Jungian Symbolic Psychology

Carlos Amadeu Botelho Byington

• 30 april 2012
• 9781630510657

Samenvatting:

Jungian symbolic psychology created by Carlos Byington reformulates the concept of archetype in analytical psychology and of defense in psychoanalysis to encompass the conscious and unconscious as well as the subjective and objective psychological dimensions inspired in Heidegger's conception of being.

Within the symbolic archetypal dimension, he conceives the alterity archetype (which includes the anima and animus archetypes) and the totality archetype, which he differentiates from the central archetype of the Self. Following Erich Neumann, Byington adds these two new archetypes to the matriarchal and patriarchal archetypes. Describing these four archetypes as the structuring archetypal quaternio, he conceives the ego-other archetypal positions of consciousness as the archetypal forms of intelligence.

Amid the forms of archetypal intelligence described, Byington distinguishes the dialectic intelligence of the alterity archetype (anima and animus) as the highest form of human intelligence capable of relating polarities within a spectrum that varies from opposition to equality and is present in democracy, in artistic and scientific creativity, and in love.

With the same archetypes described in the individuation process, Byington formulates an archetypal theory of history based on Hegel's philosophy and Teilhard de Chardin's concept of the humanization process. The historical humanization of the alterity archetype centered in compassion is described in the myth of Christ in the West and in the myth of Buddha in the East.

The dialectic of polarities of the alterity archetype, which permeates the book, reveals the complementarily of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, to ex-press the formation of the shadow as the dysfunction of the individuation process.

In the last chapter, Byington illustrates the individuation process and the humanization process with the myth of Oedipus and the archetype of sanctity, reuniting in Jungian symbolic psychology concepts of psychoanalysis, analytical psychology, and Heidegger's ontology.

Based on the expansion of the concepts of archetype and symbol to en-compass consciousness, unconscious, and the subjective and objective dimensions of' being, Jungian symbolic psychology transforms modern psychology and psychopathology by associating analytical psychology's concept of the shadow and the concept of' defense mechanism within ontology in psychoanalysis.

The five archetypal positions of the ego-other polarity conceived by Byington al-low us to differentiate and interrelate the central archetype (Self), the matriarchal and the patriarchal archetypes, the alterity archetype (anima and animus), and the totality archetype in the individual and cultural Selves.

Differentiating between the patriarchal shadow, which expresses itself through authoritarianism and ecological destruction, and the compassionate, democratic, and sustainable characteristics of the alterity archetype, the author elaborates archetypally the central dilemma of modern humankind seen as the main condition for our survival.