object:3.00.2 - Introduction
book class:The Practice of Psycho therapy
author class:Carl Jung
subject class:Psychology
class:chapter
INTRODUCTION
Bellica pax, vulnus dulce, suave malum.
(A warring peace, a sweet wound, a mild evil.)
J OHN G OWER , Confessio amantis, II, p. 35
1
[353]
The fact that the idea of the mystic marriage plays such an important
part in alchemy is not so surprising when we remember that the term most
frequently employed for it, coniunctio, referred in the first place to what
we now call chemical combination, and that the substances or bodies to
be combined were drawn together by what we would call affinity. In days
gone by, people used a variety of terms which all expressed a human, and
more particularly an erotic, relationship, such as nuptiae, matrimonium,
coniugium, amicitia, attractio, adulatio. Accordingly the bodies to be
combined were thought of as agens et patiens, as vir or masculus, and as
femina, mulier, femineus; or they were described more picturesquely as
dog and bitch, horse (stallion) and donkey, cock and hen, and as the
winged and wingless dragon. The more anthropomorphic and
theriomorphic the terms become, the more obvious is the part played by
creative fantasy and thus by the unconscious, and the more we see how the
natural philosophers of old were tempted, as their thoughts explored the
dark, unknown qualities of matter, to slip away from a strictly chemical
investigation and to fall under the spell of the myth of matter. Since
there can never be absolute freedom from prejudice, even the most
objective and impartial investigator is liable to become the victim of some
unconscious assumption upon entering a region where the darkness has
never been illuminated and where he can recognize nothing. This need not
necessarily be a misfortune, since the idea which then presents itself as a
substitute for the unknown will take the form of an archaic though not
inapposite analogy. Thus Kekuls vision of the dancing couples, which
1
2
3
4
5first put him on the track of the structure of certain carbon compounds,
namely the benzene ring, was surely a vision of the coniunctio, the mating
that had preoccupied the minds of the alchemists for seventeen centuries. It
was precisely this image that had always lured the mind of the investigator
away from the problem of chemistry and back to the ancient myth of the
royal or divine marriage; but in Kekuls vision it reached its chemical
goal in the end, thus rendering the greatest imaginable service both to our
understanding of organic compounds and to the subsequent unprecedented
advances in synthetic chemistry. Looking back, we can say that the
alchemists had keen noses when they made this arcanum arcanorum, this
donum Dei et secretum altissimi, this inmost mystery of the art of gold-
making, the climax of their work. The subsequent confirmation of the
other idea central to gold-making the transmutability of chemical
elementsalso takes a worthy place in this belated triumph of alchemical
thought. Considering the eminently practical and theoretical importance of
these two key ideas, we might well conclude that they were intuitive
anticipations whose fascination can be explained in the light of later
developments.
6
7
8
[354]
We find, however, that alchemy did not merely change into chemistry
by gradually discovering how to break away from its mythological
premises, but that it also became, or had always been, a kind of mystic
philosophy. The idea of the coniunctio served on the one hand to shed light
on the mystery of chemical combination, while on the other it became the
symbol of the unio mystica, since, as a mythologem, it expresses the
archetype of the union of opposites. Now the archetypes do not represent
anything external, non-psychic, although they do of course owe the
concreteness of their imagery to impressions received from without.
Rather, independently of, and sometimes in direct contrast to, the outward
forms they may take, they represent the life and essence of a non-
individual psyche. Although this psyche is innate in every individual it can
neither be modified nor possessed by him personally. It is the same in the
individual as it is in the crowd and ultimately in everybody. It is the
precondition of each individual psyche, just as the sea is the carrier of the
individual wave.
[355]
The alchemical image of the coniunctio, whose practical importance
was proved at a later stage of development, is equally valuable from thepsychological point of view: that is to say, it plays the same role in the
exploration of the darkness of the psyche as it played in the investigation
of the riddle of matter. Indeed, it could never have worked so effectively in
the material world had it not already possessed the power to fascinate and
thus to fix the attention of the investigator along those lines. The
coniunctio is an a priori image that occupies a prominent place in the
history of mans mental development. If we trace this idea back we find it
has two sources in alchemy, one Christian, the other pagan. The Christian
source is unmistakably the doctrine of Christ and the Church, sponsus and
sponsa, where Christ takes the role of Sol and the Church that of Luna.
The pagan source is on the one hand the hierosgamos, on the other the
marital union of the mystic with God. These psychic experiences and the
traces they have left behind in tradition explain much that would otherwise
be totally unintelligible in the strange world of alchemy and its secret
language.
9
10
11
[356]
As we have said, the image of the coniunctio has always occupied an
important place in the history of the human mind. Recent developments in
medical psychology have, through observation of the mental processes in
neuroses and psychoses, forced us to become more and more thorough in
our investigation of the psychic background, commonly called the
unconscious. It is psycho therapy above all that makes such investigations
necessary, because it can no longer be denied that morbid disturbances of
the psyche are not to be explained exclusively by the changes going on in
the body or in the conscious mind; we must adduce a third factor by way
of explanation, namely hypothetical unconscious processes.
12
[357]
Practical analysis has shown that unconscious contents are invariably
projected at first upon concrete persons and situations. Many projections
can ultimately be integrated back into the individual once he has
recognized their subjective origin; others resist integration, and although
they may be detached from their original objects, they thereupon transfer
themselves to the doctor. Among these contents the relation to the parent
of opposite sex plays a particularly important part, i.e., the relation of son
to mother, daughter to father, and also that of brother to sister. As a rule
this complex cannot be integrated completely, since the doctor is nearly
always put in the place of the father, the brother, and even (though
naturally more rarely) the mother. Experience has shown that this
13projection persists with all its original intensity (which Freud regarded as
aetiological), thus creating a bond that corresponds in every respect to the
initial infantile relationship, with a tendency to recapitulate all the
experiences of childhood on the doctor. In other words, the neurotic
maladjustment of the patient is now transferred to him. Freud, who was
the first to recognize and describe this phenomenon, coined the term
transference neurosis.
14
15
[358]
This bond is often of such intensity that we could almost speak of a
combination. When two chemical substances combine, both are altered.
This is precisely what happens in the transference. Freud rightly
recognized that this bond is of the greatest therapeutic importance in that it
gives rise to a mixtum compositum of the doctors own mental health and
the patients maladjustment. In Freudian technique the doctor tries to ward
off the transference as much as possiblewhich is understandable enough
from the human point of view, though in certain cases it may considerably
impair the therapeutic effect. It is inevitable that the doctor should be
influenced to a certain extent and even that his nervous health should
suffer. He quite literally takes over the sufferings of his patient and
shares them with him. For this reason he runs a risk and must run it in
the nature of things. The enormous importance that Freud attached to the
transference phenomenon became clear to me at our first personal meeting
in 1907. After a conversation lasting many hours there came a pause.
