H III' I - WW I I III '1“; I I — — I 1‘ ,1 i”, l W w I N: I 102 556 TH _ MYTH MAKING AND FANTASY: A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS Thesis for the Degree of M. A. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Sherry Ann Block I97 7 ABSTRACT MYTH MAKING AND FANTASY: A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS BY Sherry Ann Block The purpose of this study was to investigate and define the role of personal myth and fantasy and their effects on the human personality and consciousness par- ticularly in regards to Jungian psychology. The emphasis on Jung rests on his theory of the dynamic wholeness of the personality, its mythical nature, its gradual conquest and enlargement, the way that the symbol formations of man shape and portend his life, and the role of fantasy in the expansion of consciousness. Jung's theory of consciousness envelops both the primordial center and the ego as being the regulators of the unconscious and conscious processes respectively and how they come to be known within the individual. Uncon- scious activity often has a strong influence on our behaviors and personal relationships. To reach an under- standing of these manifestations, a method of productive interplay between fantasy and conscious directed thinking is introduced and called active imagination. Sherry Ann Block Active imagination employs a method for interpre- tation of fantasy images in the form of symbols that in turn open themselves to interpretation and further amplifi- éation through Jung's hermeneutic process. This interpre- tation of symbols transforms those intuitive insights that evolve from the unconscious.core of meaning. This transfor- mation makes a transition to new conscious activities and higher levels of self-awareness in the consciousness of the individual. MYTH MAKING AND FANTASY: A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS BY Sherry Ann Block A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Art 1977 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank Dr. James Victoria and Dr. Charles Steele for their assistance in completing this thesis. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . II. MYTH AND THEORY . . . . . III. FANTASY . . . . . . . Structure of Fantasy. . . The Content of Fantasy . . IV. THE ESSENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. V. ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND INTERPRETATION. VI. SYMBOLS AND TRANSFORMATION . VII. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS . . Summary . . . . . . . Implications for Education. ”PENDIX O O O O O O O O 0 NOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . iii Page 13 16 21 26 29 29 30 33 34 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The aim of this study is to investigate and define the role of personal myth and fantasy and their effect on the human personality, consciousness and the expressive quality of the process of individuating, particularly in regards to Jungian psychology. Emphasis will be placed on developing a theory for the functional autonomy of fantasy and the expansion of consciousness. An individual's psyche is expanded through his use of fantasy. In the healthy development of the self, one is involved in a continuing process of assimilation and integration of inner and outer experiences to form his value system. However, when not used creatively, fantasy blocks the learner's path and it becomes an ill effect. This value system from which one operates in the world is called "psychic reality." Jung has determined this to be the living myth which orients behavior and brings cohesion to what one values. Consciousness is the active reflection upon psychic reality in terms of growth and personal knowledge. The unconscious, however, moves by way of fantasy. This is an autonomous process which reconstructs 1 personal and past emotions, perceptions and cognitions despite what the individual presupposes to be psychically real. Because the phenomenon of fantasy moves by way of the mind, it often renders frustrating the very organs which must comprehend it. If an individual accepts fantasy and integrates it into consciousness, he may gain valuable insight and information into his nature and being. If not, the individual may be limited and narrow. In attempts to construct a theory to account for the autonomy of fantasy, intrapsychic myth, and the self- regulating quality of the personality, it became apparent that Jung may provide such a theory. Fantasy in dreams, like memory of the past and visions of the future, as an imaginative apperception, organize action in the present. we recall and reconstruct pasts useful to the creation for legitimate action in a present, just as we envision the future as goals we must reach. Fantasy, "the mythic imagent, constitutes the central variable in all mythic transactions; the patterned process intermediate between the environment and any overt endeavor to re3pond to it effectively."1 Chapter II will address the question of why myth is a relevant concept as well as define and delimit its importance in extending and relating Jungian psychological concepts. Chapter III further elucidates the structure and content of fantasy while specifically delving into personal and collective consciousness. Chapters IV, V, and VI will show the process and effects that personal myth and fantasy have on the person- ality and consciousness of an individual. In formulating the essence of consciousness, Chapter IV explains the primordial center and the ego as being the regulators of unconscious and conscious processes respectively and how they come to be known within the indi- vidual. Chapter V depicts the process of active imagination which allows the conscious surfacing of fantasy images that in turn open themselves to interpretation and further amplification through Jung's hermeneutic process. Chapter VI delves into the interpretation of sym- bols, those intuitive insights that evolve from the idio- syncratic core of meaning. These make a transition to new conscious activities and higher levels of self-awareness in the individual. Chapter VII concludes