The only abnormality is the incapacity to love. The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love. Individuation denotes the process by which a person becomes a psychological “in-dividual,” that is, a separate, indivisible unity or “whole.” It is generally assumed that consciousness is the whole of the psychological individual. However, knowledge of the phenomena that can only be explained on the hypothesis of the unconscious psychic process makes it doubtful whether the ego and its contents are in fact identical with the “whole.” If unconscious processes exist at all, they must surely belong to the totality of the individual, even though they are not components of the conscious ego. If they were part of the ego they would necessarily be conscious, because everything that is directly related to the ego is conscious. Conscious can even be equated with the relation between the ego and the psychic contents. However, unconscious phenomena are so little related to the ego that most people do not hesitate to deny their existence outright. Nevertheless, they manifest themselves in an individual’s behaviour. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26
An attentive observer can detect the ego and psychic content without difficulty, while the observed person remains quite unaware of the fact that one is betraying one’s most secret thoughts or even things that one has never thought consciously. It is, however, a great prejudice to suppose that something we have never thought consciously does not exist in the psyche. There is plenty of evidence to show that consciousness is very far from covering the psyche in its totality. Many things occur semiconsciously, and a great many more remain entirely unconscious. Thorough investigation of the phenomena of dual and multiple personalities, for instance, has brought to light a mass of material with observations to prove this point. (I would refer the reader to the writings of Pierre Janet, Theodore Flournoy, Morton Prince, and others.) The importance of such phenomena has made a deep impression on medical psychology, because they give rise to all sorts of psychic and physiological symptoms. In these circumstances, the assumption that the ego expresses the totality of the psyche has become untenable. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26
It is, on the contrary, evident that the whole must necessarily include not only consciousness but the illimitable field of unconscious occurrences as well, and that the ego can be no more than the center of the field of conscious. You will naturally ask whether the unconscious possesses a center too. I would hardly venture to assume that there is in the unconscious a ruling principle analogous to the ego. As a matter of fact, everything points to the contrary. If there were such a center, we could expect almost regular signs of its existence. Cases of dual personality would then be frequent occurrences instead of rare curiosities. As a rule, unconscious phenomena manifest themselves in fairly chaotic and unsystematic form. Dreams, for instance, show no apparent order and no tendency to systematization, as they would have to do if there were a personal consciousness at the back of them. The philosophers Carus and von Hartmann treat the unconscious as a metaphysical principle, a sort of universal mind, without any trace of personality or ego-consciousness, and similarly Schopenhauer’s “Will” is without ego. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26
Modern psychologist, too, regard the unconscious as an egoless function below the threshold of consciousness. Unlike the philosophers, they tend to derive its subliminal functions from the conscious mind. Dr. Janet thinks that there is certain weakness of consciousness which is unable to hold all the psychic process together. Dr. Freud, on the other hand, favours the idea of conscious factors that suppress certain incompatible tendencies. Much can be said for both theories, since there are numerous cases where a weakness of consciousness actually causes certain contents to fall below the threshold, or where disagreeable contents are repressed. It is obvious that such careful observations as Dr. Janet and Dr. Freud would not have constructed theories deriving the unconscious mainly from conscious sources had they been able to discover traces of an independent personality or of an autonomous will in the manifestations of the unconscious. If it were true that the unconscious consists of nothing but contents accidentally deprived of consciousness but otherwise indistinguishable from the conscious material the one could identify the ego more or less with the totality of the psyche. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26
However, actually the situation is not quite so simple. Both theories are based mainly on observations in the field of neurosis. Neither Dr. Janet nor Dr. Freud had any specifically psychiatric experience. If they had, they would surely have been struck by the fact that the unconscious displays some contents that are utterly different from conscious ones, so strange, indeed, that nobody can understand them, neither the patient oneself nor one’s doctors. The patient is inundated by a flood of thoughts that are as strange to one as they are to a normal person. That is why we call one “crazy”: we cannot understand one’s ideas. Only if we have the necessary premises for doing so, can we understand something. However, where the premises are just as remote from our consciousness as they were from the mind of the patient before one went made. Otherwise one would have never become insane. There is, in fact, no field directly known to us from which we could derive certain pathological ideas. It is not a question of more or less normal contents that became unconscious by accident. They are, on the contrary, products whose nature is at first baffling. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26
