From
Lipot Szondi, Ich-Analyse [=
Ego
Analysis]
Translated by
Arthur C. Johnston
© 2008
By Arthur C. Johnston, PhD
Please Observe: The copyright of this article (in German or =
in
English) belongs to the Szondi Institute and to Dr. Arthur C. Johnston. Thi=
s means
you may not duplicate this article without their permissions.
Chapter XII
Conception
and Forms of Inflation
One can understand an elementary ego function correctly only if one
first has settled two basic questions. First of all: How does the ego with this function solve the problem of mental
opposite structures? Secondly: Whic=
h
final goal is set up by the ego with this manner of solution?
With primordial project=
ion,
i.e. with participation, the ego
solves the oppositeness by the means that it transfers out [hinausverleg=
t]
both parts of the pair of opposites into the outer object (total projection=
).
Through this separation the outer object becomes “both.”=
; --
that is, everything and consequ=
ently omnipotent. The subject becomes
therefore not completely powerless because through the mystic or real
participation, it has obtained an indirect part in the out-shifted omnipote=
nce.
Therefore, we say that the ego with primordial projection strives after bei=
ng
related, being the same and being one with the object. In this way, the ego
succeeds in canceling the opposites and participates indirectly in the
omnipotence of the outer objects. The ego becomes indirectly related to the
omnipotence. This primitive original relation between the subject and the
object is still possible with a primitive culture; it becomes intolerable in
the long run however on a higher stage of culture. Internal development factors and o=
uter
social events disturb this paradise-like being one with the world and its
objects in any form of a dual union. The subject is then compelled to draw =
back
the double power of the opposites from the object. The ego is able to carry=
out
this drawing back in two ways. The first way leads to inflation and to greatness delusion [megalomania]; the second i=
s to
secondary projection and to
persecution delusion.
The first way of inflation is thus that the ego does not return the
double power withdrawn from the outside to the unconscious but keeps it for itself. The result of=
this
unconscious ego machination is that from now on the ego becomes itself both and thus is everything. We say: The=
ego
doubles itself. C. G. Jung call=
s this
doubling of the ego “psychic
inflation.”
The word inflation means in general language usage “pu=
ffed
up currency [money]” -- that is, the depreciation of gold and indeed
through that the state means of accounting brings into circulation lots of
currency without gold reserves. Something similar happens also with the
doubling of the ego.
Psychic inflation should mean, accordin=
g to
C. G. Jung, the “puffing up of the person” -- that is to say, an
expansion of the personality exceeding the individual boundaries through di=
ssolution
of the opposites.
Inflation is the origi=
nal
elementary striving of the ego to be both itself and to be everything itsel=
f.
Briefly, after being complete [perfect] itself.
If however someone wants to carry out both fate possibilities of his own opposite structures in his o=
wn
being, then he can only do it if he doubles his ego.
Inflation and ego doubling include the same mental process. In the
doubled ego the opposites stand no longer arranged against each other but a=
re
set next to one another. Man and woman, humans and animal, lord and servant=
, emperor
and subject, Christ and Antichrist, angel and devil, God and humans, and all
other opposites basic pairs do not become separated
any more through resistance, but by means of inflated doubling are placed side by side, as if here scarcely =
no contradiction
existed between the opposites.
The solution of contrary opposites with inflation is thus that in w=
hich
the ego does not feel any contradiction in the opposite pairs. The ego simp=
ly
dissolves the antinomian and exempts itself through that of the laborious w=
ork
of complementariness and wholeness. The inflative
ego is consequently a dangerous and often a sick ego, since it is indeed
incapable really to take up the=
task
of the pontifex oppositorum (the bridge between opposites). We see i=
n inflation
also a defense mechanism of the ego. The danger threatening and defensive s=
ituation
-- namely the tension of the opposites pushing out of the unconscious --
becomes conscious to the ego (p=
+). It can however not bear consciousl=
y these
opposites as being different -- thus it simply dissolves the immanent contr=
adiction.
Henceforth the ego behaves as if it could be both.
Through the abolishment and the denial of the opposites structure of
the unconscious, it becomes possible for the ego -- even in doubling -- to
expand itself without limits and at the same time to be itself both and consequently to be everything.
Inflation
On the basis of
psychopathology we assume that infl=
ation
represents the “natural” first
consequence of the restitution of the double power to one's own ego.
On the Basis of Ego Analysis We Assume:
1. &n=
bsp;
Primordial projection (thus participation), inflation and secondary
projection are three successive phases of the same process, which we call
uniformly ego expansion and ego diastole.
