At the end of teaching the Spring Term 2013 at Concordia College my class presented a case study that dealt with Anima Projection and then I saw this Anima – How much of you is you? that captures the key lesson in the class.
ANIMA (2011) from Dominoes Falling Productions, is a feature length documentary using a collaboration of various material. The film examines our relationships with ourselves, others and the environment around us. Other themes include our creativity and our power as individuals and as a collective to manifest our own reality.
Adam Smith is called the father of modern economics and acquired this title with his 1776 publication of The Wealth of Nations. Smith’s 1759 publication The Theory of Moral Sentiments he regarded as his magnum opus and is considered a modifying companion to the Wealth of Nations. In Moral Sentiments (Wikipedia),
…Smith critically examines the moral thinking of his time, and suggests that conscience arises from social relationships.[64] His goal in writing the work was to explain the source of mankind’s ability to form moral judgements, in spite of man’s natural inclinations towards self-interest. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy, in which the act of observing others makes people aware of themselves and the morality of their own behavior.[65]
Taylor (2011) discusses Smith’s philosophy as presented in The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith advocates for a form of moral sentimentalism. We naturally link sympathy to either approval or disapproval of an action or reaction. For instance, if an individual insults another person, we attach sympathy to the reaction of the person who was insulted. If the person insulted under-reacts or over-reacts, we will disapprove the response morally. If the reaction seems right, we will approve of the response morally. We will also sympathize with parties who are not sharing a similar sentiment. For instance, if a person loses their mental capacity or passes way, we will sympathize with that person even though they themselves are not feeling the same sentiment. Lastly, using Smith’s moral sentimentalism, we can judge our own actions. We can do this by looking at our own actions from a third person point of view” (Wikipedia)
A different slant on Smith’s Wealth & Moral Sentiments occurs with John Nash’s intuitive insight in this Beautiful Mind Bar Scene where Nash suggests that Smith needs revision.
Smith’s Wealth of Nations principle ruling the dominate institution of our time, the corporate, is “In competition, individual ambition serves the common good” and “The best result comes from everyone in the group doing what is best for himself.” Nash’s insight suggests that a revision is needed, “The best result will come from everyone doing what is best for himself and for his group.” The governing dynamic “in game theory, known as the Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a non-cooperative game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally.[1]:14 If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing strategies while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute a Nash equilibrium. Stated simply, Amy and Wili are in Nash equilibrium if Amy is making the best decision she can, taking into account Wili’s decision, and Wili is making the best decision he can, taking into account Amy’s decision. Likewise, a group of players are in Nash equilibrium if each one is making the best decision that he or she can, taking into account the decisions of the others.”
Both Smith’s and Nash’s views look outward for reference. So, let us develop another slant on “The best results come from everyone doing what is best for himself and for this groups.” This slant is inward and presented by Murray Stein (2007) in The ethics individualization of and the individualization of ethics. Stein begins his essay with the favorite rainmaker story Jung was found of telling, which was told to him by Richard Wilhelm (translator of Chinese I Ching into German) at a Psychological Club of Zurich lecture in the 1920’s. Wilhelm actually witnessed this event,
…while he was living in Qingdao, China, there was a long dry spell in the region. The land in the countryside was utterly parched, and the crops were failing. As a consequence, many people were facing the prospect of starvation. Desperate, they tried to produce rainfall by performing all the religious rites they knew: the “Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss-sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result.
Finally the Chinese said, “We will fetch the rain-maker.” So they sent a message to another part of the country asking for the assistance of a well known rain-maker. Eventually a “dried up old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days. On the fourth day the clouds gathered and there was a great snow-storm at the time of the year when no snow was expected, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumours about the wonderful rain-maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it.”
When asked, the old man replied: “I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order, they are not as they should be in the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country. So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao and then naturally the rain came” (Douglas, 1997: 333) sited in (Stein, 2007: 65).
The idea behind Wilhelm’s story is that an individuating person has “the capacity to affect society and the cosmos (for good or ill) because the individual, society, and the cosmos are intimately connected parts of a single reality.” Thus doing what is best for oneself is to walk the way of individuation, which naturally flows unto the group. Erich Neumann’s (1945) Depth psychology and a new ethic develops this new ethics, which is presented in the Blog Deep Jesus, Us?. The new depth ethic is to consciously walk the way of individuation – the authentic transformational leader’s way.
Alan Watts’ tribute to Carl Jung captures the affect of Jung’s individuation onto others and also points to the unfolding individuation of ethics – Justice, which will be addressed in a future entry.
Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley’ were interviewed on the All in with Chris Hayes Show last night and on the Morning Joe Show this morning. Democracy Now interviewed the journalists at a special showing at Sundance Film Festival 2013 recently on their soon to be released documentary Dirty Wars: Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare.
After watching these interviews one comes to realize that President Obama’s is leading a most dark & dirty war against terrorism that is killing Americas without trials. This is a dark & dirty war that his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize stands in stark contrast to and now more than ever seems to justify the Nobel Committee asking Obama to return the Peace Prize. Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, said
today that President Obama ‘really ought to consider’ returning his Nobel Peace Prize Medal immediately, including the ‘really nice’ case it came in. Jagland, flanked by the other four members of the Committee, said they’d never before asked for the return of a Peace Prize, ‘even from a damnable war-criminal like Kissinger,’ but that the 10% drawdown in US troops in Afghanistan the President announced last week capped a period of ‘non-Peace-Prize-winner-type behavior’ in 2011. ‘Guantanamo’s still open. There’s bombing Libya. There’s blowing bin Laden away rather than putting him on trial. Now a few US troops go home, but the US will be occupying Afghanistan until 2014 and beyond. Don’t even get me started on Yemen!’ HA!
In studying Transformational leadership & The Way of Individuation (Blog entry below), I had been planning to present Obama as an example of a transformational leader along the lines that Aziz (2008) develops in his book The change of which Barak Obama speaks. In fact, two weeks ago there was considerable chatter that after his health care legislation, the Iraq war ending, and if gun and immigration legislation is passed – his legacy will be set. However, now with his leading the U.S.’s dirty war, one has to pause to consider the impact this will have on his legacy.
Then this morning after experiencing and reflecting on the above, I re-watched Jung and Leadershipand was stuck to realize that it is not Obama consciously leading the American people in this war, it is the unconsciousness of America that has selected a president that is fulfilling their dark & dirty shadow side. Steve Myers explains Jung’s idea on this different way of looking at leadership.
To summarize Myers main points he is saying that “the traditional view is of a leader enlisting the support of others, a leader creates a following through his own conscious action. However, Jung’s position is that it is the followers who create the leadership unconsciously; it is the group’s collective unconscious that creates the demand for leadership and then draws someone into the position who fulfills the unconscious need. It is an illusion for the leader to think she creates a following when those leaders are more likely to be slaves to their own fiction. It is not life that must be check but unconsciousness.”
What this suggests is that Obama is leading dark & dirty because America’s unconsciousness is dark & dirty. Obama is leading how America unconsciously wants and expects him to lead. To qualify as a depth transformational leader, Obama would have to accept that it is unconsciousness that must be checked. So much for the Nobel Committee’s logic in awarding Obama the Peace Prize: “creating a new climate of…multilateral diplomacy…an emphasis on the role of the United Nations…of dialogue and negotiations as instruments for resolving international conflicts…and a vision of world free of nuclear arms.”
