Jung says: Everyone who has had practical experience of psychotherapy knows that the process which Freud called “transference” often presents a difficult problem. It is probably no exaggeration to say that almost all cases requiring lengthy treatment gravitate round the phenomenon of transference, and that the success or failure of the treatment appears to be bound up with it in a very fundamental way. Psychology, therefore, cannot very well overlook or avoid this problem, nor should the psychotherapist pretend that the so-called “resolution of the transference” is just a matter of course :
`SUBLIMATION' AS A PROCESS CONNECTED
WITH THE TRANSFERENCE
We meet with a similar optimism in the treatment of “sublimation,” a process closely connected with the transference. In discussing these phenomena, people often talk as though they could be dealt with by reason, or by intelligence and will, or could be remedied by the ingenuity and art of a doctor armed with superior technique. This euphemistic and propitiatory approach is useful enough when the situation is not exactly simple and no easy results are to be had; but it has the disadvantage of disguising the difficulty of the problem and thus preventing or postponing deeper investigation
IMPORTANCE OF THE TRANSFERENCE
IS RELATIVE
Although I originally agreed with Freud that the importance of the transference could hardly be overestimated, increasing experience has forced me to realize that its importance is relative. The transference is like those medicines which are a panacea for one and pure poison for another. In one case its appearance denotes a change for the better, in another it is a hindrance and an aggravation, if not a change for the worse, and in a third it is relatively unimportant. Generally speaking, however, it is a critical phenomenon of varying shades of meaning and its absence is as significant as its presence
`CLASSICAL' FORM OF TRANSFERENCE
AND ITS PHENOMENOLOGY
In this book I am concerned with the “classical” form of transference and its phenomenology. As it is a form of relationship, it always implies a vis-a-vis. Where it is negative, or not there at all, the vis-a-vis plays an unimportant part, as is generally the case, for instance, when there is an inferiority complex coupled with a compensating need for self-assertion
REACH A POINT OUTSIDE TIME
This is not to say that a transference never occurs in such cases. The negative form of transference in the guise of resistance, dislike, or hate endows the other person with great importance from the start, even if this importance is negative; and it tries to put every conceivable obstacle in the way of a positive transference. Consequently the symbolism so characteristic of the latterthe synthesis of oppositescannot develop
FROM WHICH TO OBSERVE
The reader who approaches this book more or less unprepared will perhaps be astonished at the amount of historical material I bring to bear on my investigation. The reason and inner necessity for this lie in the fact that it is only possible to come to a right understanding and appreciation of a contemporary psychological problem when we can reach a point outside our own time from which to observe it. This point can only be some past epoch that was concerned with the same problems, although under different conditions and in other forms
TRANSFERENCE AS IMPORTANT SYNDROME
IN PROCESS OF INDIVIDUATION
The transference phenomenon is without doubt one of the most important syndromes in the process of individuation; its wealth of meanings goes far beyond mere personal likes and dislikes. By virtue of its collective contents and symbols it transcends the individual personality and extends into the social sphere, reminding us of those higher human relationships which are so painfully absent in our present social order, or rather disorder
CW16 ¶ 539THE BENZENE RING AS A VISION
OF THE CONIUNCTIO
Thus Kekulé's vision of the dancing couples, which first put him on the track of the structure of certain carbon compounds, namely the benzene ring, was surely a vision of the coniunctio, the mating that had preoccupied the minds of the alchemists for seventeen centuries. It was precisely this image that had always lured the mind of the investigator away from the problem of chemistry and back to the ancient myth of the royal or divine marriage; but in Kekulé's vision it reached its chemical goal in the end, thus rendering the greatest imaginable service both to our understanding of organic compounds and to the subsequent unprecedented advances in synthetic chemistry
CW16 ¶ 353PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE
CONIUNCTIO ALCHEMICAL IMAGE
The alchemical image of the coniunctio, whose practical importance was proved at a later stage of development, is equally valuable from the psychological point of view: that is to say, it plays the same role in the exploration of the darkness of the psyche as it played in the investigation of the riddle of matter. Indeed, it could never have worked so effectively in the material world had it not already possessed the power to fascinate and thus to fix the attention of the investigator along those lines. The coniunctio is an a priori image that occupies a prominent place in the history of man's mental development. If we trace this idea back we find it has two sources in alchemy, one Christian, the other pagan
