The self, the psyche and the world: a phenomenological interpretation

Abstract :  This paper takes as its starting point Jung's definition of the self as the totality of the psyche. However, because the term psyche remains conceptually unclear the concept of the self as totality, origin and goal, even centre, remains vague. With reference to Heidegger's analysis of human being as  Dasein , as well as Jung's writings, it is argued that Jung's concept of psyche is not a synonym for mind but is the world in which we live psychologically. An understanding of the psyche as existentially situated requires us to rethink some features of the self. For instance, the self as origin is thus not a pre-existential integrate of pure potentiality but the original gathering of existence in which, and out of which, personal identity is constituted. The ego emerges out of the self as the development and ownership of aspects of an existence that is already situated and gathered. Relations between the ego and the self are about what is known, or admitted, and its relation with what is already being lived within the gathering that is existence. The self as psyche, origin, and centre are discussed, as well as the meaning of interiority. Epistemological assumptions of object relations theory are critically discussed. The paper also includes critical discussions of recent papers on the self.     

Embodied and Embedded Morality: Divinity, Identity, and Disgust

Our understanding of human morality would benefit from an integrated interdisciplinary approach, built on the assumption that human beings are multidimensional unities with real, irreducible, and mutually interdependent spiritual, relational, emotional, rational, and physiological aspects. We could integrate relevant information from neurobiological, psychosocial, and theological perspectives, avoiding unnecessary reductionism and naturalism. This approach is modeled by addressing the particular limited role of disgust in morality. Psychosocial research reveals disgust as a universal emotion that enables evaluation and regulation of certain moral behaviors and is involved in cultural identity. Theologically, many religious traditions, including the Judeo‐Christian, use disgust in conjunction with moral codes designed to preserve purity and communal identity as the people of God. The concept of natural moral law suggests that morality is embodied in human nature. Neurobiology is beginning to trace the neural circuitry involved in disgust and in moral evaluation, suggesting that emotions are a necessary basis for moral judgment and revealing intriguing relationships between disgust, morality, and other aspects of the psyche. Several problems that arise within these disciplines and at their intersections are identified. Extension of the model to other aspects of human morality would further illuminate our understanding of morality without sacrificing its complexity and richness.     

Gender Roles and Cultural Continuity in the Asian Indian Immigrant Community in the U.S.

Ethnic identity is a part of positive self-concept that consciously anchors an individual to a particular ethnic group. Central to this identity is a sense of belonging, as well as a commitment to the group's values, beliefs, behaviors, conventions, and customs. This study focuses on the Asian Indian community in the U.S. to investigate their concerns with the continuity of ethnic identity via maintenance of traditional culture. Intergenerational synchrony in two specific values, attitudes toward women and dating, were examined as indicators of successful transmission of culture and identity. Forty-sixeducated, middle class Indian immigrant families, the majority of whom were foreign born and Hindus,participated in this study by responding to three questionnaires: Attitude Toward Women Scale, Dating Scale, and IPAT Anxiety Scale. Although the results show a strong similarity between parents and children on target attitudes, distinct intergenerational and gender asymmetries emerged. The conscious attempt to preserve certain critical attitudes, values, and behaviors characteristic of the group was labeled “judicious biculturalism,” an expression of active involvement on the immigrants' part to control the course of their own acculturation. The study has implications for women's status within the Asian Indian community.     

Kulturdynamisches Modell der bikulturellen Identit?t

In intercultural psychotherapeutic treatment, the psychological integration of different cultures within an individual has to be involved as an additional developmental dimension. Individual change during the process of migration considered as desirable adaptation has often been conceptualized in terms of a bicultural identity, which includes aspects of the culture of origin as well as aspects of the host culture. The theoretical foundation of the concept of bicultural identity, however, has remained insufficient. The culture-dynamic model presented here differentiates personal and social identity according to the identity concept proposed by Mead (Geist, Identit?t und Gesellschaft, 1988, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.?M.). Personal identity is essentially formed by an individual??s culture of origin, while influences of the host culture primarily affect the social identity. For healthy coping with the challenges associated with migration and adequate support of this process in intercultural psychotherapy, it can be assumed that a stabilization of personal identity is required to allow for a dynamization of social identity. Implications for identity constitution in second generation immigrants, in different stages of lifespan development and in the process of learning the language of the host culture are discussed.     