Suddenly he asked me out of the blue, And what do you think about the
transference? I replied with the deepest conviction that it was the alpha
and omega of the analytical method, whereupon he said, Then you have
grasped the main thing.
16
17
[359]
The great importance of the transference has often led to the mistaken
idea that it is absolutely indispensable for a cure, that it must be demanded
from the patient, so to speak. But a thing like that can no more be
demanded than faith, which is only valuable when it is spontaneous.
Enforced faith is nothing but spiritual cramp. Anyone who thinks that he
must demand a transference is forgetting that this is only one of the
therapeutic factors, and that the very word transference is closely akin to
projectiona phenomenon that cannot possibly be demanded. I
personally am always glad when there is only a mild transference or when
it is practically unnoticeable. Far less claim is then made upon one as a
18person, and one can be satisfied with other therapeutically effective
factors. Among these the patients own insight plays an important part,
also his goodwill, the doctors authority, suggestion, good advice,
understanding, sympathy, encouragement, etc. Naturally the more serious
cases do not come into this category.
19
20
[360]
Careful analysis of the transference phenomenon yields an extremely
complicated picture with such startlingly pronounced features that we are
often tempted to pick out one of them as the most important and then
exclaim by way of explanation: Of course, its nothing but...! I am
referring chiefly to the erotic or sexual aspect of transference fantasies.
The existence of this aspect is undeniable, but it is not always the only one
and not always the essential one. Another is the will to power (described
by Adler), which proves to be coexistent with sexuality, and it is often very
difficult to make out which of the two predominates. These two aspects
alone offer sufficient grounds for a paralysing conflict.
[361]
There are, however, other forms of instinctive concupiscentia that
come more from hunger, from wanting to possess; others again are
based on the instinctive negation of desire, so that life seems to be founded
on fear or self-destruction. A certain abaissement du niveau mental, i.e., a
weakness in the hierarchical order of the ego, is enough to set these
instinctive urges and desires in motion and bring about a dissociation of
personalityin other words, a multiplication of its centres of gravity. (In
schizophrenia there is an actual fragmentation of personality.) These
dynamic components must be regarded as real or symptomatic, vitally
decisive or merely syndromal, according to the degree of their
predominance. Although the strongest instincts undoubtedly demand
concrete realization and generally enforce it, they cannot be considered
exclusively biological since the course they actually follow is subject to
powerful modifications coming from the personality itself. If a mans
temperament inclines him to a spiritual attitude, even the concrete activity
of the instincts will take on a certain symbolical character. This activity is
no longer the mere satisfaction of instinctual impulses, for it is now
associated with or complicated by meanings. In the case of purely
syndromal instinctive processes, which do not demand concrete realization
to the same extent, the symbolical character of their fulfilment is all the
more marked. The most vivid examples of these complications areprobably to be found in erotic phenomenology. Four stages of eroticism
were known in the late classical period: Hawwah (Eve), Helen (of Troy),
the Virgin Mary, and Sophia. The series is repeated in Goethes Faust: in
the figures of Gretchen as the personification of a purely instinctual
relationship (Eve); Helen as an anima figure; Mary as the personification
of the heavenly, i.e., Christian or religious, relationship; and the eternal
feminine as an expression of the alchemical Sapientia. As the
nomenclature shows, we are dealing with the heterosexual Eros or anima-
figure in four stages, and consequently with four stages of the Eros cult.
The first stageHawwah, Eve, earthis purely biological; woman is
equated with the mother and only represents something to be fertilized.
The second stage is still dominated by the sexual Eros, but on an aesthetic
and romantic level where woman has already acquired some value as an
individual. The third stage raises Eros to the heights of religious devotion
and thus spiritualizes him: Hawwah has been replaced by spiritual
motherhood. Finally, the fourth stage illustrates something which
unexpectedly goes beyond the almost unsurpassable third stage: Sapientia.
How can wisdom transcend the most holy and the most pure?
Presumably only by virtue of the truth that the less sometimes means the
more. This stage represents a spiritualization of Helen and consequently of
Eros as such. That is why Sapientia was regarded as a parallel to the
Shulamite in the Song of Songs.
21
[362]
Not only are there different instincts which cannot forcibly be reduced
to one another, there are also different levels on which they move. In view
of this far from simple situation, it is small wonder that the transference
also an instinctive process, in partis very difficult to interpret and
evaluate. The instincts and their specific fantasy-contents are partly
concrete, partly symbolical (i.e., unreal), sometimes one, sometimes the
other, and they have the same paradoxical character when they are
projected. The transference is far from being a simple phenomenon with
only one meaning, and we can never make out beforeh and what it is all
about. The same applies to its specific content, commonly called incest.
We know that it is possible to interpret the fantasy-contents of the instincts
either as signs, as self-portraits of the instincts, i.e., reductively; or as
symbols, as the spiritual meaning of the natural instinct. In the former case
the instinctive process is taken to be real and in the latter unreal.[363]
In any particular case it is often almost impossible to say what is
spirit and what is instinct. Together they form an impenetrable mass, a
veritable magma sprung from the depths of primeval chaos. When one
meets such contents one immediately understands why the psychic
equilibrium of the neurotic is disturbed, and why the whole psychic system
is broken up in schizophrenia. They emit a fascination which not only
gripsand has already gripped the patient, but can also have an
inductive effect on the unconscious of the impartial spectator, in this case
the doctor. The burden of these unconscious and chaotic contents lies
heavy on the patient; for, although they are present in everybody, it is only
in him that they have become active, and they isolate him in a spiritual
loneliness which neither he nor anybody else can understand and which is
bound to be misinterpreted. Unfortunately, if we do not feel our way into
the situation and approach it purely from the outside, it is only too easy to
dismiss it with a light word or to push it in the wrong direction. This is
what the patient has long been doing on his own account, giving the doctor
every opportunity for misinterpretation. At first the secret seems to lie with
his parents, but when this tie has been loosed and the projection
withdrawn, the whole weight falls upon the doctor, who is faced with the
question: What are you going to do about the transference?
[364]
The doctor, by voluntarily and consciously taking over the psychic
sufferings of the patient, exposes himself to the overpowering contents of
the unconscious and hence also to their inductive action. The case begins
to fascinate him. Here again it is easy to explain this in terms of personal
likes and dislikes, but one overlooks the fact that this would be an instance
of ignotum per ignotius. In reality these personal feelings, if they exist at
all in any decisive degree, are governed by those same unconscious
contents which have become activated. An unconscious tie is established
and now, in the patients fantasies, it assumes all the forms and dimensions
so profusely described in the literature. The patient, by bringing an
activated unconscious content to bear upon the doctor, constellates the
corresponding unconscious material in him, owing to the inductive effect
which always emanates from projections in greater or lesser degree.