The Nation’s sentiments have been with those killed and injured in Boston last week. Now in the aftermath of the carnage, American consciousness on Sunday’s news talk shows is focused on making sense of it. I found Sunday’s (4/21) Melissa Harris-Perry Show to be the most dynamic and deepest. The show is hyper-linked above to the first session with four other segments following. Some of the ideas discussed were; fear of the other, confrontations with pure evil, self-radicalization, home-grown terrorist, perceived injustice, the higher self, the whiteness of the American Complex, and others. After watching this past week’s struggle to understand what happened in Boston, I finally saw in Melissa’s show a glimmer of insight into the challenge facing the U.S. The guests were impressive: Valarie Kaur, Ari Melber, Zaheer Ali, and Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson was the most animated and framed the deep challenge facing us, what he calls here the American Empire Complex.
The search for understanding has been projecting of evil outward onto the Other. President Reagan’s “the evil empire” and President Bush’s “the triad of evil” are examples at the highest level. In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, we are looking for solutions in background checks for gun purchases and new health-care legislation addressed to dealing with individual crazies – both are focused on projecting onto the alone sick individual. In the case of the Boston bombing, we are now looking to understand how these brothers got radicalized in the other – Russia. We now hear the idea of self-radicalization, which is explained as the ability to use the internet to visit radicalizing web sites anywhere in the world – yes the outside Other. Absence from most of this discussion is the insanity of the American Empire that Dyson writes about. Here is Pinky’s take on empire building as Globalization and the metaphysics of control…
If we watch carefully the MHP show, we see the proper stance to the threat of terrorism is not from without but from within – it is the insanity of the American culture that is the source of evil and terror she is experiencing (Fromm, The Sane Society). If Christian America were to follow their savior’s teaching, they would heed Christ saying, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye with never a thought for the great plank in your own eye? In order to Love thy neighbor as thy self, one has to learn how to love thy Self. Loving one’s enemy and turning the other cheek follow on actualizing Self-love and removing the dark shadow plank in our eye is the first analytical step. Edinger in his stimulating book, Ego and Archetype, suggests that these teaching clearly indicate that Jesus was the first depth psychologist nineteen hundred years before the unconscious was empirically established by Freud. This has been written about below in the Blog entry “Deep Jesus, Us?” and for the global perspective it is simply realizing our security as a nation is dependent on a Global Mind Change – our security is dependent on the security and need fulfillment of the Other.
What this means in terms of John Nash’s creative intuitive insight in this Beautiful Mind Bar Scene is that Adam Smith the father of modern economics needs revision. Smith’s principle that rules corporate capitalism is “In competition, individual ambition serves the common good” and “The best result comes from everyone in the group doing what is best for himself.” Nash’s insight sees that this needs revision, “The best result will come from everyone doing what is best for himself and for his group.” We need to look very carefully at corporate capitalism to see our evil and how we are being Banked Into Submission. We need to wake up to what Christ is saying, it is our evil producing the evil we think we see in the Other.
Follow on with James Wolfenshohn President of the World Bank 1995-2005 Stunning Confession. After all of this we still have to understand the challenge John Nash set for us – “Doing what is the best for American and our World” – what are the governing dynamics of this?
In the aftermath of the Boston Bombing, the killing and capture of the Tsarnaev brothers, America is again asking the question – Why? And again it appears from the News, Americans are not looking in the right direction – inward. Maybe ZEITGEIST: Moving Forward will help this country, however, I am seriously doubting the American collective psyche has it within itself – “This shit’s got to go.”
Leadership is the central concept in the study of management. Its centrality centers on the fact that it requires a leader to understand deeply the contingency issues involved in leading, which are the situation, the follower, and the leader’s Self. The starting point in approaching these three issues is the leader herself – Knowing Thy Self is fundamental to understanding a follower and the situations one is facing. These components are dynamically interrelated and this requires that an authentic transformational leader be at the edge of her creative inner energies as they are synchronistically wrapped together in the unfolding leading experience. The objective of this essay is to look into the transformational leadership theory and propose and extension of its current framework to include the ideas of analytical depth psychology as they might operate in a leading/developmental situation.1 There are two leadership theories, a dynamic duel, that complement each other but one is in need of deeper development. The Robin of this duel is transactional leadership (Nelson and Quick, 2011: 405) or the path-goal theory (412), which is well supported by expectance theory and equitytheory of motivation (165-170). Daft (2010: 362) suggests that basis of transactional leadership is “the transaction or exchange process between the leader and the followers” and it uses “rules, directions, and incentives.” Wikipedia suggests that these leaders carefully examine the series of transaction needing clarification in order for followers to see the path leading to the goals being sought. The dynamics of this leader-follower relationship is top-down, the follower’s behavior is “shaped” and the “goals being sought” are framed with the organization as the main benefactor. There is no transformation or changing of personal awareness involved. As Pinky points out in this video clip, defending globalization, “fish can’t see water” and this leadership concept is not interested and has no means to see the water we are swimming in.
The second leadership idea, the Batman in our dynamic duel, is transformational leadership and it also has a framework of supporting ideas, however, they are shallow and upon closer analysis still have the organization as the main benefactor. Daft (2010: 362) states that these leaders are “characterized by the ability to bring about significant change in both the follower and the organization.” To accomplish this Daft (363) states that this style uses “qualities such as vision, shared values, and ideas to build relationships,… in order to provide “common ground to enlist the followers in the change process.” Nelson and Quick (2011: 418 ) suggest that transformational leadership consists of four dimensions, “charisma, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation.” A close look at these four dimensions (see the Wikipedia entry above) reveals their shallowness – they lack concrete methods and their objective is to again align the individual with the organization’s goals. Wikipedia states this about what it calls the authentic form of transformational leadership, which supports the alignment of followers into organizational tasks:
Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align followers with tasks that optimize their performance.
I do not see transformational leadership as currently configured leading to “significant change in the follower or in an organization” – changes that require addressing the deep issue confronting globalization – a modification to the idea of transformational leadership is needed to address these challenges!2
Reading between the above lines, “enhance motivation” with a “variety of mechanisms” connecting to a “worker’s sense of identity,” gives the impression that this could not be authentic transformational leadership. In fact, Wikipedia suggests that in the ideal form, transformation leadership “creates valuable and positive change in followers and social systems with the end goal of developing followers into leaders.” The question is, “What is the ideal form of transformational leadership?” The ideal form has to begin with an understanding the individual’s intrinsic needs, which Nelson and Quick (2011: 153)3 begin exploring with Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic concept, which these authors say “we concur” with. If we examine these authors’ Protestant Ethic Exercise (154) to see what they are concurring with, for example, Question 2 – “Hard work makes us better people.” Given that the benefits of hard work increasingly going to the owners of capital suggests that Nelson and Quick are supporters of the 1% that Occupy Wall Street protesters are up in arms about – I suspect theirs is a “pedagogy of the privileged”.
Nelson and Quick continue their intrinsic needs section with Sigmund Freud’s important psychoanalytical theory work to uncover the unconscious nature of motivation. Their focus in presenting Freud’s work was properly directed at the “irrational and self-destructive behavior” in the work place like suicide, violence, and deviancy. However, Nelson and Quick fail to extend Freud’s ground-breaking thinking to the creative ideas Carl Jungdeveloped known as analytical psychology and its internal transformational process called individuation, which this video clip defines as the point at which one it able to integrate the opposites within oneself. As you watch this individuation video clip, think about how the relationship being described could be that of a transformational leader and a follower. This video clip Carl Jung – Legacy and Influence, develops the contrast between Freud and Jung that is lacking in Nelson and Quick’s presentation. And Adam Curtis’s video documentary, The Century of the Self, gives us a very sobering perspective of how corporate capitalism has used Freud’s concepts to manipulate society.4
Jung’s Analytical psychology, also known as depth psychology, is the point of departure in order to explore the ideal form of transformational leadership. Aizenstat, founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute, discusses depth psychology’s contribution to this effort, which he says is a search below the surface of oneself, one’s group, one’s organization, and one’s society in order to understand the unconscious factors influencing behavior (view his definition).
