Personality and the Unconscious Part II #JungianBitsOfInformation

I had all these ego plans to visit some Buddhist temples and explore Bangkok but the trip turned out to be far busier than expected. The humidity of Bangkok did not quite appeal to me after a long day spent working in air conditioned offices so I focused on exploring the immediate neighbourhood around my hotel and quickly found myself excited by the vast array of food. Thai, Korean, Chinese, I tried it all and to an Extraverted Sensation type like me (read my previous blog on Personality Types to remind yourself of the Extraverted v Introverted Thinking/Feeling/Sensation/Intuition types) and you will see why good food can be an almost religious experience to an Extraverted Sensation type. The look, smell and taste of Thai food is incredible.

My previous blog on Jungian Personality Types can be found by searching ?JungianBitsofInformation

I thought I would find some inspiration for my #JungianBitsofInformation blog by spending some time in some Buddhist temples but that never happened so I just waited to see what would happen during the trip. And nothing happened! I began to reconsider my plans to find inspiration in Bangkok. Then something happened. On my return to London, I was walking excitedly towards airside at Bangkok airport to do some shopping as I hadn't had much time to shop during the trip. I broke away from my group of fellow travellers but as we reached airside we were met by one of most mesmerising and hypnotic sculptures I have ever seen called Scene of the Churning of the Milk Ocean.

It is quite a thing to see. A dragon is being pulled in opposing directions by groups of men, one group look fierce and aggressive, the other look serene and divine. It is impossible to upload the full panoramic image but you can probably see a sneak preview in the header above. You can see more images by searching Scene of the Churning of the Milk Ocean.

It is an absolutely beautiful scene to see. The tension between the two groups of men is pulpable. Their emotions etched so perfectly on their faces. They wear intricate, elaborate costumes and accessories. Tipped on top of a mountain, supported by a turtle is another being, a purple skinned, four-armed man, also wearing elaborate and intricate costumes and accessories, and standing on a lotus leaf. Part of the body of the dragon is tightly wound round the mountain. Why is this image so captivating? Well, the whole scene comes straight from the unconscious, the sea is often a representation of the unconscious, and as luck would have it, it became the inspiration for this blog about the unconscious and the Jungian psychological interpretation of it. And this is probably the most difficult #JungianBitsofInformation that I have written given the nature of the topic!

We live in an age now where people do not understand the workings of the mind. We have also lost our understanding and use of metaphors, however, this knowledge is still very much alive in analytical psychology and psycho-analysis. Analytical psychology and psycho-analysis coupled with metaphors is an attempt to understand issues, problems, society and also illuminate the meaning of art, literature, religion and even politics. So what would a Jungian Analyst think of the Scene of the Churning of the Milk Ocean?

I will start by giving a very brief history of the unconscious. The unconscious is a very recent discovery within the last 250 years although talked about in poetry and philosophy for much longer. The manifestation of the unconscious can be seen in Egyptian and Greek myth and art. It is also seen in many other cultures around the world, in African, Native American stories and myths. Shamanism is a very old tradition in many cultures even as far as the Arctic, and is generally accepted as the origin of psychotherapy. Jungian psychology tends to have a very euro centric approach in modern times, something that has collided quite hardly with my own east African roots. But there are common themes in many of these different cultures. Symbols like the snake, very prominent in India, Africa and South America, each telling a very different story. The dragon appears in China, in a similar vein to the snake. Around 1175 to the 1920s several psychologists, like Mesmer, Puysegur, Pierre Janet, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud bring their own interpretation of the psyche to the world’s attention meeting the needs of a growing intellectual middle class.

Jung in particular talked about the collective unconscious. Working as a psychiatrist at the Burgholzli Clinic in Zurich in the 1900s he observed the fantasies of schizophrenic patients and noticed the seemingly myth like contents. The patients were not even aware of the similarities, as far as they were concerned, these contents were just images in their minds. Jung eventually described these images and patterns as archetypes, common to all men, hidden deep in our unconscious. The archetypes are projected outside through art, religion and literature. Is there really a God or is he a projection of the collective unconscious?

