jungian_psychology

Thomas Singer, M.D., Jungian Analyst and president of The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism joins us to decipher Archetypal Images and explain the essential role of A.R.A.S. in collecting and curating them.

 Archetypes, as cosmic blueprints, dictate universal patterns of the collective unconscious, transcending personal experiences and cultural variations. They mold our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Archetypal images are their visible expressions, emerging in dreams, myths, and cultural narratives, providing a visual language linking psyche to self. They adapt and evolve across cultural contexts.

 Archetypal theory traces back to Plato's theory of Forms, which proposed transcendental ideals, or "arkhetypos" (first-molded), as the pure essence behind physical manifestations. The Swiss psychiatrist CG Jung linked these archetypes to the collective unconscious, profoundly influencing our experiences.

 Archetypal images carry universal resonance, stirring deep recognition within us. Iconic images, on the other hand, reflect temporal cultural dominants. Archetypal imagery identification involves recognizing recurring symbolic patterns with deep cultural or psychological significance.

 In the therapeutic relationship, archetypal imagery offers a stage for the drama of the unconscious. The analyst’s role includes identifying the universal patterns in the analysand's dreams and fantasies. Interpreting these influences can free the analysand from the grip of debilitating complexes.

 Archetypal images are also prominent in culture and commerce, shaping narratives and influencing behavior. They find use in brand narratives, films, religious and spiritual traditions, and even political leaders' narratives. However, they can both inspire and manipulate, highlighting the need for discernment and critical awareness.

 Archetypal imagery also aids in expressing complex emotions and experiences. Expressions such as "Pandora’s box," "Siren’s call," and "Promethean knowledge" exemplify this influence on language and culture.

A.R.A.S. (www.ARAS.org) was initially assembled by Olga Froebe-Kapteyn, who collected illustrations of ancient symbolic artifacts at her estate on Lake Maggiore in southern Switzerland. These images illustrated the annual meetings of the Eranos Society, conducted by Froebe-Kapteyn from 1933, with participation from renowned scholars such as Heinrich Zimmer, Károly Kerényi, Mircea Eliade, C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Gilles Quispel, Gershom Scholem, Henry Corbin, Adolf Portmann, Herbert Read, Max Knoll, and Joseph Campbell.

 In 1946, Froebe-Kapteyn donated her collection to the Warburg Institute in London, with duplicates given to the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and the Bollingen Foundation in New York. Jessie E. Fraser, librarian of the Analytical Psychology Club of New York, expanded the archive beyond its original scope, leading to the creation of the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. The collection was acquired by the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York and copies were also kept at the C.G. Jung Institutes in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

 HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:

“I was walking down a scenic nature trail and felt awed at the sight of ducklings and their mother in a tree. Then a great owl swooped down and snatched the ducklings from their mother, flew to a nearby tree, and started gorging them while the mother could only stare in horror.”

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Zombies have recently risen from mythological depths to menace modern-day culture. Zombies image the horror of vulnerability to dehumanized existence. They exist in a meaningless void marked only by insatiable appetite; they are our collective’s pathological shadow. The undead alarm us--and can also awaken us. We are summoned to contend with dark and deadening powers through vigilance, consciousness, and action. Jung says, “If you will contemplate your lack of…inspiration and inner aliveness, which you feel as sheer stagnation and a barren wilderness, and impregnate it with the interest born of alarm at your inner death, then something can take shape in you, for your inner emptiness conceals just as great a fullness if only you will allow it to penetrate into you. If you prove receptive to this ‘call of the wild,’ the longing for fulfillment will quicken the sterile wilderness of your soul as rain quickens the dry earth.”

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I was in a dark house with animals in large enclosures next to each other with glass screens. We opened them all to let them move around as we’d been somewhere all day. The person with me was a shadowy stranger I didn’t identify; it felt like their house. There was a beautiful little hawk that was very tame and had a feeling of wisdom and kindness. Then there was a giant pinky-purple “Spanish” snake, bulging, heavily pregnant, on the floor, asleep. I wasn’t scared of the snake but found it repulsive and knew it was dangerous. A blue jay flew in and started chasing the little hawk, and I got a bad feeling that continued to build. The jay was squawking loudly and was much bigger than the hawk. Then the snake suddenly stretched up and bit down hard on the hawk. The hawk fell to the floor, the noise of the birds stopped, and the jay flew off. The stranger took the hawk, and we saw it was dying; they then proceeded to pull off its legs and wings and then wring its neck.”