with a summary and further implications for education. CHAPTER II MYTH AND THEORY Mythology attempts to explain the autonomous and self-regulating quality of the human personality. "The word myth, however, has varient and often opposing defi- nitions, particularly as it is applied to modern man's imagination."l Myth tries to bridge the gap between external reality and the internal changes of man. Broadly speaking, a myth is a form of theory making which a person employs to account for existing phenomena and is constructed in a nonscientific and concrete form. That which a person believes determines to some extent what is knowable to him and operates as a value system from which the person views the world. These beliefs, regardless of what form they take, help to organize a person's values and behavior and is called psychic reality. However, a new dimension is added to experience by reflecting upon what has been experienced. Webster defines myth as: "A story that is usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates historical events usually of such char- acter as to serve to explain some practice, belief, insti- tution, or natural phenomena.“2 l. A myth is a story . . . A story is an organized body of knowledge. What knowledge is gathered is determined by the value it has to explain and make meaningful some fact or phenomenon. Story serves as an account, report, or statement about some inci- dent, usually told in narrative form. 2. . . . usually of unknown origin . . . Spoken stories are common to all societies. The spoken story evolves in a concrete way as each person fills in the motives. Tsugawa explains: All such records are interpretations . . . for the transcriber has selected his version from among a number and the narrator; often unconsciously, puts his imprints on the telling . . . without the con- trol of writing, each recitor, especially those with striking personalities, is bound to alter the tra- dition subtly.3 Each interpretation evolves in some narrative form, adorned by the individuality of the speaker. There is no generally accepted criteria for dis- cerning the boundaries of fantasy. Creating tales in inner experience evolves into laying plans, reminiscing, analyz- {V ‘k /. ‘. \ ing past events, anticipating future ones, asking oneself questions, engaging in brief reflections, entertaining dis- organized imagery and in sleep, experiencing night dreams. 3. . . . or at least partly traditional . . . We commonly believe that a popular idea becomes a myth. But this is not the way myths and traditions are 1 I I I J I If“ \m f. 1 \ \ J XII . '\-u\ ‘1 4‘ k I \ created. This is simply popular culture which is a surface phenomenon and short lived. The precedents of pattern and insight do not exist in popular ideas. Tradition means that the value system is passed on to another more or less intact. Yet in the process of gaining this body of information, the learner must grow. There is, however, a difference between tfadition and the mere c0pying of values and ideas. In the latter the individual uses the information in a mechanical sense rather than growing from it. The pattern of meaning and valuation found in tradition and myths is the ground work from which we build a value system, i.e., our own myth. 4. . . . that ostensibly relates historical events . . . History properly understood is the study of human actions that were performed in the past. History attempts to rediscover the thoughts of the person or people by going from the event or expression of thought to the psychic meaning or value of that past reality. It is only by the reflecting expressively and reconstructing the conscious- ness that we come to know the past. 5. . . . as to serve to explain some practice, belief, institution or natural phenomenon . . . What is literal truth to one person may be sheer nonsense to another. All myths that are seen outside of our psychic reality we reject as not true. Real conviction involves a mythology. The myths of another age, another culture, are not our myths. In common speech, another's myth is already dead. The idea is pejorative. Henry Murray explains: A representation of an event in which nobody has ever believed, literally or symbolically, and/or in which nobody believes today, is not a myth. Although it is generally agreed that a myth is a story which "purports to be true," most people are quick to add that a myth is, in fact, false however true it may once have seemed or may now seem to its adherents. For those who say this, the stories or visions of the future in which they believe and live are not myths; only those with whom they disagree are myths.4 They are ideas to be disavowed. Thus, myths that we do not believe are dead, for there is neither a sense of urgency nor actuality (life). However, myths which we believe actualize our world to the extent that we find meaning and urgency in our actions. Take, for example, the pilgrimage of an orthodox Catholic to the shrine of St. Joseph where his heart is enclosed. A number of people have found Christ there} because of the bottle containing the divine source of love and health. The believer assumes it to be real to the extent that it validates what he believes in. The ‘whole basic task of the life of man is adaption to reality and the realization--actualization of the self. An individual's myth helps to pattern his ideas and values and gives him emotional stability and a sense of cohesion. An individual continually accepts or rejects :new ideas and values in the light of his psychic reality, i.e., his living myth. He often unconsciously injects upon new ideas those aspects which have come to define his self- identity. In the same way that man's consciousness recon- structs thoughts and ideas, the unconscious mind continually recombines those past perceptions and feelings which have remained unaccounted for. Man's fantasies serve as a con- stant reminder of those aspects of experience which have escaped consciousness plus the vast regions of the unknown. If an individual denies this unconscious activity, he also denies an integral part of his personality. The only way in