Doctor and patient thus find themselves in a relationship founded on
mutual unconsciousness.
[365]
It is none too easy for the doctor to make himself aware of this fact.One is naturally loath to admit that one could be affected in the most
personal way by just any patient. But the more unconsciously this happens,
the more the doctor will be tempted to adopt an apotropaic attitude, and
the persona medici he hides behind is, or rather seems to be, an admirable
instrument for this purpose. Inseparable from the persona is the doctors
routine and his trick of knowing everything beforehand, which is one of
the favourite props of the well-versed practitioner and of all infallible
authority. Yet this lack of insight is an ill counsellor, for the unconscious
infection brings with it the therapeutic possibilitywhich should not be
underestimatedof the illness being transferred to the doctor. We must
suppose as a matter of course that the doctor is the better able to make the
constellated contents conscious, otherwise it would only lead to mutual
imprisonment in the same state of unconsciousness. The greatest difficulty
here is that contents are often activated in the doctor which might normally
remain latent. He might perhaps be so normal as not to need any such
unconscious standpoints to compensate his conscious situation. At least
this is often how it looks, though whether it is so in a deeper sense is an
open question. Presumably he had good reasons for choosing the
profession of psychiatrist and for being particularly interested in the
treatment of the psychoneuroses; and he cannot very well do that without
gaining some insight into his own unconscious processes. Nor can his
concern with the unconscious be explained entirely by a free choice of
interests, but rather by a fateful disposition which originally inclined him
to the medical profession. The more one sees of human fate and the more
one examines its secret springs of action, the more one is impressed by the
strength of unconscious motives and by the limitations of free choice. The
doctor knowsor at least he should know that he did not choose this
career by chance; and the psycho therapist in particular should clearly
understand that psychic infections, however superfluous they seem to him,
are in fact the predestined concomitants of his work, and thus fully in
accord with the instinctive disposition of his own life. This realization also
gives him the right attitude to his patient. The patient then means
something to him personally, and this provides the most favourable basis
for treatment.
3
[366]
In the old pre-analytical psycho therapy, going right back to thedoctors of the Romantic Age, the transference was already defined as
rapport. It forms the basis of therapeutic influence once the patients
initial projections are dissolved. During this work it becomes clear that the
projections can also obscure the judgment of the doctorto a lesser extent,
of course, for otherwise all therapy would be impossible. Although we
may justifiably expect the doctor at the very least to be acquainted with the
effects of the unconscious on his own person, and may therefore demand
that anybody who intends to practise psycho therapy should first submit to
a training analysis, yet even the best preparation will not suffice to teach
him everything about the unconscious. A complete emptying of the
unconscious is out of the question, if only because its creative powers are
continually producing new formations. Consciousness, no matter how
extensive it may be, must always remain the smaller circle within the
greater circle of the unconscious, an island surrounded by the sea; and, like
the sea itself, the unconscious yields an endless and self-replenishing
abundance of living creatures, a wealth beyond our fathoming. We may
long have known the meaning, effects, and characteristics of unconscious
contents without ever having fathomed their depths and potentialities, for
they are capable of infinite variation and can never be depotentiated. The
only way to get at them in practice is to try to attain a conscious attitude
which allows the unconscious to co-operate instead of being driven into
opposition.
[367]
Even the most experienced psycho therapist will discover again and
again that he is caught up in a bond, a combination resting on mutual
unconsciousness. And though he may believe himself to be in possession
of all the necessary knowledge concerning the constellated archetypes, he
will in the end come to realize that there are very many things indeed of
which his academic knowledge never dreamed. Each new case that
requires thorough treatment is pioneer work, and every trace of routine
then proves to be a blind alley. Consequently the higher psycho therapy is a
most exacting business and sometimes it sets tasks which challenge not
only our understanding or our sympathy, but the whole man. The doctor is
inclined to demand this total effort from his patient, yet he must realize
that this same demand only works if he is aware that it applies also to
himself.
[368]
I said earlier that the contents which enter into the transference wereas a rule originally projected upon the parents or other members of the
family. Owing to the fact that these contents seldom or never lack an erotic
aspect or are genuinely sexual in substance (apart from the other factors
already mentioned), an incestuous character does undoubtedly attach to
them, and this has given rise to the Freudian theory of incest. Their
exogamous transference to the doctor does not alter the situation. He is
merely drawn into the peculiar atmosphere of family incest through the
projection. This necessarily leads to an unreal intimacy which is highly
distressing to both doctor and patient and arouses resistance and doubt on
both sides. The violent repudiation of Freuds original discoveries gets us
nowhere, for we are dealing with an empirically demonstrable fact which
meets with such universal confirmation that only the ignorant still try to
oppose it. But the interpretation of this fact is, in the very nature of the
case, highly controversial. Is it a genuine incestuous instinct or a
pathological variation? Or is the incest one of the arrangements (Adler)
of the will to power? Or is it regression of normal libido to the infantile
level, from fear of an apparently impossible task in life? Or is all incest-
fantasy purely symbolical, and thus a reactivation of the incest archetype,
which plays such an important part in the history of the human mind?
22
23
[369]
For all these widely differing interpretations we can marshal more or
less satisfactory arguments. The view which probably causes most offence
is that incest is a genuine instinct. But, considering the almost universal
prevalence of the incest taboo, we may legitimately remark that a thing
which is not liked and desired generally requires no prohibition. In my
opinion, each of these interpretations is justified up to a point, because all
the corresponding shades of meaning are present in individual cases,
though with varying intensity. Sometimes one aspect predominates and
sometimes another. I am far from asserting that the above list could not be
supplemented further.
[370]
In practice, however, it is of the utmost importance how the
incestuous aspect is interpreted. The explanation will vary according to the
nature of the case, the stage of treatment, the perspicacity of the patient,
and the maturity of his judgment.
[371]
The existence of the incest element involves not only an intellectual
difficulty but, worst of all, an emotional complication of the therapeutic
situation. It is the hiding place for all the most secret, painful, intense,delicate, shamefaced, timorous, grotesque, unmoral, and at the same time
the most sacred feelings which go to make up the indescribable and
inexplicable wealth of human relationships and give them their compelling
power. Like the tentacles of an octopus they twine themselves invisibly
round parents and children and, through the transference, round doctor and
patient. This binding force shows itself in the irresistible strength and
obstinacy of the neurotic symptom and in the patients desperate clinging
to the world of infancy or to the doctor. The word possession describes
this state in a way that could hardly be bettered.