REFERENCES:

C.G.Jung. CW 14, para 189

Dawn of the Dead (1978 film), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Dead_(1978_film)

In The Flesh (2013-2015, TV Series), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Flesh_(TV_series)

Night of the Living Dead, (1968 FILM), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead

The Walking Dead (2010-2022 TV Series), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(TV_series)

Wells Hanley, Zombie Say Hey (song). https://wellshanley.bandcamp.com/track/zombie-say-hey

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Kabbalah is an ancient Jewish mystical tradition that has captured the imaginations of people from widely diverse backgrounds, including Jung himself. Three weeks after his heart attack in 1944, Jung had an ecstatic vision, “…Everything around me also seemed enchanted…I myself was in Pardes-Rimonim, in the pomegranate garden where Tiferet and Malchut married. I also imagined myself as Rabi Shimon ben Yochai, whose mystical marriage was celebrated now. It looked exactly as the Kabbalists portrayed it. I cannot tell you how amazing it was…” Though Jung did not live long enough to explore the Kabbalah fully, his psyche was deeply affected by the images and philosophies which played an important role in his life during this crisis.

Like analysis, Kabbalistic methods cultivate an extraordinary receptivity to Self that illuminates the inner dimensions of the human soul, its unexplored potential, and our relationship to the divine. Its first written fragments surfaced in the 13^th century, but the oral tradition reaches back millennia. Its primary symbol, the Tree of Life, reflects a rich cosmology that maps the progression of archetypal forces in the outer and inner world. It helps us track the flow of psychic energy as it descends from its animating source to archetypal image, thought, and finally to action. Like all images of the Self, it invokes the transcendental ordering principle that heals and facilitates individuation.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I’m in Putin’s inner circle. It’s attached to some other business place that I’m working in. I’m wearing a suit. He’s got an office, like in a 1920s socialist apartment building with tall ceilings. It’s not particularly high security, and I’m in it. The place is a bit messy. Putin is thin; he looks like the younger Putin, not the rounder face. One we see on TV. He’s getting medication out of boxes, and I see their statins, and I figure he’s got heart trouble. I take a seat on a sofa, and we’re talking; I’m thinking about how vulnerable he looks like a nice man; actually, I’m sensing that he trusts me, we have a good easy rapport. I’m wondering whether he knows I’m queer and what he would make of that; given the state of LGBTQ rights in Russia, I figure out that there are two pollutants, this real one behind the scenes and the one on TV. The one on TV has a body double, but the rest of the world doesn’t know that. I wonder how I’m going to keep this from the world and whether it will ever come out that I know him and how I would justify that to the media. I go to the bathroom off his office, and Putin’s bath is running. I gather that he is going to have a bath. I go back into the office, smoke a cigarette on the sofa, and we talk some more, and then I leave. I go to another room or to my friends are out of affection. I kiss my friend A repeatedly on the face, whose name I get wrong. She tells me her name is something else. It’s the first time I’ve heard her tell me the name that she says she is hers. I know her by at least two other names. I accidentally kiss her on the lips. The other friend B is there too, and then I realized that I have kissed B, not A. B asks me whether I’ve been smoking cannabis because there is a really strong smell on my breath. I think about the cigarette I smoked in Putin’s office and wonder how it could have left such a strong smell, and for context, she says the future feels unclear.”

REFERENCES:

Dion Fortune. The Mystical Qabalah. https://www.amazon.com/dp/157863752X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_CNHVRG5XVEK52RWZMASB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Erich Neumann. The Essays of Erich Neumann, Volume 3: The Place of Creation. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691603871/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_TMA84417K13TPNWG4DGV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Meditation and Kabbalah. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0877286167/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_0HVCPYAXXW8DKHKYXMJJ

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This episode was recorded on September 7, 2021.