An important point Aizenstat makes is that without the activation and development of our intrinsic unconscious needs, the external framework of transactional theory and the shallow transformational leadership concept have to be seen as manipulative – giving one only a sense of involvement and identity in order to convince the follower to align his/her goal to that of the organization. Giving a follower only a sense of identity is the primary source of individual alienation and fails to access the deep creative energies of one’s imagination.
So, what does it means to be an idealauthentictransformational leader? First, such a leader understands and is living the way of individuation (Jacobi 1965) and has adopted the new depth ethics of Neumann (1969) as further developed by Aziz (1990) – one’s dreams are an important factor in the way of individuation as the new ethic. Scherling (2005) describes preacher Jim Swaggart’s sad and scary failure of misinterpreting that one of his dreams was telling him to “clean up the Church” when it really was telling him to clean up himself. After Swaggarts’s dream and interpretation, the preacher was discovered to have been seeing a prostitute. This kind of failure could have global implication as we wonder about former President Bush’s “messages from God”. What if Bush was also misinterpreting these messages? And this is highly likely for someone who sees evil out there in an “evil triad”. Bush’s projection of evil out onto others is a clear indication that Bush is a person “religious by word only.”
This conclusion is drawn from the fundamental teaching of Jesus, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye with never a thought for the great plank in your own eye? In order to Love thy neighbor as thy self, one has to learn how to love Thy Self first! Loving one’s enemy and turning the other cheek follow on actualizing Self-love and removing the dark shadow plank in our eye is the first analytical step in the new ethic. Edinger in his interesting book, Ego and Archetype, suggests that these teaching clearly indicate that Christ was the first depth psychologist nineteen hundred years before the unconscious was empirically established by Freud. So, a first step to becoming a transformational leader is to pay respectful attention to one’s dreams.
Steve Myers (2005) presents an interesting view in Jung on leadership, (view Jung on leadership) which states that the unconscious of the followers and the leader interact and unless they are aware of this interaction, the conscious rational direction of their collective efforts will be jeopardized. Nelson and Quick’s (2011) coverage of leadership stresses a rational perspective of leading, when as Myers points out, it is the followers collective unconscious that is influencing the selection and behavior of a leader. Jung’s leadership comments, Myers states, were addressed to national-level leaders, but that they also have relevance in any leadership situation. The authentic transformational leader has to be in-tune with both the conscious and unconscious forces in nature (Capra 1975: The Tao of Physics). This is a central point made in this RAS video clip, Carl Jung – Legacy and Influence, that Jung’s ideas are increasingly relevant because we increasingly live in an interconnected globalizing world. How to read this interconnectivity is central to authentic transformational leadership.
The relevance of Jung’s leadership ideas at the corporate level is addressed by stating that the individuating transformational leader understands that she leads from within the performance appraisal process. If the ideal form of transformation leadership is to create “valuable and positive change in followers and social systems with the end goal of developing followers into leaders,” a leader has to design the performance appraisal process with the same dynamics that Jung sets in meeting with an analysand. A transformational leader has as his goal the development of individuating colleagues, teams, and organizations, – this is the ultimate learning organization that taps into the deep processes of individuation which feeds one’s imagination. An effective learning organization is a key to corporate competitive advantage and the key to national comparative advantage. However, the gains from this increasing competitive/comparative advantage must be shared equitably and this is a key issue facing our society today!
The evolution of the transformational leader paradigm being proposed adds the analytical depth psychology of C.G. Jung, with a focus on the individuation of one’s followers as his/her primary objective. To address this transforming individuation objective, a self-aware leader realizes that his/her success lies in the performance appraisal process (PA). In the PA process, this leader realizes the necessity of establishing authentic trust with his/her followers. This is the same trust established in an analytical psychology session by understanding the processes of transference and countertransference. This Wikipedia entry defines transference as:
A phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. One definition of transference is “the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person’s childhood.”[1] Another definition is “the redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object.”[2] Still another definition is “a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, esp[ecially] of childhood, and the substitution of another person … for the original object of the repressed impulses.”[3] Transference was first described by Sigmund Freud, who acknowledged its importance for psychoanalysis for a better understanding of the patient’s feelings.
A redirection of a therapist’s feelings toward a patient, or more generally, as a therapist’s emotional entanglement with a patient. A therapist’s attunement to their own countertransference is nearly as critical as understanding the transference. Not only does this help therapists regulate their emotions in the therapeutic relationship, but it also gives therapists valuable insight into what patients are attempting to elicit in them. For example, a therapist who is sexually attracted to a patient must understand this as countertransference, and look at how the patient may be eliciting this reaction. Once it has been identified, the therapist can ask the patient what their feelings are toward the therapist and explore how they relate to unconscious motivations, desires, or fears.
The following video clip is Jung’s description of these elements operating in a one of his therapy session, which mirrors the process being suggested for the PA session. The clip begins by stating that the “dynamics of an archetypal relationship can exist within ANY relationship” and the ANY other relationship example Jung gives, at the end of the clip, is that of “falling head over heels in love” with someone, only to learn it was a bad choice of partners. As you watch Jung on transference and archetypes think about how this process is unfolding unconsciously as Myers’ indicates above in leading. I suggest this is also going on unconsciously inside any performance appraisal session – and going on unconsciously in all of our interpersonal relationships.
I know the idea of thinking seriously and deeply about Maslow’s self-actualization and Jung’s individuation calls for a paradigm shift in thinking about transformational leadership and the process of performance appraisal. However, if leaders are going to “create valuable and positive change in followers and social systems with the end goal of developing followers into leaders” who themselves are transformational leaders, we have to go deep. When Jung was asked how long before the process of individuation would reach critical mass in the public domain, his response – 600 years. Hillman and Ventura (1992) in We’ve had a hundred years of psychotherapy– and the world’s getting worse paints a gloomy picture of the road ahead, however, we ought to be optimistic!
An important educational issue is an emphasis on critical thinking, which “…refers to higher-order thinking that questions assumptions. Critical thinking is ‘thinking about thinking.’ It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The concept is somewhat contested within the field of education due to the multiple possible meanings.” One contesting issue that I bring to the critical thinking dialogue is that one cannot think critically if one is unaware of how the unconscious forces in the situation, the follower, and in the leader are interacting. When I ask students if they dream, most say yes, however, when I then ask them if they record and analyze their dreams – few if any hands are raised. Why is such an important discovery as that of the unconscious not being addressed in our universities? One begins looking at the unconscious in oneself, then moves to the unconsciousness in one’s groups, organizations, political/economic systems, culture, and finally to the unconsciousness existing in globalization – “seeing the water we are swimming in.” Without seeing the water we cannot think critically about the magnum opus of our time – globalization– and we, as Pinky suggests, will continue to be dominated by “the areas that shape consciousness and define relationships.”
