EXPLORATIONS INTO THE SELF THE LIBRARY OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY VOLUME VII EXPLORATIONS INTO THE SELF BY Michael Fordham §3 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1985 by ACADEMIC PRESS INC. (London) Ltd. United States Edition published by ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. ORLANDO This edition 2002 published by Karnac Books Ltd. Published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1985 Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 1. Self I. Title II. Series 155.2 BF697 A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 9781855759718 (pbk) Contents Foreword vii Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 Part One: Empirical Foundation, Hypotheses and Theories 1. The self in Jung's works 5 2. Individuation and ego development 34 3. Integration-deintegration in infancy 50 4. A possible root of active imagination 64 Part Two: Ego and Self 5. The self as an imaginative construct 81 6. The ego and the self 94 7. Mental health 115 8. A clinical study 120 9. An interpretation of Jung's thesis about synchronicity 128 10. Countertransference 137 11. Defences of the self 152 12. Jungian views of body-mind 161 Part Three: Religion, Mysticism, Alchemy Introduction 172 13. Is God supernatural? 174 14. Notes on the mysticism of Saint John of the Cross 185 15. Alchemy 203 16. Concluding reflections 212 Bibliography 219 Index 226 v Foreword It is consonant with the contemporary increase of interest in the concept of the self among analysts of many schools that The Library of Analytical Psychology should, in 1985, be publishing two volumes on precisely that subject - dealing with it, however, from somewhat different angles. In fact, the event has arisen hardly at all out of editorial contrivance and simply represents a response to a spontaneous literary emergence out of the creative interests of the two authors involved. The present volume by Michael Fordham (the other is by Joseph Redfearn) is the product of many years of sustained observation of and reflection about phenomena arising out of three broad topics in the field of analytical psychology. In the first place, Michael Fordham, as is widely known, has over a number of years contributed much to studies of emergence and development of self in early infancy and childhood. Secondly, Fordham has been concerned with the task of clarifying some of the confusions that have arisen out of the various senses in which Jung uses the concept of the self - and not only that, for he has made contributions towards extending its content as well. In Chapter 1 he describes how he card- indexed all of Jung's references to the self and then sorted out the themes that recurred very often from those that appeared as isolated references - as passing thoughts or off-the-cuff remarks. Out of the first cluster of references there emerged two main themes; the self is seen as a totality and the self is regarded as a dynamic ordering entity within which compensatory processes, the differentiation of the opposites and their integration by means of the transcendent function, progressions and regressions, and transformations of primitive libido can all be discerned to be taking place. Moreover, Fordham has proposed his innovative and original view of the self in a way that further extends our understanding of its dynamics. In the present volume he expounds his theory of the original undifferentiated self as a totality comprised of archetypal and ego potential. Very early indeed, perhaps in prenatal life and certainly vn viii Foreword in neonatal life, and in accordance with both activation from within and stimulus from outside, deintegrative processes take place. The archetypes unpack and emerge to tangle with their object-correlates in the real world or with well-known symbolic content in the cultural environment. As this takes place, then reintegration of the deintegrates takes place through internationalization. Further deintegrations and reintegrations take place resulting in the progressive enrichment of the self through the experience of time and space, and flesh and blood. A third area of experience, in Part 3 of his book, that has long interested Michael Fordham, centres round the well-known fact that feelings connected with the self seem similar to those found among religious people. Indeed some of the dream and visionary symbolism of the self seems highly suggestive of symbols that arise in religion. Of course, the matter could be expressed in a reversed form; religious symbolism is really symbolism of the self but expressed in primitive imagery, projected onto the cosmos and accompanied by numinous feeling. Perhaps this is a too easy solution, and, indeed, Michael Fordham does not seem to favour it. Rather, in making use of Bion's notion of the vertex, he emphasizes the need for the individual to examine consciously his or her vertex and its influence upon his or her attitude towards either religion or psychology. Thus, whether he is considering the vertex of Harry Williams in his chapter entitled "Is God supernatural?" or the vertex of Saint John of the Cross and distinguishing both from his own, Fordham agrees to the validity for many people of religion understood as an activity standing in its own right. It might be added that the capacity for a religious attitude could be regarded as an element of the self. Religious people, indeed, from their vertex would be inclined to believe that the self is made in the image of an immanent God who is, nevertheless, understood utterly to transcend man's fullest notion of integration, let alone of the godhead. Readers who work hard at Fordham's chapter on St John of the Cross, as well as at his chapter on Alchemy, are likely to be rewarded - to say nothing of being impressed by the masterly way in which he handles those topics and discerns the presence of the self behind or within both the religious and the alchemical experience. Readers of the present volume as a whole will also find amplifications of Fordham's well-known work on infant and child development. Thus he indicates a more recently acquired growth of interest on his part in the observation of mother-infant interaction. This new development of the group study of the reports about actual mother-infant interaction brought in by individual members to the group and then discussed by all the members in interaction has been recognized by Fordham as an essential adjunct to the observation of psychodynamic processes in babies. He can see that the results of it may modify or correct most of the Foreword ix common notions that have been grown up and are now suspected of being based on too slight a basis of observation. On the positive side, evidence has accumulated to indicate a considerable capacity on the part of many babies to be effective in creating a sufficiently good maternal environment for themselves either by sparing their mothers, who may be depressed, uncertain of their capacities in various ways, or depleted, or by showing them how to make better responses to their infants' needs, or by making signals of need that the mothers can understand. In this way, rather inhibited, clumsy and depressed mothers may be helped by their babies to become more skilful at mothering in the ways indicated by, for instance, Winnicott and felt to be so necessary for the growth of the infant's personality and relationships all through his or her whole life span. Finally - and this is likely to be of special interest to Jungians - Michael Fordham acknowledges his debt to Melanie Klein, not only for her innovative work in its own right but also for its striking comple- mentariness to the work of Jung on the archetypes and the self. Of course some Jungians will emphasize the seeming disparateness of language and of focus in Klein and Jung - Klein concentrating on the forms of the spontaneous and unconscious fantasy life of early infancy, Jung more and more, as the years rolled on from his seventieth birthday onwards, focussing upon the cultural and historical expressions of the great archetypal themes of humanity. Fordham, however, is a pioneer in establishing some sense of the complementariness as well as the differences between those two great innovative thinkers, and gratitude to him is due for enabling us to benefit from that complementariness. As in the five previous volumes of The Library of Analytical Psychology, all the references to Jung's writings are taken from the Collected Works, abbreviated as Coll. Wks followed by the volume number. The dates refer to the first publication in whatever language and not to the English translation. The Editors wish to add their thanks to those of Dr Fordham for the very extensive work of editing carried out in the first instance by Dr Agnes Wilkinson. Kenneth Lambert Preface This book contains essays on the self which I have written over the years. Most of them were published in journals published in England, the United States and as far afield as Pakistan.