Angus Fletcher and I discuss creativity, the link between literature and resilience, what makes for compelling narratives, the different kinds of stories, and much more.

Angus Fletcher is a Professor of Story Science at Ohio State's Project Narrative, the world's leading academic think-tank for narrative theory. He is also the author of Wonderworks: The 25 Most Important Inventions in the History of Literature.

Find more Angus Fletcher on his website: https://AngusFletcher.co

[00:00] Intro

[01:21] What is Project Narrative?

[02:27] "Stories are the most powerful things ever invented. They're the most powerful tool we possess" Angus Fletcher

[03:04] "When you realize stories have the power to change how our mind works, to troubleshoot it, to make it more resilient, more creative, more scientific—to do all these things... When you couple the power of stories with the human brain, you throw open the doors to anything" AF

[03:53] The problem with literary studies. How stories empower us and improve performance

[07:06] Wonderworks and the story of courage in Homer's Iliad

[12:40] "Literature and scripture are synonyms. They mean 'that which is written.' So [something] more fundamental than any technology... Is simply that sense of spiritual experience" AF

[13:18] The Neuropsychology of Anxiety by J. Grey

[14:44] What are the 2 kinds of stories?

[19:12] Story thinking

[19:22] "Human cognition is largely narrative. We process the world narratively" AF

[22:12] "The wonder of being on this earth... is to build stories and [empower people] to tell their own" AF "And to unite us in a collective story so we can work towards the same ends" JP

[23:00] Why are certain stories so compelling?

[24:48] The zone of proximal development

[25:44] "Being enthralled is a manifestation of the instinct that specifies the zone of proximal development" JP

[31:24] The ideal spirit transcending the individual; Jung's Pleroma

[32:14] "The flip side of anxiety is creativity—they're both about restless energy" AF

[33:31] What's the source of dreams?

[33:55] "We have this vast knowledge in embodied action." A great storyteller takes "images that reflect a compelling pattern of behavior [and verbalizes them]” JP

[34:56] Abstract representation of patterns as a dream-source

[38:43] Computational power, stories, and the differences between the abstract and particular

[38:48] "Much of what drives the demand for higher computational resources is... producing artificial realities for fantasy simulation" JP 

[45:51] Christianity and Star Wars

[46:35] "Star Wars is Christianity for atheist nerds" JP

[46:56] "We are most happy when we don't perceive ourselves as inheriting an archetypal story" AF

[48:16] "We see in stories, and this is partly why our eyes are adapted... so that people can see [the white in] our eyes. It's really important because [our eyes point at] what they're interested in. We can see what they value [and] infer their motivation" JP

[50:36] Literature and psychedelic experiences

[51:27] "In psychotherapy... you're trying to hammer the person's narrative into a single... functional unit" JP

[55:31] Trauma, unconscious mapping, and dream analysis

[56:56] "Any territory you cannot perceive through the overlaid projection of a narrative map is traumatizing" JP 

[59:59] Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Erich Neumann

[01:02:51] Jung vs Darwin on stories

[01:10:18] "Literature can build emotional and intellectual resilience" AF

[01:14:55] Being adaptive is “to be emotionally and intellectually resilient" AF

[01:15:54] Creative training; measuring creativity

#Creativity #Stories #Jung #Literature #Darwin

Guest Mark Winborn is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst who teaches in the U.S. and internationally. Author of three books and numerous articles, Mark is an active member of the IRSJA and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich/Kusnacht. Psychotherapy is talk therapy—but what kind of talk are we talking about? The most fundamental medium of our knowing is language, and metaphor imbues language with music.

To understand and engage another’s internal world requires language which speaks in harmony with the unconscious. Metaphor speaks beyond ego and traverses the realms between past and present, bodily sensation and feeling, conscious and unconscious. It infuses lived experience with connection and creates shared space for healing. Jung says, “Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthralls and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring.”

