Puer aeternus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Puer aeternus is Latin for eternal boy , used in mythology to designate a child-god who is forever young; psychologically, it is an older man whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level. The puer typically leads a provisional life, due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. e covets independence and freedom, chafes at boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable. !"# Contents !hide# • " The puer in mythology • $ The puer in %ungian psychology o $." Writings • & 'eter 'an syndrome • ( )otable modern-day 'eter 'an • * +ee also • )otes • Further reading • /0ternal links The puer in mythology !edit# The words, puer aeternus, come from Metamorphoses, an epic work by the 1oman poet 2vid 3(& 45 6 c." 789 dealing with :reek and 1oman myths. n the poem, 2vid addresses the child-god acchus as puer aeternus and praises him for his role in the /leusinian mysteries. acchus is later identified with the gods 8ionysus and /ros. The puer is a god of vegetation and resurrection, the god of divine youth, such as Tammu<, 7ttis and 7donis.!$# The figure of a young god who is slain and resurrected also appears in /gyptian mythology as the story of 2siris. The puer in Jungian psychology !edit# +wiss psychiatrist 5arl :ustav %ung developed a school of thought called analytical psychology, distinguishing it from the psychoanalysis of +igmund Freud 3"*6"=&=9. n analytical psychology 3often called >%ungian psychology>9 the puer aeternus is an e0ample of what %ung called an archetype, one of the >primordial, structural elements of the human psyche>.!&# The shadow of the puer is the senex 3Latin for >old man>9, associated with the god 5ronus? disciplined, controlled, responsible, rational, ordered. 5onversely, the shadow of thesenex is the puer , related to ermes or 8ionysus?unbounded instinct, disorder, into0ication, whimsy.!(# Like all archetypes, the puer is bi-polar, e0hibiting both a >positive> and a >negative> aspect. The >positive> side of the puer appears as the 8ivine 5hild who symboli<es newness, potential for growth, hope for the future. e also foreshadows the hero that he sometimes becomes 3e.g. eracles9. The >negative> side is the child-man who refuses to grow up and meet the challenges of life face on, waiting instead for his ship to come in and solve all his problems. >For the time being one is doing this or that, but whether it is a woman or a @ob, it is not yet what is really wanted, and there is always the fantasy that sometime in the future the real thing will come about.... The one thing dreaded throughout by such a type of man is to be bound to anything whatever.>!*# >5ommon symptoms of puer psychology are dreams of an imprisonment and similar imageryA chains, bars, cages, entrapment, bondage. Life itself...is e0perienced as a prison.> !(# When the sub@ect is a female the Latin term is puella aeterna, imaged in mythology as the Bore 3:reek for >maiden>9.!# 2ne might also speak of a puer animus when describing the masculine side of the female psyche, or a puella anima when speaking of a manCs inner feminine component. Writings!edit# 5over of "="* edition of %.D. 4arrieCs novel, first published in "="". 5.:. %ung wrote a paper on the puer aeternus, >The 'sychology of the 5hild 7rchetype>, contained in 'art E of The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious 35ollected Works, Eol. =i9. The hero-child aspect and his relationship to the :reat Dother is dealt with in chapters ( and * of 'art Two of Symbols of Transformation 35ollected Works, Eol. *9.!# n his essay >7nswer to %ob> 3contained in Psychology and Religion: est and !ast , Eol. "" of the 5ollected Works; but also published separately9 %ung refers to the puer aeternus as a figure representing the future psychological development of human beings. >That higher and CcompleteC 3teleios9 man is begotten by the CunknownC father and born from Wisdom, and it is he who, in the figure of the puer aeternus?Cvultu mutabilis albus et ater C!#? represents our totality, which transcends consciousness. t was this boy into whom Faust had to change, abandoning his inflated onesidedness which saw the devil only outside. 5hristCs C/0cept ye become as little childrenC prefigures this change, for in them the opposites lie close together; but what is meant is the boy who is born from the maturity of the adult man, and not the unconscious child we would like to remain.>!=# The Problem of the Puer Aeternus is a book based on a series of lectures that %ungian analyst Darie-Louise von Fran< gave at the 5.:. %ung nstitute, urich, during the Winter +emester, "=*=6"=G. n the first eight of twelve lectures, von Fran< illustrates the theme of the puer aeternus by e0amining the story of The Little 'rince from the book of the same name by 7ntoine de +aint-/0upHry. The remaining four lectures are devoted to a study of a :erman novel by 4runo :oet<, "as Reich ohne Raum 3The Bingdom Without +pace9, first published in "="=. 