2. The term “ego diastole” is the generic= term, which covers the two phases and forms of projection as well as inflation. <= o:p>
3.&n=
bsp; =
;
Ego diastole means in the ego theo=
ry of fate
psychology [Schicksalspsychology] each striving of the ego to
expand its internal boundaries and thus to make bearable the discomfort from
the opposites structure.
(a)&=
nbsp; In participation ̵=
1;
that is to say, with primordial projection, the double power of the opposit=
es
are shifted out of the unconscious into the outer object. Not the subject
itself but the environmental object becomes both
and everything and thus omnipotent. Here we speak of allodiastole [Greek allos =3D othe=
r; Greek
diastole =3D expansion].
The =
ego
however has nevertheless a part=
in
this object made all powerful. It feels related,
the same, and one with the object in that it participates in it in a mystic o=
r a real
form. Finally the ego -- through the participation and through the most
intimate sharing with the other
object -- has become in any case a partner of the omnipotence. Since the eg=
o is
related to the all powerful object, it feels itself also indirectly all
powerful.
(b) =
Then a disturbance of =
the
mystic or real dual union occurs. The double power is withdrawn from the ob=
ject
and given to its own ego. Through the restitution of the out-shifted double
power the ego doubles itself. We speak now of an “inflation.” T=
he
ego strives “to be both itself” and “to be everything
itself.” Briefly it becomes now directly perfect (greatness delusion)=
. The
ego in the phase of primordial projection was only indirectly -- through its relationship to the object -- omnipot=
ent,
thus the ego now has become directl=
y
omnipotent in the phase of inflation. This direct omnipotence of the ego we
call autodiastole [Greek aut=
o
=3D self; Greek diastole =3D expansion]. It
is however still more difficult for the ego to bear than the illusion of be=
ing
one with the object made omnipotent by the primordial projection and thus by
the participation.
(c)&=
nbsp; There appears the third
phase of ego diastole: Secondary
projection, with which the allo=
diastole
now becomes completed. Only the object becomes all powerful through project=
ion;
the subject on the other hand becomes completely powerless. Despite this po=
werlessness,
the ego nevertheless has a hidden
feeling of its power: It becomes persecuted by the other person because it =
is
“greater” than the persecutor. The person feels himself hated, =
harmed,
and persecuted by the object made all powerful, precisely because he is powerful. Allodiastole without participation is called in psychiatry
“persecution delusion.”
4. &n=
bsp;
Ego diastole is consequently the e=
ssence
of any expansion. It is the generic term, which includes together within it=
projection and inflation. We call the functional antipode of ego diastole ego contraction and ego systole. It strives towards the inner against the expansion=
of
the ego. We will speak about this comprehensive term in our discussion of
introjection and negation.
5. &n=
bsp;
The clinical experience agrees most often with the above discussed
process sequence of ego diastole. Differences are therefore possible for ea=
ch
individual case. Thus can be found cases where a paranoid after the
participation love phase does not fall first into the inflative but immedia=
tely
into the secondary projective persecuted phase and only after that becomes =
inflative -- that is, develops gre=
atness
delusion ideas. Thus, for example in the classic case of Schreber, whom Fre=
ud
described.
On the other hand, however, it must be emphasized that the inflated=
and
projective phases of the paranoid -- as well in the clinical and in the
observations with the test -- quite often may
alternate several times successively. This circumstance ma=
kes it
difficult in the individual case to specify accurately if after the
participating primary phase appears inflation or secondary projection as the
first result of libido and power restoration.
*
We have up to this point discussed the psychological and ontogenetic
relationship of ego inflation to ego projection.
Now we must still examine the relationship of the concept
“inflation” to two other psychopathological concepts. These are:
(1) possession [Besessenheit=
] and
(2) ambitendency.
=
; &n=
bsp; =
; &n=
bsp; Inflation
as Possession =
&nb=
sp;
By “possession=
221; in
psychopathology one understands the condition in which “the person
appears to transform himself or herself into another person; voice and beha=
vior,
facial expression, and content of speech manifest another personality.̶=
1;1
This change of the personality disappears again suddenly. Jaspers
writes the following: “In the most narrow and real sense, however, one
speaks of possession, when the ill person himself experiences that he is at=
the
same time two essences and is
performing with two egos and two completely heterogeneous ways =
of
feeling.”2 To the condition of possession belongs, accordi=
ng
to Jaspers, the experience of a strange and hallucinating personality, who
speak to the ill person, and furthermore distant compulsive phenomenon and
everything as feeling strange.