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“I am in the bathroom of a hotel room where I am staying. I may have just gotten out of the shower. I see a fat, red, slimy worm-like creature several inches in length crawling along the floor. I am horrified and think that it is a snake. As I inspect it more closely, I notice a tiny pair of limbs along the upper portion of the body. At this point, I wonder if it is a baby alligator. I find this idea less repugnant than a snake. My wife comes into the room and tells me that it is actually a bird. As I study the tiny limbs, I begin to think that these must be embryonic wings. At this point, I begin to ponder how I should nurture this creature, wondering if it would be best for it if I took it outside.”

REFERENCES

Website: www.drmarkwinborn.com

Edinger, E. (1991). Anatomy of the psyche: Alchemical symbolism in psychotherapy. Chicago: Open Court

Meltzer, D., & Williams, M. H. (1988/2008). The apprehension of beauty: The role of aesthetic conflict in development, art, and violence. London: Karnac.

Siegelman, E. (1990). Metaphor and meaning in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford

Winborn, M. (2018). Interpretation in Jungian Analysis: Art and Technique. Routledge.

Winborn, M. (2014). Shared Realities: Participation Mystique and Beyond. Fisher King Press.

Winborn, M. (2011). Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey. Fisher King Press.

RESOURCES:

Learn to Analyze your own Dreams:  https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

Although the concept of archetypes has philosophical ancestors, Jung’s theory was developed over time and rested on a foundation that was scientific and empirical. Research and experiment enabled Jung to establish the autonomous activity of the unconscious.

He was then able to posit archetypes as a predisposition to form representations of universal human experiences and mythological motifs, such as marriage, the hero’s journey, and death/rebirth. For Jung, archetypes are innate psychic organs that “have a positive, favourable (sic), bright side that points upwards [and] one that points downwards…” Archetypes manifest spontaneously. In the collective, they are the driving force behind mass movements; in individuals, archetypes manifest most frequently as dream images that feel numinous and ‘other.’ Jung says, “The impact of an archetype, whether it takes the form of immediate experience or is expressed through the spoken word stirs us because it summons up a voice that is stronger than our own.” The power of an archetype can either possess us or inspire us.

Here’s the dream we analyze:

“Early morning dream, just before waking, and eerily similar but not the same as one I had several years ago about being shot in the heart and stomach area and killed by a stranger. This time, I was at home in my home office and heard someone entering through my back door. I may have wondered if it was my boyfriend, but he does not live with me, and I wasn’t expecting anyone. I went into the hallway to see who it was, and a man I’ve never seen before walked in. He had the energy of an intruder, and I felt scared. He looked right at me. His hair was white; his clothing was gray, his skin nearly colorless or ashen. His eyes and face were emotionless, without expression. He was oriented above me in my dream as if suddenly I had shrunk to the height of a small child looking up at him. I either asked or was about to ask who he was and what he was doing here. Without changing his blank expression, he pulled out a handgun and shot me, point-blank, in the stomach. This time, I woke up from the dream before I felt the bullet. The feeling was adrenaline-filled, fearful, angry, surprised, and confused. I had/have no idea who this man is or was, or what he represents.”

RESOURCES:

Learn to Analyze your own Dreams:  https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

There is value in examining your values, the powerful emotional and cognitive attitudes that underlie large and small life choices. Although values are initially acquired through family and institutions, an essential task of adulthood is consciously embracing traditional or individual values.

Values are the wellspring of libido: they motivate action toward goals. Unless preferred values are in alignment with the underlying flow of energy, unconscious agendas may prevail. Our actions reveal our values, and dreams depict conflicts between conscious and unconsciously held values. The work of Shalom Schwartz, available in an online values assessment (see below), can help identify core values. When values are authentically aligned with goals, they allow libido to flow naturally toward action, and we feel at home with ourselves and right with the world.  

Here’s the Dream We Analyze:

“I am on my school oval, playing volleyball with my peers, though I am not a teenager anymore. I’m not very good at playing; I often miss the ball because the sun is in my eyes, or I unknowingly break a rule. Each time I fail, I expect everyone to criticize me (like they would have in the real world), but instead, they are quite friendly and understanding. Eventually, I get the hang of it and have fun. Suddenly I notice a huge cherry blossom tree that’s caught fire just behind the volleyball court. Despite the bark turning black like charcoal, the flowers remain vivid and beautiful and untarnished. I am struck with this beautiful sight against the cloudy white sky, and I reach for my phone to take a photo, but I cannot find it, so I simply sit and watch it with awe.”

