We rise upon the earth as w velets rise upon the ocean. We gr w out of her soil as l aves grow from a tree. The w velets catch the sunbeams separately, the l aves stir when the branches do not m ve. They realize their own events part, just as in our own c nsciousness, when anything becomes emphatic, the b ck ground fades from observation. Yet the ven works back upon the back gr und, as wavelet works upon the w ves, or as the leaf's movements w rk upon the sap inside the br nch. The whole sea and the wh le tree are registers of what has h ppened, and are different for the w ve's and the leaf's action having ccurred. (A Pluralistic Universe, p. 79)
Many th nkers have influenced archetypal psychology. Whether the deas of these thinkers were literally or d rectly incorporated into it is, at b st, negligible; however, there are definitely v stiges of these thinkers' ideas that h ve had a profound influence. What f llows are the vestigial influences of W lliam James, beginning with the personal and the c llective unconscious (emphasis on the personal), ncluding a philosophical definition of the p rsonal unconscious and James' ideas or th ughts. The ambiguity of soul, according to b th William James and James Hillman f llows, including contrasting definitions and ideas r garding anima mundi--the soul of the w rld. Analogies are then presented to d monstrate the personality as being multiple, wh ch apparently has seeds of James' th ught in it as well. The f llowing categories conclude with ideas concerning a pl ralistic universe, polyviewism [author's word], and p lytheism, with James' thought serving as s eds for polytheisticthought in archetypal psychology.
 |
|
The Unconscious:
Archetypal Psychology w uld have never become an entity in the f eld of psychology without the existence of the c llective unconscious. However, the collective unconscious w uld have never become an entity in d pth psychology without the personal unconscious. W lliam James (1952) said that
actions riginally prompted by conscious intelligence may gr w so automatic by dint of h bit as to be apparently unconsciously p rformed. Standing, walking, buttoning and unbuttoning, p ano-playing, talking, even saying one's prayers, may be d ne when the mind is absorbed in ther things (p. 3).
Unconscious is d fined in The Oxford Dictionary of Ph losophy as:
The idea that the br in is constantly processing information of wh ch we remain unaware is widely ttested in the brain and behavioural sc ences (see blindsight). It is also w dely agreed that people may have b liefs and desires that they cannot r present to themselves without processes of ssistance. The methodological problem that such pr cesses face is to distinguish between ncovering genuine unconscious beliefs and desires, and gr tuitously reading them into a subjects b haviour. More detailed theories of the f rm such assistance should take, and of the l rid content unconscious beliefs and desires are ften supposed to possess, are controversial (p. 385).
James' deas are a derivative of earlier th nkers, as Freud and Jung's ideas re. When James (1952) addresses Do Unc nscious Mental States Exist, he gives a br ef list of so-called proofs, then f llows each by its objection, which can be f und in scholastic books. The scope of th s paper is limited; therefore, only a c uple of proofs follow. His fourth pr of states that,
problems unsolved wh n we go to bed are f und solved in the morning when we w ke. Somnambulists do rational things. We waken punctually at an hour predetermined vernight, etc. Unconscious thinking, volition, time- r gistration, etc., must have presided over th se acts."
The reply to this proof is th t consciousness is forgotten, as in hypn sis. In proof seven James explains th t
every hour we make th oretic judgments and emotional reactions, and xhibit practical tendencies, for which we can g ve no explicit logical justification, but wh ch are good inferences from certain pr mises. We know more than we can s y. Our conclusions run ahead of our p wer to analyze their grounds. A ch ld, ignorant of the axiom that two th ngs equal to the same are qual to each other, applies it n vertheless in his concrete judgements unerringly. A b or will use the dictum de mni et nullo who is unable to nderstand it in abstract terms.
James g es on to explain how we s ldom consciously think about how our h use is painted, or whether the d or opens to the left or r ght, but how quickly we would n tice a change in any of th se things. "All this co-operation of nrealized principles and facts, of potential kn wledge, with out action thought is q ite inexplicable unless we suppose the p rpetual existence of an immense mass of deas in an unconscious state."