CW16 ¶ 355The Christian source is unmistakably the doctrine of Christ and the Church, sponsus and sponsa, where Christ takes the role of Sol and the Church that of Luna
The pagan source is on the one hand the hierosgamos, on the other the marital union of the mystic with God. These psychic experiences and the traces they have left behind in tradition explain much that would otherwise be totally unintelligible in the strange world of alchemy and its secret language
DOCTOR'S OWN MENTAL HEALTH
AND PATIENT'S MALADJUSTMENT
This bond is often of such intensity that we could almost speak of a “combination.” When two chemical substances combine, both are altered. This is precisely what happens in the transference. Freud rightly recognized that this bond is of the greatest therapeutic importance in that it gives rise to a mixtum compositum of the doctor's own mental health and the patient's maladjustment. In Freudian technique the doctor tries to ward off the transference as much as possiblewhich is understandable enough from the human point of view, though in certain cases it may considerably impair the therapeutic effect. It is inevitable that the doctor should be influenced to a certain extent and even that his nervous health should suffer. He quite literally “takes over” the sufferings of his patient and shares them with him. For this reason he runs a riskand must run it in the nature of things
CW16 ¶ 358EFFECTS OF THE TRANSFERENCE ON
ON THE DOCTOR OR NURSE
The effects of this [the transference] on the doctor or nurse can be very far-reaching. I know of cases where, in dealing with borderline schizophrenics, short psychotic intervals were actually “taken over,” and during these moments it happened that the patients were feeing more than ordinarily well. I have even met a case of induced paranoia in a doctor who was analysing a woman patient in the early stages of latent persecution mania. This is not so astonishing since certain psychic disturbances can be extremely infectious if the doctor himself has a latent predisposition in that direction
FREUD ATTACHED ENORMOUS
IMPORTANCE TO THE TRANSFERENCE
The enormous importance that Freud attached to the transference phenomenon became clear to me at our first personal meeting in 1907. After a conversation lasting many hours there came a pause. Suddenly he asked me out of the blue, “And what do you think about the transference?” I replied with the deepest conviction that it was the alpha and omega of the analytical method, whereupon he said, “Then you have grasped the main thing”
CW16 ¶ 358TRANSFERENCE IS NOT INDISPENSABLE
FOR A CURE IN EVERY CONDITION
The great importance of the transference has often led to the mistaken idea that it is absolutely indispensable for a cure, that it must be demanded from the patient, so to speak. But a thing like that can no more be demanded than faith, which is only valuable when it is spontaneous. Enforced faith is nothing but spiritual cramp. Anyone who thinks that he must “demand” a transference is forgetting that this is only one of the therapeutic factors, and that the very word “transference” is closely akin to “projection”a phenomenon that cannot possibly be demanded. I personally am always glad when there is only a mild transference or when it is practically unnoticeable. Far less claim is then made upon one as a person, and one can be satisfied with other therapeutically effective factors. Among these the patient's own insight plays an important part, also his goodwill, the doctor's authority, suggestion, good advice, understanding, sympathy, encouragement, etc. Naturally the more serious cases do not come into this category
CW16 ¶ 359Suggestion happens of its own accord, without the doctor's being able to prevent it or taking the slightest trouble to produce it
“Good advice” is often a doubtful remedy, but generally not dangerous because it has so little effect. It is one of the things the public expects in the persona medici
EROTIC AND SEXUAL TRANSFERENCE FANTASIES
ARE NOT ALWAYS THE ESSENTIAL ASPECT
Careful analysis of the transference phenomenon yields an extremely complicated picture with such startlingly pronounced features that we are often tempted to pick out one of them as the most important and then exclaim by way of explanation: “Of course, it's nothing but !” I am referring chiefly to the erotic or sexual aspect of transference fantasies. The existence of this aspect is undeniable, but it is not always the only and not always the essential one. Another is the will to power (described by Adler), which proves to be coexistent with sexuality, and it is often very difficult to make out which of the two predominates. These two aspects alone offer sufficient grounds for a paralysing conflict
CW16 ¶ 360INSTINCTIVE URGES AND DESIRES BRING ABOUT
A DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY
There are, however, other forms of instinctive concupiscentia that come more from “hunger,” from wanting to possess; others again are based on the instinctive negation of desire, so that life seems to be founded on fear or self-destruction. A certain abaissement du niveau mental, i.e., a weakness in the hierarchical order of the ego, is enough to set these instinctive urges and desires in motion and bring about a dissociation of personalityin other words, a multiplication of its centers of gravity. (In schizophrenia there is an actual fragmentation of personality.) These dynamic components must be regarded as real or symptomatic, vitally decisive or merely syndromal, according to the degree of their predominance