which man can know his true self is to bring to consciousness his fantasies and continue the search for objective truth. Only in this way does an individual's myth grow in depth and insight. Because manis expressions of self exist in a non- scientific and concrete form (i.e., art, music, religion, etc.), it is often given less credence in a culture which supports technically oriented theory. If an individual re- presses or rejects his expressions as valid and fails to define a system of values, he must identify with the fashion of the collectivity and deny his true self. Only when an .individual maintains a system of beliefs, i.e. a myth, Vihich allows for personal expression and clarification may lie grow; Chapter III turns to the discussion of fantasy Ennd its relationship to directed thinking. CHAPTER III FANTASY The mythopoetic, i.e., myth-making faculty, is inherent in the thinking process. Carl Jung has described two types within the thinking process, directed and fan- tasy,l which exist in a reciprocal and dynamic relationship. They interpenetrate, but are not identical. Wholeness, as a concept of the union of these two types of thinking, is characterized by a dynamics, "the study of the subject matter marked by continuous productive activity and change."2 Structure of Fantasy The structure of fantasy seems best delineated by contrasting it with a pure state of directed thinking. In looking at a contrived continuum with these two at Opposing ends, it is possible to denote didactic differences. How- ever, to say that within the human organism both may happen without any taint of the other seems unlikely. For pur- poses of further clarification, assume that the human organism is capable of experiencing completely and separ~ ately either end of the directed thinking/fantasy continuum. 10 Directed thinking is a segmented process of recom- bining schemata. Schemata is a presupposed plan for thought. It is built on logical and directed sequencing. This type of thought process is further encapsulated by a cognitive conscious component. A continual source of feedback is utilized to evaluate in-process thoughts and shape the formation of solutions. In analyzing a train of thought, we begin with an initial idea or leading idea. Without thinking back to it each time, but merely guided by a sense of direction, we pass to a series of separate ideas that acquire a unity. Our whole conscious thinking proceeds along these lines. If we scrutinize our thinking even more closely to follow out an intensive train of thought, i.e., the solution of a difficult problem, we realize that our thinking is in words. Often this precipitates an internal dialogue, a written description, or a drawing to shed some coherence on our position. According to Piaget, the environment and the I («“146 '\ torganism interacts/with equal influence onflanother, neither <3ne assuming the major determining role. Throughout the Processes of assimilation and accommodation, the organism deals with new problems by adjusting an old schema or creating a new one to resolve any disparity. Fantasy is defined by Klinger as, "all mental atztivity . . . except instrumental problem solving and 11 the process involved in (perceptual) scanning of stimuli,"3 and "forms phases of a common continuous stream of activity a kind of baseline (ideational) activity. The particular structural characteristics of this activity are determined by the psychological and developmental context in which it occurs."4 The content of fantasy, whether mild or bizarre in nature, is a complex amalgamation of images, affects and self-states. The nature of the fantasy is determined by the organization of these elements. The corner stone of fantasy thinking is the meaning complex which is a three-pronged coalition. First, the affective state is at its highest possible level in this type of thought. Emotional level manages to sustain con- tinual high intensity throughout its duration. During these individual fleeting moments of flight, consciousness slips away as fantasy saturates the individual. Fantasy maintains cognition at its lowest ebb unlike directed thinking which rests upon it. Secondly, the fantasy only utilizes the most imme- diate and pressing concerns. This is undertaken without apriori purpose or plan, or the use of schematic formations. Fantasy thinking, without restraint, allows re3ponses that are not dependent on structure or logic. The third component of self-state, keys in on physiological states of the human being. Directed thinking pays little heed to these states in its formations of 12 responses. Self-states most strongly elicit fantasy think- ing. Any lessening of interest or the slightest fatigue is enough to put an end to the delicate adaption to reality expressed through directed thinking and replace it with fantasy thinking. Fantasy thinking renders effortless, working as it were Spontaneously, with contents ready at hand and guided by unconscious motives. Directed thinking produces innovation and adaption, whereas fantasy thinking moves by way of images and feelings and uncovers creative forces and content guided by the unconscious. Such contents as a rule cannot be realized except through associative and fantasy thinking. Fantasy thinking is not dependent on feedback for execution, unlike the cognitive process. It is the spon— taneous unfolding without intention fueled by feeling toned complexes. Jung reasoned that there must be associated groups of feelings, thoughts and memories in the unconscious and that groups of contents may form together to form a cluster or combination which he called feeling toned com- plexes. The complexes are autonomous, possess their own driving forces, and can be very powerful in controlling our thoughts and behavior. Feeling toned complexes organize facets of a person's affects and perceptions, control the unfolding of fantasy schema, and may be construed as an aspect of a person's momentary self-state. Jung saw a very essential aspect in the complex as being not only the 13 source of inspiration and drive, but insight into the very character of the individual. Creative