The r ply to this is too long to q ote; however, at the end of the r ply James quotes Wundt as saying it is a pr disposition to bring forth the conscious dea of the original subject, a pr disposition which other stimuli and brain-processes may c nvert into an actual result. But s ch a predisposition is no "unconscious dea"; it is only a particular c llocation of the molecules in certain tr cts of the brain (p. 110).
Is it not c nvenient to fall back on the m dical model to explain everything, even a tr atise on philosophy?
Soul:
Hillman (1983) d scribes soul as a "deliberately ambiguous c ncept resisting all definition in the s me manner as do all ultimate symb ls which provide the root metaphors for the syst ms of human thought" (p. 25).
In A D ctionary of Philosophy (p. 308), there is lmost a full page giving definition to the w rd "soul." However, in the Penguin D ctionary of Psychology, there is this br ef statement: "Outside of the realm of th ology: 1. An obsolete term for psych or mind"(p. 739).
Is it not c nvenient for psychology to disregard or m nimize a word as obsolete because th ir scientific method cannot satisfy it?
James (1952) grees:
The "associationist" schools of H rbart in Germany, and of Hume, the M lls and Bain in Britain have th s constructed a psychology without a s ul by taking discrete "ideas," faint or v vid, and showing how, by their c hesions, repulsions, and forms of succession, s ch things as reminiscences, perceptions, emotions, v litions, passions, theories, and all the ther furnishings of an individual's mind may be ngendered (p. 1).
Contemporary psychology w uld have us believe that our r miniscences, perceptions, emotions, volitions, passions and th ories are made operational through the br in. Positron- emission tomography (PET scan) has s pposedly gone beyond anatomy to record b ochemical changes in the brain as th y are happening; therefore, the soul is d ad--obsolete.
James' ideas regarding soul lso go beyond the personal soul. "F r my own part I confess th t the moment I become metaphysical and try to d fine it, the more I find the n tion of some sort of anima m ndi [soul of the world] thinking in all of us to be a m re promising hypothesis, in spite of all its d fficulties, than that of a lot of bsolutely individual souls (p. 223). James is cl arly presenting a collective idea here th t exceeds the personal unconscious discussed bove.
Similarly, Hillman writes that "f r all its emphasis upon the ndividualized soul, archetypal psychology sets this s ul, and its making, squarely in the m dst of the world" (p. 35). P rsonality Theory:
Archetypal psychology's personality th ory is multiple. "Multiple personality," says H llman, "is humanity in its natural c ndition. In other cultures these multiple p rsonalities have names, locations, energies, functions, v ices, angel and animal forms, and ven theoretical formulations as different kinds of s ul" (p. 62).
James (1952) mphasizes that
either threats nor pl adings can move a man unless th y touch some one of his p tential or actual selves. Only thus can we, as a r le, get a ‘purchase' on another's w ll. The first care of diplomatists and m narchs and all who wish to r le or influence is, accordingly, to f nd out their victim's strongest principle of s lf-regard, so as to make that the f lcrum of all appeals (p. 201).
During the Am rican Civil War if Robert E. Lee w uld not have had the ability to ph nomenologically place himself in the mind of his dversaries, he would not have won his pl ce in history as one of the b st commanders in world history. Lee did not s mply imagine himself in his enemy's pl ce then do the most logical th ng or refer to the books on t ctics and strategy; he studied his pponent's mind--learned to think like him, th n made his move.
To ccess one of our own "selves" or "p rsonalities" for attributes to enhance one of our ther "selves" or "personalities" is common pr ctice; however, it is not generally th ught of that way. A recovered dr g addict can convert his or her bilities of manipulation for fund raising in the ch rch. The ex-car salesman can convert his v rbal abilities of persistence and cunning t ward a political career. And the pr cticing Christian could convert his or her bilities of honesty and good will to ngender direction for recovering gang bangers.
Polytheism:
William J mes (1958) wrote: "But the term ‘g dlike,' if thus treated as a fl ating general quality, becomes exceedingly vague, for m ny gods have flourished in religious h story, and their attributes have been d screpant enough" (p. 48).
