Edinger, Edward - The Living Psyche

The Living Psyche A Jungian Analysis in Pictures

Edward

F.

Edinger

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2011

http://www.archive.org/details/livingpsychejungOOedin

The Living Psyche

The Living Psyche A Jungian Analysis

Edward

F.

Chiron Publications

•

in Pictures

Edinger

Wilmette,

Illinois

£ 1990 by Chiron Publications. All rights reserved.

No

part of this publication

may be

repro-

duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher,

Chiron Publications, 400 Linden Avenue, Wilmette,

The reproduction of the

illustrations in this

New

Psychology Club of

York

book

is

Illinois

made

60091.

possible by a gift from the Analytical

name of

in the

Jessie E. Fraser.

Club wishes to commemorate her many contributions to analytical psychology, in particular her work in organizing the Kristine Mann Library and creating the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. The Club chose this form for their gift in special appreciation of Mrs. Fraser's admiration and affection for Dr. Edinger, who was her analyst.

manner

In this

the

Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number: 89-807

Printed in the United States of America. Editing and book design by Siobhan

Drummond

Granner.

Photographs by Mark Wuggazer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Edward

Edinger,

The

F.

living psyche: a Jungian analysis in pictures

p.

/

Edward

F.

Edinger.

cm.

Includes bibliographies and index.

ISBN 1.

sis

0-933029-53-5.

and

art.

I.

[DNLM: 3.

-ISBN

0-933029-52-7 (pbk.)

Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961.

2.

:

$19.95

Psychoanalysis -Case studies.

3.

Psychoanaly-

Title. 1.

Art. 2. Psychoanalytic Interpretation.

Psychoanalvtic Therapy.

WM 460.6 E23L]

RC509.8.E35 1989 616.89'17-dcl9

DNLM/DLC for Library of

ISBN

89-807

Congress

0-933029-52-7

CIP

[T]he psyche consists essentially of images. It

is

a

truest sense

series .

.

.

of images in the

a structure that

is

throughout full of meaning and purpose; ties

it is

a "picturing" of vital activi-

.... Mind and body are

expression of a single entity

.

.

.

the

.... This

living being appears outwardly as the

material body, but inwardly as a series

of images of the vital activities taking place within

it.

C. G. Jung, "Spirit and Life,"

The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche.

CONTENTS List of Plates

Introduction

The Living Psyche

ix xiii 1

Bibliography

207

Index

211

LIST

OF PLATES

Plate 1

2. 3.

4. 5.

6.

Head of Christ on the Stage of the Metropolitan Opera Rug with Faded Medallion The Queen The Crucified Child Different The Child Rescued from Sacrifice Loved

Safe and

The Great Mother

7.

My

Mother

Me

on the Floor

at

The Bungalow

Dressing Table

in

My Home Town with the Great

House

in the

Back

Flowering Trees 8. 9.

The Dark Geometric Sky with Two Rainbows Left Side, The Common Man; Right Side, Father's

10.

11. 12.

13.

14.

15a.

Red Man in Prison, Christ Coming to Free Him The Boy with the Balloon Flying toward the Saw-Blade Sun The Tree of Life

The Sun with a Penis The Moon with a Vagina The Spark Child The Bollingen Stone Cutting the Umbilical Cord Anima in a Cave The Floating Winter Tree The Night-Sea Journey

Joseph in the Cistern Christ in the

Tomb

Jonah Swallowed by the Whale (Biblia 17.

18. 19.

21. 22.

Mother on

Puer on Pedestal Napoleon in Mirror The Eye of God

Fourness

13a.

My

Grave

The The The The The The

pauperum 1471)

Three Snakes

Ape Shadow Blind Ego on

Stilts

Football Player and the Nazi

Near-Drowning of My Brother Hooded Canary

My

23.

Bells

24.

Orestes, the Vengeance

25.

The Man Plant The Incident at

26.

the

Drama

Summer Camp

Dr. Edinger as the Self 27. 28.

28a.