[372]
The remarkable effects produced by unconscious contents allow us to
infer something about their energy. All unconscious contents, once they
are activatedi.e., have made themselves feltpossess as it were a
specific energy which enables them to manifest themselves everywhere
(like the incest motif, for instance). But this energy is normally not
sufficient to thrust the content into consciousness. For that there must be a
certain predisposition on the part of the conscious mind, namely a deficit
in the form of loss of energy. The energy so lost raises the psychic potency
of certain compensating contents in the unconscious. The abaissement du
niveau mental, the energy lost to consciousness, is a phenomenon which
shows itself most drastically in the loss of soul among primitive peoples,
who also have interesting psycho therapeutic methods for recapturing the
soul that has gone astray. This is not the place to go into these matters in
detail, so a bare mention must suffice. Similar phenomena can be
observed in civilized man. He too is liable to a sudden loss of initiative for
no apparent reason. The discovery of the real reason is no easy task and
generally leads to a somewhat ticklish discussion of things lying in the
background. Carelessness of all kinds, neglected duties, tasks postponed,
wilful outbursts of defiance, and so on, all these can dam up his vitality to
such an extent that certain quanta of energy, no longer finding a conscious
outlet, stream off into the unconscious, where they activate other,
compensating contents, which in turn begin to exert a compulsive
influence on the conscious mind. (Hence the very common combination of
extreme neglect of duty and a compulsion neurosis.)
24
[373]
This is one way in which loss of energy may come about. The other
way causes loss not through a malfunctioning of the conscious mind but
through a spontaneous activation of unconscious contents, which reactsecondarily upon consciousness. There are moments in human life when a
new page is turned. New interests and tendencies appear which have
hitherto received no attention, or there is a sudden change of personality (a
so-called mutation of character). During the incubation period of such a
change we can often observe a loss of conscious energy: the new
development has drawn off the energy it needs from consciousness. This
lowering of energy can be seen most clearly before the onset of certain
psychoses and also in the empty stillness which precedes creative work.
25
[374]
The remarkable potency of unconscious contents, therefore, always
indicates a corresponding weakness in the conscious mind and its
functions. It is as though the latter were threatened with impotence. For
primitive man this danger is one of the most terrifying instances of
magic. So we can understand why this secret fear is also to be found
among civilized people. In serious cases it is the secret fear of going mad;
in less serious, the fear of the unconsciousa fear which even the normal
person exhibits in his resistance to psychological views and explanations.
This resistance borders on the grotesque when it comes to scouting all
psychological explanations of art, philosophy, and religion, as though the
human psyche had, or should have, absolutely nothing to do with these
things. The doctor knows these well-defended zones from his consulting
hours: they are reminiscent of island fortresses from which the neurotic
tries to ward off the octopus. (Happy neurosis island, as one of my
patients called his conscious state!) The doctor is well aware that the
patient needs an island and would be lost without it. It serves as a refuge
for his consciousness and as the last stronghold against the threatening
embrace of the unconscious. The same is true of the normal persons taboo
regions which psychology must not touch. But since no war was ever won
on the defensive, one must, in order to terminate hostilities, open
negotiations with the enemy and see what his terms really are. Such is the
intention of the doctor who volunteers to act as a mediator. He is far from
wishing to disturb the somewhat precarious island idyll or pull down the
fortifications. On the contrary, he is thankful that somewhere a firm
foothold exists that does not first have to be fished up out of the chaos,
always a desperately difficult task. He knows that the island is a bit
cramped and that life on it is pretty meagre and plagued with all sorts of
imaginary wants because too much life has been left outside, and that as a
result a terrifying monster is created, or rather is roused out of its slumbers.He also knows that this seemingly alarming animal stands in a secret
compensatory relationship to the island and could supply everything that
the island lacks.
[375]
The transference, however, alters the psychological stature of the
doctor, though this is at first imperceptible to him. He too becomes
affected, and has as much difficulty in distinguishing between the patient
and what has taken possession of him as has the patient himself. This leads
both of them to a direct confrontation with the daemonic forces lurking in
the darkness. The resultant paradoxical blend of positive and negative, of
trust and fear, of hope and doubt, of attraction and repulsion, is
characteristic of the initial relationship. It is the vekos k a (hate and
love) of the elements, which the alchemists likened to the primeval chaos.
The activated unconscious appears as a flurry of unleashed opposites and
calls forth the attempt to reconcile them, so that, in the words of the
alchemists, the great panacea, the medicina catholica, may be born.
4
[376]
It must be emphasized that in alchemy the dark initial state of nigredo
is often regarded as the product of a previous operation, and that it
therefore does not represent the absolute beginning. Similarly, the
psychological parallel to the nigredo is the result of the foregoing
preliminary talk which, at a certain moment, sometimes long delayed,
touches the unconscious and establishes the unconscious identity of
doctor and patient. This moment may be perceived and registered
consciously, but generally it happens outside consciousness and the bond
thus established is recognized only later and indirectly by its results.
Occasionally dreams occur about this time, announcing the appearance of
the transference. For instance, a dream may say that a fire has started in the
cellar, or that a burglar has broken in, or that the patients father has died,
or it may depict an erotic or some other ambiguous situation. From the
moment when such a dream occurs there may be initiated a queer
unconscious time-reckoning, lasting for months or even longer. I have
often observed this process and will give a practical instance of it:
26
27
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[377]
When treating a lady of over sixty, I was struck by the following
passage in a dream she had on October 21, 1938: A beautiful little child,
a girl of six months old, is playing in the kitchen with her grandparentsand myself, her mother. The grandparents are on the left of the room and
the child stands on the square table in the middle of the kitchen. I stand by
the table and play with the child. The old woman says she can hardly
believe we have known the child for only six months. I say that it is not so
strange because we knew and loved the child long before she was born.
[378]
It is immediately apparent that the child is something special, i.e., a
child hero or divine child. The father is not mentioned; his absence is part
of the picture. The kitchen, as the scene of the happening, points to the
unconscious. The square table is the quaternity, the classical basis of the
special child, for the child is a symbol of the self and the quaternity is a
symbolical expression of this. The self as such is timeless and existed
before any birth. The dreamer was strongly influenced by Indian writings
and knew the Upanishads well, but not the medieval Christian symbolism
which is in question here. The precise age of the child made me ask the
dreamer to look in her notes to see what had happened in the unconscious
six months earlier. Under April 20, 1938, she found the following dream:
29
30
31
[379]
With some other women I am looking at a piece of tapestry, a square
with symbolical figures on it. Immediately afterwards I am sitting with
some women in front of a marvellous tree. It is magnificently grown, at
first it seems to be some kind of conifer, but then I thinkin the dream
that it is a monkey-puzzle [a tree of genus Araucaria] with the branches
growing straight up like candles [a confusion with Cereus candelabrum].
A Christmas tree is fitted into it in such a way that at first it looks like one
tree instead of two.As the dreamer was writing down this dream
immediately on waking, with a vivid picture of the tree before her, she
suddenly had a vision of a tiny golden child lying at the foot of the tree
(tree-birth motif). She had thus gone on dreaming the sense of the dream.