The possessed person gives up therefore the wholeness of the ego. W=
ith possession
occurs an actual “doubling experience,” the splitting of one's =
own
ego into two egos. With these t=
wo egos,
two successions of mental processes and two different personalities develop
themselves at the same time so that both
stand as strangers to one another, that “both” experience i=
n individual
ways, and that both sides insist on feeling connections, which do not flow
together with those of the other side; many times they stand opposite one
another feeling strange.”3
The most well-known example of possession is always a condition in =
which
a spirit, as demon and angel or devil and God, takes control of the man who=
is
gripped by its possession.
It is not to be misunderstood that C. G. Jung actually called this
condition of possession “psychic inflation” developed in his th=
eory
that this condition occurs through the dissolution of the opposite pair =
220;the
personal psyche and the collective psyche.”
Inflation as Ambitendency
Next to the designations “possession” and “psychic
inflation,” there is in psychopathology still another term for this
interesting condition, and indeed that of the expression “ambitendency” coined by Eugen
Bleuler.
Under ambitendency, E. Bleuler understood the simultaneous presence=
of
such opposite tendencies, which exclude one another in reality.
=
The
patient wants, says E. Bleuler, at the same time to eat and not to eat. He is at the same time like all ot=
her
men, but at the same time he is quite different than his fellow men. He is at the same time King and su=
bject,
Lord and servant, God and devil, Christ and Antichrist, man and woman, the
gardener named Hans Műller and Napoleon or King of China. And so on.
=
=
Experimental
ego analysis interprets all these so far "described" pure represe=
ntative
clinical pictures like possession, ambitendency, psychic inflation, and
doubling of the person as illnesses of ego diastole, the ego function "=
;p."
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p;
=
Inflation
as a defense technique indeed is based on the function of ego diastole; it
represents the prototype of a "p"
defense mechanism.
=
=
*
=
=
We
point to the well-known self description of Paters Surin from the work of
Ideler as an example of the psychopathology of possession and ambitendency.=
4
=
=
So
much about the general definition of inflation. Now we can turn to the discussion =
of the
forms of inflation.
=
=
On the
basis of the origins of inflation contents we distinguish -- similarly as w=
ith
the projection process -- three=
forms
of inflation: (1) personal, (2)=
collective, and (3) familial inflation.
=
=
1. Personal Inflation
= Inflation is personal, when the doubling = of the ego is being carried out through contents that have been previously repress= ed into the personal unconscious.<= o:p>
=
=
Although
Freud has never used the term "inflation," he has still represent=
ed the
process of personal inflation completely under "doubling" and "greatness
delusion" in the case of S=
chreber.5
=
=
On the
basis of this analysis we can
reconstruct the stages of the soul with personal
inflation as follows:
=
(a) The man
fluctuates his whole life between heterosexual and homosexual feelings. Disillusionment and failure can dr=
ive
him from one side to another.
(b) Psychic, ho=
wever,
and also somatic factors -- like the climacteric -- can lurk in the backgro=
und
with the woman as well as with the man and push the not-lived same sexual s=
tirrings
into the foreground. The ego
however does resist and represses the homosexual strivings pushing into the
foreground.
(c) Through the
repression, the ego brings about libido detachment from a person, who is ta=
boo
to love because the person is of the same sexuality. Now the person seeks, first by mea=
ns of
projection to cancel the repression and to lead back the libido to the pers=
on
abandoned by him. This can ha=
ppen
only in the well-known paranoid
form. The person feels himself
persecuted by the same sex person formerly loved by him. This consists of the negative ego
diastolic p- phase of persecuti=
on
delusions. Therein the first
transformation consists of the homosexuality redeemed out of repression.
=
There are
however some who can establish a second transformation which then leads the=
n to
greatness delusions and to possession [Besessenheit], =
in a
word, exactly to inflation. This phase in our nomenclature is the positive =
ego
diastole p+ phase.
(d) As one of t=
hese
transformations, Freud explains the following: The patient sets up the pers=
ecutor
through a higher court. He no
longer insults the earthly projection object that was first loved and then
hated, for the object becomes an overly powerful greater cosmic court, for
example the sun, God, and so forth.
Everything happens now henceforth "on a world order scale."=
;
=
In our
everyday speech, this means that from the personal dual union is made a
"cosmodal" union [union with the universe] through the ego diasto=
le.6
Through the greatness delusion, the ego, according to Freud, is compensated:
"Conflict and illness can stop."