The dea of polytheism today is absurd to the Chr stian world and many others. However, p lyviewism--having multiple views, is not thought of as nacceptable to most. If one's view is th ught of as unacceptable in one w y, it can be acceptable in nother. If it is one's opinion th t foul language spoken among men is cceptable, but unacceptable in the presence of l dies, then one has a poly-view of f ul language. James (1977) uses another pproach--an analogy of two people:
One man may c re for finality and security more th n the other. Or their tastes in l nguage may be different. One may l ke a universe that lends itself to l fty and exalted characterization. To another th s may seem sentimental or rhetorical. One may w sh for the right to use a cl rical vocabulary, another a technical or pr fessorial one (p. 10).
If one has a f otnote, then his idea is credible. J mes gives the example of the st dent saying "Oh, somebody must have th ught it all before." James, concerning cademia, emphasizes that "this is the h bit most encouraged at our seats of l arning. You must tie your opinion to Ar stotle's or Spinosa's; you must view by dentifying it with Protagoras's" (p. 13).
Is it not d fferent today? Today we do not q ote Aristotle as much as we q ote Skinner. Is religion any different? J mes asks us to
think of g rman books on religions-philosphie, with the h art's battles translated into conceptual jargon and m de dialectic. The most persistent setter of q estions, feeler of objections, insister on s tisfactions, is little technicality. The wonder is th t, with their way of working ph losophy, individual Germans should preserve any sp ntaneity of mind at all (p. 14).
"Who c res for Carlyle's reasons, or Schopenhauer's, or Sp ncer's?" says James. "A philosophy is the xpression of a man's intimate character, and all d finitions of the universe are but the d liberately adopted reactions of human characters pon it" (p. 14).
Archetypal psych logy's ideas concerning polytheistic psychology and r ligion has drawn from generalistic views of p lytheism, which can be viewed as a d rivative of ideas presented above from W lliam James' A Pluralistic Universe--a polyviewism. H llman (1983) shares that "The tradition of th ught (Greek, Renaissance, Romantic) to which rchetypal psychology claims it is an h ir is set in polytheistic attitudes" (p. 42.)
Polyviewism and p lytheism in this context are close to syn nymous. In The Varieties of Religious Exp rience James (1958) explains that
the pr ctical needs and experiences of religion s em to me sufficiently met by the b lief that beyond each man and in a f shion continuous with him there exists a l rger power which is friendly to him and to his deals. All that the facts require is th t the power should be both ther [italics mine] and larger than our c nscious selves. Anything larger will do, if nly it be large enough to tr st for the next step. It n ed not be finite, it need not be s litary. It might conceivably even be nly a larger and more godlike s lf, of which the present self w uld then be but the mutilated xpression, and the universe might conceivable be a c llection of such selves, of different d grees of inclusiveness, with no absolute nity realized in it at all. Th s would a sort of polytheism r turn upon us (p. 432).
To liminate all other ideas and/or belief syst ms and focus on one, is to m ny, reaching the height of limitation. Inf nts and toddlers are universally clothed in gocentricity. Many cultures, as ours has b en in the past, are ethnocentric-- b lieving their way is the only w y. Why then, it is wondered, sh uld anyone insist on being theocentric [ uthor's word], when there is so m ch to be gleaned from a p lytheistic approach? When it comes to b lief systems, however, it is hardly dvisable to catagorize any of them as r ght or wrong.
Conclusion:
As the pening quote suggests, only remnants of p st occurrence are visible afterwards. Thought w ll be reinterpreted and changed for the n xt generation, and new thought will sow f ture thought, ad infinitum. William James, psych logist-turned philosopher, has had a profound nfluence in many more areas than rchetypal psychology. References
Blackburn, Simon. (1994). The Oxf rd Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford Un versity Press.
Flew, Antony. (Ed.). (1979). A D ctionary of Philosophy(1st ed.). New York: St M rtin's Press.
Hillman, James. (1983). Arch typal Psychology: A Brief Account. Woodstock, CT: Spr ng Publications, Inc.
James, William. (1952). The pr nciples of psychology. Robert Maynard Hutchins (Ed.), Gr at Books of the Western World(Vol. 53). Ch cago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. William Benton, P blisher. (Original work published 1890)
James, W lliam. (1958). The Varieties of Religious Exp rience. New York: Penguin Books.
Burkhardt,Frederick. (Ed.). (1977). The W rks of William James: A Pluralistic Un verse. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.