On the nature of the oceanic experience

It is postulated that consciousness is not simply an organ of perception, but that it possesses a structure, or organization, despite its enormous fluidity. In support of these views, the oceanic experience is explored. It demonstrates the impact, on this state of consciousness, of the subject's values and culture. Like the oceanic experience, every state of consciousness--what is in awareness at any given time--is a complex phenomenon that derives from all aspects of the psyche, including the subject's value system and the influences of his culture.     

双文化个体的文化框架转换:影响因素与结果

文化与跨文化心理学的研究兴趣已经从关注文化差异转移到文化与心理如何相互影响。基于动态建构主义取向的文化框架转换(cultural frame switch,CFS)模型认为:个体完全可以同时拥有两种及其以上的文化构念网络,它们具有动态性,受情境线索所驱动,个体可以在不同文化之间根据情境需要进行文化框架的转换。CFS受到个体的种族内隐观和双文化认同整合的影响;CFS所积累的多元文化经验可以提高创造性和认知复杂性,也可能产生文化刻板化,导致对外来文化的排斥。未来研究可以探讨CFS的适用范围,进一步细化研究,考察主流群体成员的CFS,重视整合视角的研究,运用多元研究方法。借鉴该领域的研究思路对于考察我国的少数民族等多元文化个体的文化认同和文化适应具有重要启示。     

Ambivalent subjects: Psychoanalysis,women’s sexuality in India and the writings of Sudhir Kakar

Indian women’s sexuality shares an intimate relationship with the regulatory forces of Hindu religious law. This paper explores the writings of psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar and the narratives of women interviewees, along with clinical experiences with women, to paint a picture of women’s sexuality’s interlocked with cultural misogyny. Noting the creative adaptations that women make to enjoy sex in this polis, the paper also asks questions about how the insights of psychoanalytic feminism may serve as a ‘third’ in this interlocking.     

I Working with dissociative dynamics and the longing for excess in binge eating disorders

In this paper the author describes her work with a woman who, in her mid 20s, sought analysis for her non‐vomiting binge eating disorder. The paper explores how two aspects of Jung's view of the psyche as healthily dissociable were used to think about the potential for change contained within the explosive, aggressive energies in this patient's bingeing. The resultant approach takes the patient's splitting defences, dissociations and self‐destructive behaviour as a point of access to her unconscious. Seen in this way, these behaviours contain the seeds of recovery and are the starting point for analysis rather than defences against it. The paper also brings a number of Jungian and post‐Jungian ideas into conversation with aspects of contemporary thinking about subjectivity, identity and the longing for excess developed by Leo Bersani and Judith Butler.     

Cultural identity in Siberia and in analytical practice

This paper discusses the main features of Siberian identity formed throughout the historical development of Siberia under the influence of social, economic, geographical, climatic, and other factors. Siberian cultural identity is closely connected with the mythology and ancient religion of the indigenous peoples of Siberia – shamanism, whose rituals, images, symbols, and motifs are often manifested in the clients’ dreams. Following an in‐depth study of Siberian history and culture, I formulate a complex of homelessness rooted in a deep collective trauma that left its imprint on people’s psyche. Three clinical cases presented in the paper reveal a deep relationship between cultural complexes and collective traumas on the one hand, and individual complexes and traumas, on the other. My psychotherapeutic practice shows that a client’s awareness of their history and culture brings them closer to the meaning and source of their suffering, which, in turn, helps them find their own way of individuation, rather than relive the transgenerational trauma of their ancestors.     

Becoming Conscious of the American Middle Class (Un)consciousness

It is argued in this article that social psychology would make the greatest contribution to research on class identity if it concentrated on the area closest to psychology—analysis of class consciousness. In order to show that the study of the psyche and mentality of the middle class is one of the least researched aspects of the American middle class, a brief overview of the different approaches to the study of the middle class in selected disciplines will be offered. It will be demonstrated that even if the identity of the U.S. middle class cannot be fully understood without its history and the social context in which it operates, it is the study of its (un)consciousness that social psychology should be focusing its research efforts on. The alternative would make social psychology indistinguishable from social history or sociology.     