Although the strongest instincts undoubtedly require concrete realization and generally enforce it, they cannot be considered exclusively biological since the course they actually follow is subject to powerful modifications coming from the personality itself. If a man's temperament inclines him to a spiritual attitude, even the concrete activity of the instincts will take on a certain symbolical character. This activity is no longer the mere satisfaction of instinctual impulses, for it is now associated with or complicated by “meanings.” In the case of purely syndromal instinctive processes, which do not demand concrete realization to the same extent, the symbolical character of their fulfilment is all the more marked
FOUR STAGES OF EROTICISM WERE KNOWN
IN THE LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD
The most vivid examples of these complications are probably to be found in erotic phenomenology. Four stages of eroticism were known in the late classical period: Hawwah (Eve), Helen (of Troy), the Virgin Mary, and Sophia. The series is repeated in Goethe's Faust: in the figures of Gretchen as the personification of a purely instinctual relationship (Eve); Helen as an anima figure; Mary as the personification of the “heavenly,” i.e., Christian or religious, relationship; and the “eternal feminine” as an expression of the alchemical Sapientia
As the nomenclature shows that we are dealing with the heterosexual Eros or anima-figure in four stages, and consequently with four stages of the Eros cult:
CW16 ¶ 361Stage 1: Hawwah, Eve, earth is purely biological; woman is equated with the mother and only represents something to be fertilized
CW16 ¶ 361Stage 2: is still dominated by the sexual Eros, but on an aesthetic and romantic level where woman has already acquired some value as an individual
CW16 ¶ 361Stage 3: raises Eros to the heights of religious devotion and thus spiritualizes him: Hawwah has been replaced by spiritual motherhood
CW16 ¶ 361Stage 4: illustrates something which unexpectedly goes beyond the almost unsurpassable third stage: Sapientia. How can wisdom transcend the most holy and the most pure?Presumably only by virtue of the truth that the less sometimes means the more. This stage represents spiritualization of Helen and consequently of Eros as such. That is why Sapientia was regarded as a parallel to the Shulamite in the Song of Songs
CW16 ¶ 361WE CAN NEVER MAKE OUT BEFOREHAND
WHAT THE TRANSFERENCE IS ALL ABOUT
Not only are there different instincts which cannot forcibly be reduced to one another, there are also different levels on which they move. In view of this far from simple situation, it is small wonder that the transferencealso an instinctive process, in partis very difficult to interpret and evaluate. The instincts and their specific fantasy-contents are partly concrete, partly symbolical (i.e., “unreal”), sometimes one, sometimes the other, and they have the same paradoxical character when they are projected. The transference is far from being a simple phenomenon with only one meaning, and we can never make out beforehand what it is all about. The same applies to its specific content, commonly called incest. We know that it is possible to interpret the fantasy-contents of the instincts either as signs, as self-portraits of the instincts, i.e., reductively; or as symbols, as the spiritual meaning of the natural instinct. In the former case the instinctive process is taken to be “real” and in the latter “unreal”
CW16 ¶ 362ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHAT IS
`SPIRIT' AND WHAT IS `INSTINCT'
In any particular case it is often almost impossible to say what is “spirit” and what is “instinct.” Together they form an impenetrable mass, a veritable magma sprung from the depths of primeval chaos. When one meets such contents one immediately understands why the psychic equilibrium of the neurotic is disturbed, and why the whole psychic system is broken up in schizophrenia. They emit a fascination which not only gripsand has already grippedthe patient, but can also have an inductive effect on the unconscious of the impartial spectator, in this case the doctor. The burden of these unconscious and chaotic contents lies heavy on the patient; for, although they are present in everybody, it is only in him that they have become active, and they isolate him in a spiritual loneliness which neither he nor anybody else can understand and which is bound to be misinterpreted
CW16 ¶ 363Unfortunately, if we do not feel our way into the situation and approach it purely from the outside, it is only too easy to dismiss it with a light word or to push it in the wrong direction. This is what the patient has long been doing on his own account, giving the doctor every opportunity for misinterpretation. At first the secret seems to lie with his parents, but when this tie has been loosed and the projection withdrawn, the whole weight falls upon the doctor, who is faced with the question: “What are you going to do about the transference?”