There are significant challenges to implementing the changes being proposed. I suggest that we follow the hyperlinks and view the video clips and Wikipedia links to more fully experience the thesis of this essay. Fromm (1941: 287) addresses the issue of freedom and spontaneity and states that “spontaneous activity is the answer to the problem of freedom …. and is the one way in which man can overcome the terror of aloneness without sacrificing the integrity of his self; for in the spontaneous realization of the self, man unites himself anew with the world – with man, nature, and himself. Love is the foremost component of such spontaneity …. and Work is the other component.” But first, there has to be self love. I found the movie, Don Juan DeMarco, a story of the relationship between an analyst played by Marlon Brando and an analysand played by Johnny Deep to illustrate the dynamics of a 21st Century Transformational Leader and the new depth ethics in action. This scene illustrates the transference/counter-transference at the center of transformational leadership and the way of individuation.
Footnotes:
1 This paper has been written with extensive hyperlinks to internet resources that develop and extend the ideas in this essay. To fully appreciate the depth presented, the reader is encouraged to read at least the introduction to the Wikipedia links and to view the Youtube links. 2 The concept of Transformational Leadership was developed by James MacGregor Burns and extended by Chester Bernard. 3 Nelson & Quick (2011) is a popular principles of management textbook. 4 The Century of the Self BBC documentary is in four hour-long segments – they present Freud’s impact on western culture. I call this the 20thCentury of the Self and ask what do you think will be the 21st Century of the Self?
References:
Aziz, R. (1990). C.G. Jung’s psychology of religion and synchronicity. New York: State University of New York Press.
Aziz, R. (2007). The syndetic paradigm: The untrodden path beyond Freud and Jung. New York: State University of New York Press.
Aziz, R. (2008). Democracy and self-organization: The Change of which Barack Obama speaks. New York: State University of New York Press.
Daft, R. L. (2011). The Leadership Experience. Fifth edition (paperback). South-Western College Publishers.
Fromm, Erich, (1941). Escape from freedom. New York: Avon Books.
Hillman, James and Michael Ventura (1992). We’ve had a hundred years of psychotherapy– and the world’s getting worse. San Francisco: Harper.
Jacobi, J. (1965). The way of individuation. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc.
Scherling, S.A. (2012). Transformational Leadership & The Way of Individuation. Working Paper presented BUS 439, Concordia College Moorhead MN, April 9, 2013.
I recently dreamt What is the dark side of time? My immediate association was to Carl Jung’s Shadow – the dark side of personality, which has been discussed in my class. After a morning cup of coffee, I went the bookshelf and retrieved Stephen Hawking’s book A brief history of time and opened it directly to chapter six on Black Holes. The understanding of Black Holeswas first advanced with Albert Einstein’s 1905 paper on General Relativity giving us the iconic equation E = MC2. Charlene Burns (2011) in the acausal connecting principle writes that Jung’s interest in physics began between 1909 and 1912 as a result of dinners Albert and he had. “It was Einstein,” Jung later wrote, “who first started me thinking about a relativity of time as well as space, and their psychic conditionality…years later this stimulus led to my relation with the physicist Professor W. Pauli and to my thesis of psychic synchronicity.” Burns goes on that Jung’
“…first public mention of the concept occurred 1928 during a seminar on the interpretation of dreams. Jung noted then that, in addition to the frequent appearance of common mythic motifs, dreams are often connected to coincidences in people’s lives. Taking a phenomenological stance, he said that while it would be “absurd” to consider the conjunction of dream material and life events to be causal, “it is wise to consider the fact that [these coincidences] do happen…The East…considers coincidences as the reliable basis of the world rather than causality. Synchronism is the prejudice of the East; causality is the modern prejudice of the West.”
I had previously read that Albert and Carl had met, wondering what those meetings were like. I recalled the bar scene in the movie Beautiful Mind Bar Scene where John Nash is relaxing with four fellow students. In walk five coeds, one especially attractive blonde, the guys are goggling. In an intuitive creative flash, Nash realizes that Adam Smith needs revision – “one needs to do what is best for oneself and for one’s group.” Nash reasons, “if we all go for the good looking blonde, we will block each other and then when we turn to her friends, they will feel snubbed resulting in none of us getting laid. However, if each goes for one of the girls, we are not block and all get the prize.” The question before us, “How does one do what is best for oneself and for one’s group?” Not only is this a central issue in the family and the team, it is the central issue in globalization! Jung’s concept of individuation in which dreams and synchronicity play important roles – might it offer a way?
A Carl Jung Mandala Painting We need to add Pauli to a bar scene with Einstein and Jung or let’s ask Steve Allen to host a Meeting of Minds to discuss the unified field theory of physics and psychology. Might the conversation around the table on a unified field theory be to integrate Einstein’s general relativity equation E = MC2 and Jung’s analytical psychology equation E = SD2, where E is nuclear fission and imaginative creativity, M is mass and S is the Archetypal Self, C2 is the speed of light squared and D2 is dialogue squared, dialectical thinking. Both MC2 and SD2 processes release tremendous energy and I suspect this would be at the center of their dialogues. Not being able to arrange such a meeting, the best we can do is listen to Professor Günter Ewald’s lecture on Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement – On the trail of the dialogue by Pauli and Jung to give us insight into what these very creative minds were probably discussing and what Ewald suggests is “a new vision of the reality of nature, with the synchronicity of causally unconnected events as a central concept.” (See The mathematics of faith for preliminary equation development.)
Steve Allen did not produce a show with these three, however, he did produce this one with Aristotle, Niccole Machiavelli, Elizabeth Barret Browning, and Sun Yat-sen all creative individuals and reflecting the realities of our current times. There is a second hour after this one.
Analytical psychologist Erich Neumann’s book Art and the Creative Unconscious begins with the chapter Leonardo da Vinci and the Mother Archetype. Neumann critically critics Freud’s psychoanalysis of Leonardo and then presents his Jungian analysis emphasizing the influence of the Mother Archetype. This is a fascinating study that demonstrates the analytical analysis of Leonardo’s creativeness. We are not going follow this analysis here but it is recommended reading. The second chapter is titled Art and Time and uses the same analytical framework to examine changing Archetypal influences on art through time. “Our present inquiry,” Neumann writes, “lies within the psychology of culture; it aims at an understanding of art as a psychological phenomenon of central importance to the collectivity as well as the individual” (81). Neumann (1959:82) goes on to elaborate:
The archetypes of the collective unconscious are intrinsically formless psychic structures which become visible in art. The archetypes are varied by the media through which they pass – that is, their form changes according to the time, the place, and the psychological constellation of the individual in whom they are manifested. Thus, for example, the mother archetype, as a dynamic entity in the psychic substratum, always retains its identity, but it takes on different styles – different aspects of emotional color – depending on whether it is manifested in Egypt, Mexico, or Spain, or in ancient, medieval, or modern times. The paradoxical multiplicity of its eternal presence, which makes possible an infinite variety of forms of expression, is crystallized in its realization by man in time; its archetypal eternity enters into a unique synthesis with a specific historical situation.”
As an example, Neumann suggests that we compare a Gothic, a Renaissance, and a modern painting of Madonna to see a “revolutionary transformation of this archetypal figure.” Or compare Byzantine Christ-Pantocrator with Grunewald’s Christ on the Cross and see that they emanate from different “worlds of God and man” (93). Then consider the realism in Renaissance painting, besides changes in figure, perspective, color, etc., Neumann suggests, is the ascendance of the Earth Archetype, “in opposition to the Heaven Archetype of the Middle Ages.” The naturalism of Renaissance art is “the symbolic expression of a revolution in the archetypal structure of the unconscious” (95).
Examine for a moment Hieronymus Bosch’s painting Christ Bearing the Cross and describe what you see and then what larger meaning comes to you?
Hieronymus Bosch – Christ Bearing the Cross Now, compare your reflection to Neumann’s (1959: 96) description of Bosch’s painting.
In his (Bosch) attempt to represent the demon-infested earth in the earthly colors of his unique palette, the earth magnificently triumphed over his medieval conception. Consequently, for example his Christ Bearing the Cross (Pl.VI), and the Veronica in this painting, disclose nothing medieval but on the contrary point to one of the most modern problems of future generations: the Great Individual with soul, alone in the mass of men.
In reflecting on the painting one’s attention is drawn to the figure of Christ, bearing his cross clearly knowing what this means for Man and God. This Christian canon is at the center of Western civilization and in Jung’s analytical framework. Christ is seen as representing the Archetypal Self, which is central in one’s personality in the processes of individuation. Understanding the dynamic life of Archetypes is Neumann’s project and his analysis of Leonardo’s Mother Archetype gives us the framework for the work presented in his book Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. This new ethic was addressed in the blog entry Deep Jesus, Us? and addresses this fundamental teaching of Jesus , Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye with never a thought for the great plank in your own eye? In order to Love thy neighbor as thy self, one has to learn how to love thy Self. Loving one’s enemy and turning the other cheek follow on actualizing Self-love and removing the dark shadow plank in our eye is the first analytical step. Edinger in his interesting book, Ego and Archetype, suggests that these teaching clearly indicate that Jesus was the first depth psychologist nineteen hundred years before the unconscious was empirically established. (See full blog entry Deep Jesus, Us?)
Neumann’s third chapter in Art and the Creative Unconscious is A note on Marc Chagall, that analyzes Chagall’s individuation in his art, another excellent case study. The last chapter is Creative Man and Transformation, which further develops the Jungian analytical framework we will apply to the topic of Transformational Leadership the challenge now facing globalization.
The relevance of this entry to international management we see in the Science of Cities.
As many were doing on Tuesday September 11, 2001 my family watched in shock as a second plane slammed into the Trade Center Towers. Our 4-year-old daughter Annah said “it looks like a waterfall daddy”. We stayed close as a family throughout the day and when the children’s prayers were said and they were safely tucked into bed, it was time to reflect on what had happened. In times past, like witnessing the Tianamen Square June 4, 1989 tragedy, I turned for some guidance to the Chinese I Ching – Book of Changes. Its responses were meaningful. In this paper, I will briefly describe three concepts underlying the I Ching, its response to three question asked in the year following 9/11, and finally address the implications of this ancient Chinese Book to our Western ways – in particular President Bush’s way in the year after 9/11.
The I Ching’s history dates back over 4000 years and is the foundation of Chinese Daoist and Confucian thought. Also called The Book of Wisdom, it was consulted by emperors, generals and mandarins for guidance as they crafted responses to the problems they faced. The I Ching has three basic concepts. First, the I Ching’s underlying concept is change. Richard Wilhelm’s (1968) translation of the Chinese text states that, He who has perceived the meaning of change fixes his attention no longer on transitory individual things, but on the immutable, eternal laws at work in all change. The concept of change is represented by the tai chi symbol of the circle divided into the light & dark, good & evil, female & male, or what the Chinese call the yin & yang. The principles of yin & yang are in constant intertwining flow represented here at the center and surround by the eight I Ching trigrams.
The second concept is the I Ching’s theory of ideas. The possible eight trigrams are not to be seen as objects but as states of change. The events in our visible world are the effect of an “image” or and “idea” in the unseen world. In his forward to Wilhelm’s English I Ching translation, Carl Jung suggests that emperors’ consulting the oracle were convinced that its response coincided with the certain moment in quality and time. The hexagram, which is seen as an “exponent of the moment in which it was cast” is Jung’s concept of synchronicity in motion (Wilhelm, 1968: xxiv). What is important for us to understand is that holy men and sages have a direct intuitive link with these higher spheres and so are able to decisively intervene in worldly events. For us ordinary men and women, the I Ching provides a direct link to the unseen world affecting our visible world.
The I Ching
With this intuitive link, we can apply the theory of ideas in two ways. A hexagram shows us the image of an event and also its unfolding conditions. By discerning these unfolding conditions, we are able to foresee a future, however, it is a future that demands proper action on the questioner’s part. In every situation there is a right and a wrong course of action and the hexagram image serves as a pattern of understanding for timely action to the situation of concern. The hexagram also provides a means of understanding the past.
Wilhelm says this about the third fundamental concept – THE JUDGEMENTS:
They indicate whether a given action will bring good fortune or misfortune, remorse or humiliation. The judgments make it possible for a man to make a decision to desist from a course of action indicated by the situation of the moment but harmful in the long run. In this way he makes himself independent of the tyranny of events. In its judgments, and in the interpretations attached to it,…the Book of Changes opens to the reader the richest treasure of Chinese wisdom; at the same time it affords him a comprehensive view of the varieties of human experience, enabling him thereby to shape his life of his own sovereign will into an organic whole and so to direct it that it comes into accord with the ultimate tao lying at the root of all that exists.
The only criterion for validity, Jung suggests, is the “observer’s opinion that the text of the hexagram amounts to a true reading of his psychic conditions”. …only if it is possible to read the pattern and to verify its interpretation, partly by the observer’s knowledge of the subjective and objective situation, partly by the character of subsequent events” (Wilhelm, 1968: xxv). I am following Jung’s lead and am personifying the Book when I asked its judgment about situations the world faces as a result of 9/11. As an American my reaction to the oracle is on one level, however, when read by President Bush and his Cabinet, it will speak deeper and be much more verifiable. Since the I Ching demands proper action on the part of the questioner, it is President Bush being advised by these hexagrams. Taking proper action is what sets the I Ching apart from fortune telling and thus justifies calling it The Book of Wisdom.
The first question I posed to the I Ching was: What of the September 11, 2001 tragedy? I held three Chinese coins with this question in mind and tossed them six times to generate one of the 64 possible hexagram responses. The I Ching’s answer was hexagram 38, Kuie/Opposition, with no changing lines. This hexagram is made up of two trigrams and looks like this:
38. Kuie / Opposition _________ ____ ____ above LI The Clinging, Flame _________ ____ ____ _________ below Tui The Joyous, Lake _________
Hexagram responses are divided into several sections. The introduction to Kuie/Opposition says:
This hexagram is composed of the trigram Li above, i.e., flame, which burns upward, and Tui Below, i.e., the lake, which seeps downward. These two movements are in direct contrast.
As I read this, the image of the flaming towers and the waterfall my daughter saw reappeared. The introduction continues:
Furthermore, Li is the second daughter and Tui the youngest daughter, and although they live in the same house they belong to different men; hence their wills are not the same but are divergently directed.
When you read a response, you are to let your thoughts flow freely and note down the associations regarding what is being said. The daughters could represent Christians and Muslims living in the same worldly house and, married to Christ and Mohammad with “seemly” different wills and directions.
The next section is THE JUDGMENT and represents the outcome for the question.
THE JUDGMENT: OPPOSITION. In small matters, good fortune.When people live in opposition and estrangement they cannot carry out a great undertaking in common; their points of view diverge too widely. In such circumstances one should above all not proceed brusquely, for that would only increase the existing opposition; instead, one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters. Here success can still be expected, because the situation is such that the opposition does not preclude all agreement.
After 9/11 we anxiously waited the United States’ reaction and witnessed a very “brusque” military response – a reaction the I Ching cautioned against. We should have expected and of this writing are witnessing not only rising Muslim but also American and world opposition to unfolding events.
The Judgment continues:
In general, opposition appears as an abstraction, but when it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole, it has also its useful and important functions. The oppositions of heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman, when reconciled bring about the creation and reproduction of life. In the world of visible things, the principles of opposites makes possible the differentiation by categories through which order is brought into the world.
What flows from this response is that “we” are not all good and “they” all evil. We all are a polarity within a comprehensive whole and this polarity is useful and very important to understand. Here I am reminded former President Reagan’s calling the former USSR the “evil empire”. Depth psychology through its important projection concept instructs that when we say someone is evil, we ought to immediately stop and reflect on our own evil just projected outward. This is the first step to understanding. Does the United States have evil? – Yes it certainly does! Do we clearly see our evil? – Probably not! We certainly are baffled over the Middle East’s Satan image of the United States and our news channels were slow to address Muslim views. The Christian guides, “first take the beam out of your own eye” and “let he who has no sin cast the first stone” are speaking to us.
The third section is THE IMAGE and presents the visible world we see and also offers a suggestion for the superior man’s response. This was speaking directly to President Bush, as he contemplated his response to 9/11 and it says, preserve the moral high ground.
THE IMAGE Above, fire; below, the lake: The image of OPPOSITION. Thus amid all fellowship The superior man retains his individuality.
The two elements, fire and water, never mingle but even when in contact retain their own natures. So the cultured man is never led into baseness or vulgarity through intercourse or community of interest with persons of another sort; regardless of all commingling, he will always preserve his individuality.
Lao Zi, author of the book Dao De Ching (The Way and Its Power), suggests that the superior man – a man-of-calling – sees good men as important teachers and evil men as those who are to be taught. His guide is to respond to both “life and anger with life” because, he cautions, “if great anger is resolved there still remains a residue of anger”. As soon as anger is avenged, the burden of quilt “shifts” from the shoulders of the offender to those of the offended. Therefore, a person or, let us say, a country-of-calling “knowing life” will take upon itself the whole burden of duty and demand nothingof the other. This is Lao Zi’s concept of “wuwei” – one wins over the world through non-action, which is not the same as no-action. This is the same underlining dynamic as the Christian practices of “turning the other cheek” and “loving thy enemy as thy self” – not easy to do (Wilhelm, 1990)
The Old Covenant “an eye for an eye” is inappropriate advises the I Ching:
We must not try to shake off these evil men by force; this would give rise to real hostility. We must simply endure them. They will eventually withdraw of their own accord. The I Ching cautions that when evil men force themselves upon us,… the important thing is to avoid mistakes.
We certainly realize this now in light of our poor anticipation and preparation for this attack. Without strong, broad, cross-carrying, full-of-life shoulders, WE keep up appearances and put the blame on others!
After 9/11 there were several occasions that I felt it important to ask questions about unfolding events. On 2/24/02 I asked this question: What of President Bush’s Axis Of Evil statement? The resulting hexagram is 39. Chien / Obstruction,with no changing lines and reported here is full for the reader to read and reflect upon as previously suggested.
39. Chien / Obstruction ____ ____ __________ above Kan The Abysmal, Water ____ ____ __________ ____ ____ below Ken Keeping Still, Mountain ____ ____
The hexagram pictures a dangerous abyss lying before us and a steep, inaccessible mountain rising behind us. We are surrounded by obstacles; at the same time, since the mountain has the attribute of keeping still, there is implicit a hint as to how we can extricate ourselves. The hexagram represents obstruction that appear in the course of time but that can and should be overcome. Therefore all the instruction given is directed to overcoming them.
THE JUDGMENT Obstruction. The southwest furthers
The northeast does not further.
It furthers one to see the great man.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
The southwest is the region of retreat, the northeast that of advance. Here an individual is confronted by obstacles that cannot be overcome directly. In such a situation it is wise to pause in view of the danger and to retreat. However, this is merely a preparation for overcoming the obstructions. One must join forces with friends of like mind and put himself under the leadership of a man equal to the situation: then one will succeed in removing the obstacles. This requires the will to persevere just when one apparently must do something that leads away from this goal. This unswerving inner purpose brings good fortune in the end. An obstruction that lasts only for a time is useful for self-development. This is the value of adversity.
THE IMAGE Water on the mountain: The image of obstruction. Thus the superior man turns his attention to himself And molds his character.
Difficulties and obstruction throw a man back upon himself. While the inferior man seeks to put the blame on others persons, bewailing his fate, the superior man seeks the error within himself, and through this introspection the external obstacle becomes for him an occasion for inner enrichment and education.
We very obviously see that the Oracle’s response addressed our current crisis with North Korea and the U.S. approach now unfolding. What is very interesting here is what the superior man facing this obstruction needs to be doing – turning his attention to himself and molding his character. The key and first developmental step in depth psychology, understanding Shadow projection, is required – the superior man seeks the error within himself, and through this introspection the external obstacle becomes for him an occasion for inner enrichment and education.
On the anniversary of 9/11 between 8:46 and 9:03 the times planes one and two struck the World Trade Towers, again sitting with my family, I asked this question: What of 9/11/01 for the world community? The resulting hexagram is 21. Shih Ho / Biting Throughwith a changing line 6 (yin) in the third position and a changing line 9 (yang) in the fourth position counting from the hexagram’s bottom line. A changing line has a tension and can easily change into its opposite and, as such, is emphasized and important in interpretation. Again the reader is asked to read and reflect upon this response.
21. Shih Ho / Biting Through __________ ____ ____ above Li The Clinging, Fire __________ ____ ____ ____ ____ below Chen The Arousing, Thunder __________
This hexagram represents an open mouth (cf. hexagram 27) with an obstruction (in the fourth place) between the teeth. As a result the lips cannot meet. To bring them together one must bite energetically through the obstacle. Since the hexagram is made up of the trigrams for thunder and for lightning, it indicates how obstacles are forcibly removed in nature. Energetic biting through overcomes the obstacle that prevents joining of the lips; the storm with its thunder and lightning overcomes the disturbing tension in nature. Recourse to law and penalties overcomes the disturbances of harmonious social life causes by criminal and slanderers. The theme of this hexagram is criminal lawsuit, in contradistinction to that of Sung, Conflict (6), which refers to civil suits.
THE JUDGMENT Biting through has success. It is favorable to let justice be administered.
When an obstacle to union arises, energetic biting through brings success. This is true in all situations. Whenever unity cannot be established, the obstruction is due to a talebearer and traitor who is interfering and blocking the way. To prevent permanent injury, vigorous measures must be taken at once. Deliberate obstruction of this sort does not vanish of its own accord, Judgment and punishment are required to deter or obviate it.
However, it is important to proceed in the right way. The hexagram combines Li, clarity, and Chen, excitement. Li is yielding, Chen is hard. Unqualified hardness and excitement would be too violent in meting out punishment: unqualified clarity and gentleness would be too week. The Two together create the just measure. It is of moment that the man who makes the decision (represented by the fifth line) is gentle by nature, while he command respect by his conduct in his position.
THE IMAGE Thunder and lightening: The image of BITING THROUGH. Thus the kings of former times made firm the laws Through clearly defined penalties.
Penalties are the individual application of the law. The laws specify the penalties. Clarity prevails when mild and severe penalties are clearly differentiated, according to the nature of the crimes. This is symbolized by the clarity of lightening. The law is strengthened by a just application of penalties. This is symbolized by the terror of thunder. This clarity and severity have the effect of instilling respect: it is not that the penalties are ends in themselves. The obstructions in the social life of man increase when there is lack of clarity in the penal codes and slackness in executing them. The only way to strengthen the law is to make it clear and to make penalties certain and swift.
THE LINES Six in the third place means: Bites on old dried meat And strikes on something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame.