When ancestral heritage is a source of discomfort: culture, pre-object relatedness, and self-alienation

The ancestral claims on an individual can evoke mental conflict when they involve separating from an ethnic group whose beliefs and customs are devalued by the dominant culture. However, these claims are engraved on the psyche early in development by caretakers to the level of pre-object relatedness, where contents and affect tones are implicit and may be unavailable for later psychoanalytical interventions. In addition, as the anthropologist Clifford Geertz notes, one's culture of origin precedes the development of psyche and creates its own set of claims that must be renegotiated when one encounters a different domain of cultural symbols, a confrontation that can produce psychological dissonance and self-alienation. In this paper, three cases are examined in which mental conflicts were evoked by attempts at divesting ancestral claims in response to conscious efforts to assimilate into the dominant culture. These patients suffered from separation guilt and unstable self-esteem and reported dream imagery suggesting psychological imbalance. The requirement to carefully delineate the ancestral claims on psyche as well as those contents and affects that may not be accessible to therapeutic intervention is emphasized, and the importance of compromise and acceptance with respect to the psychological demands of the unconscious are considered.     

Psyche, Matter and Synchronicity

In 1948, and with Pauli s enthusiastic support, Jung began to write down his thoughts on synchronicity. A two-year correspondence ensued, with a focus on psyche and matter, and the importance of acausality within the frameworks of physics and psychology.
This paper traces the improbable interaction between the physicist and the psychologist, as these great scientists enrich and merge their formative views on acausality. Bolstered by his dreams, Pauli draws a correspondence between psychology and atomic physics, centring on the 'psychophysical problem', including synchronicity. Seminal thoughts are discussed, such as the need to broaden the concept of the archetype, and to recognize that the future of analytical psychology is not to be found primarily in therapy but in a 'unified holistic conception of nature and the status of man within it'. Two world pictures were constructed, identifying a non-causal (non-rational) side to reality, as experienced both in physics and the psyche. Pauli discusses his concept of a 'neutral language', the aim being to bridge the gap between psyche and matter, both of which are seen to rest on a common foundation, known to the alchemists as the unus mundus. The collaboration was highlighted with the publication of their book, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche (1952), which emphasizes the archetypal influence of archetype on consciousness.     

Joel Osteen as Cultural Selfobject: Meeting the Needs of the Group Self and Its Individual Members in and from the Largest Church in America

This paper examines the appeal and success of Joel Osteen, pastor of the largest church in America: Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Our guiding theory comes from Heinz Kohut’s Self psychology, especially as elaborated in his interviews with Charles Strozier. We also draw on the work of Indian psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, who, using Kohut, argues that the guru in the Indian context functions as a cultural selfobject, and we argue that Osteen functions in an analogous way in the American context—that is, as a cultural selfobject. Specifically, we argue that Osteen’s appeal and success is due to what Kohut refers to as idealizing transferences and mirroring transferences, as well as Osteen’s ability to provide a “calming structure” and a sense of “continuity,” as Kohut uses these terms, for members of the Lakewood community. To demonstrate this thesis, we analyze a recent sermon by Osteen, a chapter in one of his bestselling books, and the airplane incident that involved Victoria Osteen in December 2005. We contextualize our analysis by discussing relevant sociological and demographic data pertaining to Lakewood Church, and we conclude by making the point that cultures can become disillusioned with their own cultural selfobjects and, whatever the fate of Joel Osteen and company, our culture will nevertheless continue to produce new cultural selfobjects.     

Conscious mind – conscious body

The incorporation of body awareness and touch techniques within analytic treatment is the main theme of this paper. Beginning with a personal experience of the oneness of body and psyche, the author considers Jung's observation of the physiological accompaniments of emotional reactions and his understanding of body as both shadow and ground. The author proposes a new model of analytic treatment that embraces both the verbal and imaginal as well as the non-verbal and somatic aspects of psyche. She describes the three elements of her approach: 1) reading what the body is saying about psyche; 2) using the body as an organ of perception; 3) using touch as a therapeutic tool. The effects of the taboo around touch are considered. Clinical examples throughout the paper demonstrate how somatic awareness and the use of touch promote the analytic process.     

