Column 19 - Carl Jung, Mythology and the Demontagne Saga
A Dream Across Time and A Circle of Dreams are the first two books in the Demontagne saga. The mystical elements in these books are reflections of our acquaintance with the work of Carl Jung. His world is a strange and wonderful place which he brought to us in his insightful writings and extraordinary research.
We are all creatures of our times but there are occasional people who are timeless. Jung was among the timeless and stood apart from his peers.
It is useful to contrast him with his contemporary, Sigmund Freud. Freud was brilliant and a groundbreaker although we have moved well beyond his contributions to psychiatry and psychology. He was a creature of the Victorian era and his critics in later years faulted him for being too embedded in Austrian society in that his assessment of human frailties often reflected the frailties of well to do Viennese women.
In fairness Freud helped move us away from rigid beliefs about demonic possession and into a place where we could explain our psyche in reality based terms. His expositions on id, ego and superego still have utility today. If nothing else he gave us a system by which we could begin to evaluate and research many components of human experience. While he focused on psychopathology, he opened doors of understanding to human behavior in general.
Freud was the effective father of psychiatry which is the study of psychopathology. In contrast psychology is the study of human behavior. Period. Jung was considered a psychiatrist but went beyond psychiatry into psychology in that his works relate to a broad range of normal human behavior.
His intellectual explorations led him deep into mythology. The man was truly a scholar and explored the human experience in literature and art going back into ancient times. His insights led to many works including Psychological Types. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, often used in industry, is based in his work on psychological personality types. Rather than being a catalogue of pathology it systematizes a comprehensive system of normal personality variation. Introversion and extraversion are Jung’s concepts. The word "normal" in this context is very important.
Jung’s diverse works are endlessly fascinating. His obscure work on alchemy is interesting although seemingly impenetrable. In the work he posits that alchemy is the reflection of the changes inherent in the movement from the middle ages to the age of enlightenment. Alchemy was not about turning lead into gold. It was about humankind preparing themselves for the revolutions of art and science. In these insights he seemed to have anticipated the work of Leslie A. White, the father of culturology.
Jung anticipated White’s work when he proposed the existence of the collective unconscious. His belief in a collective human consciousness seems odd until it is examined in the context of White’s extrasomatic cultural stream or culture. Jung was actually talking about culture and cultural diffusion. What an amazing mind.
By now you must be asking yourself what this has to do with the Demontagne saga. It has everything to do with it because Jung opened the door to OUR thinking about mythology. These books incorporate the myths we sighted and experienced in the Caribbean and they have been woven together with personal myths. These books are not just stories. They are the human experience and are enhanced by a mystical element which echoes mythological themes. Jung has helped us bring these stories to light and enrich them. In the second book of the Demontagne saga , A Circle of Dreams, we meet Dr. Hans Friedrich who is a Jungian analyst. He will help Jamie and Andre understand what is happening to their family.
Come visit us at www.annierogers.com
A Dream Across Time and A Circle of Dreams are the first two books in the Demontagne saga. The mystical elements in these books are reflections of our acquaintance with the work of Carl Jung. His world is a strange and wonderful place which he brought to us in his insightful writings and extraordinary research.
We are all creatures of our times but there are occasional people who are timeless. Jung was among the timeless and stood apart from his peers.
It is useful to contrast him with his contemporary, Sigmund Freud. Freud was brilliant and a groundbreaker although we have moved well beyond his contributions to psychiatry and psychology. He was a creature of the Victorian era and his critics in later years faulted him for being too embedded in Austrian society in that his assessment of human frailties often reflected the frailties of well to do Viennese women.
In fairness Freud helped move us away from rigid beliefs about demonic possession and into a place where we could explain our psyche in reality based terms. His expositions on id, ego and superego still have utility today. If nothing else he gave us a system by which we could begin to evaluate and research many components of human experience. While he focused on psychopathology, he opened doors of understanding to human behavior in general.
Freud was the effective father of psychiatry which is the study of psychopathology. In contrast psychology is the study of human behavior. Period. Jung was considered a psychiatrist but went beyond psychiatry into psychology in that his works relate to a broad range of normal human behavior.
His intellectual explorations led him deep into mythology. The man was truly a scholar and explored the human experience in literature and art going back into ancient times. His insights led to many works including Psychological Types. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, often used in industry, is based in his work on psychological personality types. Rather than being a catalogue of pathology it systematizes a comprehensive system of normal personality variation. Introversion and extraversion are Jung’s concepts. The word "normal" in this context is very important.
Jung’s diverse works are endlessly fascinating. His obscure work on alchemy is interesting although seemingly impenetrable. In the work he posits that alchemy is the reflection of the changes inherent in the movement from the middle ages to the age of enlightenment. Alchemy was not about turning lead into gold. It was about humankind preparing themselves for the revolutions of art and science. In these insights he seemed to have anticipated the work of Leslie A. White, the father of culturology.
Jung anticipated White’s work when he proposed the existence of the collective unconscious. His belief in a collective human consciousness seems odd until it is examined in the context of White’s extrasomatic cultural stream or culture. Jung was actually talking about culture and cultural diffusion. What an amazing mind.
By now you must be asking yourself what this has to do with the Demontagne saga. It has everything to do with it because Jung opened the door to OUR thinking about mythology. These books incorporate the myths we sighted and experienced in the Caribbean and they have been woven together with personal myths. These books are not just stories. They are the human experience and are enhanced by a mystical element which echoes mythological themes. Jung has helped us bring these stories to light and enrich them. In the second book of the Demontagne saga , A Circle of Dreams, we meet Dr. Hans Friedrich who is a Jungian analyst. He will help Jamie and Andre understand what is happening to their family.
Come visit us at www.annierogers.com
posted by Roger | 8:21 AM
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