building blocks for later, more complex constructions (for which the ego is also consciously contributing language).
Roughly halfway through a process of individuation (and some time after all of the stages of individuation "mapped" by Jungians), a major transition or threshold must be passed through. There are many symbols and many languages that cluster around this threshold, many ways of seeing and understanding it, but I feel that the most important general shift at this stage is one from accepting the Logos and reorganization of languaging that the instinctual Self spontaneously offers to actively and consciously making, constructing, creating, and revising that Logos. Alchemical symbolism seems to fit this transition the best, especially when a kind of "dual opera" is depicted, a First Opus and a Second Opus. The Rosarium Philosophorum demonstrates this as elegantly as any alchemical text. The signature alchemical symbols marking this transition are the Coniunctio-to-Nigredo shift into "blackness" or "first matter". Something divided has come together into one out of sheer instinct and mutual longing for that oneness . . . and the energy of that attraction drove the entire process "automatically". But now that that energy has dissipated, the quest and purpose is suddenly vague, the attractive and wondrous Other is no longer "there" to be felt and engaged with.
In alchemy this is considered the beginning of the work . . . that is, the beginning of the intentioned, egoic work, the discipline. What came before and culminated in the Coniunctio was merely the precondition and preparation for this work. It is in this alchemical tradition that I have often used the term "Work" to describe the intentioned Logos-creating process that is engaged in in partnership with the Self (which provides affective reactions to the ego's attempt to construct a viable Logos or Self-facilitating language in which to exist and adapt). Regarding that ego/Self partnership or shared psychic objective, the onset of the Nigredo does not simply deliver it to the ego's desires. The affective and instinctual source must first be found within the darkness of the Nigredo's wilderness. It must be chiseled out of solid rock or excavated. The "lesson" of the Nigredo is that the sacred or the dynamic organizing principle of the Self is not provided (for example, just because the ego is hungry and faithful). The relationship to the Self comes only through the dedication to a process of active facilitation of instinct. "Prayers" to the Self are no longer answered . . . for it is not the job of the Self to facilitate the ego (or "keep the ego together"), it is the ego's role in the psyche to facilitate the instinctual Self.
The Nigredo transition in Jungian psychology is not really understood or even recognized most of the time, because the Jungian process of analysis does not deal with this rather terrible threshold of initiation. The Coniunctio in Jungianism is held up as an abstract and always distant goal, the phantom of a Holy Grail shining in the distance, an object of totemic longing and worship (or, alternatively, as a transferential merging with the analyst . . . an even greater interpretive error). The Coniunctio of the alchemists is a parallel door to the return of an individual into the circle of tribal Eros. But whereas the instinctual Self is projected onto the tribe in the state of tribal Eros or participation mystique (and is then sustained unconsciously and unintentionally through acceptance of and obedience to the totems and gods of the tribe), in individuation, the relationship between the ego and the Self is personalized . . . and the ego becomes entirely responsible for the well-being and maintenance of the Self. That is an immense responsibility and very difficult to establish or maintain. It requires a kind of heroic dedication to the Self's principles, a willingness and ability (which must be gradually learned) to take on the role of the Syzygy within the psyche.
There is no viable Jungian literature on the individuation process at or after this threshold because the Jungian method does not actually promote this event (the alchemical symbols that depict post-Coniunctio stages of the Work are misinterpreted by Jungians and misplaced into earlier, pre-individuated psychic states). Jungians have discovered some of the artifacts of individuation . . . fantasies, fairytales, symbols, and so forth that are common parts of the paraphernalia of individuation . . . but these things are not woven into a structured system or theory. So individuation itself as an instinctual, complex, and systemic "opus" is not actually studied by Jungians . . . only some of its artifacts are. And these artifacts remain rather talismanic and poorly understood . . . perhaps in the sense that the discarded garbage of the distant past can become the cherished treasures of museums and archeologists. Jungians have not yet reconstructed the thing itself from the artifacts it has discovered. This is not necessarily due to some kind of moral failing. It is much more likely that Jungians have not managed to piece together the individuation process because it is rarely necessary to understand this process when conducting an analysis. Jungian analysands don't necessarily want or need to individuate.
And I am not advocating any kind of forced revision of Jungianism where individuation is insisted upon in analysis. My concern is primarily with the ethical and scientific issues surrounding the Jungian "selling" of individuation. It is important for Jungians to both know what is really going on with this process and to not misrepresent to patients the purpose of analysis. I have very mixed feelings about the actual promotion of individuation. I cannot ethically advocate a general promotion . . . but when it is desired by an individual, I think Jungian analysts should be prepared to help illuminate the process as much as possible. Some people need to individuate in order to heal . . . and conventional Jungian analysis does not adequately prepare these people for this need or offer enough guidance through or understanding of it.
I digress on the subject of individuation because it relates specifically to our problem with religion . . . and, I think, could point to ways to better address that problem. For instance, failing to differentiate individuation from tribal indoctrination is not merely a technical analytic failure. It is also, on another level, a failure to understand the psychology of religion. I would argue that the psychology or religion is primarily twofold . . . and it breaks down along the same lines as the Jungian indoctrination vs individuation issue. Religiosity is driven by two main instincts: the instinct for sociality and the preservation of the sanctity of tribal Eros in a group (usually through the worship of gods or dogmas or the observation of tribal taboos) and the instinct for adaptation to environments hostile to our evolutionary adaptedness. The latter adaptive instinct drives individuation, which is an adaptation to the tribally-hostile environment of the modern. The medium of this adaptation is conceptualization or languaging or, if you prefer (although it is vaguer), consciousness.