DOCTOR VOLUNTARILY TAKES OVER THE
PSYCHIC SUFFERINGS OF THE PATIENT
The doctor, by voluntarily and consciously taking over the psychic sufferings of the patient, exposes himself to the overpowering contents of the unconscious and hence also to their inductive action. The case begins to “fascinate” him. Here again it is easy to explain this in terms of personal likes and dislikes, but one overlooks the fact that this would be an instance of ignotum per ignotius. In reality these personal feelings, if they exist at all in any decisive degree, are governed by those same unconscious contents which have become activated. An unconscious tie is established and now, in the patient's fantasies, it assumes all the forms and dimensions so profusely described in the literature. The patient, by bringing an activated unconscious content to bear upon the doctor, constellates the corresponding unconscious material in him, owing to the inductive effect which always emanates from projections in greater or lesser degree. Doctor and patient thus find themselves in a relationship founded on mutual unconsciousness
CW16 ¶ 364CONTENTS OF THE TRANSFERENCE SELDOM
OR NEVER LACK AN EROTIC ASPECT
I said earlier that the contents which enter into the transference were as a rule originally projected upon the parents or other members of the family. Owing to the fact that these contents seldom or never lack an erotic aspect or are genuinely sexual in substance (apart from the other factors already mentioned), an incestuous character does undoubtedly attach to them, and this has given rise to the Freudian theory of incest. Their exogamous transference to the doctor does not alter the situation. He is merely drawn into the peculiar atmosphere of family incest through the projection. This necessarily leads to an unreal intimacy which is highly distressing to both doctor and patient and arouses resistance and doubt on both sides
CW16 ¶ 368IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE HOW THE
INCESTUOUS ASPECT IS INTERPRETED
In practice, however, it is of the utmost importance how the incestuous aspect is interpreted. The explanation will vary according to the nature of the case, the stage of treatment, the perspicacity of the patient, and the maturity of his judgment
CW16 ¶ 370INCEST ELEMENT INVOLVES AN
EMOTIONAL COMPLICATION
The existence of the incest element involves not only an intellectual difficulty but, worst of all, an emotional complication of the therapeutic situation. It is the hiding place for all the most secret, painful, intense, delicate, shamefaced, timorous, grotesque, unmoral, and at the same time the most sacred feelings which go to make up the incredible and inexplicable wealth of human relationships and give them their compelling power. Like the tentacles of an octopus they twine themselves invisibly round parents and children and, through the transference, round doctor and patient. This binding force shows itself in the irresistible strength and obstinacy of the neurotic symptom and in the patient's desperate clinging to the world of infancy or to the doctor. The word “possession” describes this state in a way that could hardly be bettered
CW16 ¶ 371ALL UNCONSCIOUS CONTENTS
POSSESS SPECIFIC ENERGY
The remarkable effects produced by unconscious contents allow us to infer something about their energy. All unconscious contents, once they are activatedi.e., have made themselves feltpossess as it were a specific energy which enables them to manifest themselves everywhere (like the incest motif, for instance). But this energy is normally not sufficient to thrust the content into consciousness. For that there must be a certain predisposition on the part of the conscious mind, namely a deficit in the form of loss of energy. The energy so lost raises the psychic potency of certain compensating contents in the unconscious. The abaissement du niveau mental, the energy lost to consciousness, is a phenomenon which shows itself most drastically in the “loss of soul” among primitive peoples, who also have interesting psychotherapeutic methods for recapturing the soul that has gone astraySimilar phenomena can be observed in civilized man. He too is liable to a sudden loss of initiative for no apparent reason. The discovery of the real reason is no easy task and generally leads to a somewhat ticklish discussion of things lying in the background. Carelessness of all kinds, neglected duties, tasks postponed, wilful outbursts of defiance, and so on, all these can dam up his vitality to such an extent that certain quanta of energy, no longer finding a conscious outlet, stream off into the unconscious, where they activate other compensating contents, which in turn begin to exert a compulsive influence on the conscious mind. (Hence the very common combination of extreme neglect of duty and a compulsion neurosis)