It undoubtedly depicts the birth of the divine (golden) child.
[380]
But what had happened nine months previous to April 20, 1938?
Between July 19 and 22, 1937, she had painted a picture showing, on the
left, a heap of coloured and polished (precious) stones surmounted by a
silver serpent, winged and crowned. In the middle of the picture there
stands a naked female figure from whose genital region the same serpent
rears up towards the heart, where it bursts into a five-pointed, gorgeously
flashing golden star. A coloured bird flies down on the right with a little
twig in its beak. On the twig five flowers are arranged in a quaternio, oneyellow, one blue, one red, one green, but the topmost is goldenobviously
a mandala structure. The serpent represents the hissing ascent of
Kundalini, and in the corresponding yoga this marks the first moment in a
process which ends with deification in the divine Self, the syzygy of Shiva
and Shakti. It is obviously the moment of symbolical conception, which is
both Tantric andbecause of the birdChristian in character, being a
contamination of the symbolism of the Annunciation with Noahs dove
and the sprig of olive.
32
33
[381]
This case, and more particularly the last image, is a classical example
of the kind of symbolism which marks the onset of the transference.
Noahs dove (the emblem of reconciliation), the incarnatio Dei, the union
of God with matter for the purpose of begetting the redeemer, the serpent
path, the Sushumna representing the line midway between sun and moon
all this is the first, anticipatory stage of an as-yet-unfulfilled programme
that culminates in the union of opposites. This union is analogous to the
royal marriage in alchemy. The prodromal events signify the meeting or
collision of various opposites and can therefore appropriately be called
chaos and blackness. As mentioned above, this may occur at the beginning
of the treatment, or it may have to be preceded by a lengthy analysis, a
stage of rapprochement. Such is particularly the case when the patient
shows violent resistances coupled with fear of the activated contents of the
unconscious. There is good reason and ample justification for these
resistances and they should never, under any circumstances, be ridden over
roughshod or otherwise argued out of existence. Neither should they be
belittled, disparaged, or made ridiculous; on the contrary, they should be
taken with the utmost seriousness as a vitally important defence
mechanism against overpowering contents which are often very difficult to
control. The general rule should be that the weakness of the conscious
attitude is proportional to the strength of the resistance. When, therefore,
there are strong resistances, the conscious rapport with the patient must be
carefully watched, andin certain caseshis conscious attitude must be
supported to such a degree that, in view of later developments, one would
be bound to charge oneself with the grossest inconsistency. That is
inevitable, because one can never be too sure that the weak state of the
patients conscious mind will prove equal to the subsequent assault of the
unconscious. In fact, one must go on supporting his conscious (or, as Freud
thinks, repressive) attitude until the patient can let the repressed
34contents rise up spontaneously. Should there by any chance be a latent
psychosis which cannot be detected beforehand, this cautious procedure
may prevent the devastating invasion of the unconscious or at least catch it
in time. At all events the doctor then has a clear conscience, knowing that
he has done everything in his power to avoid a fatal outcome. Nor is it
beside the point to add that consistent support of the conscious attitude has
in itself a high therapeutic value and not infrequently serves to bring about
satisfactory results. It would be a dangerous prejudice to imagine that
analysis of the unconscious is the one and only panacea which should
therefore be employed in every case. It is rather like a surgical operation
and we should only resort to the knife when other methods have failed. So
long as it does not obtrude itself the unconscious is best left alone. The
reader should be quite clear that my discussion of the transference problem
is not an account of the daily routine of the psycho therapist, but far more a
description of what happens when the check normally exerted on the
unconscious by the conscious mind is disrupted, though this need not
necessarily occur at all
35
36
[382]
Cases where the archetypal problem of the transference becomes acute
are by no means always serious cases, i.e., grave states of illness. There
are of course such cases among them, but there are also mild neuroses, or
simply psychological difficulties which we would be at a loss to diagnose.
Curiously enough, it is these latter cases that present the doctor with the
most difficult problems. Often the persons concerned endure unspeakable
suffering without developing any neurotic symptoms that would entitle
them to be called ill. We can only call it an intense suffering, a passion of
the soul but not a disease of the mind.
5
[383]
Once an unconscious content is constellated, it tends to break down
the relationship of conscious trust between doctor and patient by creating,
through projection, an atmosphere of illusion which either leads to
continual misinterpretations and misunderstandings, or else produces a
most disconcerting impression of harmony. The latter is even more trying
than the former, which at worst (though it is sometimes for the bestl) can
only hamper the treatment, whereas in the other case a tremendous effort is
needed to discover the points of difference. But in either case the
constellation of the unconscious is a troublesome factor. The situation isenveloped in a kind of fog, and this fully accords with the nature of the
unconscious content: it is a black blacker than black (nigrum, nigrius
nigro), as the alchemists rightly say, and in addition is charged with
dangerous polar tensions, with the inimicitia elementorum. One finds
oneself in an impenetrable chaos, which is indeed one of the synonyms for
the mysterious prima materia. The latter corresponds to the nature of the
unconscious content in every respect, with one exception: this time it does
not appear in the alchemical substance but in man himself. In the case of
alchemy it is quite evident that the unconscious content is of human origin,
as I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy. Hunted for centuries and
never found, the prima materia or lapis philosophorum is, as a few
alchemists rightly suspected, to be discovered in man himself. But it seems
that this content can never be found and integrated directly, but only by the
circuitous route of projection. For as a rule the unconscious first appears in
projected form. Whenever it appears to obtrude itself directly, as in
visions, dreams, illuminations, psychoses, etc., these are always preceded
by psychic conditions which give clear proof of projection. A classical
example of this is Sauls fanatical persecution of the Christians before
Christ appeared to him in a vision.
37
38
[384]
The elusive, deceptive, ever-changing content that possesses the
patient like a demon now flits about from patient to doctor and, as the third
party in the alliance, continues its game, sometimes impish and teasing,
sometimes really diabolical. The alchemists aptly personified it as the wily
god of revelation, Hermes or Mercurius; and though they lament over the
way he hoodwinks them, they still give him the highest names, which
bring him very near to deity. But for all that, they deem themselves good
Christians whose faithfulness of heart is never in doubt, and they begin and
end their treatises with pious invocations. Yet it would be an altogether
unjustifiable suppression of the truth were I to confine myself to the
negative description of Mercurius impish drolleries, his inexhaustible
invention, his insinuations, his intriguing ideas and schemes, his
ambivalence andoftenhis unmistakable malice. He is also capable of
the exact opposite, and I can well understand why the alchemists endowed
their Mercurius with the highest spiritual qualities, although these stand in
flagrant contrast to his exceedingly shady character. The contents of the
unconscious are indeed of the greatest importance, for the unconscious is
after all the matrix of the human mind and its inventions. Wonderful and
39
40ingenious as this other side of the unconscious is, it can be most
dangerously deceptive on account of its numinous nature. Involuntarily
one thinks of the devils mentioned by St Athanasius in his life of St
Anthony, who talk very piously, sing psalms, read the holy books, and
worst of allspeak the truth. The difficulties of our psycho therapeutic
work teach us to take truth, goodness, and beauty where we find them.
