Last night I talked to a friend who was envious of my freedom. She has a relationship with a guy and, in fact, they're very happy together. But, she said, "It's so much work trying to understand him all the time and wanting him to understand me, and having to do things together when I just want to be left alone!"
I started laughing as she said this - I mean really laughing, more than I've laughed in a long time, because I know those feelings. She said that I should appreciate my freedom, and appreciate how because I'm alone no one puts any expectations on me.
I agreed, "The freedom is a trade off for the loneliness, but for now I'd rather have the freedom and live with the loneliness." The freedom to not be expected to understand a partner's thoughts and feelings all the time! Yes! Give me that for just a little longer!
Some day, though, I'd like to experience the work again of trying to communicate in a romantic relationship. There's nothing quite like it.
Here's a quote on the topic from Emma Jung:
"It happens only too frequently that instead of understanding a situation - or another person - through feeling and acting accordingly, we think something about the situation or the person and offer an opinion in place of a human reaction. This may be quite correct, well-intentioned, and clever, but it has no effect, or the wrong effect, because it is right only in an objective, factual way. Subjectively, humanly speaking, it is wrong because in that moment the partner, or the relationship, is best served not by discernment or objectivity but in sympathetic feeling."
It strikes me that freedom and aloneness go well together, and unlimited freedom means infinite aloneness. Maybe I'm wrong about this. We humans certainly crave the loss of our aloneness.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Another Quote on Animals
"Suppressed and wounded instincts are the dangers threatening civilized man; uninhibited drives are the dangers threatening primitive man. In both cases the 'animal' is alienated from it's true nature; and for both, acceptance of the animal soul is the condition for wholeness and a fully lived life. Primitive man must tame the animal in himself and make it his helpful companion; civilized man must heal the animal in himself and make it his friend." - Aniela Jaffe
I think Jaffe considered this to mean the primitive and the civilized part of an individual as well as what we might label as a civilized or primitive culture. Those words bother me, but I don't want it to distract from the message which I like alot.
I think Jaffe considered this to mean the primitive and the civilized part of an individual as well as what we might label as a civilized or primitive culture. Those words bother me, but I don't want it to distract from the message which I like alot.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Animal instincts
The previous post, a quote about animals in dreams, points out that animals in dreams are expressions of our instincts. Jungians typically see dream figures as archetypes, and archetypes as instincts ... And I agree, even though I don't wish to be labeled as Jungian, although I mostly agree with those views and I turn to Jungian writers for understanding about ... everything. Omigosh, I might be Jungian.
Anyway, if frightening animals in dreams are instincts that need to be reintegrated, then the animals that we are on friendly terms with are conversely the animal-instincts that we have incorporated as part of our psychological make-up, which sounds almost academic but is actually really cool ~ ! To be friends with the primal animal instinct is to befriend one's self.
Anyway, if frightening animals in dreams are instincts that need to be reintegrated, then the animals that we are on friendly terms with are conversely the animal-instincts that we have incorporated as part of our psychological make-up, which sounds almost academic but is actually really cool ~ ! To be friends with the primal animal instinct is to befriend one's self.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Animals in Dreams
"The familiar dream in which the dreamer is pursued by an animal nearly always indicates that an instinct has been split off from the consciousness and ought to be (or is trying to be) readmitted and integrated into life. The more dangerous the behavior of the animal in the dream, the more unconscious is the primitive and instinctual soul of the dreamer, and the more imperative is it's integration into his life if irreparable evil is to be forestalled." - Aniela Jaffe
Impressiveness #6
This is my final post on impressiveness.
In the quote I posted earlier - Quote C - Jung discussed an ancient text, The Shepherd of Hermas. In the text, a woman makes such a strong impression on Hermas that when a feminine spirit appears to him later, the spirit takes on the appearance - the image - of that woman.
This also occures when a man's inner-feminine nature, the anima, or a woman's inner-masculine nature, the animus, takes on the image of another person. Jung calls this projection - projecting your own psyche onto another person, making that person and your own anima or animus (or whatever inner-figure it happens to be) indistinguishable from that external other. Jung, Sartre and others have written that love isn't possible without a degree of projection, and that the realization of projection can end love.