CW16 ¶ 372THE NEW DEVELOPMENT DRAWS OFF ENERGY
IT NEEDS FROM CONSCIOUSNESS
This is one way in which loss of energy may come about. The other way causes loss not through a malfunctioning of the conscious mind but through a “spontaneous” activation of unconscious contents, which react secondarily upon consciousness. There are moments in human life when a new page is turned. New interests and tendencies appear which have hitherto received no attention, or there is a sudden change of personality (a so-called mutation of character). During the incubation period of such a change we can often observe a loss of conscious energy: the new development has drawn off the energy it needs from consciousness. This lowering of energy can be seen most clearly before the onset of certain psychoses and also in the empty stillness which precedes creative work
CW16 ¶ 373The same phenomenon can be seen on a smaller scale, but no less clearly, in the apprehension and depression which precede any special psychic exertion, such as an examination, a lecture, an important interview, etc.
POTENCY OF UNCONSCIOUS CONTENTS
INDICATES WEAKNESS IN CONSCIOUS MIND
The remarkable potency of unconscious contents, therefore, always indicates a corresponding weakness in the conscious mind and its functions. It is as though the latter were threatened with impotence. For primitive man this danger is one of the most terrifying instances of “magic.” So we can understand why this secret fear is also to be found among civilized people. In serious cases it is the secret fear of going mad; in less serious, the fear of the unconsciousa fear which even the normal person exhibits in his resistance to psychological views and explanations. This resistance borders on the grotesque when it comes to scouting all psychological explanations of art, philosophy, and religion, as though the human psyche had, or should have, absolutely nothing to do with these things. The doctor knows these well-defended zones from his consulting hours: they are reminiscent of island fortresses from which the neurotic tries to ward off the octopus. (“Happy neurosis island,” as one of my patients called his conscious state!) The doctor is well aware that the patient needs an island and would be lost without it. It serves as a refuge for his consciousness and as the last stronghold against the threatening embrace of the unconscious
CW16 ¶ 374PSYCHOLOGY MUST NOT TOUCH THE
NORMAL PERSON'S TABOO REGIONS
The same is true of the normal person's taboo regions which psychology must not touch. But since no war was ever won on the defensive, one must, in order to terminate hostilities, open negotiations with the enemy and see what his terms really are. Such is the intention of the doctor who volunteers to act as a mediator. He is far from wishing to disturb the somewhat precarious island idyll or pull down the fortifications. On the contrary, he is thankful that somewhere a firm foothold exists that does not first have to be fished up out of the chaos, always a desperately difficult task. He knows that the island is a bit cramped and that life on it is pretty meagre and plagued with all sorts of imaginary wants because too much life has been left outside, and that as a result a terrifying monster is created, or rather roused out of its slumbers. He also knows that this seemingly alarming animal stands in a secret compensatory relationship to the island and could supply everything that the island lacks
THE TRANSFERENCE ALTERS THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL STATURE OF THE DOCTOR
The transference, however, alters the psychological stature of the doctor, though this is at first imperceptible to him. He too becomes affected, and has as much difficulty in distinguishing between the patient and what has taken possession of him as has the patient himself. This leads both of them to a direct confrontation with the daemonic forces lurking in the darkness. The resultant paradoxical blend of positive and negative, of trust and fear, of hope and doubt, of attraction and repulsion, is characteristic of the initial relationship. It is the(hate and love) of the elements, which the alchemists likened to the primeval chaos. The activated unconscious appears as a flurry of unleashed opposites and calls forth the attempt to reconcile them, so that, in the words of the alchemists, the great panacea, the medicina catholica, may be born
