Jungian Archetypes .Jung & Christianity

WEEK 3: KEY CONCEPTS FOR DREAMWORK

Dream & Spiritual Growth Series Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI Oblate School of Theology Continuing Education Department 4/22/2021 2

WEEK 3 .Emotional Literacy . Dreams: A Three-way KEY CONCEPTS comparison FOR . DREAMWORK Jungian Archetypes .Jung & Christianity

THREE PARTS OF TRANSFORMATIVE DREAMWORK (Diagram by R. Hoss)

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/22/2021 4 . TTTQ: Title, Theme, Affect, Question . FREE ASSOCIATION & PUN: just associate the element; Kleenex, clean, purification, forgiveness, example: “riz” in French=rice and same sound as conjugated term to laugh . IMMERSION: Go back to dream in imagination and feel the feelings or through DREAMWORK prayer and meditation PRACTICES . AMPLIFICATION: more left brain, choose symbols and enumerate characteristics, qualities and functions in real life, how you relate to qualities and functions, regroup characteristics to name THE function for you; cross: crossroads, value of suffering, passion of Christ

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI . ‘Many of us still harbor the idea that maturity means serenity and that holiness requires mastery of emotions…we need to EMOTIONAL forge a spirituality in which our emotions are recognized as more than private LITERACY: passions to be silenced by private BEFRIENDING VS remedies… we need to imagine our MASTERING passions as social instincts that link us to one another and alert us to cherished values’ (Whitehead and Whitehead, p. 29). . Befriending is the middle ground between denial and total abandonment to the power of emotions . Dream work helps us to befriend the EMOTIONAL unknown part of ourselves instead of LITERACY: mastering and bridling a mad stallion BEFRIENDING VS . In dreams; will be surprised how MASTERING aggression can disguise pain that searches a balm, or polite feelings can harm our well-being: the shadow parts of self EMOTIONAL “LITERACY” IS ONE PART OF EMOTIONAL Daniel Goleman’s Model of EI, Harvard INTELLIGENCE University EMOTIONAL LITERACY WHEEL OF EMOTIONS MONTAGUE ULLMAN BOB HOSS SIGMUND FREUD CARL JUNG (MARIANNE ECKHARDT)

DREAMS: A THREE-WAY COMPARISON FREUD: RELIGION AS WISH FULFILMENT Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion's eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt not question.” ********** Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization. - The Future of an Illusion (1927) JUNG AND RELIGION AS HEALING “I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers, and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook.”

―Carl Gustav Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul BOB HADEN: DREAMS & DIVINE , CHURCH

”The discovery of silence, meditations, dreams and Jung have re- awakened mythos and the experience of the divine in me. Dreams have provided guidance all along the way, but it was only after I took my dreams seriously that they took me seriously and could become a guide for me. All of this wisdom is coming from an autonomous source that is beyond me, but speaks within me. In this light dreams deserve to be rediscovered and honored again in the Church-as “God’s forgotten language”

― BOB HADEN, “Dreamlife of an Episcopal Priest” in 1. Freud: i) Un. is container of repressed, dream as royal road to unconscious ii) fixed sexual symbols 2. Jung: i) personal=higher aspirations and instinctual needs; collective=genetically determined, A THREE-WAY unknowable, manifest in archetype COMPARISON : i) ii) no fixed symbols, archetypal THE UNCONSCIOUS images universal & ii) SYMBOLS 3. Ullman & al: i)Un. realm of unknown but not unknowable, unknown=defense or ignorance ii) no fixed or universal symbols 1. Freud: a)latent manifest content, content disguised; B)imagery is language of un.-preverbal, prelogical 2. Jung: A manifest façade-no A THREE-WAY disguise: b)imagery archaic COMPARISON: figurative mode a)STRUCTURE & b)LANGUAGE OF 3. Ullman & al: c) same as Jung; d) DREAMS archaic capacity for imagery is transformed into vehicle for expressing feeling as visual metaphor 1. Freud: c)free association ; d)authority with fixed structured point 2. Jung: c) amplification & limited free association d) authority functions as guide personal Un. A THREE-WAY not structure, collective Un. is COMPARISON: structured C) TECHNIQUE & 3. Ullman & al: c) metaphorical D) ROLE OF OTHER potential of imagery related to life context that precipitated dream d) no a priori container, dream is unique to dreamers pers. view of what is unconscious to her/him The Psyche in Freud & Jung