=
=
Often
the paranoid splits also his own ego into more persons, by which the one ca=
n be
frequently a god-like court. =
Freud
writes: "There is doubling of the same significant relationships, as O=
tto
Rank has recognized in myth formations."7
=
=
"The
cosmic relations were replaced, however, according to Freud, not through the
collective psyche relations but through the personal and infantile relation=
ship
to the real father." The illusionary relationship to God,
according to Freud, originates on the basis of the "father complex&quo=
t;
through substitute formations and transferences.8
=
=
The
doubling of the ego occurs consequently through the early infantile and unt=
il
then repressed love and hate relationship to
the father and indeed through the placing
next to one another of the two egos, of one's own ego and of that of the
God-father, or through the splitting of the soul into one's own ego and the
God-father. The patient now b=
ecomes
both. He doubles, consequently, his ego.
(e) Freud
developed the theory that with the paranoid the libido withdrawn from the
object strikes the ego and is employed for ego enlargement. Consequently, the stage of narciss=
ism,
well-known from the development of libido, is again reached in which one's =
own
ego was one's own sexual object. "Because of this clinical statement, =
we
assume" Freud writes further “that the paranoia brings with it a=
fixation in narcissism and, we sta=
te,
that the regression from the sublim=
ated
homosexuality to narcissism gives the carrier the regression characteristic of paranoia."9
=
Freud still
mentions here the old interpretation of school psychiatry of the origin of
greatness delusions out of the persecution idea. This means: "The sick person =
who has
been primarily struck by the delusion to be the object of the persecution on
the part of the strongest powers feels the need himself to explain the
persecution, and to do so on the assumption that he is himself a grand personality, worthy of suc=
h a
persecution."10
What Freud may have added to the old interpretation on the basis of =
psychoanalysis was, until then, an=
invisible
process, which was divided by him into the following steps:
(1) same sexual love for one of =
the
parents,
(2) libido withdrawal through
repression,
(3)
driving back the libido to the belo=
ved
person or to its substitute figure through the help of projection,
(4)
transformation of projection into
doubling through splitting of the person into more ego existences of which =
one
is a higher court (God).
=
*
=
Inflation
uses, consequently, in these cases a personal
coinage that is the object on which the personal
repressed sexual wish is attached and may appear in consciousness as a
particular ego existence next to
one's own ego.
=
=
Thus
the doubling through the dissolution of repression after the first projecti=
on
phase occurs as the second transformation.=
We indicated that the sequence of projective and inflative phases can
also be reversed.
=
*
=
=
On the
question of the relationship between persecution and greatness delusion Fre=
ud
remarks: "It remains not without significance for other parts of paran=
oia
knowledge that an addition of great=
ness
delusion is confirmed in most other forms of paranoia illness. We have =
the
right to assume that megalomania is
chiefly infantile and that it in the later development of society is
sacrificed, as it becomes intensely repressed through no other influence th=
an
through an individual being powerfully seized when falling in love."
=
Falling in love is however again only=
an
ego diastolic ego stage, and indeed the condition of mystic participation, =
the being
one of the subject with the object.
=
=
The infantile and all-human greatness
delusion -- as a particular phase of ego diastolic processes -- is conseque=
ntly
quasi "healed" through a "regression" to the first, original stage of ego diast=
ole of
the participative primordial projection stage of being one with the object
through falling in love.
=
=
It is
to be regretted that the dangerous inflations and greatness delusions parti=
cularly
in those that reached this level could not be cured by means of falling in =
love,
and these thus become the most tragic chapters in the history of mankind.
=
2. Collective Inflation
Collective is each form of inflation by which the
doubling of the ego occurs through the collective unconscious and not throu=
gh the
personal repressed contents of the unconscious. The most important trait of=
the
collective psyche is: The allness [Allheit].&nbs=
p;
It expresses itself in o=
mnipresence,
all responsibility, all guilt, etc. The simplest form in which this inflative allness manifests itself=
is
the double being and the simult=
aneous
presence in two or more places, thus the "double presence" (bi=
-présence
according to Lévy-Bruhl) or the multi
presence. We find this ma=
nner
of inflation both in the thinking of primitives and also in that of the
different forms of paranoia.