‘Black holes’: escaping the void

The ‘black hole’ is a metaphor for a reality in the psyche of many individuals who have experienced complex trauma in infancy and early childhood. The ‘black hole’ has been created by an absence of the object, the (m)other, so there is no internalized object, no (m)other in the psyche. Rather, there is a ‘black hole’ where the object should be, but the infant is drawn to it, trapped by it because of an intrinsic, instinctive need for a ‘real object’, an internalized (m)other. Without this, the infant cannot develop. It is only the presence of a real object that can generate the essential gravity necessary to draw the core of the self that is still in an undeveloped state from deep within the abyss. It is the moving towards a real object, a (m)other, that relativizes the absolute power of the black hole and begins a reformation of its essence within the psyche.     

Psychoanalysis’s Cultural Dissociation Meets Ethnic Minorities: Reply to Commentary by Kimberlyn Leary

Dr. Leary highlighted variance within ethnic culture in her commentary, but I wished she had spoken instead about cultural trauma. My paper was about trauma-based dissociative process: Some immigrant women attempt to bury their ethnic cultural experiences deeply into their psychic shadows, as elements of their culture’s values and practices constitute aspects of the very nature of their trauma. Leary’s notion of race as an adaptive challenge brings to attention the importance of making explicit racial “loyalties, values, and habits” in clinical situations. I argue strongly that psychoanalysis has dissociated its cultural identity, making its encounters with ethnic minorities that much more problematic. I ask on the behalf of ethnic minority patients (and ethnic minority mental health practitioners and graduate students), What could be gained if psychoanalysis could reveal and own its cultural identity?     

Tending Hestia's Flame: Circumambulating the Sacred Feminine

Hestia was the ancient goddess of the hearth, the one who presided over the religious center of the household. It was here that offerings were made at the beginning and end of the family meal, and where the other household divinities were honored. She sanctified the interior of the home and the purity of the lineage of the patriarchal clan. As the circle of Greek identity grew, eternal fires sacred to Hestia burned at the center of ancient cities, including Rome, where Hestia was known as Vesta.

From a psychological perspective, Hestia personifies the religious function of the psyche—especially the forms that turn inward and protect a sacred center. An examination of the archetypal aspects of Hestia's myth sheds light on how the instinct for the sacred found expression during antiquity, and how these energies continue to live in the archetypal psyche.     

Uroborus: A Review of Jung's Thinking on the Nature of the Psyche and the Transformation of Libido

For Jung, the nature of the psyche derives from its containment within the opposites of biological instinct and archetypal spirit. Jung describes the energy generated by this opposition as disposable psychic energy, and gives it the term libido, another word for which is will. Will denotes consciousness, so Jung concludes that psyche, that which is contained within the opposites of instinct and spirit, equals consciousness. The archetypes are “instinctual images” that organize and regulate consciousness. Their nature is that of spirit, and they form the counter-pole to the biological matter from which the instincts arise. The intimate relationship between instinct and archetype is resolved in the central archetype of wholeness, the self, imaged by Jung as both a color wheel, in which the ultrared of instinct merges into and joins with the ultraviolet of the archetypes, and the uroborus, the tail-eating serpent, in which the spiritual archetype, the head of the serpent, feeds off of and is nourished by instinct, the serpent's tail. Jung postulates that within the individual psyche, libido arising from instinct is transformed away from its original instinctual object by its canalization into an analogue of that object. These analogues arise in the psyche as symbols, and their source is the sphere of the archetypes. The instinctual analogues in the form of symbols are projected upon the environment, and individuation is the process of becoming conscious of the archetypal psychological source of one's projections.     

Racialized physical space as cultural product

We argue for incorporating physical space into the psychological study of race. Specifically, we review historical and sociological work explaining how physical space (e.g., houses, rivers, neighborhoods, and nations) has been used to construct race and racial hierarchy, leaving physical space structurally racialized. This structural racialization, we propose, has led people to think of physical space in racial terms, creating mental images of race that include physical space characteristics. We explain how these mental images may influence race‐related psychological processes (e.g., person perception and social identity threat). We also detail evidence that these mental images of racialized space shape how people perceive and interact with space, in ways that likely reinforce its structural racialization. We therefore frame physical space as a cultural product, situating it within the mutually constitutive nature of culture and psyche. This expanded approach to studying race can facilitate a fuller understanding of all the ways in which psychological processes contribute to racial inequality.