Hoss, Psychology of Dreaming, Fig 5-1 4/22/2021 17 . Systems of readiness for action and images and emotions, inherited by brain structure, like inherited possibilities for ideas . Not able to be represented yet discernable in JUNGIAN archetypal images and motifs . Archetypal IMAGES: universal patterns and ARCHETYPES: motifs, come from collective unconscious (an DEFINITION OF infinite concept), on personal level; patterns of ARCHETYPE thoughts, behaviors common to all humanity: always and in all places; for example: shadow, wise man (woman), child (child hero), mother earth mother, maiden, anima in man and animus in woman. (Exp. of pregnant mother)

ARCHETYPES IN FILMS https://pin.it/38Cc4VC

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/22/2021 19 . Hidden, unconscious aspects of self: inferior part of the self, riddled with guilt . Composed of repressed desires, uncivilized impulses, childish fantasies, resentments formed by forbidden material . Exp. not allowed to play as children since father is angry and in fits when they play; forbidden areas; FOUR JUNGIAN becoming yourself, about emotions, about learning, about intimacy, about self-confidence, image of ARCHETYPES: THE garbage bag SHADOW . S. is like the double, the shadow twin, it is followed by the conscious self, the persona which adapts to the milieu . The stronger the persona (public self), the more repressed the shadow

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES: THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW: THREE MISCONCEPTIONS 1. Naval gazing, dualistic thinking; certain forms of self-transcendence are egotistical 2. Shadow does not equal sin: Sin a rejection of God, the shadow rejection of the self:; Sin is spiritual alienation requires reconciliation with God, shadow represents alienation of self requires reconciliation with the self. 3. Confusing integrating and acting out the shadow; Acting out comes from our unconscious. Consciousness gives us choice

. Professional NOT ATTENTIVE to shadow side= ethical mistakes; Example of Monks in Thailand, corrupted politicians and officials, abusive and \or manipulative and controlling priests and pastors. . Many spiritual leaders/directors RECOGNIZE shadow side: hospital chaplain learning connecting to the pagan in him said it helped to feel greater SHADOW & ease with non-practicing people and non-believers SPIRITUALITY . Many spiritual masters STRUGGLED with their dark side: the dark night of the soul of John of the Cross, Saint John Vianney battle demons and temptation, sleepless nights before confessing people all day; Mother Theresa struggled with doubt all her life, her dark nights suffering absence of felt experience of God.

. Dreams help us to notice unrecognized motivations, failures, virtues and potentialities that are undeveloped as well as our unacknowledged vices and virtues . EXAMPLE: homosexual young man; detested himself, in a dream he beats a young man who makes sexual advances; in therapy, he got closer to SHADOW IN his softer side, his feminine side, 2 years later he dreams of responding to loving propositions by DREAMS & another man BRIGHT SHADOW . UNDEVELOPED PARTS (“bright shadow”): Taylor’s example: Michelangelo reborn; we project our gifts and positive qualities on others, incalculable in positive effects on the collective; throwing off oppressions done with love more difficult than with malice

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 1. What is your view of the role of emotions in your spiritual growth? How can dreams help your emotional literacy? 2. Which archetypes have you encountered in your dreamlife? QUESTIONS Describe your relationship to them FOR SHARING in terms of self-knowledge? 3. In pairs, speak of dreams in which you have had child or children, a shadow or bright shadow. Discuss its relevance to your spiritual journey. 4/22/2021 25 . Psychologically, irrevocable past and anticipation of future, pre-conscious essence unconscious state earliest childhood, post- conscious essence analogy for life after death . Feelings of isolation, exposure, danger: child’s insignificant beginning, mysterious birth; JUNGIAN psychological experience of creative nature, ARCHETYPES: emergence of new yet unknow content THE INNER CHILD . Matthew 18: 1-5: could mean caring for the least of these AND the part of self that least valued, the inner child . Dreams: children dying then coming back to life; depression to new vitality, dream were writing as pregnancy and birth makes them come about