individuals build their self-concepts in part from the self-knowledge pro- vided to them by their fantasies. The Content of Fantasy, Jung has determined two categories of fantasy con- tent: the personal unconscious and the collective uncon- scious. Fantasies of a personal nature)even though somewhat distorted, unquestionably reflect personal experiences, things forgotten or current concerns, and can be completely explained by individual recall. These fantasies are a direct result of the personal unconsciousness, which lies in close proximity to the stream of consciousness. Jung eXplains: The personal unconscious . . . includes all those psychic contents which have been forgotten during the course of the individual's life. Traces of them are still perceived in the unconscious, even if all conscious memory of them has been lost. In addition, it contains all subliminal impressions or perceptions which have too little energy to reach consciousness. To these we must add uncon- scious combinations of ideas that are still too 5 feeble and too indistinct to cross the threshold. The personal unconscious is the receptacle for all those psychic activities and contents which are incongruous with conscious function, for nothing that has been exper- ienced ceases to exist. These experiences are repressed, devaluated or disregarded by the power of a differentiated l4 consciousness and automatically stored. However, their storage is not as much of a concern as their ultimate organi— zation and retrieval. The collective unconscious is that portion of the psyche which is differentiated from the personal unconscious- ness and consciousness by the fact that its contents do not depict past personal experience. By using the word "imper- sonal" Jung denotes that these contents were not an indi- vidual's experience. He explains: Whereas the memory-images of the personal unconscious are, as it were filled out, because they are images personally experienced by the individual the (images of the) collective unconscious are not filled out because they are forms not personally experienced. These images are collective in the sense that they are formed by the inherited structure and potentiality of the human brain. These images cannot be recalled by individual memory but generally correspond to mythical themes which have been created throughout time. "The extraordinary unanimity of indigenous forms and themes seems to Jung to bear out his contention that there exists a collective mental function."7 The contents of the collective uncon- scious are called archetypes or primordial images. The word means an original model after which similar things are patterned. It is important to note that archetypes are not to be regarded as fully developed pictures in the mind like memory images of one's life. Primordial images and archetypes are universal categories of intuition and 15 apprehension . . . (representing merely the possibility of a certain type of action) . . . and there are as many archetypes as there are situations in life. This concept is that of an inborn manner of acting, apprehending, feel- ing, intuiting, and thinking, not particular perceptions, feelings, intuitions or thoughts. This is the primordial model for consciousness "inherited by virtue of membership in the human family."8 In fact, Jung has determined the collective unconscious as a prior condition to man's experience. We can perceive some things and react to them because the collective unconscious is prediSposed to them. Jung was interested in a theory to account for images which transcend individual experience and denote deeper meaning to life and establish the archetype as central to the mean- ing complex. Fantasy contents of the collective unconscious, being impersonal in nature, are often completely unnoticed by consciousness. Yet many fantasies may contain valuable information for the development of self. CHAPTER IV THE ESSENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS By acting upon the contents of fantasy consciously, man is capable of gaining valuable knowledge into his nature and personality. It is only in the coming to con- sciousness that the individual's myth can transform. Jung's theory of coming to consciousness involves three stages, i.e., unconsciousness, preconsciousness, con- sciousness, and will be dealt with respectively. Emphasis on consciousness is not intended as a devaluation of the unconscious. Consciousness acquires its creative power only through being rooted in the uncon- scious. Jung has determined that "the conscious mind is based upon, and results from, an unconscious psyche which is prior to consciousness and continues to function together with or despite of consciousness."1 Jung gives a detailed account of the contents of the unconscious: . . . Everything of which I know, but of which I am not at the moment thinking: everything of which I was once conscious of but have now forgotten; everything perceived by my senses, but not noted by my conscious mind; everything which, involun- tarily and without paying attention to it, I feel, 16 17 think, remember, want and do; all the future things that are taking shape in me and will sometime come to consciousness, all this is the content of the unconsc10us. Every concept in our conscious mind and mental activity has its own psychic associations. Such associations may vary in intensity according to other ideas, feelings (or complex of both) to which it is associated in our uncon- scious. "The unconscious can only be inferred indirectly from its (organizing) effects on conscious contents."3 The unconscious center has a two-fold significance, "it is not only important as a self-acting organism, affording to coordinate meaning,"4 on the preconscious level, but a transcendental reality independent of all personal experience. The preconceptual ongoing process of organizing experience is the working of a person's unconscious as he propels his myth onward. The phenomena present within our experiencing seems to be implicit with :meaning. Intuition works as a form of preconscious ‘vision, experiencing meaning without the aid of intel- lectual and rational judgment (meaning can occur without all of the right words having to occur). "The level of knowing is one of direct referencing because it merely points to the feeling or meaning implicit without concep- tualizing it.