REFERENCES:

Values assessment based on the work of Shalom Schwartz: www.discoveryourvalues.com. 

Schwartz, S.H. An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1)1. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1116 

RESOURCES:

Learn to Analyze your own Dreams:  https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

Like fire in a wood-burning stove, resentment burns long and hot: bitterness, frustration, and hostility. The fires of resentment are lit when we feel needy and vulnerable and feel wronged and rejected. This old human story is told in the biblical tale of brothers Cain and Abel.

When Cain’s offering is judged inferior, Cain takes it out on Abel. He acts--and acts out—defensively to insulate himself from shame and culpability by killing Abel. Cain’s subsequent mark symbolizes the psychic price of resentment. Creating a new human story means facing, feeling and healing from the fruitless quest for reparation. We must instead accept even awful disappointment and seek new possibility. The story of Cain and Abel is a tale of the archetypal masculine. Healing is likely to lie in discovering one’s tender, embracing feminine soul.   

Here's the dream we analyze:

"I'm at an apartment's open house. I know that the place was previously owned by someone considered to be very social and popular. The apartment is right downtown, prime location for shopping and partying. It is also attached to a well-known café/bar. As I'm looking around, I find that the ceilings are very low and I'm hunched over as I move through the rooms and open closets ('cause closet space matters!). I start to have my doubts even though there's a part of me that really wants to live here to be popular too. I sit down with the real estate agent and the café owner. They are playing really loud rock music, the kind of music that just sounds like awful noise to my ears. I mentally retreat from the scene by delving into a book. The café owner looks at me and says that I'm not really a fit for the vibe of the place, which he wants to be the same as before. I agree, although reluctantly."

References:

Ronald Fairbairn:

https://www.amazon.com/Psychoanalytic-Studies-Personality-W-Fairbairn/dp/0415107377/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Ronald+Fairbairn&qid=1614015944&s=books&sr=1-1

Melanie Klein:

https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Melanie-Klein-Juliet-Mitchell/dp/0029214815/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Melanie+Klein&qid=1614016134&s=books&sr=1-5

John Bowlby:

https://www.amazon.com/Secure-Base-Parent-Child-Attachment-Development/dp/0465075975/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=john+bowlby&qid=1614016385&s=books&sr=1-2

Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s close collaborator, capped her public work in a 1986 lecture that summarized Jung’s signal contributions to understanding the human experience. Jung was concerned that rationalism, quantitative methodologies, and the objectification of people and animals had become one-sided, resulting in ethical and empathic deficiencies. He felt the over-development of professional personas—even among physicians and psychotherapists—led to avoiding authentic encounters. Sentimentality, a superficial expression of feeling, could be used to mask cruelty, including to animals.

For Jung, relationship to the sacred was foundational, and was the true source of an ethical stance. He felt that a well-developed feeling function, the conscious development of empathy, and differentiated relatedness are at the heart of the human endeavor. The feminine principle of eros is central to his work. This Jungian Life explored von Franz’ insightful and moving summation of her understanding of Jung and his work in a presentation for the Washington, D.C. Jung Society.

The world is the canvas on which we paint our lives. Through this lifelong work, we express personal vision, develop skills, and come to terms with the realities of our outer and inner worlds. The first major stage of adaptation, the transition from child to adult, requires readiness to separate from protective life structures in pursuit of outer world goals. It entails developing a strong, flexible ego devoid of overly negative or idealistic beliefs about self and world, a progressive orientation, and ability to cope with disappointment.

In the second half of life, the adaptive task is introverted, and consists of relating to and integrating contents of the unconscious. While most of us come to recognize and adapt to ego’s limited control over external-world actualities, realizing the autonomy of the inner world is less universal. Jung described this process in his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections as his confrontation with the unconscious. This process of adaptation led him--and can lead us--to living in relationship to something larger, the Self.