Punishment is to be carried out by someone who lacks the power and authority to do so. Therefore, the culprits do not submit. The matter at issue is an old one – as symbolized by salted game – and in dealing with it difficulties arise. This old meat is spoiled: by taking up the problem the punisher arouses poisonous hatred against himself, and in this way is put in a somewhat humiliating position. But since punishment was required by the time, he remains free of blame.
Nine in the fourth place means:
Bites on dried gristly meat, Receives metal arrows. It furthers one to be mindful of difficulties And to be preserving. Good fortune.
There are great obstacles to be overcome, powerful opponents to be punished. Though this is arduous, the effort succeeds. But it is necessary to be hard as metal and straight as an arrow to surmount the difficulties. If one knows these difficulties and remains persevering, he attains good fortune. The difficult task is achieved in the end.
The Oracle clearly indicates what the world through the United Nations is focused on – proceeding in the right way. The principles of yin and yang are here presented as Li, clarity, and Chen, excitement; Li is yielding, Chen is hard. We remember that a hexagram shows us the image of an event and also its unfolding conditions. By discerning these unfolding conditions, we are able to foresee a future, however, it is a future that demands proper action by the questioner. In every situation there is a right and a wrong course of action and so any country seeking to be superior must have a superior person as its leader.
When the changing lines in hexagram Shih Ho / Biting Through change into their opposite, they yield a second hexagram 22. Pi / Grace, which provides insight into the prognosis for the situation under question. Pi / Grace is our final Oracle response to ponder.
22. Pi / Grace __________ ____ ____ above Ken Keeping Still, Mountain ____ ____ __________ ____ ____ below Li The Clinging, Fire __________
This hexagram shows a fire that breaks out of the secret depths of the earth and, blazing up, illuminates and beautifies the mountain, the heavenly heights. Grace – beauty of form – is necessary in any union if it is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic.
THE JUDGMENT Grace has success. In small matters It is favorable to undertake something.
Grace brings success. However, it is not the essential or fundamental thing; it is only the ornament and must therefore be used sparingly and only in little things. In the lower trigram of fire a yielding line comes between two strong lines and makes them beautiful, but the strong lines are the essential content and the weak line is the beautifying form. In the upper trigram of the mountain, the strong line takes the lead, so that here again the strong element must be regarded as the decisive factor. In nature we see in the sky the strong light of the sun; the life of the world depends on it. But this strong, essential thing is changed and given pleasing variety by the moon and the stars. In human affairs, aesthetic form comes into being when traditions exist that, strong and abiding like mountains are made pleasing by a lucid beauty. By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society it becomes possible to shape the world.
THE IMAGE Fire at the foot of the mountain: The image of Grace. Thus does the superior man proceed When clearing up current affairs But he dare not decide controversial issue in this way.
The fire, whose light illuminates the mountain and makes it pleasing, does not shine far; in the same way, beautiful form suffices to brighten and to throw light upon matters of lesser moment, but important questions cannot be decided in this way. They require greater earnestness.
The Oracle suggests that Biting Through needs Grace – beauty of form – if our union of nations is to be well ordered and pleasing rather than disordered and chaotic. The Oracle also outlines the way of Grace in saying: In human affairs, aesthetic form comes into being when traditions exist that, strong and abiding like mountains are made pleasing by a lucid beauty. By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society it becomes possible to shape the world.
The subject of the Oracle’s response in these three questions is how the world should respond to the event of 9/11. Some of the Oracle’s responses clearly describe unfolding situations, others suggest enlightened action by a superior leader, and still other aspects remain hidden waiting deeper reflection. Jung suggests that the method of the I Ching does indeed take into account the hidden individual quality in things and men, and in ones own unconscious self as well (Wilhelm, 1968: xxviii). It is here that Jung’s concept of synchronicity and the I Ching meet. Their meeting is clearly described in our last response, as the way of Grace, and is as clear a description of synchronicity as ever there was, By contemplating the forms existing in the heavens we come to understand time and its changing demands. Through contemplation of the forms existing in human society it becomes possible to shape the world.
So, what is the Oracle saying to the United Nations and President Bush and his cabinet as they craft their response to impending wars? It is quite obvious the Oracle is saying to carefully scrutinize ones’ own character, attitudes and motives – know thy self. The first step in a new ethic is to scrutinize one’s self to understand ones Shadow and to stop projecting one’s evil onto others (Neumann 1969). Aziz’s (1990:193) penetrating presentation on Jung’s psychology of religion and synchronicity takes Neumann’s new ethic to the I Ching level:
It is the moral challenge, with synchronicity in mind, of consciously bringing oneself into accord with the unique pattern of meaning that not only underlies one’s inner life, but one’s outer life as well. …for when one fails to do so it is not just one’s psychic equilibrium that is threatened, but the equilibrium of one’s environment as well.
It may be too much to ask the pillars of rationalism represented at the United Nations and in Bush and his cabinet to consult the I Ching. But is it too much to ask our leaders, as they contemplate the first war of this century, to apply to their decision-making processes western civilization’s equivalent to the I Ching – psychoanalysis? Depth psychology with its important dream analysis, active-imagination and synchronicity components, if not part of the President’s cabinet deliberations, is leaving unattended a balancing source to their conscious energy – not the Way of a superior leader or country.
Jung closes his forward to Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching with this wisdom, which can also be applied to his books on the Individuation process.
The I Ching does not offer itself with proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of wisdom – if there be such – it seems to be the right book.
Aziz, Robert, 1990. C.G. Jung’s psychology of religion and synchronicity. Albany NY: State University New York Press.
Campbell, Joseph, Editor, 1976. The portable Jung. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Neumann, Erich, 1969. Depth psychology and a new ethic. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons.
Wilhelm,Helmut, 1968. The I Ching Book of Changes, 3rd Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wilhelm, Richard, 1990. Lao Tzu Dao De Ching, London England: ArkanaPenguin Books.
Author: Dr. Steven Arvid Scherling lived 16 years in China teaching international business. He now walks a “middle way” at his home in Fargo ND with his wife Fannie, and children Aaron and Annah. Steven.Scherling@Gmail.com.
Scherling, Steven A., Spring 2003. The Yi Jing Speaks to the World on September 11: A New Ethic. The Empty Vessel: A Journal of the Daoist Arts: pp 42-46. http://www.Daoist Arts.com
Before term break 2/21 my Concordia class watched the movie Don Juan DeMarco. I show this Johnny Depp film to illustrate his postmodern interpretation of Don Juan’s secret in loving women and influencing men. When suicidal John DeMarco takes the name Don Juan DeMarco and is admitted to a state mental hospital, his romantic affect on the women nurses quickly gets out of hand. So Don Juan’s psychoanalyst Dr. Jack Mickler switches his attendant to Ron, a tall muscular black man, who we soon see being taught to tango on the front lawn by Don Juan. Don Juan has a powerful transforming affect on both women and men and understanding it is one objective of the class.
The dynamic analytical relationship that unfolds between analyst Mickler and analysand DeMarco is a transforming experience that needs to be unpacked. The unpacking illustrates a Depth Psychology framework is at the center of being a great lover. Aizenstat (2010) states that depth psychology requires us to “first explore what is going on at the depth of our experience, to realize in going deep we are activating our creative imagination, which allows one to then see into the social, political, and economic realities facing us. This is not only a way of seeing the world but one of being in the world.” Let’s begin with Don Juan DeMarco’s scent of a woman, where he suggests there are “only four questions of value in life, “What is sacred?, Of what is the spirit made?, What is worth living for?, And what is worth dying for?” The answer to each is the same – Love.”