They are not always found where we look for them: often they are hidden
in the dirt or are in the keeping of the dragon. In stercore invenitur (it is
found in filth) runs an alchemical dictumnor is it any the less valuable
on that account. But, it does not transfigure the dirt and does not diminish
the evil, any more than these lessen Gods gifts. The contrast is painful and
the paradox bewildering. Sayings like are too optimistic and superficial;
they forget the moral torment occasioned by the opposites, and the
importance of ethical values.
41
[385]
The refining of the prima materia, the unconscious content, demands
endless patience, perseverance, equanimity, knowledge, and ability on the
part of the doctor; and, on the part of the patient, the putting forth of his
best powers and a capacity for suffering which does not leave the doctor
altogether unaffected. The deep meaning of the Christian virtues,
especially the greatest among these, will become clear even to the
unbeliever; for there are times when he needs them all if he is to rescue his
consciousness, and his very life, from this pocket of chaos, whose final
subjugation, without violence, is no ordinary task. If the work succeeds, it
often works like a miracle, and one can understand what it was that
prompted the alchemists to insert a heartfelt Deo concedente in their
recipes, or to allow that only if God wrought a miracle could their
procedure be brought to a successful conclusion.
43
6[386]
It may seem strange to the reader that a medical procedure should
give rise to such considerations. Although in illnesses of the body there is
no remedy and no treatment that can be said to be infallible in all
circumstances, there are still a great many which will probably have the
desired effect without either doctor or patient having the slightest need to
insert a Deo concedente. But we are not dealing here with the bodywe
are dealing with the psyche. Consequently we cannot speak the language
of body-cells and bacteria; we need another language commensurate with
the nature of the psyche, and equally we must have an attitude which
measures the danger and can meet it. And all this must be genuine or it
will have no effect; if it is hollow, it will damage both doctor and patient.
The Deo concedente is not just a rhetorical flourish; it expresses the firm
attitude of the man who does not imagine that he knows better on every
occasion and who is fully aware that the unconscious material before him
is something alive, a paradoxical Mercurius of whom an old master says:
Et est ille quem natura paululum operata est et in metallicam formam
formavit, tamen imperfectum relinquit. (And he is that on whom nature
hath worked but a little, and whom she hath wrought into metallic form yet
left unfinished) a natural being, therefore, that longs for integration
within the wholeness of a man. It is like a fragment of primeval psyche
into which no consciousness has as yet penetrated to create division and
order, a united dual nature, as Goe the saysan abyss of ambiguities.
44
[387]
Since we cannot imagineunless we have lost our critical faculties
altogether that mankind today has attained the highest possible degree of
consciousness, there must be some potential unconscious psyche left over
whose development would result in a further extension and a higher
differentiation of consciousness. No one can say how great or small this
remnant might be, for we have no means of measuring the possible
range of conscious development, let alone the extent of the unconscious.
But there is not the slightest doubt that a massa confusa of archaic and
undifferentiated contents exists, which not only manifests itself in neuroses
and psychoses but also forms the skeleton in the cupboard of
innumerable people who are not really pathological. We are so accustomed
to hear that everybody has his difficulties and problems that we simply
accept it as a banal fact, without considering what these difficulties and
problems really mean. Why is one never satisfied with oneself? Why is
one unreasonable? Why is one not always good and why must one everleave a cranny for evil? Why does one sometimes say too much and
sometimes too little? Why does one do foolish things which could easily
be avoided with a little forethought? What is it that is always frustrating us
and thwarting our best intentions? Why are there people who never notice
these things and cannot even admit their existence? And finally, why do
people in the mass beget the historical lunacy of the last thirty years? Why
couldnt Pythagoras, twenty-four hundred years ago, have established the
rule of wisdom once and for all, or Christianity have set up the Kingdom
of Heaven upon earth?
[388]
The Church has the doctrine of the devil, of an evil principle, whom
we like to imagine complete with cloven hoofs, horns, and tail, half man,
half beast, a chthonic deity apparently escaped from the rout of Dionysus,
the sole surviving champion of the sinful joys of paganism. An excellent
picture, and one which exactly describes the grotesque and sinister side of
the unconscious; for we have never really come to grips with it and
consequently it has remained in its original savage state. Probably no one
today would still be rash enough to assert that the European is a lamblike
creature and not possessed by a devil. The frightful records of our age are
plain for all to see, and they surpass in hideousness everything that any
previous age, with its feeble instruments, could have hoped to accomplish.
[389]
If, as many are fain to believe, the unconscious were only nefarious,
only evil, then the situation would be simple and the path clear: to do good
and to eschew evil. But what is good and what is evil? The
unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest
good: not only dark but also light, not only bestial, semi-human, and
demonic but superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word,
divine. The Mercurius who personifies the unconscious is essentially
duplex, paradoxically dualistic by nature, fiend, monster, beast, and at
the same time panacea, the philosophers son, sapientia Dei, and donum
Spiritus Sancti.
45
46
47
[390]
Since this is so, all hope of a simple solution is abolished. All
definitions of good and evil become suspect or actually invalid. As moral
forces, good and evil remain unshaken, andas the simple verities for
which the penal code, the ten commandments, and conventional Christian
morality take themundoubted. But conflicting loyalties are much more
subtle and dangerous things, and a conscience sharpened by worldlywisdom can no longer rest content with precepts, ideas, and fine words.
When it has to deal with that remnant of primeval psyche, pregnant with
the future and yearning for development, it grows uneasy and looks round
for some guiding principle or fixed point. Indeed, once this stage has been
reached in our dealings with the unconscious, these desiderata become a
pressing necessity. Since the only salutary powers visible in the world
today are the great psycho therapeutic systems which we call the religions,
and from which we expect the souls salvation, it is quite natural that many
people should make the justifiable and often successful attempt to find a
niche for themselves in one of the existing creeds and to acquire a deeper
insight into the meaning of the traditional saving verities.
[391]
This solution is normal and satisfying in that the dogmatically
formulated truths of the Christian Church express, almost perfectly, the
nature of psychic experience. They are the repositories of the secrets of the
soul, and this matchless knowledge is set forth in grand symbolical images.
The unconscious thus possesses a natural affinity with the spiritual values
of the Church, particularly in their dogmatic form, which owes its special
character to centuries of theological controversyabsurd as this seemed in
the eyes of later generationsand to the passionate efforts of many great
men.