The contents differ in every respect from neurotic material, which cannot be said at all bizarre. The material of a neurosis is understandable in human terms, but that of a psychosis is not. (By this I mean only certain cases of schizophrenia.) This peculiar psychotic material cannot be derived from the conscious mind, because the latter lack the premises which would help to explain the strangeness of the ideas. Neurotic contents can be integrated without appreciable injury to the ego, but psychotic ideas cannot. They remain inaccessible, and ego-consciousness is more or less swamped by them. They even show a distinct tendency to draw the ego into their “system.” Such cases indicate that under certain conditions the unconscious is capable of taking over the role of the ego. The consequence of this exchange is insanity and confusion, because the unconscious is not a second personality with organized and centralized functions but in all probability a decentralized congeries of psychic processes. However, nothing produced by the human mind lies absolutely outside the psychic realm. Even the craziest idea must correspond to something in the psyche. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26
We cannot suppose that certain minds contain elements that do not exist at all in other minds. Nor can we assume that the unconscious is capable of becoming autonomous only in certain people, namely in those predisposed to insanity. It is very much more likely that the tendency to autonomy is more or less general peculiarity of the unconscious. Mental disorder is, in a sense, only one outstanding example of a hidden but none the less general condition. This tendency to autonomy shows itself above all in affective states, including those of normal people. When in a state of violent affect one says or does things which exceed the ordinary. Not much is needed: love and hate, joy and grief, are often enough to make the ego and the unconscious change places. Very strange ideas indeed can take possession of otherwise healthy people on such occasions. Groups, communities, and even whole nations can be seized in this way by psychic epidemics. The autonomy of the unconscious therefore begins where emotions are generated. Emotions are instinctive, involuntary reactions which upset the rational order of conscious by their elemental outburst. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26
Affects are not “made” or willfully produced; they simply happen. In a state of affect a trait of character sometimes appears which is strange even to the person concerned, or hidden contents may irrupt involuntarily. The more violent an affect the closer it comes to the pathological, to a condition in which the ego-consciousness is thrust aside by autonomous contents that were unconscious before. So long as the unconscious is in a dormant condition, it seems as if there were absolutely noting in this hidden region. Hence wen something unknow suddenly appears “from nowhere,” we are continually surprised. Afterwards, of course, the psychologist comes along and shows that things had to happen as they did for this or that reason. However, who could have said so beforehand? The experience of the harmonious interpenetrating mix-up was “a paradise in the womb.” This paradise is destroyed by the discovery that firm independent objects exist. From then on, the existence of objects with their resistant, aggressive and ambivalent qualities must be accepted. The moment of this discovery does not coincide with the birth of the body: it marks a rather later moment: the beginning of the individual personality, of the self (called ego). #RandolphHarris 8 of 26
The encounter with something so definitely other that it cannot be controlled is what starts the individual on the process of individuation. Two reactions may come from this discovery. They are called ocnophilic and philobatic. We shall call them home-loving (homebodies) and space-loving (spacebats), which keeps much of the meaning and also most of the letters from the proper titles, so as to minimize confusion. A homebody’s reaction to the discover of the “other” is to create a World based on phantasy that other people and things are useful, reliable, and kind; that they will always be there when needed; and that they will never mind being used as needed. By contrast, a spacebat rection is to create a phantasy World which goes back to a time when there were no others, no obstacles/things, people, only limitless power. A spacebat lives as far as possible in a phantasy of a still existing unity and harmony of limitless contourless expanses. When other people of things cannot be ignored, they are experienced either as dangerous unpredictable obstacles and hazards (of which the autistic child’s reaction is an extreme example) or as emotionally uninteresting equipment to be used as convenient. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26
On the other hand, homebodies’ reaction to the discovery that there are others, people and things, which resist them and which they cannot control, is to turn strongly to these others, to whom they then attribute the power to look after them in this dangerous World. This development leads them to the cultivation of strong relationships with others and to mistrust of their own independent individual endeavours. In these relationships the object is felt as a vitally important support. Any threat of being separated from it creates intense anxiety, and the most frequently used defence against this is clinging. On the other hand, the object becomes so important that no concern or consideration can be given to it. It must have no separate interests from the individual’s, it must simply be there and, in fact, it is taken for granted. The consequences of this type of relationship are an over-valuation of the object and a comparative inhibition against developing personal skills which might make the individual independent from one’s objects. A homebody’s World consists of people and things separated by horrid empty spaces. Homebodies live from person to person, cutting short their time in the empty spaces as far as possible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26