Dream

I'm standing outside of a pool and my sons (6 and 10) are in the pool with my ex-husband. My mother is sitting near me. I realize I need to go to the bathroom and shout to my ex-husband to take care of our youngest son. As I turn my back at the pool I see a frogman, he has the body of a man and the head of a frog. He is sitting as a frog on the floor.

I'm surprised and fascinated by it. His skin is dark blue with small light green and light blue freckles. His eyes are green. It is raining and he seems to be enjoying the water. I call my brother so he can see the creature; my brother appears as a little boy and the frogman sits at a table with my brother that asks him many questions about his origin. The frogman speaks to my brother while I go to the bathroom. When I return the frogman is sitting on a small stairway, like waiting for me. I see him and I ask him if I can touch his skin. He lets me touch his arm; it is shiny and beautiful like a night full of stars.

I don't remember if I kiss him or hug him. He asks me to go with him and I tell him that I have other things to do. I walk down a street and find a busy avenue with heavy traffic. I have to cross to the other side but it seems hard, like a complex coordination of moves and traffic lights. I see the frogman walking on the other side of the avenue. 

References

C.G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Amazon). 

Jung teaches that soul and spirit have a home in a living body, the font of psyche’s images and means of their incarnation in the world. Embodiment is the ground of being, and engaging the tension between instinct and archetype shapes consciousness and character. Jung identified five instincts: creativity, movement, sexuality/eros, hunger in its many manifestations, and the ability to reflect and make meaning.

If Pinocchio’s task was to humanize his instincts, much of modern man’s mission may be to re-establish vibrant connection with instinctual life. Jung says, “The archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.” The rigorous refining of instinct through embodied, conscious action is the path toward wholeness.

Dream

I was waiting for a young man to pick me up for our second date, but he was late. I was in a park and there was a fair, and I ran into some of my childhood friends who were quite surprised about my date. So they started harassing me with questions about who he was and, mostly, why he was late. I didn't have his phone number, so I didn't know.

I had with me a backpack, laptop, kindle, handbag, another bag and my stuff kept falling on the ground, and I had to pick it up over and over. It was raining hard, hours had passed and I decided to walk through the fair. There I bought a unicorn-shaped mug, that immediately fell off my hands and became ash as it hit the ground. I was tired and cold and went sitting under a large tree. In the tall grass, emerged a group of people who were shooting at wild ducks.

Reference:

Besel van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Amazon). 

We are revisiting Jordan B. Peterson's Biblical Series during a time when we believe it to be helpful. In this episode, Dr. Peterson presents another lecture and Q&A on the Bible.

The archetype of the scapegoat goes back to the ancient Hebrew ritual of using two goats to expiate the sins of the tribe. Sin, blame, and wrongness are also often attributed to others, and this practice – scapegoating – is addressed as it occurs in current culture, in families, and in individual psychology.

The Dream:

I hiked to a “primitive” tribal village. I went there as a researcher, perhaps an anthropologist. As I was standing talking to one of the men, an angry woman with a crying infant stomped toward our area and plunged her infant (backside first) into a plastic basin of water as if to drown her. Bubbles came from the infant’s mouth while under water. I started to run over there to rescue the baby, but the man (or something) held me back. The woman pulled the baby out of the water, looked at her face briefly, and then plunged her back into the water – this time face down. At this, I immediately ran to the baby and pulled her out of the water. I held her face down and pounded on her back in an attempt to get the water out of her lungs. While I was watching/doing all of this, I was aware that I wanted to save the child, not because I cared about her, or because I cared about children in general, but because I knew what it felt like to drown. Water came out of the infant’s mouth, she coughed a lot, and then seemed okay. She was able to breathe. The angry mother had stood there watching me. She was now calm. She wanted her baby back, and although I felt apprehensive about returning the child, I did. The woman and child seemed fine. I wanted to have the child removed from the abusive, dangerous environment, but the mother reassured me everything was fine. I had to leave. The mother was smiling as she cradled her baby; she seemed genuinely happy/content, but I still worried a bit about the infant.  

PAJA (Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts)