The Psyche > Depth Psychology

Thanatos

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Matswin:
Abstract: The principle of the death drive (Thanatos) is understood as a genuine psychic force connected with the mother complex. Destructivity in repetitious form temporarily emancipates the ego from unconscious dependency in the psychology of phallic-narcissism. It is also present in the immature or fragile personality (the weak ego). Thanatos is unconsciously therapeutic in that it aims at strengthening a weak ego consciousness, thus to ward off unconscious wholeness, invariably associated with the Mother archetype. Although it serves to avoid regression, destructiveness can become obsessive. The sun-god Horus's perennial struggle against Seth, in Egyptian mythology, illustrates the dynamics of Thanatos. Accordingly, every night Seth defends the sun-bark by defeating the negative Mother in the guise of the chaos monster Apophis. Thanks to Seth, the sun of consciousness is restored and can rise again in the morning. In history, phallocentric culture is sustained by Thanatos in its restorative capacity, but this runs counter to the ideals of patriarchal culture, whose guiding star is Horus.

Keywords: Todestrieb, trauma, suicide, mortido, destrudo, patriarchal, Phallic Mother.

Read the article here:
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/thanatos.htm

Mats Winther

Matswin:
If my conclusions about evil nature resembles the truth it would imply that the Jungian theory of the shadow is incomplete. It builds on the notion that destructivity in the social context depends on shadow projection, and that the subject must integrate the shadow, thus to remedy the problem. However, the theory does not take into account the functional aspect of destructivity, which serves to  uphold a weak ego structure. Shadow projection and the constant victimization of our peers is functional. Without recourse to its shadow economy, the ego is threatened with collapse. This function, equal to Freud's Thanatos, surfaces when subsistence is no longer possible in the maternal environment, taken in its wide sense. Unsophisticated consciousness cannot cope with the complexity of the world without partially shutting it out and defaming it, blaming it for personal failures. That's why we see happy and naive primitives turn into machete murderers, and harmonious children, still living in a condition of wholeness, turn into bullies. This is the shadow phase of psychic development that the majority of people on earth aren't capable of surpassing.

There is in Jungian psychology the expectation that the shadow can always be integrated, and that this accomplishment represents the first step in individuation, defined as the path to true maturity and wholeness. The truth in the matter is that only a portion of earth's population can accomplish this, and only because they have been endowed with a strong ego. Kathrin Asper in "The Abandoned Child Within" (1993) has reached similar conclusions. She says that the integration of the shadow is far from always the first phase in analysis with patients. The shadow cannot be integrated before the ego is ripe for it, a condition that some people will never reach. According to her, the 'negative animus' is the culprit. Arguably, the negative animus can be seen as the Jungian equivalent to Thanatos. The term  has a more scientific ring to it. However, Asper's understanding of the underlying causes of the constellation of the negative animus differs markedly from how Thanatos would form, as I see it. Also M-L von Franz discusses the negative animus in "Anima and Animus in Fairy Tales" (2002). She sees it as the fountainhead of masculoid thinking, and connects it with pre-Christian Wotan and with Hitlerism.

Mats Winther

Matswin:
The phallus is a god that stands on one leg, and has one eye looking upwards. Wotan, who hung on the world ash, could set himself free from the motherly tree, by the sacrifice of one of his eyes. Carl Jung, at a tender age, dreamt of the phallus seated on a king's throne in an underground hall, although at this young age he couldn't identify it as such: "It was a huge thing reaching almost to the ceiling. But it was made of a curious composition: it was made of skin and naked flesh, and on top there was something like a rounded head with no face and no hair. On the very top of the head was a single eye, gazing motionlessly upward." His mother said "That is the man-eater." It was a subterranean god, not to be named (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp.11f).

This was the deity responsible for the two greatest carnages in world history, an epoch which Jung was destined to live through. We like to think of our civilization as ruled by an enlightened spirit, but the presence of the subterranean god can always be felt. Hatred, calumny, and contemptuous remarks, are part and parcel of our culture. It should be apparent to everyone that people aren't as good as they pretend. It is a falsehood characteristic of our civilization. Destructivity and malevolence does not depend on a misunderstanding, as always supposed. Most people, it seems, cannot withstand an opportunity to damage other people provided that they risk no harm themselves. Malevolence is used as a means of self-therapy. For this reason, it is exceedingly difficult to maintain civility in an Internet discussion forum.

Why do people subscribe to ideologies, such as multiculturalism and cultural relativism? It has nothing to do with ethical motives. In fact, through ideological affiliation the adherents are able to castigate other people as devils. A multiculturalist notoriously accuses people of antidemocratic views, racism, right wing extremism, egoism, etc. This is the great allurement of collective ideologies, to be able to bully people. The only consequence is that one's social status is augmented. Such people cannot get along in life without recourse to calumniation. In another epoch, they would have appropriated the politically correct norms of that particular period in time. With great likelihood, they would have been firm Nazis. It enables them to partake in collective hatred, which is really the underlying motif, deriving from the god of Thanatos. They subscribe to the prevailing views on account of their political correctness, henceforth enabling them to demonize other people. It has nothing to do with the moral and intellectual content of the ideology, as such. The average multiculturalist of today, would have been a full-fledged Nazi in the thirties.