When separated from their attachment figures, homebodies are frightened; when attachment figure rejoin them, their fear is allayed. Homebodies hold on to people (parents, friends, anyone) or things (toys, clothes, rooms, home-towns) or ideas (in art, philosophy, science, or politics). In the World of ideas they need certainty. Uncertainty and ambiguity are experienced as uncomfortable and somehow wrong. They imagine that as long as they are in touch with a safe attachment-figure they themselves are safe. Spacebats, on the other hand, have the illusion that all they need is the proper equipment. They do not need people, certainly not one particular person. In fact, people are avoided as principal sources of danger. Provided the elements are not too inclement, the pilot is safe in the skies, the sailor on the high seas, the skier on the slopes, the driver on the open read, the parachutist in the air. The spacebat fears danger only from other things and people, which have to be “negotiated”: the pilot has to land, the skier has to skim round trees and rocks, a boss has to be impressed, a lover pleased. The spacebat’s World is one of friendly expanses dotted with dangerous and unpredictable things and people. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26
Spacebats cultivate their skills and ego-functions so that they can look after themselves. Thereafter they can put their trust in the assurance that they can cope, keeping also always a fascination for (but wary mistrust of) the environment (including the people) they were not able to control until they had cultivated the skills to do so. These skills they will continue to test and confirm throughout life, often through deeds of risk and derring-do. Such people’s World is coloured by an unjustified optimism, which actually has its roots in the earlier World of Primary Love when all was well—this memory enables them to hold on to the belief that their skills and equipment will be sufficient to cope with anything as long as they can avoid the hazardous obstacles. Fairground please differ accordingly. The homebodies go for the simple human aggression of the rifle range or the greedy indulgence of hamburgers and candyfloss. Spacebat go for the non-attached thrills of the Big Wheel, the roundabouts, and the dodgems, which over and over assure them of their ability to survive. They look for danger which can be overcome with skill. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26
From them, thrill goes with skill. These thrills are to do with leaving a safe place for somewhere where there is nothing to hold on to, with perhaps the danger of collision, and then a safe return home. This hypothesis is that this is where the fear of separateness (the loss of an attachment figure) could be mastered in play. It is a regression—to that moment when the infant experienced itself as on its own, unattached and unsupported. They very language of caring and relating is permeated by these two contrasting stances: “we are contrasting the World of skin-contact with the World of the more distal sense of vision.” Home-loving relationships are more tactile: homebodies use tact, they like to be in touch, ideas are grasped and comprehended, stories grip them. Speacebat relationships are eye-to-eye, spacebat look after people and tings, they have regard for them, consideration, concern. The three synonymous words: concern, consideration, and regard came from Norman French into English…in their original meaning they all describe a state of intense looking at an object from a distance. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26
To sum up: Homebodies need to feel in turn with their chosen person (attachment figure), presume that they can win the favour of their chosen person, need to be in contact (close, attached); they keep in touch with people. Spacebats need to feel in tune wit the whole World, presume that they can conquer the World without relying on anyone’s favour need to be on the watch (distant, eyes and ears alert); they relate to people by making them safe through the use of interpersonal skills. Most intrepid spacebats hold on to something: skiers to sticks, tightrope-walkers to poles, lion-tamers to whips, and all have to be taught not to tense and hold on with their muscle in the supreme moment of tension. I think this must be the same process as that which Dr. Tustin had in mind when she noticed how autistic children hold on to what she called an auto-sensuous object; she thought it likely that by holding hard on to this, the defenceless and frightened child gave itself a sense that the whole body had something hard to protect it. This is a similar paradox about homebodies. By clinging one gets father and father away from the satisfaction of the original need, which was to be held safely. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26
The profoundly tragic situation is that the more efficiently one clings, the less one is held by the object. This ever-repeated experience during analytic treatment had a large share in building up our theories of ambivalence and frustration. Both home-loving and space-loving are reactions to the emergence of self from (m)other. Both reaction involve the disappearance of something from which separation had been inconceivable. The home-loving reaction would be to cling so closely to the attachment figure that vision, which normally gives a sense of distance, is blurred and obscured and the gap between self and other acutely. The space-loving reaction makes the other dwindle out of sight so that one ceases to be reminded of the separation. Both reactions provide a ready foundation for ambivalence. The home-loving side, so dependent for well-being on the closeness of the others, may make us suspicious, mistrustful, disappointed in the failings of the people we cling to; the space-loving side may make us feel superior and condescending to the very people we need to cooperate with. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26