In historical religions, there is commonly a tribal or social thread (composed of creeds, dogmas, taboos, totems, laws, etc . . . all of which serve the purpose of forging and preserving a tribal identity that every tribe member shares) . . . and a mystical thread (a core narrative that depicts the shamanic or heroic individuation quest where one individual finds a way to commune with the god of the tribe . . . and perhaps even founds the tribe on the basis of this communion). The mystical aspect of religions usually resounds with individuation symbols and artifacts . . . and these can sometimes serve as models and guides for the "mystics" of the tribe. More commonly, they are totemized and made into objects of worship for tribe members rather than models to emulate.
When Jungians advocate religious involvement, awakening, or return to their patients, it creates a slippery slope. What is really being advocated: totemic worship, tribal conformity, and an obedience to dogma . . . or the individual mystical journey of individuation (using the symbolic artifacts of a religion's mysticism as stars to steer by)? Obviously the first option could be difficult to merge with analytic work. But the latter cannot be blindly and indiscriminately advocated. That is, the Jungian analyst who advocates these things must truly understand the pitfalls of the process in order to help the patient navigate those pitfalls. Not all mysticisms are alike or created equal. Each has its own particular dangers. Many religious mysticisms have been warped to some degree over many years of dogmatization (for instance, much Christian mysticism was considered heretical by the Church and prohibited from being considered "Christian"). Individuation events also tend to be highly personalized (not surprisingly). So the possibility of individuating in precisely the same way a previous mystic in the tradition did is very unlikely.
Jungianism allows for the individuality of individuation by adopting a polytheistic religious advocacy. But in this openness, it also opens the door to all the cumulative problems of various religions. That is the price of egalitarianism and openmindedness . . . but again, are the Jungians truly aware of these religious problems? Are they adequate critics of religion? Perhaps critics is the wrong word. Are Jungians adequate psychologists of religion? Do we have to know what a thing is and how it works in order to prescribe it?
Generally, Jungians have felt such knowledge is minimally valuable. They do not question the process as long as it seems to work. Analysis is a creative and experimental enterprise, and it is important to always be open to learning and taking cues from the work, from the transference. There is no valid psychotherapy without moments (probably many) of confusion, "irrational" intuition, guesswork, self-examination, and of course, error. Human relationship is never perfect . . . and despite some analysts' efforts to refute this, analysis is a human relationship (and should be). But can we be satisfied with not knowing, ethically speaking? Is what we remain ignorant of allowing us a selfish form of bliss? Just because something seems to work once or twice without the analyst understanding why or intentioning it, does this mean she or he is off the hook for ever trying to understand it or that it cannot be better understood? Don't we have an obligation as scientists and investigators of the psyche to keep trying to understand? Don't we hunger to know the Self? Or is faith in magic synchronicities good enough for Jungians? If so, can we charge our clients professional psychotherapeutic fees based on such qualifications? If the qualification of Jungian analysts is that they are "true believers" in the magic of the psyche, does this result in the attraction and courting of analysands who want to go to a "faith healer", who want to believe in something magical? To the degree that this is the (perhaps unintentioned or unexamined) Jungian professional stance (among more classical rather than developmental Jungians, at least), can we be truly surprised or legitimately complain about the appropriation of Jungianism by the New Age?
I don't mean to entirely reject the notion that psychotherapy can be a "healing of faith", but should Jungians be promoting faith? Is it perhaps possible for Jungians to be neutral and to work from a more scientific understanding that beneath the artifacts of faith, issues of sacredness and instinctual systemic functionality are operating? These sorts of questions are very difficult to answer. Many are perhaps unanswerable. And although individual Jungians have chosen to grapple with a few (in the literature) from time to time, we have not made a serious collective effort to analyze these issues. If the Jungian tribe was merely a tribe of believers, a religious order, or a kinship group, such analysis would not necessarily be important. But the Jungian tribe is a tribe of analysts. If we cannot or are not willing to analyze ourselves . . . not merely in individual training analyses, but as a tribe and as tribe members, have we truly made every effort to both assure our work with patients is as ethical as it can be and honestly say that we are focusing consciousness and energy on the dynamics of our tribe and the issues of its survivability? Are we adequately treating ourselves as a group? And if not, why is this our analytical weak spot, our shadow?
It is not only possible and essential to make such self-examinations of our tribalism (and its religiosity), it is also entirely within the purview of Jungian analytical theory as the confrontation with (and perhaps the "assimilation" of) the shadow. We are already set up to do this self-analysis and shadow work . . . so we must ask ourselves why we have been "non-Jungian" in this refusal and hypocrisy. By what rules did we pick the kind of Jungians we were going to be? Conscious and ethically governed rules . . . or unconscious, complex-driven rules?
The last thing I would like to add and leave the reader with is the suggestion that, despite the oddity and scarcity of Jungian atheists, it may be precisely these Jungian atheists that are needed to bring self-examination, shadow work, scientific and intellectual rigor, and functional ethics back into modern Jungianism. I don't mean me. I am merely intuiting my way into a welling up of reactive shadow that is part of the Jungian tribal soul. I mean that those of us with skepticism and ethical concerns all need to make a concerted effort to tap into this welling up of shadow constructively. We cannot be ashamed or frightened of our skepticism, or our shadowy frustration with Jungian foibles. Nor can we merely "act out" in rejection of these dubious inheritences (as it seems to me is quite common among those Jungians retreating into psychoanalytic ideas and splinter tribes). There is intelligence and wisdom in this murking belch of affect. There is value to be mined. There is a muffled heroic Calling and the wounded moaning of the Jungian Self. There is a great deal of work to do . . . and we cannot bask in the mystical wonderland of our puerism forever. Something in us is dying while we flit off to entertain our soaring urges and blissful wonder. While we go off to play in the psyche and its museum of artifcats, who will tend to the spiritual and instinctual welfare of the tribe?
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