“5 "Subjective aptitude consists in an innate psychic structure which allows mankind to exper- 6 ience physically and spiritually," yet also determines their presuppositions and convictions. 18 The second function of the unconscious center has a much more profound effect on the development of the indi- vidual and inevitably serves to check one-sidedness. The unconscious center is deeply rooted in the collective unconscious and has the power to manifest consciousness with unknown contents; i.e. fantasies, dreams and visions. In order to achieve unity and harmony, wholeness and self- knowledge, an individual must pay attention to and integrate the contents of the collective psyche into the total per— sonality. Jung states that "a sense of completeness is achieved through a union of consciousness with the uncon- scious contents of the mind. Out of this union man can achieve the full realization of the potential of his indi- vidual self."7 Many are handicapped by the weakness of his con- sciousness and the corresponding fear_gf the unconscious. Therefore, he is unable to separate what he has carefully reasoned out from what has spontaneously flowed to him from another source. He has no objectivity toward himself. Only through great effort does one succeed in conquering and holding for himself an area of relative freedom. Man possesses a consciousness that not only per- ceives and reacts to what it experiences, but is capable 'of understanding what it is experiencing. It has the faculty of reflection and insight and, through its l9 recognition of the outer and inner world, is capable of self-extension and self—transformation. The psychoanalytic meaning of ego defines it as an inner psychic regulator central to consciousness. It organizes experience and guards such organization from the impact of inner drives and forces. "The ego is a selective, integrating, coherent and persistent agency central to personality formation."8 The ego is the guardian of indi- vidual experience endowing the individual with a sense of being in an active state. Its essential essence is the "coherent organization of the conscious process which insures a measure of individuality, integrity and self- identity."9 "The human ego is the inner 'organ' which makes possible for man to bind together the two great evolutionary developments, his inner life and his social planning."lo A strong ego endows the individual with a certainty of who he is and directs his position in the culture and time that he lives. This certainty provides the individual with a sense of freedom and will. Without these prerogatives, man's position in time and society is "maintained in secret delusion or cultural illusions which often guide his history. It is for this reason that in individual memories and in collective history man rearranges experience in order to restore himself as the unconscious 11 center and source of events." Jaffe sights the impor- tance of reflective consciousness, "the_cognizing and 20 reflecting consciousness exercises a creative activity, superimposing on the existence of the outer and inner world the fact that they are known and endows them with reality."12 Only in the effort to reflect and communicate do we know consciously and cognitively. Man's consciousness leads to discrimination. "The separation into pairs of opposites is entirely due to con- scious differentiation. Only consciousness can recognize the suitable and distinguishes it from the unsuitable and worthless."13 Consciousness fundamentally includes directed- ness, culminating in the discrimination of the ego and non- ego, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, true and false. Therefore, the process of the unfolding of consciousness is accompanied by the creation of the tension between the opposites of conscious and unconscious contents. Conflict always presupposes a higher sense of responsibility. It is this very quality which keeps its possessor from accepting the decision of a collectivity. The psyche of the individual acquires heightened importance. It is not only the seat of his well-known and socially defined ego, it is also the instrument for measuring what is worth in and of itself, nothing so promotes the growth of consciousness as this inner confrontation of the opposites. Chapter V will discuss the interplay between con- scious and unconscious activity and will provide a concrete example of the process of coming to consciousness. CHAPTER V ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND INTERPRETATION Unconscious activity often has a strong influence on our behaviors and personal relationships. To reach an understanding of these manifestations, a method of pro- ductive interplay between fantasy (i.e., the experiencing of the autonomous contents of the unconscious) and conscious directed thinking (i.e., an active search for meaning and harmony as expressed through an opus) is introduced and called active imagination. The modern painter Paul Klee poetically describes this process: Which artist would not wish to dwell at the central organ of all motion in space-time (be it the brain or heart of creation) from which all functions derive their life? . . . where the secret key to all things be hidden? . . . our beating heart drives us downward, far down to the primal ground. What is encountered on this journey must be taken most seriously when it is perfectly fused with the appropriate artistic means in visible form . . . because it is not a question of merely reproducing what is seen, the secretly perceived is made visible.1 A drawing by the author, produced before research into Jungian psychology, represents a concrete example of active imagination and symbol transformation (see Appendix). In this case, the artist felt split in personality and 21 22 emotionally perplexed by its effect on her relationships with others. However, this was not a cognitive concept known to the artist