CW16 ¶ 375UNCONSCIOUS TOUCHED, ESTABLISHING
UNCONSCIOUS IDENTITY OF DOCTOR AND PATIENT
It must be emphasized that in alchemy the dark initial state or nigredo is often regarded as the product of a previous operation, and that it therefore does not represent the absolute beginning. Similarly, the psychological parallel to the nigredo is the result of the foregoing preliminary talk which, at a certain moment, sometimes long delayed, “touches” the unconscious and establishes the unconscious identity of doctor and patient. This moment may be perceived and registered consciously, but generally it happens outside consciousness and the bond thus established is only recognized later and indirectly by its results. Occasionally dreams occur about this time, announcing the appearance of the transference. For instance, a dream may say that a fire has started in the cellar, or that a burglar has broken in, or that the patient's father has died, or it may depict an erotic or some other ambiguous situation. From the moment when such a dream occurs there may be initiated a queer unconscious time-reckoning, lasting for months or even longer
CW16 ¶ 376NIGREDO'S IDENTIFICATION
WITH THE PUTREFACTIO
Where the nigredo is identified with the putrefactio it does not come at the beginning, as for example in the series of pictures to the Rosarium philosophorum.In Myliusthe nigredo appears only in the fifth grade of the work, during the “putrefactio,”(putrefaction which is celebrated in the darkness of Purgatory); but further on, we read in contradiction to this:(And this denigratio is the beginning of the work, an indication of the putrefaction)
TREATING A LADY OVER SIXTY
When treating a lady of over sixty, I was struck by the following passage in a dream she had on October 21, 1938. [The following is an example of the kind of symbolism which marks the onset of the transference]:
CW16 ¶ 377Dream:
Six-month-old Child
A beautiful little child, a girl of six months old, is playing in the kitchen with her grandparents and myself, her mother. The grandparents are on the left of the room and the child stands on the square table in the middle of the kitchen. I stand by the table and play with the child. The old woman says she can hardly believe we have known the child for only six months. I say that it is not so strange because we knew and loved the child long before she was born
DREAM COMMENTARY
It is immediately apparent that the child is something special, i.e., a child hero or divine child. The father is not mentioned; his absence is part of the picture
Because he is the “unknown father,” a theme to be met with in Gnosticism
The kitchen, as the scene of the happening, points to the unconscious. The square table is the quaternity, the classical basis of the “special” child, for the child is a symbol of the Self and the quaternity is a symbolical expression of this. The Self as such is timeless and existed before any birth. The dreamer was strongly influenced by Indian writings and knew the Upanishads well, but not the medieval Christian symbolism which is in question here. The precise age of the child made me ask the dreamer to look in her notes to see what had happened in the unconscious six months earlier. Under April 20, 1938, she found the following dream:
Dream:
Marvelous Tree
“With some other women I am looking at a piece of tapestry, a square with symbolical figures on it. Immediately afterwards I am sitting with some women in front of a marvellous tree. It is magnificently grown, at first it seems to be some kind of conifer, but then I thinkin the dreamthat it is a monkey-puzzle [ a tree of genus Araucaria] with the branches growing straight up like candles [a confusion with Cereus candelabrum]. A Christmas tree is fitted into it in such a way that at first it looks like one tree instead of two”
VISON OF A TINY GOLDEN CHILD
LYING AT THE FOOT OF THE TREE
As the dreamer was writing down this dream immediately on waking, with a vivid picture of the tree before her, she suddenly had a vision of a tiny golden child lying at the foot of the tree (tree-birth motif). She had thus gone on dreaming the sense of the dream. It undoubtedly depicts the birth of the divine (“golden”) child
BUT WHAT HAPPENED
NINE MONTHS BEFORE?