2f this novel von Fran< saysA >t is interesting that it was written and published before the )a<i movement came into being in "=&&, before itler was ruminating on his morbid ideas. 4runo :oet< certainly had a prophetic gift about what was coming, and ... his book anticipates the whole )a<i problem, throwing light upon it from the angle of the puer aeternus>.!"G# #o$ or #everland is a "== book written by %ungian analyst 7nn Ieoman dealing with the puer aeternus in the form of 'eter 'an, one of the most well-known e0amples of the concept in the modern era. The book is a psychological overview of the eternal boy archetype, from its ancient roots to contemporary e0perience, including a detailed interpretation of %. D. 4arrieCs popular play and novel. >Dythologically, 'eter 'an is linked to...the young god who dies and is reborn...as well as to DercuryJermes, psychopomp and messenger of the gods who moves freely between the divine and human realms, and, of course, to the great goat-god 'an.... n early performances of 4arrieCs play, 'eter 'an appeared on stage with both pipes and a live goat. +uch undisguised references to the chthonic, often lascivious and far from childlike goat-god were, not surprisingly, soon e0cised from both play and novel.> !""# Peter Pan syndrome!edit# See also: %oomerang &eneration 'eter 'an syndrome is the pop-psychology concept of an adult 3usually male !"$#9 who is socially immature. The category is an informal one invoked by laypeople and some psychology professionals in popular psychology. t is not listed in the "iagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental "isorders' and is not recogni<ed by the 7merican 'sychiatric 7ssociation as a specific mental disorder . 8r. 8an Biley populari<ed the 'eter 'an syndrome in his "=& book, The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men ho (ave #ever &ro$n Up;!"&# his ne0t book, The endy "ilemma 3"=(9, advises women romantically involved with >'eter 'ans> how to improve their relationships. !"(# 7n e0ample of the 'eter 'an syndrome is used in 7ldous u0leyCs "=$ novel )sland . n it, one of the characters talks about male >dangerous delinKuents> and >power-loving troublemakers> who are >'eter 'ans>. These types of males were >boys who canCt read, wonCt learn, donCt get on with anyone, and finally turn to the more violent forms of delinKuency.> e uses 7dolf itler as an archetype of this phenomenonA !"*# 7 'eter 'an if ever there was one. opeless at school. ncapable either of competing or co- operating. /nvying all the normally successful boys?and, because he envied, hating them and, to make himself feel better, despising them as inferior beings. Then came the time for puberty. 4ut 7dolf was se0ually backward. 2ther boys made advances to girls, and the girls responded. 7dolf was too shy, too uncertain of his manhood. 7nd all the time incapable of steady work, at home only in the compensatory 2ther World of his fancy. There, at the very least, he was Dichelangelo. ere, unfortunately, he couldnCt draw. is only gifts were hatred, low cunning, a set of indefatigable vocal cords and a talent for nonstop talking at the top of his voice from the depths of his 'eter-'anic paranoia. Thirty or forty million deaths and heaven knows how many billions of dollars?that was the price the world had to pay for little 7dolfCs retarded maturation. * Aldous (uxley ' )sland Notable modern-day Peter Pan!edit# 7 prominent e0ample of a celebrity with 'eter 'an syndrome was Dichael %ackson,!"#!"# who said, > am 'eter 'an in my heart>. !"# %ackson named the $,GG-acre Los 2livos, 5alifornia property, where he lived from "= to $GG*, )everland 1anch!"=#!$G# after )everland, the fantasy island on which 'eter 'an lives. e said that it was his way of claiming a childhood he never had, having started early as a performing artist with his family. !"#!"# e had built there numerous statues of children, a floral clock, a petting <oo, a movie theater, and a private amusement park containing cotton candy stands, two railroads, a Ferris wheel, carousel, ipper , 2ctopus, 'irate +hip, Wave +winger , +uper +lide, roller coaster , go- karts, bumper cars, a tipi village, and an amusement arcade;!$"#!$$# 7s The #e$ +or, "aily #e$s staff writer, 5arrie Dilago, reported on $ %une $GG=A >2n %acksonCs dime, thousands of schoolchildren visited over the years, from local kids to sick youngsters from far away.> Eisitors >often recalled it as dreamlike>, she observed. !$&# 7 preschool teacher visiting the site told USA Today in $GG&, )everland >smells like cinnamon rolls, vanilla and candy and sounds like children laughing>.!$&#.