Both of them are in constant danger of marring or even destroying their relationships to their love-objects by exactly the same methods by which they gained their favour: the ocnophil by too much clinging, the philobat by the use of too much superior skill. From this angle it would be equally correct to describe these two attitudes by words denoting hatred. Less frantically and more constructively, our home-loving side may enable us to cultivate a talent for psychological closeness and intimacy and tolerance, while the space-loving side may go exploring the great featureless expanses—a happy preparation for a safe return home. The teachings of Jesus are deeply rooted in our basic nature. Love expresses itself in the beautiful circles of sufficiency. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a goldfish. However, it is immortals whom we joke wit, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. All of us have a complex network of relationships built around four natural contacts: biological (relatives and family, and by extension church and family), geographical (where we live), vocational (who we work with), and recreational (where we play). We need to discover our networks, make a list of likely contacts, and begin to pray for them. Finally, as we pray, we must invest out time, talent, and treasure in relationships. Become personally involved in the lives of others. Plan to spend significant time wit those you would like to reach, and then make sure your plan is represented on your calendar. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26
Invite your friends out for lunch or dinner, or to your home for coffee. Do things together. Attend plays, sporting events, art exhibits. Go fishing. Use special days to share your interests—birthday, graduations, holidays, weddings, births. Visit, call, or write a note. Join a service club such as Rotary, Kiwanis, or Lions. Join an interest club: gardening, hunting, cooking, woodworking. Volunteer to coach boys’ or girls’ athletic team, to be a teacher’s assistant, to give your time to the hospital or one of the many charitable organizations. Open your home to the neighbourhood. Be the most hospital home on the block to the people in your community. Spiritual formation, good or bad, is always profoundly social. You cannot keep it to yourself. Anyone who thinks of it as a merely private matter has misunderstood it. Anyone who says, “It is just between me and God,” or “What I do is my own business,” has misunderstood God as well as “me.” Strictly speaking there is nothing “just between me and God.” For all that is between me and God affect who I am; and that, in turn, modifies my relationship to everyone around me. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26
My relationship to others also modifies me and deeply affects my relationship to God. Hence, if I am to be transformed, those relationships must be transformed. Therefore Jesus gave a sure mark of the outcome of spiritual formation under his guidance: we become people who love one another (John 13.35). And he does not leave “love,” that “many splendored thing,” unspecified. Instead he gives “a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another,” reports John 13.34. The age-old command to love is transformed, made a new command, by identification of the love in question with that of Jesus for us. “Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because one has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is his Son. One who has the Son has life; one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him,” reports 1 John 5.10-12. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26
Love of our human family is the supernatural way that allows us to know that we have passed out of death into life. We simply cannot love in that way unless we have a different kind of life in us. And the “love” here in question is identified as that which is in Christ because it is one that makes us ready to lay down our lives for the brethren. Failure to love others as Jesus loves us, on the other hand, chokes off the flow of the eternal kind of life that our whole human system cries out for. The old apostle minces no words: “One who does not love abides in death,” reports 1 John 3.14. Notice he did not say, “one who hates,” but simply, “one who does not love.” The mere absence of love is deadly. It is withdrawal. Notice that Jesus did not say, “One who is not loved,” though that also is true. That too is death, but our purpose cannot be to get others to love us. Love comes to us from God. That must be our unshakable circle of sufficiency. Our purpose must them be to become one who loves others with Christ’s agape. That purpose, when developed, will transform the social dimension of the human self and all of our relations to others. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26
Love is not a feeling, or a special way of feeling, but the divine way of relating to others and oneself that moves through every dimension of our being and restructures our World for good. “And now there began to be a great curse upon all the land because of the iniquity of the people, in which, if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his shelf, or upon the place wither he could keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could not find it, so great was the cure upon the land. Wherefore every man did cleave unto that which was one’s own, with one’s hands, and would not borrow neither would he lend; and every human kept the hilt of his sword in his right hand, in the defence of his property and his own life and of his wives and children. And now, after the space of two years, and after the death of Shared, behold, there arouse the brother of Shared and he gave battle unto Coriantumr, in which Coriantumr did beat him and did pursue him to be the wilderness of Akish. And it came to pass that the brother of Shared did give battle unto him in the wilderness of Akish; and the battle became exceedingly sore, and many thousands fell by the sword. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26