But what had happened nine months previous to April 20, 1938? Between July 19 and 22, 1937, she had painted a picture showing, on the left, a heap of coloured and polished (precious) stones surmounted by a silver serpent, winged and crowned. In the middle of the picture there stands a naked female figure from whose genital region the same serpent rears up towards the heart, where it bursts into a five-pointed, gorgeously flashing golden star. A coloured bird flies down on the right with a little twig in its beak. On the twig five flowers are arranged in a quaternio, one yellow, one blue, one red, one green, but the topmost is goldenobviously a mandala structure. The serpent represents the hissing ascent of Kundalini, and in the corresponding yoga this marks the first moment in a process which ends with deification in the divine Self, the syzygy of Shiva and Shakti. It is obviously the moment of symbolical conception, which is both Tantric andbecause of the birdChristian in character, being a contamination of the symbolism of the Annunciation with Noah's dove and the sprig of olive
DREAM AND VISION COMMENTARY
This case, and more particularly the last image, is a classical example of the kind of symbolism which marks the onset of the transference. Noah's dove (the emblem of reconciliation), the incarnatio Dei, the union of God with matter for the purpose of begetting the redeemer, the serpent path, the Sushumna representing the line midway between sun and moonall this is the first, anticipatory stage of an as-yet-unfulfilled programme that culminates in the union of opposites. This union is analogous to the “royal marriage” in alchemy. The prodromal events signify the meeting or collision of various opposites and can therefore appropriately be called chaos and blackness
CW16 ¶ 381VIOLENT RESISTANCES COUPLED WITH
FEAR OF ACTIVATED CONTENTS
As mentioned above, this may take place at the beginning of the treatment, or it may first have to go through a lengthy analysis, a stage of rapprochement. Such is particularly the case when the patient shows violent resistances coupled with fear of the activated contents of the unconscious. There is good reason and ample justification for these resistances and they should never, under any circumstances, be ridden over roughshod or otherwise argued out of existence. Neither should they be belittled, disparaged, or made ridiculous; on the contrary, they should be taken with the utmost seriousness as a vitally important defense mechanism against overpowering contents which are often very difficult to control
FREUD OVERLOOKS THE VERY
ESSENCE OF THE TRANSFERENCE
Freud, as we know, looks at the transference problem from the standpoint of a personalistic psychology and thus overlooks the very essence of the transferencethe collective contents of an archetypal nature. The reason for this is his notoriously negative attitude to the psychic reality of archetypal images, which he dismisses as “illusion.” This materialistic bias precludes strict application of the phenomenological principle without which an objective study of the psyche is absolutely impossible. My handling of the transference problem, in contrast to Freud's, includes the archetypal aspect and thus gives rise to a totally different picture. Freud's rational treatment of the problem is quite logical as far as his purely personalistic premises go, but both in theory and in practice they do not go far enough, since they fail to do justice to the obvious admixture of archetypal data
WEAKNESS OF CONSCIOUS ATTITUDE IS
PROPORTIONAL TO THE RESISTANCE
The general rule should be that the weakness of the conscious attitude is proportional to the strength of the resistance. When, therefore, there are strong resistances, the conscious rapport with the patient must be carefully watched, andin certain caseshis conscious attitude must be supported to such a degree that, in view of later developments, one would be bound to charge oneself with the grossest inconsistency. That is inevitable, because one can never be too sure that the weak state of the patient's conscious mind will prove equal to the subsequent assault of the unconscious. In fact, one must go on supporting his conscious (or, as Freud thinks, “repressive”) attitude until the patient can let the “repressed” contents rise up spontaneously. Should there by any chance be a latent psychosis which cannot be detected beforehand, this cautious procedure may prevent the devastating invasion of the unconscious or at least catch it in time. At all events the doctor then has a clear conscience, knowing that he has done everything in his power to avoid a fatal outcome
CONSISTENT SUPPORT OF CONSCIOUS
ATTITUDE HAS HIGH THERAPEUTIC VALUE
Nor is it beside the point to add that consistent support of the conscious attitude has in itself a high therapeutic value and not infrequently serves to bring about satisfactory results. It would be a dangerous prejudice to imagine that analysis of the unconscious is the one and only panacea which should therefore be employed in every case. It is rather like a surgical operation and we should only resort to the knife when other methods have failed. So long as it does not obtrude itself the unconscious is best left alone. The reader should be quite clear that my discussion of the transference problem is not an account of the daily routine of the psychotherapist, but far more a description of what happens when the check normally exerted on the unconscious by the conscious mind is disrupted, though this need not necessarily occur at all
