INTRODUCTION
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology with his mentor, Sigmund Freud. Both Freud and Jung addressed the influence of religion and religious experience toward humans projection of the unconscious. However, they disagreed in the extent of how religion influences projection. On one hand, Freud believed that religion is “a projection of unconscious wishes and desires” (Kessler, 148); strictly harmful and dangerous to the maturity of a person. Freud claims that as long as a person is bound by a religion, he/she cannot be considered matured. On the other hand, Jung believed that religion can be beneficial and act as a buffer for the maturity process. Jung supports the notion that a person’s unconscious projection is “the self-archetype that plays a positive role in helping the ego to integrate conflicting desires and finally gain a peaceful wisdom as a realized self” (Kessler, 151). This paper will utilize Jung’s version of psychoanalytical theory to compare and contrast the case studies of Moses and Jonestown.
JUNGIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS
According to Jung, a person’s unconscious consist mostly of creative energy, in the form of
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archetypes. Archetypes are “recurring patterns in which the human ego finds itself in relation to the collective unconscious” (Kessler, 149). In other words, archetypes are highly developed elements of the unconscious deduced from the person’s experience. In Jungian interpretation, realization of the self archetype require a person’s ego to go through 3 main stages of development: 1) dependency, 2) autonomy, and 3) integration. Each stage possesses a unique characteristic, that can be applied to a person’s experience in order to determine his/her maturity level. The first stage, dependency, correlates to the early period of development; infancy/youth. In this stage, “the unformed ego finds itself in complete dependency on its environment” (Kessler, 150), specifically the role-model. In religious texts, the role-model is most often described as the divine power of the religion that protects and guides. For example, “the mother goddess who supplies all that is necessary and nourishes her children” (Kessler, 150). The second stage, autonomy, relates to the middle part of development; adolescence/early adulthood. In this stage, “the dependent ego must now assert its independence and difference from [divine] power that, from this perspective, now appears dominant and restrictive” (Kessler, 150). Often, the autonomy stage is described in religious texts through hardships, “conflict, and suffering” (Kessler, 150) which ultimately is overcame. The third stage, integration, symbolizes the final part of development; adulthood/maturity. To reach maturity, “the psyche must come to terms with its weakness, in particular, its own lack of wholeness” (Kessler, 150). Often, religious experiences never reach this stage and stop during autonomy. Jung believe that religious experience can help channel a person’s journey to maturity. In order to achieve maturity, a person must realize the self archetype; his/her experience must resemble that of the 3 stages of development. According to Jung, a person’s self archetype is “frequently symbolized by the god-image” (Kessler, 150) which is idealized; offering advice and guidance once successfully projected by the person. On top of that, Jung admires number symbolism. MOSES The case study of Moses originated from the geographical area of Goshen, Lower Egypt (New Kingdom of Egypt) where he was born. According to the case study, Moses was a great hero in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Jewish Bible); “le[a]d[ing] Israel out of Egypt and transmitted divine commandments” (Kessler, 63). His heroism resulted in him being celebrated across religion (Jewish, Islam, and Christianity). In the beginning of his life, the Pharaoh issued an order that prohibits people of Hebrew descent to bear a son. Moses was born to a “woman from the priestly tribe of Levi” (Kessler, 64) and then cast onto the Nile river as per the Pharaoh’s orders. However, as he was adrift along the Nile river, one of the Pharaoh’s daughters found him, took pity, and took him in as her own. Moses was raised in an Egyptian court by the Pharaoh’s daughter. This beginning of life is Moses’ dependency period. At this stage, Moses was in complete dependency of his environment. The Pharaoh’s daughter acted as a role-model of which Moses depend completely upon in order to survive (Kessler, 64). As Moses grew and became an adult, he “witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave” (Kessler, 65). He was engulfed in rage and killed the Egyptian, resulting in the Pharaoh wanting to kill Moses. Moses then left Egypt, fleeing to Midian. During his time in Midian, Moses encountered a bush that seems to be burning, but never burnt. The bush