The Night of the Axe Being Blinded Satan Pours Affliction on Job

Mother

29.

Self-Castration to Serve the

30. 31.

The Couple in the Self-Propelled Boat The Lion on Stage

32.

Following Laura out of the

33.

Playing in the Gutter

34.

The Magic Flute The Church on a Ziggurat The Death of My Father

35.

36.

Muddy

Reflected in the Water

Slough of Despond

Departures 1917, 1960 37.

The

Skirt

Being Stabbed with

a

Pin

42.

The Death of Noah The Alchemical Tree The Mean Skinny Old Man The Way Up and the Way Down The Taxi and Demeter To Live, To Die

43.

Magical

38.

38a. 39.

40. 41.

New

Equal Rights 43a. 44.

44a.

45.

45a.

Baby for

Women

The Birth of Vishnu The Lotus and the Black Olive Amida The Metaphysical Buddha Seated on In Limbo Alpine Pass

47.

49.

The Awakening in the Whore House The Death of My Cat Otto The Weeping Ape

50.

My

Mother Flying

A Round 50a. 51.

Mirror in the Sky

The Assumption of the Parents'

Virgin

Grave

Release 52.

Lotus

Alchemist in the Nigredo State Meditating

46.

48.

a

Parents' Graves

Release of the

Shadow and

the

Anima

53.

53a.

The Common Man and Botticelli: Flora (detail

54.

Tiger Lilies to

55.

My Own

56.

57.

58.

Alice in Daisy Dress

of Primavera)

God

Death

The Church with The Child The Eye of God

Two Moons

the

Buddha 58a.

Engraved Stone Disc

60.

Eye on a Hand The Book Jacket The Severed Head The Pig Woman

61.

I

59.

Am

Flying over Water

Boat Parade Going to Shore 62. 63. 64.

The Pregnant Woman The Seed The Flame

in the

Red Dress and

the

Redhead

Prometheus 65.

The Christmas Tree Growing

66.

National Cemetery Stage Set

66a.

Djed

out of the Trash

Can

Pillar of Osiris

67.

The

68.

Grandmother's Place

69. 70.

The Voluntary Trial of the Nine- Year-Old Boy Who The Beautiful Sunrise

71.

Sunset from the East Side Apartment

Temple of Dionysus

Floor of the

Is a

Negative Place

72.

Helping the Sick

Man Up

73.

The Garden and

the Graveyard

73a. 74.

75.

Grain Growing from Corpse of Osiris

The Author Resurrects and Lives Again The Old Man Dies Pink Phallus and

78.

The The The The

79.

Joan in

80.

Father

81.

The The The The The

75a. 76. 77.

81a. 82. 83. 84.

Two

Balls

Sanctuary of the Lingam Hotel in the Distance Siddhartha Prison

Aureole of Light a

Green

Silk Dress

Damien and

the Leper

Colony

Feeling of Fraudulence

Mocking of Christ Death of My Mother

Vacuum Baby Devil and

the

Baby Saint XI

Casts a

Shadow

85.

Backstage, the Rescue of the Child; Onstage, the Act

86.

The Death of

87.

Drowning

88. 89.

Helping to Cure Myself of Cancer Redeeming Old "Trash," New Trash

90.

Wildness

Pavarotti, the Rebirth of Pavarotti

the Cat and the Toilet to Infinity

Dawn 90a.

Peacock in the Vessel

91.

Childhood, Opera in the Attic; Today, the Big Theater

92.

Forgiving Betty; Not Forgiving

93.

The Three-Way Mirror I

94.

Am

My

Father

Being Strangled

Black Dionysus Releases

Me

from Stage Prison

Pentheus Dead (Decapitated, Dismembered) 95.

Performing

96.

97.

The God of the Concentration Camp The New God Dream Picture: Dead Babies, Happy Playing The Restoration of the Temple of Dionysus

98.

Dr. Edinger in

96a.

99.

100.

100a.