7
[392]
The Church would be an ideal solution for anyone seeking a suitable
receptacle for the chaos of the unconscious were it not that everything
man-made, however refined, has its imperfections. The fact is that a return
to the Church, i.e., to a particular creed, is not the general rule. Much the
more frequent is a better understanding of, and a more intense relation to,
religion as such, which is not to be confused with a creed. This, it seems
to me, is mainly because anyone who appreciates the legitimacy of the two
viewpoints, of the two branches into which Christianity has been split,
cannot maintain the exclusive validity of either of them, for to do so would
be to deceive himself. As a Christian, he has to recognize that the
Christendom he belongs to has been split for four hundred years and that
his Christian beliefs, far from redeeming him, have exposed him to a
conflict and a division that are still rending the body of Christ. These are
the facts, and they cannot be abolished by each creed pressing for a
decision in its favour, as though each were perfectly sure it possessed the
48absolute truth. Such an attitude is unfair to modern man; he can see very
well the advantages that Protestantism has over Catholicism and vice
versa, and it is painfully clear to him that this sectarian insistence is trying
to corner him against his better judgmentin other words, tempting him to
sin against the Holy Ghost. He even understands why the churches are
bound to behave in this way, and knows that it must be so lest any joyful
Christian should imagine himself already reposing in Abrahams
anticipated bosom, saved and at peace and free from all fear. Christs
passion continues for the life of Christ in the corpus mysticum, or
Christian life in both camps, is at loggerheads with itself and no honest
man can deny the split. We are thus in the precise situation of the neurotic
who must put up with the painful realization that he is in the midst of
conflict. His repeated efforts to repress the other side have only made his
neurosis worse. The doctor must advise him to accept the conflict just as it
is, with all the suffering this inevitably entails, otherwise the conflict will
never be ended. Intelligent Europeans, if at all interested in such questions,
are consciously or semiconsciously protestant Catholics and catholic
Protestants, nor are they any the worse for that. It is no use telling me that
no such people exist: I have seen both sorts, and they have considerably
raised my hopes about the European of the future.
[393]
But the negative attitude of the public at large to all credos seems to
be less the result of religious convictions than one symptom of the general
mental sloth and ignorance of religion. We can wax indignant over mans
notorious lack of spirituality, but when one is a doctor one does not
invariably think that the disease is malevolent or the patient morally
inferior; instead, one supposes that the negative results may possibly be
due to the remedy applied. Although it may reasonably be doubted
whether man has made any marked or even perceptible progress in
morality during the known five thousand years of human civilization, it
cannot be denied that there has been a notable development of
consciousness and its functions. Above all, there has been a tremendous
extension of consciousness in the form of knowledge. Not only have the
individual functions become differentiated, but to a large extent they have
been brought under the control of the egoin other words, mans will has
developed. This is particularly striking when we compare our mentality
with that of primitives. The security of our ego has, in comparison with
earlier times, greatly increased and has even taken such a dangerous leapforward that, although we sometimes speak of Gods will, we no longer
know what we are saying, for in the same breath we assert, Where theres
a will theres a way. And who would ever think of appealing to Gods
help rather than to the goodwill, the sense of responsibility and duty, the
reason or intelligence, of his fellow men?
[394]
Whatever we may think of these changes of outlook, we cannot alter
the fact of their existence. Now when there is a marked change in the
individuals state of consciousness, the unconscious contents which are
thereby constellated will also change. And the further the conscious
situation moves away from a certain point of equilibrium, the more
forceful and accordingly the more dangerous become the unconscious
contents that are struggling to restore the balance. This leads ultimately to
a dissociation: on the one hand, ego-consciousness makes convulsive
efforts to shake off an invisible opponent (if it does not suspect its next-
door neighbour of being the devil!), while on the other hand it increasingly
falls victim to the tyrannical will of an internal Government opposition
which displays all the characteristics of a dmonic subman and superman
combined.
[395]
When a few million people get into this state, it produces the sort of
situation which has afforded us such an edifying object-lesson every day
for the last ten years. These contemporary events betray their
psychological background by their very singularity. The insensate
destruction and devastation are a reaction against the deflection of
consciousness from the point of equilibrium. For an equilibrium does in
fact exist between the psychic ego and non-ego, and that equilibrium is a
religio, a careful consideration of ever-present unconscious forces
which we neglect at our peril. The present crisis has been brewing for
centuries because of this shift in mans conscious situation.
49
[396]
Have the Churches adapted themselves to this secular change? Their
truth may, with more right than we realize, call itself eternal, but its
temporal garment must pay tri bute to the evanescence of all earthly things
and should take account of psychic changes. Eternal truth needs a human
language that alters with the spirit of the times. The primordial images
undergo ceaseless transformation and yet remain ever the same, but only in
a new form can they be understood anew. Always they require a new
interpretation if, as each formulation becomes obsolete, they are not to losetheir spellbinding power over that fugax Mercurius and allow that useful
though dangerous enemy to escape. What is that about new wine in old
bottles? Where are the answers to the spiritual needs and troubles of a
new epoch? And where the knowledge to deal with the psychological
problems raised by the development of modern consciousness? Never
before has eternal truth been faced with such a hybris of will and power.
50
8
[397]
Here, apart from motives of a more personal nature, probably lie the
deeper reasons for the fact that the greater part of Europe has succumbed
to neo-paganism and anti-Christianity, and has set up a religious ideal of
worldly power in opposition to the metaphysical ideal founded on love.
But the individuals decision not to belong to a Church does not
necessarily denote an anti-Christian attitude; it may mean exactly the
reverse: a reconsidering of the kingdom of God in the human heart where,
in the words of St. Augustine, the mysterium paschale is accomplished
in its inward and higher meanings. The ancient and long obsolete idea of
man as a microcosm contains a supreme psychological truth that has yet to
be discovered. In former times this truth was projected upon the body, just
as alchemy projected the unconscious psyche upon chemical substances.
But it is altogether different when the microcosm is understood as that
interior world whose inward nature is fleetingly glimpsed in the
unconscious. An inkling of this is to be found in the words of Origen:
Intellige te alium mundum esse in parvo et esse intra te Solem, esse
Lunam, esse etiam stellas (Understand that thou art a second little world
and that the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars). And
just as the cosmos is not a dissolving mass of particles, but rests in the
unity of Gods embrace, so man must not dissolve into a whirl of warring
possibilities and tendencies imposed on him by the unconscious, but must
become the unity that embraces them all. Origen says pertinently: Vides,
quomodo ille, qui putatur unus esse, non est unus, sed tot in eo personae
videntur esse, quot mores (Thou seest that he who seemeth to be one is
yet not one, but as many persons appear in him as he hath velleities).