at that time. This nonconscious state, the expression of an intuitive apprehension which can neither be apprehended better nor expressed differently, indicates the first level of symbol formation in Jung's theory of active imagination. In clarifying this state, the symbol of three women was produced as the best possible expression for a complex fact as yet unknown. Because a "living“ symbol always possesses overtones, its full sig- nificance could not as yet be graSped immediately by the intellect. However, it is a psychical suggestion of such pronounced intensity as to make actual that which is merely a possibility and sets the sensitive individual in an active search for clarification. At this point, such indications and intuitions of what is possible can be formulated as personal knowledge only through the activity of pragmatic interpretation. The concern here is with the usefulness of such means (symbol formation) for the on-going under- standing of psychic reality. Jung determined that meaning- fulness in active imagination is dependent upon the attitude of the interpreting conscious. In effect, the attitude which makes the understanding of a symbol possible is a conscious concern for meaning. This questioning requires a technique of searching for analogies and attempting to understand "thought structures" from a wider aspect.“ Such 23 a method, Jung called it hermeneutic, guarantees a more adequate understanding of the meaning of symbol formations. This method consists of making successive additions of other subjective analogies to the analogy given in the symbol and emphasizes the nonreductive, formulative and synthetic nature of the process. Hermeneutic method is best seen as a process of amplification; a building up and active formation of further symbols which relate to the value and meaning given. In relation to the drawing, a window was added at a later date indicating the possibility of another individual outside. Yet the figures were left alone. Further additions at a much later date were words identifying with each figure from I right to left. "There is a man outside; don't let him in until you know what he wants; don't let him in until you know who he is." Although these words were clarifying for the artist as to a relationship with another person, the whole process consists in an amplification and clarification of expression and communication with others. The hermeneutic process often requires a further search for objective analogies in various cultural fields and in the history of symbols. The value derived from interpretations of historical works is practical if it builds upon and reorganizes the psychic reality as a whole. Philipson explains: . . . their psychic significance is that they demand interpretation from the person who is seized by 24 them, and insofar as an individual takes from his interpretations of them some insight of a prospec- tive nature for himself, the "symbolic" work of art is of comparable value. It in some sense presents an intuition of what is "missing."2 Such a search has produced relevant information concerning the author's drawing of the three women, e.g., fairy tales and mythological themes which directly relate to the struggles of personality integration against chaotic dis- integration and fragmentation (fantasy leading to neurosis). Another example from these tales is the disparate aspects of one personality transformed onto different figures which are described as twin sisters; one of beauty and goodness, the other sinister and greedy. This duality is represented by the brothers, Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Porter (The Arabian Nights' Entertainment) who continue to separate and come anew each day. Under the burdens of a common and trivial reality, the weary porter becomes the adventurous seaman carried away by what he recognized as "the bad man within me." Myths and stories of this nature depict the good and evil actions for which every individual is capable. This opposite side of our personality manifests itself quite spontaneously in action such as anger and violence (if we believe ourselves to be passive and calm). Jung has determined this opposite personality within the indi- vidual to be a universal phenomenon, i.e., an archetype, which he called the shadow. In all moral and ethical situations we must be aware of our shadow side and what 25 evil and good we are capable of. An understanding of the concept of the shadow figure and a search through the myths and stories which convey it brought insight for the artist of the drawing to the extent that the symbol was transformed from a personality conflict to a higher level concerning ethical situations. Active imagination allows the conscious surfacing of fantasy images. But this in and of itself does not shed light on its meaning, nor its capacity for insight in the human being. Without the aid of cognition, a symbol will never be integrated and transformed; no change will occur. The symbol will loose its importance by never being inte- grated into consciousness and will once more be surpressed. The following chapter develops further this process of transformation. CHAPTER VI SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION I The living symbol, in the sense of transformation, must include those personal elements, emotional and Other- wise, which an individual has acquired through conscious experience, plus a deeper insight into the ultimate nature Of life provided to him by the unconscious. Jung believes, "the more widely this factor operates, the more valid is the symbol."1 Its validity rests on the fact that it is based on "self-knowledge and deeper insight and not on a system of illusions or rationalizations."2 The living symbol cannot be created by the dull or undeveloped mind, for such an attempt would contain nothing beyond what was put into it, that which was previously known. This is a very general statement; yet the important aspect seems to be that intuitive insights evolve from the ideosyncratic core of meaning which Jung believes lies in the unconscious realm. However, his entire theory states that the