Edinger

in a

Bosch: Ship of Fools

Alone on the Night Sea

The Star The Luminous Cloud

God

in a

Cloud Guides the Alchemist

101.

Failing to Please Dr. Edinger

102.

The Red Cross Rag at the Window The "Quadrant" Mandala as the Self and Ego The Self Purifies and Renews the Blood

103. 104.

Babies

a Rowboat Rowboat The Ocean Liner The Night Sea Voyage

Me

98a.

for Dr.

Xll

within the Self

THE LIVING PSYCHE

INTRODUCTION This book psyche.

an attempt to demonstrate graphically the reality of the living

is

It is

based on a series of 104 paintings done over

a

period of five years

J

during the course of a Jungian analysis which lasted twice that long.

There

are only a handful of published case histories

unique approach of Jung

Jung

human

to the

psyche. 3 This

is

which

illustrate the

understandable, for as

says,

... a

It is

difficult

and thankless

predominate earlier

in

one case

and another

task to try to describe the nature of

from case-material. Since one aspect and another in another, and one case

the individuation process

later,

and psychic

tends to begins

conditions vary without limit, only

one or the other version or phase of the process can be demonstrated

any given

in

instance.*

Nevertheless, such data on individual cases must be accumulated

if

the larger

worlds of psychiatry and psychotherapy are, belatedly, to realize Jung's massive contribution. It is

an impossible task

to

condense the analytic

efforts of ten years into a

coherent whole without some unifying thread. Fortunately in this case the unifying thread

themes of the

is

provided by

analysis.

They

a series

of pictures that touch

all

the major

constitute a remarkable record of an analytic

experience that ranged from the heights to the depths, from the infernal to the sublime. For the sake of brevity and professional discretion, the personal aspects have been treated only very briefly here, in contrast to their full

treatment in the analysis

itself.

This procedure corresponds with

any case that the archetypal aspect of the material

tion in

is

of

my

convic-

far greater

What I present is a case history of a Jungian analysis. A basic knowledge of Jungian psychology is presupposed. This series of pictures demonstrates the truth of Jung's statement that general interest.

"there

is

in the

psyche

external factors."'

The way

to the

a process that seeks its

However,

this process

it is

not straight but appears to go round in it

to

own

goal independently of

not a straight line.

goal seems chaotic and interminable at

gradually do the signs increase that

has proved

is

go

in spirals: the

first,

leading anywhere. circles.

More

and only

The way

is

accurate knowledge

dream motifs always return

certain intervals to definite forms, whose characteristic

it

is

after

to define

a

am thinking of H. G. Baynes's Mythology of the Soul, G. Adler's The Living Symbol, Jung's Seminar on Dream Analysis, The Visions Seminars, and the dream series in Psychology and

aI

Alchemy. b C. C

G. Jung, Mysterium Conjunctions, C\i"

14, par. 792.

C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Ctt" 12, par.

4.

THE LIVING PSYCHE .... The development of these symbols is almost the equivalent of a healing process. The centre or goal thus signifies salvation in the proper sense of the word ... It seems to be beyond all doubt that these centre

.

processes are concerned with the religion-creating archetypes. d

The

patient/artist

began analysis

at

the age of 36 with the chief complaint

being that in spite of a successful career in the arts he had

purpose and was on the verge of despair. highly industrious, unmarried

man

He

is

an

lost his

sense of life-

intelligent, well-educated,

with considerable

artistic talent. I

want

thank him warmly for his willingness to have this material published.

unique contribution to depth psychology.

dlbid., par. 34f.

xw

to

It is

a

The Living Psyche

PLATE

1.

Head

of Christ on the Stage of the Metropolitan Opera

_

The Living Psyche

Head of Christ on Description: (from a

the Stage of the Metropolitan Opera This image comes from the

dream/

first

dream

at

the

The head of Christ is on the stage. The set is possibly for La Forza del Destino by Verdi. The soprano is hitting a high note on top of a clifT. The head is submerged under water; it may have fallen from a large

beginning of analysis.

Edinger and

statue. Dr.