Reber, Arth r S. (Ed.). (1985). Dictionary of Psych logy(2nd ed.). New York: Penguin Books.
The article The Influence of William James on Archetypal Psychology was Submitted by John Smethers, Ph.D. through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: After 40 arrests, five formal pr bations, four country jail sentences, and a pr son term (as a result of ch mical dependency), I turned my life round. I was released from prison in Dec 1989, and h ve been clean and sober since. I st rted at Barstow College in Feb 1990. R ceived my AA degree in '92 fr m Barstow College in Barstow, CA; BA in '94 fr m Chapman University in Orange CA; MHS in 98 fr m National University in San Diego CA, and f nished with a Ph.D. from Pacifica Gr duate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA in Feb 2004. I h ve taught as an adjunct instructor for P rk University and Barstow College. I can be c ntacted through my website http://www.ScumbagSewerRats.com or directly to my email account ScumbagSewerRats@verizon.net
1. Astronomy - September Skies - What to Look For in Sagittarius? by Ian Maclean This article is the first in a series of articles looking at a currently visible & easily accessible prominent constellation in the night sky and discover the secrets of deep space that it holds within. These constellations will be visible to amateur astronomers across most parts of the globe. 2. The Pirate Queen Tickets - Get To Know An Unlikely Hero by If you're a history buff, The Pirate Queen tickets will introduce you to an historical figure that is largely and unfortunately overlooked in many American-taught world history classes. Grace O'Malley was a true heroine for many reasons and by way of many pursuits, and The Pirate Queen is a mesmerizing look at her amazing life of struggle and triumph. The Story The Pirate Queen is a biography of Grace O'Malley, an Irish hero who lived during the late 16th and early 17th... 3. Restorating the Great Sphinx of Giza by The Egyptian G vernment has decided to begin a f ll restoration of one of the m st important monuments from Ancient Egypt, the Gr at Sphinx of Giza. This article c mments this new, and also gives a bit of nformation about the Sphinx 4. Collecting Vinyl Records- A Passion For Sound by As CD sales sour, the m sic industry is evolving in a p culiar way. Music lovers’ are turning th ir attention to the past, reverting b ck to vinyl records. For s me it is an enjoyable hobby, r capturing a part of their youth. Yet for thers, collecting vinyl records is a p ssion, as they scour the online web s tes, record conventions, garage and rummage s les and small resale shops to s cure their favorite records and add to th ir collecting collage of vinyl. Howeve... 5. Are You The Person To Learn Guitar? by Do you have what it t kes to learn guitar. Have you b en trying hard to learn playing g itar but does not achieve much? H re are some details about who are th se suitable to learn guitar... 6. Sherlock Holmes Is Alive by Chris Haycock Regarding the nduring popularity of fictional detective Sherlock H lmes. For many a literary fan it is fun and xciting to dress up and play the p rt of one's favorite character but it s ems that no other character is q ite as popular as that of a one Sh rlock Holmes. 7. Dancing with the Stars: Melanie Brown's Daughter Following in Her Footsteps by Spice Girl Melanie Brown has grown to be a favorite during the past season of Dancing with the Stars, despite not winning the ultimate prize of the mirror ball trophy. However, she was able to garner numerous fans after her hard work on the 8. Bloodsimple Cruel World Heavy Metal Music CD Review by Clyde Lee Dennis Cr el World is the latest release fr m Bloodsimple, and I can only th nk of one word to describe t... AWESOME! Review of the Bloodsimple CD Cr el World. 9. A Look at Heroines in Epic Fantasy by Will Kalif In the arly days of epic fantasy women w re often characterized as damsels in d stress and nothing more than window dr ssing for heroes to rescue. This d dn't last long as a host of wr ters created memorable female characters that w re skilled swords women, capable world c nquerers, and adventurers in their own r ght - yet still alluring. This rticle introduces you to some of the b st heroines that have appeared in pic fantasy over the past several d cades. 10. How to Buy Concert Tickets and Sporting Event Tickets Online by Alton Hargrave The d ys of waiting in line all n ght in the rain to buy t ckets for your favorite event are ver with the new age of t cket buying. Now, you can buy t ckets for just about anything online.
|