ARCHETYPAL PROBLEM OF THE
TRANSFERENCE BECOMES ACUTE
Cases where the archetypal problem of the transference becomes acute are by no means always “serious” cases, i.e., grave states of illness. There are of course such cases among them, but there are also mild neuroses, or simply psychological difficulties which we would be at a loss to diagnose. Curiously enough, it is these latter cases that present the doctor with the most difficult problems. Often the persons concerned endure unspeakable suffering without developing any neurotic symptoms that would entitle them to be called ill. We can only call it an intense suffering, a passion of the soul but not a disease of the mind
CW16 ¶ 382CONSTELLATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
CREATES ATMOSPHERE OF ILLUSION
Once an unconscious content is constellated, it tends to break down the relationship of conscious trust between doctor and patient by creating, through projection, an atmosphere of illusion which either leads to continual misinterpretations and misunderstandings, or else produces a most disconcerting impression of harmony. The latter is even more trying than the former, which at worst (though it is sometimes for the best!) can only hamper the treatment, whereas in the other case a tremendous effort is needed to discover the points of difference. But in either case the constellation of the unconscious is a troublesome factor
CW16 ¶ 383ONE FINDS ONESELF IN
AN IMPENETRABLE CHAOS
The situation is enveloped in a kind of fog, and this fully accords with the nature of the unconscious content: it is a “black blacker than black” (nigrum, nigrius nigro), as the alchemists rightly say, and in addition it is charged with dangerous polar tensions, with the inimicitia elementorum. One finds oneself in an impenetrable chaos, which is indeed one of the synonyms for the mysterious prima materia. The latter corresponds to the nature of the unconscious content in every respect, with one exception: this time it does not appear in the alchemical substance but in man himself
CW16 ¶ 383A FEW ALCHEMISTS RIGHTLY SUSPECTED THE
PRIMA MATERIA IS TO BE DISCOVERED IN MAN
In the case of alchemy it is quite evident that the unconscious content is of human origin, as I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy. Hunted for centuries and never found, the prima materia or lapis philosophorum is, as a few alchemists rightly suspected, to be discovered in man himself. But it seems that this content can never be found and integrated directly, but only by the circuitous route of projection. For as a rule the unconscious first appears in projected form. Whenever it appears to obtrude itself directly, as in visions, dreams, illuminations, psychoses, etc., these are always preceded by psychic conditions which give clear proof of projection. A classical example of this is Saul's fanatical persecution of the Christians before Christ appeared to him in a vision
PATIENT POSSESSED BY AN ELUSIVE,
DECEPTIVE, EVER-CHANGING CONTENT
The elusive, deceptive, ever-changing content that possesses the patient like a demon now flits about from patient to doctor and, as the third party in the alliance, continues its game, sometimes impish and teasing, sometimes really diabolical. The alchemists aptly personified it as the wily god of revelation, Hermes or Mercurius; and though they lament over the way he hoodwinks them, they still give him the highest names, which bring him very near to deity. But for all that, they deem themselves good Christians whose faithfulness of heart is never in doubt, and they begin and end their treatises with pious invocations. Yet it would be an altogether unjustifiable suppression of the truth were I to confine myself to the negative description of Mercurius' impish drolleries, his inexhaustible invention, his insinuations, his intriguing ideas and schemes, his ambivalence andoftenhis unmistakable malice. He is also capable of the exact opposite, and I can well understand why the alchemists endowed their Mercurius with the highest spiritual qualities, although these stand in flagrant contrast to his exceedingly shady character
The contents of the unconscious are indeed of the greatest importance, for the unconscious is after all the matrix of the human mind and its inventions. Wonderful and ingenious as this other side of the unconscious is, it can be most dangerously deceptive on account of its numinous nature. Involuntarily one thinks of the devils mentioned by St Athanasius in his life of St. Anthony, who talk very piously, sing psalms, read the holy books, andworst of allspeak the truth. The difficulties of our psychotherapeutic work teach us to take truth, goodness, and beauty where we find them. They are not always found where we look for them: often they are hidden in the dirt or are in the keeping of the dragon