I

are

downstage

watching

to the side

this

mystery

together.

The

Comment:

initial

dream

is

apt to be particularly important. Often

it

captures in a symbolic nutshell the essential issue around which the entire analysis will revolve. In this first picture

we

indicates

collective, archetypal

its

dimension.

sents the collapse of the Christian

problem thus

parallels

see that a

and

entity has fallen into the patient's personal

The

myth, our

our collective problem.

container for religious values and each individual

her

own unique

the patient's

life

relation to the

and requires

in a grand, theatrical

reflecting

on

it

huge transpersonal

theatrical world. Its size fallen

fallen Deity.

The

We

our collective

is

have

now

lost

The soprano

The "power

of destiny"

suggests that the collapse of the traditional

fallen into

at

is

at

God-image

is

ground

work.

level are

The water

accompanied by

a

break in the dikes which threatens an inundation of the ego. This picture statement that in our time there

illustrates Jung's

a

mood

of universal destruction

our age. This

mood makes

philosophically.

We

and renewal

itself felt

Except where noted, the descriptions are

3

this idea, see

that has set

its

mark on and

are living in what the Greeks called the kairos- the

moment -for a "metamorphosis of 3 principles and symbols.

For more on

is

everywhere, politically, socially,

right

in the

the

gods" of

words of the

the

CW

10, par. 585.

3

fundamental

patient.

Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness, pp.

Jung, "The Undiscovered Self,"

>

/

announcing the event

is

way; the doctor and patient figures

earnestly.

x

patient's

obliged to find his or

numinosum. 2 This larger issue has

attention.

j

>

head of Christ repre- \

9ff.

\

,

a

)

C* (TWJ

^

PLATE

2.

Rug

with Faded Medallion

.

The Living Psyche

Rug with Faded Medallion A

Description: (from a dream) lion in the center. this

A

rug in a department store.

red center which

is

deep navy blue rug with

a red cross

medal-

on the top and bottom. In the dream I see The "boss" warns me about being careful of the

gold fringe

is

only ink, not a

fast dye.

In the painting the dye

is

faded in

places.

Comment:

A

rug signifies a ground of being, a covering for and a connec-

tion to the earth.

It is a

product of

human

effort

and thus

refers to a reality

adaptation laboriously acquired. This rug, by virtue of its central red cross, also a

mandala, indicating that

achieved.

4

The

it

is

represents the patient's totality as currently

fading of the center indicates that a breakdown or dissolutions

of the psychic center

is

w]i:_

The

be suborned

PLATE

4.

The Crucified Child Different

The Living Psyche

The

Crucified Child Different Principally blue, lavender, and white

Description: (from active imagination)

with red blood streaming from the child. suit, a striped tie,

another hand on

and have

my

moved while

Comment:

The

I

am

is

in the lower right in a white

hammering

shoulder encouraging me.

mother (paternal) who very

just finished

On

the child up.

the

left

side

is

There

my

is

grand-

the sorrowing mother figure at the crucifixion.

I

was

painting this.

essence of individuation

is

the conscious differentiation of

the individual from his original identity with the collective psyche. However, the child's ego needs an adequate experience of belonging to the group as a basis for later separateness. In early

life,

identification with others

womb

from which it is dangerous to be born prematurely. In sensitive and artistic child was taunted by the father for being different

tive.

plex.

from other boys, which caused

Difference, his sacred uniqueness,

This complex

distorts the

a

is like

a

this case the a "sissy"

premature separatio from the

and

collec-

became the core of a traumatic com-

image of the crucifixion, which

in its natural

symbol of individuation. 6 The idea of difference must be rescued from the hands of the complex. Sameness and difference are a pair of state is a superlative

opposites eventually to be united.

As Plato puts

it,

"In so far as the

the character of being different from the others, just in that respect

must be one

One

has

and they

7

entirely alike, because they are entirely different." In other words, as

realizes his

theirs.

it

uniqueness he

united with others in the realization of

is

8

(U,U '."?,?

]

h