=
(a) The Idea of Doubling in the Th=
inking
of Primitives
=
&nb=
sp; =
[1] D=
oubling
of Man and Animal
=
The
following report comes from Nelson about the Eskimos of the Bering Straits:
“One believes that once all organisms led a double existence and by its own will could appear as either hum=
an
or animal in its current shape…. ” 12
=
Here we fi=
nd the
prototype of collective inflation in form of a legend. The double being becomes the werewolf
(Lycanthropy) with the Naga (in the northeast India), with the Toradjas on
Celebes, the leopard men, and panther men in areas spread out in=
west
Africa between Sierra Leone and the Congo and in earlier times in the 16th
Century with the Indians of Peru, and furthermore attributed to sorcerers a=
nd
witches, and even to animals, lifeless objects and the dead.
Lévy‑Bruhl remarked on =
the
fact that in this “superstition,” which is widespread nearly ov=
er
the whole world, a person and an an=
imal
are constantly in reality one and the same being. Not the soul of a per=
son
leaves one’s body in order to travel as a wolf, leopard, or tiger, but
the person and the animal are only one being with a double existence and a
double presence.13 Since these primitives consider that the
collective descent of their tribe or their humanity is mostly from these
animals, it appears to be correct that we understand the mental process of
these ideas of double being and double presence as collective inflation.
It will su=
ffice if
we demonstrate from the rich collection of Lévy–Bruhl some
examples here for the representation of these phenomena:
J. H. Hutt=
on
reports: =
"On
one occasion the elders of a large Ao village came to me for permission to =
tie
up a certain man in the village, while they hunted a leopard that had alrea=
dy
caused a great deal of damage. The man in question, who was, by the way, a
Christian convert, also appeared to protest against the action of the villa=
ge
elders. He said passionately that he was very sorry that he was a leopard m=
an;
he did not want to be one, and that it was not his fault, but seeing that he
was one, he supposed that his leopard body must kill to eat, and if it did =
not,
both the leopard and he would die. He said that if he were tied up the leop=
ard
would certainly be killed, and he would die. To tie him up and hunt the leo=
pard
was, he said, sheer murder. In the end, I gave leave to the elders to tie t=
he
man up and hunt the leopard, but told them that if the man died as a result=
of
their killing the leopard, whoever had speared the leopard would of course =
be
tried, and no doubt hanged, for murder, and the elders committed for abetme=
nt
of the same. On this, the elders unanimously refused to take advantage of my
permission to tie up the man." It would be difficult to imagine a more
conclusive fact. Everybody is so convinced that the man and the leopard are=
the
same individual in two bodies that the European administrator is obliged to
make his verdict conform to the common belief.” Lévy‑Bruhl remarks on =
this:
“It would be difficult to furnish a more complete factual proof for t=
he
faith in the double being of the leopard men. Everyone in the village is
perfectly convinced that the man and the leopard are the same being in two
different bodies; consequently, the European government official is forced =
to
adapt his decision to the common superstition.”14
What conce=
rns us
here indeed is a possession [
"‘The possession is accompanied by ve=
ry
severe pain swellings in the knees, elbows and small of the back in the per=
son both
during and after the possession. These pains are said to be such as would
result from a continuous marching or from remaining long periods in an=
unaccustomed
position. During sleep at the time of possession the limbs move convulsivel=
y,
as the legs of a dog move when it is dreaming. A leopard man of the Tizu
valley, in paroxysm at such a time, bit one of his wife's breasts off. When=
the
leopard is being hunted by men, the human body behaves like a lunatic, leap=
ing
and throwing itself about in its efforts to escape. Under these circumstanc=
es
the relatives of the leopard man feed him with ginger as fast as possi=
ble
in order to make him more active, so that the leopard body, on which his li=
fe
depends, may have the agility to escape its pursuers. The body of the man a=
nd
that of ‘his’ leopard thus both experience the same sensations =
at
the same time. In order that the leopard may escape, new strength is procur=
ed
for the man. They are in reality but one being, present in two places. That=
is
the belief of those chiefly interested: The neighborhood, the pursuers, and
himself.”
The deadly action at a distance of t=
he
charm curse -- according to Lévy‑Bruhl -- conditioned ikewise
“a double existence and a double presence of material objects, which
causes death.”15
The double
presence is presented with some primitives on the basis of “two egos” or “tamaniu.” With many primitive
peoples one finds the belief that the dead person is at the same time prese=
nt
and absent or is present at two places. In order to make this double presen=
ce
impossible for the dead person, some tribes make use of actions, which our
culture calls funeral rites for violators. Thus reports W. E. Roth from the
district of Brisbane in
"In the case of adults, immediately after
death, some old medicine man, not necessarily a relative, would cut off the
whole genitalia of a male, the clitoris only of a female, wrap it in grass,=
and
place it high up in the fork of a tree: This was to be significant for the =
sexual
instinct being finished with and to prevent the spirit (nguru) of the
dead entering into sexual relations with the living." Lévy‑Bruhl writes, “Thus the
mutilation of the corpse reacts upon the dead, just as the wound infli=
cted
on the leopard appears upon the body of the leopard man. In both cases
individuality is consistent with double being and double presence.”