“And it came to pass that Coriantumr dwelt with is army in the wilderness for the space of two years, in which he did receive great strength to his army. Now the brother of Shared, whose name was Gilead, also received great strength to his army, because of secret combinations. And it came to pass that his high priest murdered him as he sat upon his throne. And it came to pass that one of the secret combinations murdered him in a secret pass, and obtained unto himself the kingdom; and his name was Lib; and Lib was a man of greater stature, more than any other man among all the people. And it came to pass that in the first year of Lib, Coriantumr came up unto the land of Moron, and gave battle unto Lib. And it came to pass that he forth with Lib, in which Lib did smite upon his arm that he was wounded; nevertheless, the army of Coriantumr did press forward upon Lib, that he fled to the borders upon the seashore. And it came to pass that Coriantumr pursued him; and Lib gave battle unto him upon the seashore. And it came to pass that Lib did smite army of Coriantumr, that they fled again to the wilderness of Akish. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26
“And it came to pass that Lib did pursue him until he came to the plains of Agosh. And Coriantumr had taken all the people with him as he fled before Lib in that quarter of the land wither he fled. And when he had come to the plains of Agosh he gave battle unto Lib, and he smote upon him until he died; nevertheless, the brother of Lib did come against Coriantumr in the stead thereof, and the battle became exceedingly sore, in the which Coriantumr fled again before the army of the brother of Lib. Now the name of the brother of Lib was called Shiz. And it came to pass that Shiz pursued after Coriantumr, and he did overthrow many cities, and he did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities. And there went a fear of Shiz throughout all the land; yea, a cry went forth throughout the land—Who can stand before the army of Shiz? Behold, he sweepeth the Earth before him! And it came to pass that the people began to flock together in armies, throughout all the face of the land. And they were divided; and a part of them fled to the army of Shiz, and a part of them fled to the army of Coriantumr. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26
“And so great and lasting had been the war, and so long had been the scene of bloodshed and carnage, that the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead. And so swift and speedy was the way that there was none left to bury the dead, but they did march forth from the shedding of blood, leaving the bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land, to become a prey to the worms of the flesh. And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the land, even upon all the face of the land; wherefore the people became troubled by day and by night, because of the scent thereof. Nevertheless, Shiz did not cease to pursue Coriantumr; for he had sworn to avenge himself upon Coriantumr of the blood of his brother, who has been slain, and the word of the Lord which came to Ether that Coriantumr should not fall by the sword. And thus we see that the Lord did visit them in the fulness of his wrath, and their wickedness and abomination had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction. And it came to pass that Shiz did pursue Coriantumr eastward, even to the borders by the seashore, and there he gave battle unto Shiz for the space of thee days. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26
“And so terrible was the destruction among the armies of Shiz that the people began to be frightened, and began to flee before the armies of Coriantumr; and they fled to the land of Corihor, and swept off the inhabitants before them, all them that would not join them. And they pitched their tents in the valley of Corihor; and Coriantumr pitched his tents in the valley of Shurr. Now the valley of Shurr was near the hill Comnor; wherefore, Coriantumr did gather his armies together upon the hill Comnor, and did sound a trumpet unto the armies of Chiz to invite them forth to battle. And it came to pass that they came forth, but were driven again; and they came the second time, and they were driven again the second time. And it came to pass that they came again the third time, and the battle became exceedingly sore. And it came to pass that Shiz smote upon Coriantumr that he gave him many deep wounds; and Coriantumr, having lost his blood, fainted, and was carried away as though he were dead. Now the loss of men, women and children on both sides was so great that Shiz commanded his people that they should not pursue the armies of Coriantumr; wherefore they returned to their camp,” reports Ether 14.1-31. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26
Blessed be God, wintertime King, blessed in all the signs of cold’s return, blessed in the scent of freezing Earth, His own true incense rising up in his Praise. Blessed be God who hath compassion upon His creatures. Blessed be God who bestoweth a good reward upon them that revere Him. Blessed be God who liveth forever and endureth to all eternity. Blessed be God who ransometh and delivereth; blessed be His name. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, O God, merciful Father, praised by Thy people, extolled and glorified by Thy servants, Thy faithful ones. With the psalms of David, Thy servant, we will praise Thee, O Lord our God; with hymns and songs we will extol and glorify Thee; with hymns and songs we will extol and glorify Thee; we will call upon Thy name and proclaim Thee our King. O Thou who art One, the life of the Universe, the King, who art praised and glorified, Thy great names endureth to all eternity. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, divine Ruler, extolled with psalms of praise. O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among peoples. Speak of al His marvellous works. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26
Cresleigh Homes
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