Acknowledging the 'Impossible', renders it 'Possible'.

This blog follows the last one in which I discuss some aspects of the human condition which render it impossible.

You may rightfully ask: what purpose does it serve to reveal the impossible, which seems like exposing a bare backside? (We know it’s there, but hide it under wraps.)

Because to acknowledge the impossible, paradoxically renders it possible. The awareness that we’re all racked by conflict lessens the pain; we’re less likely to flagellate ourselves with self-hate (which serves no purpose and saps our energy).

The Psyche as Battlefield

Our Father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), proposed that our psyches are governed by the warring forces of Libido  (life force or energy), and Thanatos (the destructive, Death drive).

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875- 1961) viewed our behavior as an embodiment of the battle between the anima  (feminine) and the animus (masculine) sides of the psyche. He identified our shadow side as the hidden or repressed parts of the mind, roughly equivalent to the Freudian unconscious. Jung wrote, “Everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”

Both theorists agree that creativity lies in the buried portion (unconscious or shadow) of the mind. Their methods changed our view of the human psyche, showing that much of who we are and how we behave lies beyond our conscious control. They agreed that the goal is to elucidate, to render the unconscious conscious, and to become aware of the “shadow side” through free association and talk therapy.

(Dare I say all methods of psychotherapy aim to increase self-awareness of body, mind and feelings?)

In the recent film A Dangerous Method, the story develops as Carl Jung applies Freud’s method of talk therapy in his treatment of Sabina Spielrein, an eighteen-year-old woman who suffers from hysteria. Through speaking, through verbal (and ultimately physical) acknowledgment of Spielrein’s anxieties and neuroses, Jung eventually manages to cure his patient, endowing her with the tools to lead a mentally healthy existence. A remarkably accurate portrait of Jung and Freud, who figure prominently in the film, A Dangerous Method makes a great case for the importance – indeed, the necessity – of talk therapy.

I suggest that something in the Zeitgeist, the sentiment of our times, asks us to take another look at this period (the early 1900s) just before the outbreak of World War I. A society that had long been forced to separate rational science and unpredictable emotion was learning, through psychology and talk therapy in particular, to cope with and express its feelings in an entirely new way. In speaking frankly about one’s fears, dreams, attractions one could grasp the previously intangible and begin to reevaluate one’s lifestyle. The impossible could become possible.

Today talk therapy is as relevant as ever to reveal the hidden aspects of ourselves and explain our mysterious behavior.

Jung said,  “If you imagine a person brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a thick shadow. Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.”

With awareness comes acceptance of the various, often conflicting, aspects of ourselves which results in relief , greater comfort in our existence,  and even  beyond, to  moments of bemusement, pleasure and joy.

The goal is to own and integrate the positive and negative forces within our human psyches, to heal our broken selves and express our creativity, and work together to heal  our broken world.

Dear Reader: I welcome your comments. (jsimon145@gmail.com)