identified itself as Elohim, the God of Moses’s Hebrew ancestors. Elohim then “commands Moses to return to Egypt and lead his people out of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanites” (Kessler, 65). The reluctant Moses eventually complied, returning to Egypt in an attempt to lead the Hebrew slaves to freedom. With the help of Elohim, sending a series of plagues (frogs, gnats, flies, boils, hail, locust, darkness) and miracles (parting of the sea), Moses was able to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and into the Sinai desert. This experience of Moses correlates to the second stage of development, autonomy. Moses was faced with hardships (fleeing his home, Egypt) and conflict (facing the Pharaoh’s army) and ultimately overcoming said hardships (successfully leading the Hebrew slaves to freedom) (Kessler, 66). After autonomy, Moses transitioned but did not reach the stage of integration. Overcoming the hardships and achieving the much earned reward did initiate the transition, but did not complete it. In order to complete the stage of integration, Moses have to realize that he is incomplete, effectively coming to terms with his weakness and lack of wholeness. The incompleteness of Moses was visualized in his lack of anger control, where he “in his wrath, [broke] the tablets of stone which the laws were written” (Kessler, 66). However, the case study did not explicitly state Moses’s realization of his incomplete self; lacking his completeness of the integration stage. JONESTOWN The case study of Jonestown originated from the geographical location of Jonestown, Guyana. According to the case study, the leader of the Peoples Temple, James Warren Jones, led the followers to commit the act of revolutionary suicide. The revolutionary suicide was referred to as the White Night, a mass suicide by consuming a fruit drink, laced with both cyanide and tranquilizer. (Kessler, 250). “James Warren Jones was born on may 13, 1931, in Lynn, Indiana” (Kessler, 247) to a family of Cherokee blood and low social status. During his infancy/youth, Jones was “alienated from society because of the social status of his family” (Kessler, 247). This was Jones’s dependency period, where he was fully dependent on his family around him to survive. Jones alienated period traumatized him, resulting as an ongoing problem in his life. Jones’s family acted as a role-model and protector, giving him a relief and buffer from societal alienation. As Jones transitioned to become an adult, the sense of alienation followed him. Based on his strong sense of integration and social justice, communism and its “vision of a just, classless society” (Kessler, 247) intrigued Jones. However, the social standard then was segregation, resulting in Jones’s continued struggle to fit in. Due to his “outspoken views in favor of civil rights movement and his public support of Martin Luther King, Jr.” (Kessler, 247), he was again, alienated. Jones’s struggle to finding acceptance signifies the stage of autonomy, which is ultimately resolved by the creation of the People’s Temple Full Gospel Church. Jones was able to overcome his struggle for acceptance, through community acceptance within the Peoples Temple. The Peoples Temple was able to thrive, living “according to the Marxist maxim” (Kessler, 248) where each of the members live and work according to their ability and need. However, as time progresses, this living situation is no longer sustainable. Jones was unable to maintain the order of the Church and members started to lose faith in him; defecting and forming a group named the “Concerned Relatives” (Kessler, 248). Both political and economical pressure began to accumulate, yet “The Jonestown residents had no place to go to escape the multiple pressures” (Kessler, 250). Jones could not return to the US due to the lawsuits and criminal complaints, African American residents does not see returning to a racist America as a viable option, and the White members did not want to be disloyal to their community (Kessler, 250). The event of the White Night, signifies the stage of integration. Jones realized that “they could not succeed [with their mission of becoming a utopian socialist collective], and decided to die for their ultimate concern rather than let their ideal die” (Kessler, 251). Jones and the people of Jonestown realized that they are not whole, accepting their weakness in the process. However, they decided not to let their weakness overcome their ultimate goal. Jones and the people of Jonestown acknowledged their weakness and thus decided that the only viable option was to end their journey rather than to accommodate and change their way of life. In the end, Jones was able to reach the integration stage, realizing his limitations and lack of wholeness. SIMILARITIES Moses and Jonestown both revolve around a single person, both a male possessing a charismatic and influential characteristics.
They were both able to lead a group of people (Hebrew slaves and The Peoples Temple followers) to overcome a shared difficult situation (slavery and alienation/discrimination). On top of that, both Moses and Jones shared a difficult childhood, filled with struggles. Moses was left to die, floating on the Nile river and Jones was alienated by the environment around him. Due to their struggles, both Moses and Jones was forced to rely and become dependent on a specific person in their environment (the Pharaoh’s daughter and Jones’s family). Finally, Moses and Jones both went through the first 2 stages of Jung’s development theory, dependency and
autonomy. DIFFERENCES Moses and Jonestown, however similar, have a striking difference. Moses did not reach the integration stage of Jung’s development theory, where Jones did. Moses did not explicitly state that he was aware of his limitation, not addressing the incident of his rage (when he broke the tablet of commandments). On the other hand, Jones’s action during the White Night was motivated by the fact that he realized his vision of utopia was not going to succeed. Thus, Jones would rather die for his cause than return to his life before The Peoples Temple. However, Moses and Jones was remembered differently in history. Moses was regarded as a hero in the Torah, highly respected and remembered in the religious text. On the other hand, Jones was condemned by “the news as a fake, fraud, sexual pervert, and a crazy man” (Kessler, 247).
“Parents are early major carriers of projection, and children unconsciously project omnipotence and omniscience onto them. These are what Jung called archetypal projections. The parents become gods, invested with powers that people have attributed to the divine. ‘Daddy can do anything! He’s the str...
Spies are religious systems that seem to take on the information of psychology. Colonialist are different from domestic spies they represent the true revelation of God to human kind about the human condition and God’s plan of salvation. The neutral parties allows for a level of collaboration that seems not to be present in enemies model. This model is not like any other model due to the fact that it encourages the exploration of the exceptional content of both the methodologies that they employ. The allies’ model tends to agree with the spies model that good psychology can be found in religion, but it also rejects that religion is only valuable as a vehicle to express psychological truth and psychological benefits (Entwistle, 2010). Entwistle ended this book by putting us on the right path to a better understanding of the integrated approaches to Psychology and
A framework of five models is shared: Enemies, Spies, Colonialists, Neutral Parties, and Allies. The Enemies model either associates no relationship between Christianity and psychology. The Spies model focuses on what works best for them from both Christianity and psychology. Colonialists use psychology only to the degree that it fits theology. Neutral Parties model holds that psychology and theology are independent with possible correlation between findings of the two, however that is about as far as one discipline may encroach on the other. Allies, the model considered by Entwistle, acknowledges that while psychology and theology are separate, they are still dependent, based upon the underlying unity of truth of God’s written word and His Works (Entwistle, 2010). The underpinning of the integrative approach to psychology and Christianity appears to be that of anthropology; this may be seen in the two books, God g...
David Entwistle's (2010) Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity is geared more towards Christians with conservative evangelical views and provides the reader an outline to different worldview disputes and truth-seeking groundwork that surround the connection that underlies psychology and theology. In addition to analyzing the possible connection of psychology and theology, Entwisle discusses the consideration of integrating Christian faith with the practice of psychology. “Christian understandings of person-hood, the purpose of human life, our need for God, and the ethical teachings of Christian faith are integral to psychology, not merely parallel to it” (p. 199). Entwistle’s viewpoint on this matter is stated clearly. He believes that it is necessary for theology and psychology be integrated in order to fully understand human nature.
Discovering the meaning and significance of the archetypes in one’s dreams and the dreams themselves were a sort of process that helped lead the individual towards a God. The suffering and process of analyzing the dreams and manifestations of the archetypes was crucial to resolving one’s entire unconscious and thus being at peace with oneself. When this peace was achieved, it allowed the individual to further their religious experience. Jung believed that all humans had a natural religious function and the expression of their unconscious through archetypes and dreams was crucial.
Carl Jung wrote “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” it defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several psychologist believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking, much is true based on the work of Sigmund Fraud with his id, ego, and super ego. Basically understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Many social psychologist have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can be on something irrelevant to the conscious part of the mind. The unconscious mind can be seen through the understanding of Archetypes, which are universal thoughts or mental images that influence an individual 's feelings and actions. For example, if a person is expressing a female form they might have an anima due to the way they treat other people of the opposite sex. Anima’s generally either represent goddess like qualities or certain witch qualities that try to oppress the power of men. The female soul found in the anima can be seen as feminist when they refer to the rule of men and manpower. Effects of the anima can be use to explain several unconscious actions such surprize beatings. A man’s anima explains what he wants to see in a women and how he wants her to portray herself. However, when the
In the first two chapter of the book, Freud explores a possible source of religious feeling. He describes an “oceanic feeling of wholeness, limitlessness, and eternity.” Freud himself is unable to experience such a feeling, but notes that there do indeed...
In the midst of his already successful career, Sigmund Freud decided to finally dedicate a book of his to religion, referring to the subject as a phenomena faced by the scientific community. This new work, Totem and Taboo, blew society off its feet, ultimately expanding the reaches of debates and intellectual studies. From the beginning, Freud argues that there exists a parallel between the archaic man and the contemporary compulsive. Both these types of people, he argues, exhibit neurotic behavior, and so the parallel between the two is sound. Freud argues that we should be able to determine the cause of religion the same way we determine the cause of neurosis. He believes, since all neuroses stem from childhood experiences, that the origins of this compulsive behavior we call religion should also be attributed to some childhood experiences of the human race, too. Freudian thought has been dominant since he became well known. In Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, religion becomes entirely evident as a major part of the novel, but the role it specifically plays is what we should question. Therefore, I argue that Freud’s approach to an inborn sense of religion and the role it plays exists in The Last of the Mohicans, in that the role religion plays in the wilderness manifests itself in the form of an untouchable truth, an innate sense of being, and most importantly, something that cannot and should not be tampered with.
Erich Fromm in his psychoanalytical approach to religion is distinct from the earlier works of Sigmund Freud. Fromm defines religion as “any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion.” Fromm argues that irreligious systems including all the different kinds of idealism and “private” religions deserve being defined as a “religion.” Based on Fromm’s theory, it is explained that there is no human being who does not have a “religious need,” almost every part of human life reflects religious need and its fulfillment, in fact he states it to be “inherent” in man.
Carl Jung, propose the theory of the collective unconscious, based on his theory, which goes beyond of Freud’s analysis of the conscious mind, the unconscious is divided into two (2) layers. We have the personal unconscious, where is very similar with the Freudian Theory of the unconscious mind, where all of our thoughts and forgotten experience our store, but we have another dipper layer, the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a universal unconscious shared among the humankind, where information which had passed from generation to generation is stored. That information might be fears, or instincts which have helped us to survive, innate thoughts; used as a tool and inheritance from our ancestors in order to provide us the best chance of survival. Based on Jung theory: “The form of a world into [a person] is born is already inborn in him, as a virtual image (Jung, 1953, p.188). He called these memories, as ancestral memories and image archetypes, as different cultures all over the world share similar characteristics without having any interaction with one another, thus the behaviors and actions had been carried with them innate as a part of a code among
The interpretation, backed by Carl Jung, argues that “religion need no longer be perceived as a conglomerate of guilt ridden repressions and ritualized obsessions, but as a natural and legitimate dimension of psychic activity” (Palmer 113). When Freud’s argument is counterbalanced, it can be found that the interpretation F...
Goodwin, A. (1998). Freud and Erikson: Their Contributions to the Psychology of God-Image Formation. Pastoral Psychology, 47(2), 97-117. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
This essay’s goal is to provide a critical analysis and definition of Sigmund Freud 's beliefs on religion. After thoroughly going through his theory on theology, I will then point out strengths and weaknesses in his beliefs and ultimately, make a decision on if I agree or disagree with his conclusions.
In looking for better ways to avoid misunderstandings or devaluing the whole of experiences, Jung moves into support of the phenomenological position. This approach gives due importance to the range of possibilities that come from experiencing religion. Jung believed quantifying data and offering explanation was important in understanding religion but the general statements that come from these methods left a lot out of the equation (Wulff
The unconscious is the largest part of the mind. All the things that are not easily available t...