Don Juan MeMarco thinking about a woman and love
What is the transformation in both DeMarco and Mickler, how do these transformations come about, and how are surrounding individuals being affected? We need to understand the psychoanalytic processes involved and in one heated analytical session Don Juan gets Mickler to admit he needs Don Juan to understand his own life and to be a great lover, which slowly we see transforming his relationship with his wife. Now realized, it is essential to work on becoming a great lover – isn’t this a dream of every healthy person? On Sunday night the Academy Awards were watched and early Monday morning I had this dream.
2/25/2013 Dream: I am videoing (black & white) a woman waist high with shoulder length hair in a long sleeve shirt walking from a distance toward me. As she walks toward me, I reduce the zoom so that she always remains the same image size in the viewfinder. I then made these Associations: Last night we watched the Oscar Awards with many beautify people. I have also recently watched the Don Juan Demarco and Casanova films heavy with sexuality. It seems that the animus and anima archetype is activated. I suspect his woman is my anima and she is walking toward me – I will pay attention to her! Her presence indicates hard work ahead leading to dynamic change in my psyche.
Don Juan, I think we are onto you. Of course, shadow work comes first and always needs attention – one never reaches the end of withdrawing shadow projections. However, once this work is consciously underway the next phase in Jungian analysis, contra sexual assimilation, begins with animus work in a woman and anima work in a man. We can see that Don Juan DeMarco understands the Mask, his Persona, his Shadow, and is deep into the work of assimilating Anima into his Self – all of which has been define as the process of individuation.
After the above was recorded in my dream journal, I returned to work on my class. I had posted the video documentary The Real Casanova in order to examine the life a real lover. A short time later I added this to my dream journal. Amplification: After recording the above dream and associations, I came across and watched a new video clip, Casanova World’s Greatest Lover, and was struck when I learned that Casanova did not speak until he was 8 years old. He was raised by his grandmother and after several sever nose bleeds was taken to a local witch for help. The witch placed Casanova in a box and cast spells over it. Later that night just, as the witch prophesied, a beautiful flowing female spirit came to Casanova, spoke softly to him, kissed him, and then disappeared. The nose bleeds stopped, he instantly began to talk, and within a month learned to read. From this experience Casanova was forever interested in the occult and made a living studying and using it. My dream on 2/25 seems to have an active animaarchetype as in Casanova’s dream and these two experiences now suggests that a synchronicity, a meaningful coincidences has occurred.
Synchronicity
Immediately after the above experience this idea came to me! Can Neumann’s (1959) analytical essay on Leonardo Da Vinci and the Mother Archetype be used to analyze Casanova’s Mother Complex? Both boys had missing mothers, were raised by grandmothers, were sexually active, and were creative geniuses. Following this idea would take us down the path to Don Juanism or the Don Juan Syndrome, which is “a non-clinical term for the desire, in a man, to have sex with many different female partners due to his latent homosexuality or insecurity about his masculinity.”
However, Carl Jung’s approach is that “Don Juanism is an unconscious desire of a man to seek his mother in every woman he encountered,” which is known as a Mother Complex. (Jung, Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype, Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 9, Part 1. 2nd ed., Princeton University Press, 1968. 451 p. (pp. 75-80). We will come back to this issue, but for now will note there are positive aspects of Don Juanism, which include “heroism, perseverance, and strength of will” that we need to understand when we extend our analysis to transformational leadership.
I showed the movie Don Juan DeMarco Thursday afternoon 2.21 and then learned the next day that last night Johnny Depp had been a special guest of David Letterman, talking about the new film The Lone Ranger, with Johnny Depp playing Tonto. Letterman asks about the genus of the story and Depp says “it comes from a dark story and is how this Texas Ranger becomes the Lone Ranger through Tonto’s guidance.”
Depp on The Letterman Show
Following on from the theme of Don Juan DeMarco, I expect we are in for a psychoanalytical story about the individuation of The Lone Ranger. In this trailer the Lone Ranger says to Tonto, “If we ride together we ride for justice,” Tonto replies, “Justice is what I seek Ke-mo sah-bee.” We cannot get deeper than the quest for the individuation of justice – it is at the center of being a successful leader. Growing up on the plains of North Dakota in the 1950s The Lone Ranger was my hero.
Yesterday the last class period before Concordia’s break we watched Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp in Don Juan DeMarco. I also had posted on the class’s Moodle website the hour-long documentary The Real Casanova to watch outside of class. Wikipedia states that “Don Juan (Spanish) or Don Giovanni (Italian) is a legendary 15th Century, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors.” Giacomo Casanova (2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798), however, is a real Italian man from the Republic of Venice, whose autobiography, (Story of My Life) gives us a very authentic look at 18th century European social life. Wikipedia describes both men as libertine, which is defined as “a dissolute person; usually a person who is morally unrestrained”. However, these two films present the psychology of these men with a morally uplifting view of women affecting a sexual awakening, which our current Century is obviously lacking.
The assignment for the class to ponder, as some lay on the bikini clad beaches of South Florida, is the relevance of these films to our study of international management or the broader issue – globalization? Before starting this journal entry this morning, I came across Bryan Adams Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?, which suggests, as do the films, remove the mask. When doing this one begins the process of examining the Shadow within, the first step in the process of individuation. I remember listening to the 1950’s radio show The Shadow Knows, and after almost 40 years of teaching, I have decided to as fully as I can develop with this class the first step in analytical psychology – examining one’s Shadow – what does it know about us and what are the implications for globalization?
Marie Louise von Franz, one of Jung’s most talented students, sets forth the inward direction and Erich Neumann another very talented Jung student, outlines in his book, Depth Psychology and A New Ethic, the way forward. This is a deep issue and it seems I am determined to press it to its limits even if like the University of Mary, I have to quit rather than endure the unconsciousness that permeates today’s institutions. Speaking of the most unconscious institution we are currently facing Neumann (1969: 91) takes on politicians stating:
The instability of attitude which is caused by the presence of the counter-position (the Shadow) in the unconscious is not confined to the average man, who, as a constituent member of the mass, makes up the following of all “movements”; it is also found – and this is even more dangerous – among so-called leading personalities such as educationists, teachers, and politicians. The incompetence of the politicians, which has become so cruelly and sanguinarily obvious to modern man, is essentially due to their human inadequacy – that is, to a moral undermining of their psychic structure which culminates in their total, breakdown when faced with any real decision. To future ages, the fact that the leading politicians of our period were not required to pass a test of any kind to determine their human and moral qualifications will appear exactly as grotesque as it would seem to us today if a diphtheria-carrier were to be placed in charge of the children’s ward in a hospital.
So, do these men give us a peek at being 21st Century men and women?
Finally, Edinger (1994:18) in his seminar on Jung’s book Symbols of Transformation begins Lecture III quoting Jung’s Latin statement, si duo faciut idem, nonest idem, meaning that “If two people do the same thing, it is not the same.” Jung goes on to say:
The quality of the desire is important because it endows its object with the moral and aesthetic qualities of goodness and beauty, and thus influences our relations with our fellow men and the world in a decisive way. Nature is beautiful because I love it, and good is everything that my feeling regards as good. Values are chiefly created by the quality of one’s subjective reactions.
Edinger’s above comment, I suggest plays a part in Don Juan and Giacomo Casanova’s psychological stance and it is part of the stance of a transformational leader. Watching Don Juan in action, it is clear that he had a real impact not only on women but on his black male attendant and especially on Dr. Jack Michler, his analyst. We are interested in studying the mental dynamics, transformations, taking place between Don Juan and Michler.
Dialectic Analytical Man 