The Scene of the Churning of the Milk Ocean is a wonderful and typical archetypal scene. To give it a very simple Jungian interpretation, it represents the tension of opposites. A common term used in Jungian psychology. We all know it but might not be aware of it. There is me, for example, and there is you. There is them and there is us. We are American and you are Asian. Hard and soft, right and left, big and small, happy and sad, tall and short, up and down, right and wrong, easy and hard, black and white, and on and on. The opposites is a common feature of the human mind or indeed the universe. The creation of life stems from the tension of opposites, masculine and feminine. We seem to split into two politically, left and right, labour and conservative, democrats and republicans, any other party is just a stoney meteor or rock spinning round one of these two, lush, fertile planets. And there is the metaphor to describe the relationship of the opposites!

The Devas and the Asuras are battling out to win the full body of the dragon. The tension is caught up in the middle, you can see the body of the dragon tightly wound round the mountain. And that’s what a problem can feel or look like in metaphorical terms. The individual cannot decide between the two, perhaps 2 opposing decisions, perhaps there is an aggressive part of them that they cannot express and a more civilised, accommodating individual on the other, the more acceptable part. In this scene, the Devas certainly look more civilised whilst the Devas are very aggressive looking. The battle churns the ocean, the mind, swirling it around violently, creating massive waves, the once placid sea is being chucked around, and this is symbolic of a depression, the placid sea represents peace but here the sea is raging around violently, again symbolic of the individual’s mind, racing around violently, far away from the peace of a placid sea. Eventually the tension leads to the emergence of a divine figure, a four armed man with blue skin. This is the result of the individual holding the tension or at least being aware of the tension of opposites rather than being carried away by their ego to the Deva or Asura side, e.g. being totally identified as being a liberal or a democrat, a republican, a labour or conservative supporter, a right or left winger. The individual becomes possessed by one side and lives it unconsciously. But not identifying with either side and just letting the push and pull stop, means the sea calms down and there is peace. This period of peace and reflection leads to the individual finding something in them that goes beyond the opposites. And that’s enlightenment, an epiphany, a transformation or in Jungian terms, the transcendent function represented here by the blue skinned, four armed man on top of the mountain. The battle of the Asuras and Devas is not over, there is still a tension but the individual does not identify with either side. In an Jungian Analysis we try to help our clients to reach this level of containment and peace. It is a hard won fight and can take many years. The realisation of the tension of opposites within oneself, is not an easy one to make or accept. I’ve travelled to many countries around the world but it took a trip to India a couple of years go to realise the tension of opposites within myself. I was travelling in Khajuraho visiting some ancient temples thousands of years old when a chance encounter with a wooden statue of a female goddess completely changed my psychological insight into many of the challenges I had faced in my life. Maybe one day I will write about her!

So there you have it. A very brief Jungian interpretation of the wonderful scene at Bangkok Airport. Someone has thought very carefully about this scene, consciously or unconsciously. If you ever visit Bangkok, on your way out, please do spend some time looking at this sculpture and maybe you will find some psychological insight in there for you. Look at art, read literature and poems, watch films (the archetype of the hero is very apparent in Star Wars), read fairy tales and myths, and you will see archetypal patterns. Or message me if you want to discuss anything that comes to mind.

If you would like to hear or read more about the unconscious I highly recommend Joseph Campbell. There are some wonderful podcasts of his lectures on Spotify and The Discovery of the Unconscious by Henri F Ellenberger, an absolutely amazing book to read and to learn more about how the unconscious has influenced your life, our lives and the lives of our ancestors.

I am back in my final year of my masters in Jungian psychology so I will continue to share my thoughts on all things Jungian.

For my next blog, I will write about The Self. A central feature of Jungian Psychology and to give you a sneak preview, think Mandalas. Until then…

Nicholas

Jungian Analysand