My interest here is in impressiveness and it's connection to images. The image alive in your unconscious psyche is able to break through the barrier into your conscious awareness when it causes you to become impressed by an external object with matching qualities.
I wrote in an earlier post about a tree that made an impression on me. In reality it wasn't the tree that impressed. It was an internal image trying to make me consciously aware of it by projecting itself onto the tree. This is why I consider it important to watch for moments of impresssiveness, because in those moments we learn most about ourselves. This is also why the connection between impressiveness and images, especially in dreams and in art, becomes important to understand.
In the quote I posted earlier - Quote C - Jung discussed an ancient text, The Shepherd of Hermas. In the text, a woman makes such a strong impression on Hermas that when a feminine spirit appears to him later, the spirit takes on the appearance - the image - of that woman.
This also occures when a man's inner-feminine nature, the anima, or a woman's inner-masculine nature, the animus, takes on the image of another person. Jung calls this projection - projecting your own psyche onto another person, making that person and your own anima or animus (or whatever inner-figure it happens to be) indistinguishable from that external other. Jung, Sartre and others have written that love isn't possible without a degree of projection, and that the realization of projection can end love.
My interest here is in impressiveness and it's connection to images. The image alive in your unconscious psyche is able to break through the barrier into your conscious awareness when it causes you to become impressed by an external object with matching qualities.
I wrote in an earlier post about a tree that made an impression on me. In reality it wasn't the tree that impressed. It was an internal image trying to make me consciously aware of it by projecting itself onto the tree. This is why I consider it important to watch for moments of impresssiveness, because in those moments we learn most about ourselves. This is also why the connection between impressiveness and images, especially in dreams and in art, becomes important to understand.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Impressiveness #5
The following quote from Aniela Jaffe shows impressiveness - having an impact on a person's psyche - in art:
"French painter, Marcel Duchamp set up an object chosen at random (a bottle rack) on a pedestal and exhibited it. Jean Bazaine wrote of it: 'This bottle rack, torn from it's utilitarian context and washed up on the beach has been invested with the lonely dignity of the derelict.'"
Jaffe continues to describe the bottle rack using the words "disturbing," "exalted," and "magical."
The quality of being magical wasn't in the bottle rack itself. The magical quality was imbued when viewers became disturbed and questioned whether the object qualified as art. This reaction shows that art makes an impression - has impressiveness - and has the power to move us psychologically.
"French painter, Marcel Duchamp set up an object chosen at random (a bottle rack) on a pedestal and exhibited it. Jean Bazaine wrote of it: 'This bottle rack, torn from it's utilitarian context and washed up on the beach has been invested with the lonely dignity of the derelict.'"
Jaffe continues to describe the bottle rack using the words "disturbing," "exalted," and "magical."
The quality of being magical wasn't in the bottle rack itself. The magical quality was imbued when viewers became disturbed and questioned whether the object qualified as art. This reaction shows that art makes an impression - has impressiveness - and has the power to move us psychologically.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Impressiveness #4
I visited a friend and as I walked through her yard to her front door I passed a tree covered in moss or lichen. She said, as a passing comment, "When the lichen falls off the tree it gives nutrients to the soil."
She then changed the subject and talked on something else. I'd been trying to condition myself to watch for moments that made an impression on my psyche - impressiveness. This was the moment but the conversation moved on.
That night I had a dream about that tree where I could see the lichen falling to the lawn. Later, I talked with my dream-mentor about it. She pointed out that the lichen falling from the tree was synonymous with unconscious understanding coming into consciousness. For me the encounter was an example of the benefit of watching for impressive moments.
She then changed the subject and talked on something else. I'd been trying to condition myself to watch for moments that made an impression on my psyche - impressiveness. This was the moment but the conversation moved on.
That night I had a dream about that tree where I could see the lichen falling to the lawn. Later, I talked with my dream-mentor about it. She pointed out that the lichen falling from the tree was synonymous with unconscious understanding coming into consciousness. For me the encounter was an example of the benefit of watching for impressive moments.
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