They lack heartfelt convictions and merely parrot the standard tenets. The notion of political correctness means that people program themselves according to the most popular ideologies, whereas a proper understanding is lacking. Intellectual understanding is not possible anyway, since the ideology is only a chimera serving as concealment for the subterranean god. Their motivation to partake in the movement is to be able to make people suffer. Again, destructivity is functional. It does not derive from misunderstandings. In fact, Thanatos-driven people thrive on "misunderstandings". They have no wish to avoid them.

There are only two alternatives; either you have faith or you have ideology. In the Old Testament we can observe how the once all-encompassing religious cosmogony, characteristic of ancient Egypt, splits into the opposites of Faith and Law. In the ensuing battle, faith came out victorious, in the form of Christianity. According to Pauline Christianity, the Law is revoked and faith has taken precedence. The same struggle is today ongoing in Islam, where 'sharia' (law) seems to prevail. Modern ideology in all its plenitude represents a throwback to the pharisaic mind-set. A modern ideological framework is an intellectual algorithm corresponding to the religious law of olden days. Horus and Christ are connected with the life-principle of faith, whereas Seth, and Old Testamental Jahve, focus on zeal and demand blood sacrifice. In Norse and Teutonic mythology, Wotan (Oden) is the lawgiver.

Mats Winther

Matswin:
I am merely saying that those who project the demonic evil are the very people who are possessed by it. Well worth to remember is that the force of Thanatos exists in us all. The vital point is whether we succeed in keeping our foot upon his neck.

Mats

Matswin:
According to Azar Gat ("War in Human Civilization"), primitive man's mortality rates in war, skirmishes, or
intra-group violence, before the coming of state authority, is extremely high. In the Amazon, a study of the Waorani showed more than 60% of adult deaths over five generations were caused by feuding and warfare. In a prehistoric Indian site in Madisonville Ohio, 22% male skulls had wounds and 8% were fractured. In a similar site in Illinois, 16% had met a violent death. In New Guinea, about 15% died as a result of inter- and intra group violence: 24% males and 7% females. At the Australian island of Tiwi, the aboriginals lost 10% of the male population in a decade. An Aboriginal tribe of Murngin of Arnhem Land lost 200 men out of a population of 3,000, during a period of 20 years. 30% of the warriors died. Another study suggests aboriginals in a generation lost about 5 to 6.5%. Studies of Eskimos show a murder rate of one in a thousand, about ten times the US peak rate in 1990.

But violence is not predicated on the motif of keeping the population down. Agriculture has allowed an enormous increase in population numbers, whereas our murderous activity hasn't increased, but rather abated. An important factor is  the way in which the frail consciousness of natural man is sustained by tradition. Accordingly, the introduction of alien thoughtways and traditions (a form of multiculturalism) has a passivating effect, with the result that consciousness loses its impetus. The introduction of Christianity in primitive society has resulted in a collective lethargy. Carl Jung sees this as a very tragic complication of cultural colonialism. It works almost like a poison that kills their distinctive cultural character and their will to proclaim themselves as worthy humans. There are many examples of vigorous and ecologically sophisticated cultures, such as the African Bantu, in which people lived worthy lives in harmony with nature. However, in the Third World, today, there is a strong tendency toward an unworthy vegetating lifestyle. The conscious level is generally lower than in animistic society, which had a great awareness of the spirit. Whether these developments could have been avoided, is another question.

In traditional culture, Thanatos was institutionalized, as human sacrifice, warfare, and initiation rites involving marring. Thanatos revolves around the archetype of death as provider of the conditions for new life. For instance, when the vegetation is burned, you also create very fruitful agricultural land. The abatement of the conscious level is connected with the removal of Thanatos from culture. As a result, the ego is today in closer proximity to the Mother. It would explain why primitive society is so very conservative and tends to keep sternly to the traditions of the forefather spirits, and why aborigins are so prone to make war against other tribes. To defend culture and territory is also to defend the conquests of ego consciousness. The injuries sustained by the warriors of primitive society make them incomplete. A missing limb, for instance, is a sign that the warrior has departed from childlike wholeness and become a free agent with respect to unconscious wholeness. He has obtained precious consciousness and a relative independence of will, Thus, he is endowed with immense power. Wotan (Oden) sacrificed an eye, thus he came to possess wisdom and the knowledge of the runes. Tezcatlipoca sacrificed a leg in the jaws of the Earth Monster, which is the grounds for his rise to power.

M. Winther

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