Often the =
dead,
particularly in the first days after their dying, appear in animal forms.
=
With the
reading of these collective possessions of the primitives, one is struck th=
at
the “second ego" appears mostly as an animal and is able to carry
out the cruelest sadistic actions. The cruel acts of the secret societies, =
thus
the so-called leopard men and panther men in
=
=
On the
basis of fate analysis [Sch=
icksalsanalysen] with paranoids we have come to the conclusion th=
at the
paranoids do not always try to =
solve
the opposition of "heterosexuality homosexuality" emphasized by F=
reud
in the form of doubling delusion, but that they double themselves most
frequently also through a different opposite pair, and indeed through the a=
ntinomy
"Cain-Able," "animal-man," "cannibalism-humanism." These paranoids descend mostly from
families, according to our research, in which next to paranoids are also to=
be
found chiefly epileptics. (Case 1 in this book supplies a model example for
this fact.) One therefore can=
not
accordingly verify absolutely the Freudian thesis that in the background of=
the
paranoid stands the repressed homosexuality.
=
[2] The Doubling of Man and Woman<= o:p>
=
Despite this qualified
criticism of this Freudian interpretation we must emphasize that inflation,=
the
doubling of man and woman in th=
e case
of culture poor tribes, plays an outstanding role, in particular in their l=
egends,
cults, songs, and cult devices. The leading role of sexual doubling, the se=
xual
collective inflation, with primitives is illuminated out of the book of
collections of J. Winthuis on "The Two Sexual Being."=
19
This Ethnologist had the opportunity to work wi=
th the
most diverse
The legend=
of
the Aranda tells that man and woman in the beginning were grown together.
According =
to the
legends of the Aranda rainbows and stars are also two sexual beings. Thus S=
trehlow
tells the following legend:
Two girls =
hiding
in the bushes looked at the solemn initiations for two boys to whom they we=
re
promised. “After completion of the celebration they came out from the=
ir
hiding place, loaded the two circumcised boys on their shoulders and climbed
with them to the sky, where they together with the young men were transform=
ed
into two brilliant stars. Acc=
ording
to the main role, which the girls played here, the stars are man woman.”22
Double bei=
ng,
man woman, is also the rain.
“With the rain cult the actor carries “a rain bearing mother=
221;;
on a cord (membrane) it hangs out over his belly.”23
Also in the thinking of the Aranda a=
nd Loritja,
the trees and rocks are two sexual beings.
Winthuis writes: “To become a two sexual being is the gr=
eat
longing of the Aranda and Loritja. Formerly, then they believed humans=
, man
and woman, were connected to one another. But they were helpless. Then a to=
tem
God, Mangarkunjerkunja, gave them the use of their limbs. However they were
separated. Since then man and woman themselves long again for constant unio=
n. Therefore
their pitying totem Gods brought the cult, by which the sign of the two sex=
ual
union was through tooth eruption,25
sub-incis=
ion etc., and thus can initiate again the union as a two
sexual being. Also the magic wands, which they brought with them there in s=
tone
or wood transformed bodies (tjur=
unga)
should keep them holy as two sexual beings; for the same purpose, they would
rub them with fat (female) and ocher (male), and in the holy cave, the symb=
ol
of the coupling, they carefully preserved them; thus with the help of these
holy magic wands, they became two sexual beings…. “26
The initia=
tion
into manhood ceremonies is in any case a cult behavior in the sense of maki=
ng
the boy a man woman. Therefore =
the
small operation of the sub-incision.
A. Van Gen=
nep27
refers to the similarity of the initiations ceremonies in
If indeed =
these
mysteries and initiation rites mean the will of a man and woman to be a dou=
ble
being and to be God-like perfection (completion) -- as J. Winthuis believes=
‑-
“We are concerned here with the central secret of the religions of mo=
st
peoples of the earth…. ”29
The alchem=
ical material
on the double being and on the hermaphroditism collected by C. G. Jung and =
its role
in the history of culture is represented in a magnificent and unique way. We
cannot even bring briefly here this enormous material of C. G. Jung. We ref=
er
here only to his books.30
=
=
The
demand to double oneself sexually appears to be consequently an original hu=
man
eternal and archaic collective need, which however -- apart from the rare c=
ases
of somatic hermaphrodites and
androgynous persons -- is never realized in fact. The "culture-poor" primi=
tive
is however also relatively more fortunate than the present
"culture-rich" person.