totality of the personality only comes through the individual's established relationship between the conscious ego and the reality of the inner center (the primordial center transcends individual comprehension yet organizes ideas 26 27 and experiences); and can only be expressed in symbol form- ation. In a very complex passage Jung has stated the sources from which symbols are formed: Symbols come quite spontaneously and from two sources. One source is the unconscious (spon- taneous producer) and the other is life which if lived in complete devotion, brings an intuition of the self, the individual being. Awareness of the individual self is expressed in the symbol,3 while conSCiousness exacts devotedness to life. Jung believes that elements of fantasy sequences have a potential for the inner growth of the personality. Yet the content of the primordial center must be filled out by conscious observation and understanding. Quite often this content represents an opposite tension from the direction of the conscious ego and for the most escapes consciousness altogether. For without self-reflection and the assimi- lation of new material, the personality remains one-sided. Only through mutual participation of conscious judgment and unconscious formation, through thesis-antithesis, are the opposites given equal measure and transcend to a more comprehending plane of experience. Most important is the formation of symbols that have the function of an intuitive transition from one attitude to another. He calls this "the unifying symbol," making possible transitions to new activities and a higher level of self-awareness. "The nature of the symbol is the same, namely that it expresses, as well as possible, a relatively unknown fact which is nevertheless postulated as existing . . . yet the function 28 which a symbol performs depends on whether it acts like a siphon or like a transformer. The latter function is the focus of Jung's major cbncern in his . . . theory of symbolism."4 Insofar as the transformation results in a new and deeper awareness, it is experienced as a rebirth. All rebirth rituals are intended to realize this. While the expansion of consciousness is tied to its creative opposite--the unconscious--so too the realization of the self is dependent on its assimilating the potential value and message of the symbol. This can only happen with responsible participation. A myth is dead if it no longer lives and grows. Our myth becomes mute when further per- sonal development based on the myth sheds no answers. However, the original version offers ample points of departure and possibility of development. CHAPTER VII SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS S ummgy There was a strong influence of Kantian thought on the formations of Jung's primary principles. He accepted Kant's fundamental restriction that we cannot know things in themselves. Jung recognized the problem in defining an objective reality as being the essence of all the sciences and humanities. Yet, subject and object, observer and observed, are never completely separated, for the existence of phenomena can only be postulated in terms of our histori- cal and psychic reality. The problems of knowledge concerning psychic reality are essentially practical and, therefore, studied in their own terms. By interpreting the symbols which an individual creates, the person gains knowledge of and for himself. This is personal knowledge oriented toward the future and conceived as contributing to psychic health. Either such an intuition is proved right because the course of development reveals a higher level of understanding, or wrong when it does not. 29 30 Implications for Education The problems of knowledge of the world itself may be conceived as essentially theoretical and must be studied by the methods appropriate to it. Curriculum is often based on subject matter of general categories: science, math, English, history, art, and/or based according to skill development. However, theoretical knowledge may be intel- lectually possessed without any appreciable difference whatsoever to the individual's value system or behavior. This knowledge, if not of practical bearings for present or future actions, is seldom valued or internalized. How- ever, when the learner faces an educational situation that has meaning to him as a person, the learning will involve a process of assimilation, a reorganization of what was there before. A person may go through certain motions which are expected or demanded. These may be learned but,contain no sense of self-involvement. Usually this destroys the self- possession and utilization of idiosyncratic ideas. A person's values and behavior will express the degree to which the experience maintains the integrity, unity and inner consistency of the personality, i.e., psychic reality, or transcends it, pointing to a higher state of activity and understanding. How then do we educate to personality, i.e., to come to know who one is? One does not develop personality because he was told that it would be useful to do so. 31 Knowing one's self can never develop unless the individual chooses his way consciously, with conscious moral decision as well as autonomy. Individuation, distinct conscious differentiation, is repeated in every child and dependent on proper experiences and education. Jung explains: The psyche of every child in its preconscious state is anything but calculable; it is already performed in a recognizably individual way. On this compli- cated base, the ego arises . . . as an endogenous impulse to grasp experience and manipulate it. This instinct comes from within, as a compulsion or will or command.1 A way to individualize oneself is through expression, particularly if expression is defined as those thoughts and feelings which constitute a consciousness of existence, identity, and values. The goals are self-realization (bringing yourself to grips with external reality), self- actualization (bringing external reality to grips with yourself), self-discipline and self-identity. This con- sciousness is also essential to acceptance of others. In order to holistically