Possession by the unconscious means being torn apart into many people
and things, a disiunctio. That is why, according to Origen, the aim of the
Christian is to become an inwardly united human being. The blind
insistence on the outward community of the Church naturally fails to fulfil
51
52
53
54this aim; on the contrary, it inadvertently provides the inner disunity with
an outward vessel without really changing the disiunctio into a coniunctio.
[398]
The painful conflict that begins with the nigredo or tenebrositas is
described by the alchemists as the separatio or divisio elementorum, the
solutio, calcinatio, incineratio, or as dismemberment of the body,
excruciating animal sacrifices, amputation of the mothers hands or the
lions paws, atomization of the bridegroom in the body of the bride, and so
on. While this extreme form of disiunctio is going on, there is a
transformation of that arcanumbe it substance or spiritwhich
invariably turns out to be the mysterious Mercurius. In other words, out of
the monstrous animal forms there gradually emerges a res simplex, whose
nature is one and the same and yet consists of a duality (Goethes united
dual nature). The alchemist tries to get round this paradox or antinomy
with his various procedures and formulae, and to make one out of two.
But the very multiplicity of his symbols and symbolic processes proves
that success is doubtful. Seldom do we find symbols of the goal whose
dual nature is not immediately apparent. His filius philosophorum, his
lapis, his rebis, his homunculus, are all hermaphroditic. His gold is non
vulgi, his lapis is spirit and body, and so is his tincture, which is a sanguis
spiritualisa spiritual blood. We can therefore understand why the
nuptiae chymicae, the royal marriage, occupies such an important place in
alchemy as a symbol of the supreme and ultimate union, since it represents
the magic-by-analogy which is supposed to bring the work to its final
consummation and bind the opposites by love, for love is stronger than
death.
55
56
57
9
[399]
Alchemy describes, not merely in general outline but often in the most
astonishing detail, the same psychological phenomenology which can be
observed in the analysis of unconscious processes. The individuals
specious unity that emphatically says I want, I think breaks down under
the impact of the unconscious. So long as the patient can think that
somebody else (his father or mother) is responsible for his difficulties, he
can save some semblance of unity (putatur unus esse!). But once he
realizes that he himself has a shadow, that his enemy is in his own heart,
then the conflict begins and one becomes two. Since the other will
eventually prove to be yet another duality, a compound of opposites, theego soon becomes a shuttlecock tossed between a multitude of velleities,
with the result that there is an obfuscation of the light, i.e.,
consciousness is depotentiated and the patient is at a loss to know where
his personality begins or ends. It is like passing through the valley of the
shadow, and sometimes the patient has to cling to the doctor as the last
remaining shred of reality. This situation is difficult and distressing for
both parties; often the doctor is in much the same position as the alchemist
who no longer knew whether he was melting the mysterious amalgam in
the crucible or whether he was the salamander glowing in the fire.
Psychological induction inevitably causes the two parties to get involved
in the transformation of the third and to be themselves transformed in the
process, and all the time the doctors knowledge, like a flickering lamp, is
the one dim light in the darkness. Nothing gives a better picture of the
psychological state of the alchemist than the division of his work-room
into a laboratory, where he bustles about with crucibles and alembics,
and an oratory, where he prays to God for the much needed illumination
purge the horrible darknesses of our mind, as the author of Aurora
quotes.
58
[400]
Ars requirit totum hominem, we read in an old treatise. This is in
the highest degree true of psycho therapeutic work. A genuine
participation, going right beyond professional routine, is absolutely
imperative, unless of course the doctor prefers to jeopardize the whole
proceeding by evading his own problems, which are becoming more and
more insistent. The doctor must go to the limits of his subjective
possibilities, otherwise the patient will be unable to follow suit. Arbitrary
limits are no use, only real ones. It must be a genuine process of
purification where all superfluities are consumed in the fire and the basic
facts emerge. Is there anything more fundamental than the realization,
This is what I am? It reveals a unity which nevertheless isor wasa
diversity. No longer the earlier ego with its make-believes and artificial
contrivances, but another, objective ego, which for this reason is better
called the self. No longer a mere selection of suitable fictions, but a
string of hard facts, which together make up the cross we all have to carry
or the fate we ourselves are. These first indications of a future synthesis of
personality, as I have shown in my earlier publications, appear in dreams
or in active imagination, where they take the form of the mandala
symbols which were also not unknown in alchemy. But the first signs of
59this symbolism are far from indicating that unity has been attained. Just as
alchemy has a great many very different procedures, ranging from the
sevenfold to the thousandfold distillation, or from the work of one day to
the errant quest lasting for decades, so the tensions between the psychic
pairs of opposites ease off only gradually; and, like the alchemical end-
product, which always betrays its essential duality, the united personality
will never quite lose the painful sense of innate discord. Complete
redemption from the sufferings of this world is and must remain an
illusion. Christs earthly life likewise ended, not in complacent bliss, but
on the cross. (It is a remarkable fact that in their hedonistic aims
materialism and a certain species of joyful Christianity join hands like
brothers.) The goal is important only as an idea; the essential thing is the
opus which leads to the goal: that is the goal of a lifetime. In its attainment
left and right are united, and conscious and unconscious work in
harmony.
60
10
[401]
The coniunctio oppositorum in the guise of Sol and Luna, the royal
brother-sister or mother-son pair, occupies such an important place in
alchemy that sometimes the entire process takes the form of the
hierosgamos and its mystic consequences. The most complete and the
simplest illustration of this is perhaps the series of pictures contained in the
Rosarium philosophorum of 1550, which series I reproduce in what
follows. Its psychological importance justifies closer examination.
Everything that the doctor discovers and experiences when analysing the
unconscious of his patient coincides in the most remarkable way with the
content of these pictures. This is not likely to be mere chance, because the
old alchemists were often doctors as well, and thus had ample opportunity
for such experiences if, like Paracelsus, they worried about the
psychological well-being of their patients or inquired into their dreams (for
the purpose of diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy). In this way they could
collect information of a psychological nature, not only from their patients
but also from themselves, i.e., from the observation of their own
unconscious contents which had been activated by induction. Just as the
unconscious expresses itself even today in a picture-series, often drawn
spontaneously by the patient, so those earlier pictures, such as we find in
the Codex Rhenoviensis 172, in Zurich, and in other treatises, were no
61doubt produced in a similar way, that is, as the deposit of impressions
collected during the work and then interpreted or modified in the light of
traditional factors. In the modern pictures, too, we find not a few traces of
traditional themes side by side with spontaneous repetitions of archaic or
mythological ideas. In view of this close connection between picture and
psychic content, it does not seem to me out of place to examine a medieval
series of pictures in the light of modern discoveries, or even to use them as
an Ariadne thread in our account of the latter. These curiosities of the
Middle Ages contain the seeds of much that emerged in clearer form only
many centuries later.
62
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