While the primitive with the help of his cult devices and cult actio=
ns
and through his mysteries from time to time therefore may live out the god-=
like
perfection in the archaic heroic world of two sexual beings without running any danger, the pe=
rson
in our culture can in fact expe=
rience
the original old collective inflation of man woman doubling only in dreams or in delusion
formations. (Compare this to =
the
hermaphroditic dream numbers 6, 7, and 8 in the third part of this book.)
=
=
There
remains for the man in the present consequently no other way to make himself
feel god-like -- that is, to make himself a two sexual being -- other than =
by
dreaming or by becoming insane.
=
[3] Collective Inflation as the Id=
ea of
Doubling
=
in the Case of Cultured People
=
=
Jung
separates a normal form of infl=
ation
from a pathological one. When=
, for
example, an official identifies completely with his office and thus behaves=
as
if he were the office and completes all the intricate social functions that
actually do not belong to him but to the office, then this man acts in the
condition of inflation.31 This form of puffing up of the person =
is however
still not pathological.
=
=
The pathological form of inflation res=
ts
according to Jung on "a mostly inborn weakness of the personality
vis-à-vis contents of the autonomous collective unconscious."
=
As is
well known an opposition between the personal
and the collective universal
tendencies of the unconscious exists in the human soul according to Jung.
=
A pathological form of inflation occurs
therefore when the person "annexes the collective psyche given to him a
priori and unconsciously as his ontogenetic acquired own property as if it =
were
a part of the same."33
=
=
In
other words, the person acts in the condition of a pathological
"inflation," when he expands the range of his personality with
"beyond the personal" and "beyond human" contents of the
unconscious collective psyche. On
the one hand this "inflation" is burdened with collective
"beyond the personal" strivings of the personality; on the other =
hand
it depreciates it and indeed at one time through the pathological "ego
expansion" of the person through "omnipotence" and god-liken=
ess";
at another time through the "crushing" of self-feelings through
beyond human strivings present at the same time.
=
=
Jung
perceives this making one ill in this form of inflation in the dissolution =
of
the personality into its opposite pairs.
=
=
Opposites
such as the personal and the beyond the personal, the satanic-like and the
god-like, the individual man and the collective beyond men, and related
opposites are dissolved with the inflation. The dissolution of the oppositi=
on
between the personal and collective psyche occurs in that the person has ta=
ken
the contents and tendencies of the collective psyche into the inventory of =
his
personal psychic functions. A=
s a
result of this puffing up, the person behaves henceforth as if the striving=
s of
the collective psyche -- like omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscient, being =
responsible
for everything and further god-likeness and holiness -- belonged to his own
personal and individual possession.
Naturally all the above mentioned beyond the personal "all"=
; [omni]
tendencies belong to the universal and collective property of mankind. If, however, a normal man is made
conscious of these "beyond man" and "god-likeness" dema=
nds,
then he represses them henceforth.
"The repression of the collective psyche" -- Jung writes -=
- "was
simply a necessity for personal development.34 A man becomes sick when he can not
repress the making conscious of the collective all-tendency to be like God
because of weakness of his personality and when he expands and puffs up him=
self
with the collective contents.
=
=
For
the normal development of the personality, according to Jung, the strong
differentiation of the personal soul from the collective psyche is an absol=
ute
requirement.
=
As an example of the “God-like=
”
inflation C. G. Jung =
mentions t=
he
case of Maeder. The patient “stood with the mother of God and similar
gods in ‘telephonic’ connection. In his human reality he had been an unsuccessful locksm=
ith apprentice,
who already for approximately 19 years had been incurably mentally ill.R=
21;
(Paranoid dementia with greatness dellusion.) Further Jung writes: “He had discovered the grandiose idea
however among other things that the=
world
was his picture book, through which he can leaf for his favorites. The
proof for it is very simple: He needs to only to turn, and then he sees a n=
ew page.”35
For the
evaluation of this case Jung draws upon Schopenhauer’s
Another ex=
ample
from the collection of G. Elsässer: A 25-year old woman, who=
se husband
became mentally ill one year before, found a job in a monastery, where she =
helped
with the housework. “In connection with religious practices, she beca=
me
ill…. She believed herself to be the mother of God, and further that
people were behind her, who in a truck would fetch and execute her.”<=
sup>37
Her inflation was thus of a collective nature.