maximize the child's growth, it becomes imperative that the teacher understands the dynamic equilibrium or interplay between directed or cognitive thinking and the child's fantasies and myths. The teacher needs to evolve methods that better ascertain the degree of internalization of their input into structur- ing the child's directed thinking. Furthermore, the teacher needs to devise methods to sensitize him in drawing out the child's intrinsic fantasies and myths, 32 and make them conscious. The process of individuation must be two-fold not only on the part of the learner, but also the educator. Jung states: No one can educate to personality who does not him— self have it. . . . Personality as a complete realization of the fullness of our being is an unattainable ideal. But, unattainability is no counter argument against an ideal, for ideals are only signposts and never goals. . . . It is impos- sible to foresee what an infinite number of con- ditions must be fulfilled to bring this about.2 A heuristic method of education may enable the learner to find out or discover by being gradually trained to find things out for himself; enabling one to ask questions for problems which are only dimly fancied. The lines of discovery develop the myth of meaning, i.e., giving adequate expression for that which is known only as a possibility and essentially for that which there is no one adequate answer. Insofar as an adequate tension is established between intuition and knowledge, it is exper- ienced as a synthesis to develop a higher level of con- sciousness. This synthesis, dependent upon the balanced interplay between directed thinking and coming to con- sciousness of fantasy, will help children to face, under- stand, and deal constructively with the realities of their lives. APPENDI X APPENDIX Untitled drawing 33 NOTES NOTES CHAPTER I 1Henry A. Murray, ed., "The Possible Nature of a 'Mythology' To Come," in Myth and Myth-Making (New York: George Braziller, 1960), p. 341. CHAPTER II lMark Schorer, "The Necessity of Myth," in Myth and M th-Makin , ed. Henry A. Murray’(New York: George Bra- ziIIer, ISEO), p. 354. 2Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Springfield, Mass.: G‘& C Merriam Company, 1956), p. 1497. 3Albert Tsugawa, Myths (unpublished manuscript), p. 27. 4Murray, "The Possible Nature of a 'Mythology' To Come," p. 336. CHAPTER III 1Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1976), Chapter 2. 2webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (SpringfieId, Mass.: G & CTMarriam Company, 1971), p. 259. 3Eric Kinger, Structure and Functions of Fantasy (New York: John Wiley & Sens, Ific., 1971), p. 347. 41bid., p. 348. 34 35 5R. F. C. Hull, trans., Belief in Spirits, Collected Works, Vol. VIII, 2d ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975), p. 310. 6R. F. C. Hull, On the Psychology of the Unconscious, Collected WOrks, VOl. VII, Zd ed. (Princeton, Niji: Princeton University Press, 1966), p. 77. 7Patrick Mullahy, Oedipus Myth and Complex (New York: Hermitage Press, 1943), P. 146? 81bid. CHAPTER IV 1Carl Jung, Integration of the Personality (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 19567, p. 13. 2Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Random House, Inc., 1965Y, p. 40I. 3Liliane Frey-Rohn, From Freud to Jung (New York: Delta Publishing Co., 1974), p.‘297. 4Ibid., p. 90. 5Kenneth R. Beittel, Alternatives for Art Education Research (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C}'Brown Co., 1973), p.'57. 6A. C. Storr, C. G. Jung (London: Fantana, 1973), pl 43. 7Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1964), p. I49. 8Erik Erikson, Insight and Responsibility (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1964), p. 116. 91bid., p. 147. loIbid., p. 148. llIbid., p. 149. 36 I12Jaffe, The Myth of Meaning (New York: Penguin Books, Inc., 1975), p. 138. 13Frey-Rohn, From Freud to Jung, p. 116. CHAPTER V lJung, Man and His Symbols, p. 263. 2Phillipson Morris, Outline of Jungian Aesthetics (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972f, p. 189. CHAPTER VI lViolet deLaszlo, Psyche & Symbol (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc.,'1958), p. xxi. 2Ibid., p. xxix. 3Ibid., p. 321. 4Phillipson, Outline of a Jungian Aesthetics, CHAPTER VII lJung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 348. 2Jung, Integration of the Personality, pp. 286-87. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Beittel, Kenneth R. Alternatives for ArtEducation Research. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co., 1973. Erikson, Erik. Insight agd Responsibility. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1964: Frey-Rohn, Liliane. From Freud to Jung. New York: Delta Publishing Co., 1974. Hull, R. F. C., trans. Belief in Spirits. Collected Works, Vol. VIII, 2d ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975. . On the Psychology of the Unconscious. Collected Works, V01. VII, 2d ed. Princeton, NT3.: Princeton University Press, 1966. Jaffé, Aniela. The Myth of Meaning. New York: Penguin Books, Inc., I975. Jung, Carl. Integration of the Personalit . London: Routledge & Kegan PafiIPLTD, I956. . Man and His Symbols. New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1964} . Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Random House, Inc., 1965. . Symbols of Transformation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University—Press, 1976. Klinger, Eric. Structure and Functions of Fantasy. New York: John WiIey & Sons, Inc., 1971. deLaszlo, Violet S. Psyche & Symbol. Garden City. N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1958. Murray, Henry A. Myth and Mythmaking. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1969. Philipson, Morris. Outline of a Jungian Aesthetics. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1972. 37 38 Storr, A. C. C. G. Jung. London: Fantana, 1973. Tsugawa, Albert. Myths. Unpublished document. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 3d ed. Springfield, Mass.: G & C Marriam Company, 1956. lllllIlllllIIIllllIlll||||||l|||||||||l|||||IIIlllllllllllllllll 31293000875546