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES: ANIMA Guardian of the soul for man: mediates consciousness to unconscious . ANIMA: eternal feminine; woman in man psyche, personal complex and archetypal, Eros principle, a disconnect is a “loss of soul”= pedantic, sloppy, fanatical, rigid . in dreams: seductress to spiritual guide, (guiding figure for me a native woman, often related to connecting to God and wholeness) *ACTIVE imagination: dialogue as if autonomous personality; making the invisible partner heard, building a relationship 4/22/2021 27 . A man’s ANIMA development is reflected in how he relates to women . In anima possession a man gets moody, touchy irritable, vain and jealous FOUR STAGES of Progression: emotionality leading to broader spirituality, new paradigm=intuitive processes, creativity, imagination; psychic sensitivity PROGRESSION . 1) EVE: desire, nurture, security, love . 2) HELEN: self reliant, intelligent, insightful, ideal OF THE ANIMA sexual image . 3) MARY: religious feelings, capacity for lasting relationship, righteous and virtuous . 4) SOPHIA: guide to inner life, creative muse, no object can contain image, sees women with post. and neg. qualities

UNGIAN ARCHETYPES: ANIMUS . Guardian of the soul for woman : mediates consciousness to unconscious . ANIMUS: eternal masculine; man in woman psyche, Logos principle, in dreams : appears as embodiment of power, thug, muscle man, planned action, the word as clergy or professor, incarnation of spiritual meaning, group of men as either dark menace or as round table mirroring the multiple opinions Nature of animus; integration means becoming familiar by constantly questioning ideas and opinions 4/22/2021 . A woman’s ANIMUS development is reflected in how he29 relates to women . In anima possession a woman gets opiniated, fixed in her ideas, loss of femininity FOUR STAGES of Progression: Jung saw it as more complex than the anima (wrote less about it), as a set of multiple masculine attributes and potentials, task is to constantly question her opinions, penetrate deeply into PROGRESSION their background OF THE . 1) TARZAN: athlete champion, muscle man/thug . 2) BYRON: initiative, planned action, war hero, ANIMUS romantic man . 3) LLOYD GEORGE: becomes word, clergyman, professor, . 4) HERMES: guide to inner life, highest level of mediation between cons. mind & unconscious, spiritual profundity

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES: ANIMA & ANIMUS

. Jung believed encounter with shadow is “apprentice piece”, coming to terms with anima and animus is “master- piece” of the individuation process . Guardians of the soul: both mediate consciousness to the unconscious . Hoss about gender issue; believes these distinctions too complex; better to see male and female figures in dreams as masculine and feminine attributes: union of both in dreams as re-balancing to resolve a situation: for example; marriage, union, embracing, intercourse

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES: THE WISE MAN

. personification of masculine spirit: in woman in aspect as animus, in man related as daughter to father . In both men and women: equivalent is Great Mother . May take role of guru in active imagination (visionary meditation) . In dreams appears as doctor, magician, priest, teacher, professor, grandfather or any person in authority . Example in dream 10/19/20: me: priest dream, Boston College, in sacristy, “I am doctor of the soul”, vestments just appear; ornate; message: The ordination IS the doctorate

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/22/2021 32 . For Jung, Christianity no greater or lesser place than other religions . Jung thought you could not access reality itself: “We find innumerable images of God, but the original, itself cannot be found…we would not even be able to perceive this original, because we would first have to translate it in psychic categories for it to become JUNG & perceivable.” . Jung explains the religious phenomenon with CHRISTIANITY: psychological categories rather an understanding DIVERGENCES of psychology by religion; he was not a theologian! . The strangest theory in Jung: passing from Trinity to Quaternity: for him trinity is not a natural but an artificial ordering schema, whereas quaternity is the ordering schema par excellence and it is universal and total whereas the trinity is not

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/22/2021 33 . Both believe healing is a spiritual or religious problem: Jung said that “you will not be healed until you have recovered your religious values and attitudes” . Christians symbols have a unitive and unifying effect on the psyche . Psychic problems can be dealt with in the present; no determinism regarding first 8 years of life as Freud believed JUNG & . Always a possibility that conversion and complete transformation may occur with a collaboration with one’s CHRISTIANITY: inner strength and God’ grace CONVERGENCES . Archetypes and collective unconscious is compatible with idea: a God imprint in the depth of human soul . The therapy of the soul, integrating the unconscious dimensions of personality by becoming conscious; Christian vision of the human being as being able to access another dimension of himself; his fallen state may be surpassed by kingdom of God within