I spent a few hours with a Jungian Analyst today. If you do not know what that is, think Psychologist that is trained in the psychoanalytic method popularized by Carl Jung. Carl Jung was a famous psychiatrist who worked with/under Sigmund Freud up until they started to disagree. One of the things that Carl Jung really popularized was this concept called “dream analysis.” Anyway, I had fun today discussing a dream that I had recently.
That is I was having fun until I get hit in the face with a concept that I had not contemplated. You remember the famous ying/yang sign that was popularized by some surfing company a few decades ago? The White and Black swirly thing? Well, I have often viewed that as order versus chaos. In the order spectrum (the white side of the swirl) you are find, right up until you encounter that one black spot and are plunged into chaos. The reverse is also true, at anyone point during a chaotic time in your life you can suddenly emerge into order. You see that the white side has a black dot and the black side has a white dot.
However, Jung saw that the the white side was the male personality and the black part was the female personality the black. Do women represent chaos? The one that took the bite of the apple and plunged the human race into chaos? Hmm….. Anyway, the male personality has a female part of the psyche, called the Anima. The female personality has the Animus. To make a long story short, in my dream I encounter this young woman in whom I am trying to save. I thought that young woman meant many things but that young woman was me, my conscious self meeting my Anima.
Fascinating, but my dream takes on new meaning. My true inner self, the part of my unconscious mind was trapped and needing to be rescued and set free.
Remarkable and so true. Of course recognizing and identifying this part of me could have disastrous consequences for my ego. I better go to the gym, then watch football, and action films and forget I even wrote this blog.
Guy