About a pa=
ranoid
female patient of his, W. Weygandt stated, “She had seen the sky open=
and
on a tree were shapes, lions and cows, and the Lord spoke to her”R=
30;
“You are blessed, God is your
beloved papa and the priest is your healer.”38
The “being God-like” penetrated into consciousness from out of the collect=
ive=
unconscious as signs of power and mightin=
ess manifested
itself in these examples once therein when the patient was able ‑- li=
ke
God ‑- to look at the w=
orld
as a picture book, at another time when the patient was the mother of God, =
and
at a third time when her father was “Papa God,” with Whom she is
able to speak, and when the sky stands open for her.
These profound personality changes, =
according
to C. G. Jung, are based on “the attraction of a collective picture.&=
#8221;
In the case cited by
In a supplement to the Schreber case Freud drew attention=
to the
fact that so many delusion fantasies are not
only based on the “father complex” but also may indicate mythological connections. Schreber maintained that the sun speaks to him in human speech and verified “that=
its
rays pale before him, when he spoke, and turned toward him.”
Freud at f=
irst explained
the relationship of the patient to the sun as a sublimated “father
symbol.” In a supplement he however completed this interpretation, ba=
sed on
S. Reinach, with the fact that only eagles -- as
inhabitants of the highest air layers in the sky -- had the good fortune to be able to look into the sun unblinking and
without being blinded and thus had been entitled as eagles to examine their=
young
objectively with this test before they recognized their young as legitimate.
Due to similar examples derived from primitives (as with the tribe of the
Psyllen), Freud felt compelled to express the following: “We =
are here
concerned with things that appear to compel me to make possible a
psychoanalytical understanding for the origins of religion.” He conti=
nues:
“This small addition for the analysis of a paranoid may do that since=
the
well-founded interpretation of Jung that the myth forming forces of mankind
have not expired but today still are producing in the neuroses the same
psychological products as in the oldest times …. And I mean, it will soon be the ti=
me to
add a proposition, which we psychoanalyists have already expressed for a lo=
ng
time, which is to expand from its individual and ontological understood
contents to the anthropological and phylogenetical contents that can add to=
the
comprehended amendment. We have said: In dreams and in neurosis we find the=
child again with the characteristi=
cs of
his ways of thinking and his affect life. We will complete this with also t=
he savages and primitives, as has been shown us in the light of antiquity scie=
nce
and the research on primitives.”40 Thus Freud=
himself
has bridged the gulf between the personal unconscious and the collective
unconscious, an act that the Jungian school quite often is inclined to forg=
et. =
3. Familial Inflation =
Familial inflation originates when the person exp=
ands
the boundary of his personality with contents, functions, honors, and
possessions, which belong to the st=
ock of
the family and not to the person.
The person puffs himself up with the not personally acquired
characteristics but with the power belonging to the family in total or to another family member. In circumstances of familial infla=
tion,
the person, consequently, sees no more or not yet any distinction between t=
he
opposition between the individual and the family. The boundary between daughter, son,
father, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother, etc. becomes indefinite.=
The individual acts thus as if he
himself were the family and collects all physical and mental and spiritual =
and
material "accessories" of his whole family. =
The person doubles or expands himself with
his relatives. This definition of familial inflat=
ion
elucidates how generally this kind of inflation is to be found among people=
. And still more: There are many places, even state
mechanisms, that determine and legally protect precisely this familial
inflation. Thus, for example,=
the
hereditary family titles of duke, count, baron, the titles of "von&quo=
t;
and "zu" and so on. The
hereditary parliamentarian functions and offices of certain families are al=
l in
this class. =
=
The
word family stems recognizably from the Latin famulus and the
relationship of bond servants (=3D famulus) to their lord (=3D do=
minus). The authority of the family father=
rules
over the power of the family. The
patriarchal family is based first on the household community, second on the
providing community, and third on the operating community.41 =
=
In
general, the concept of the family signifies the degree of blood relatedness
and the social unit of parents and children. This concept given here stems
historically from the fact that the Romans consequently consider their own
children as "serfs" or "bond servants." Here is revealed the original form=
of
familial inflation. The paren=
ts
expand -- as in the case of the Romans -- their personal power over the
children as if their children w