Healing Within the Blur

In the “dance” depicted above, we might consider the center image as “the blur” referred to in the Observation: Healing Only Occurs in the Blur. As such, it can also be seen from the Couple Experiential State Complex as Activated Threshold perspective. I am proposing the usefulness of directing our attention to the in-the-moment-felt-experience of this altered and altering state.

We might consider the emotional intensity of such a moment as reflective of dueling complexes. This is the level of shared resonance with the wound, the place of overlapping unfinished emotional business. Here we try on the idea this shared blur experience is an out-picturing of each participant’s inner conflict, projected onto the moment at hand. I’ve hired you/you’ve hired me, to follow this divine co-created script. Together we have the opportunity to see into and access the original “character building” experience.

The emotional resonance of the blur state provides the time transport sense. To the degree one or both can wake up as if in a dream, we are afforded the opportunity to connect with the early scenes. How can we learn to bring a witnessing consciousness to this miraculously direct experience of the historically unbearable, split off trauma?

We want to consider the possibility this peculiar here and now struggle is an opportunity. Others (Kalsched) have noted the importance of having binocular vision: the capacity to access both inner and outer experience. It is important to keep breathing and bring awareness to the intensity and details of both inner and outer worlds. Internally, we’re looking for the source of the blur.  Beyond the legitimacy of the here and now offense, we want to access the earlier wound which sets up the present trajectory towards the re-enactment at hand. We can choose to call on the guardians of solitude to help us hold the space (see Rilke below), and wait, present with ourselves and each other, to see that which will emerge, festively clothed.

This is very difficult work. When complexes have been engaged to help survive trauma, we have the complication of the presence of the archetypal energy/dynamism associated with the original personal history scene of the wounding. By virtue of the intensity of the trauma episode being enough to trigger archetypal resources, we can be sure there is an archaic mirror, reflecting the first, as in ancient, primordial scenes of such an overwhelm.

Movie Reflections: From the developmental side, the movie Field of Dreams comes to mind. Imagine, as if in a dream, your daughter informs you that your father, younger than your current age, has just walked out of the cornfield onto the baseball diamond. What would you do with such an invitation?

From the archetypal world, the movie Jumanji suggests it may be necessary to keep rolling the dice to complete our journey, even though every time we do something tries to kill us! How can we mobilize and not be killed by the activation? Remember,  from a mythological perspective, the motif of death and rebirth symbolizes a temporary loss of consciousness in the face of emotional overwhelm.

It seems the reasonable idea is to simply be open to what shows up. Pay close attention. The experience may be very human and personal, or alien, out of this world, totally from the dream time. Rumi’s “The Guest House” offers a beautiful poetic tutorial on how/why we might want to do this.

“Jung recognized, at the beginning of his professional career, that understanding the dissociability of the psyche is the key to its psychopathology. Splitting off of psychic functions occurs throughout the life of the psyche, in the persona, the shadow, the anima/animus, and even the Self. Just as an individual ego accepts only one part of the persona for the “image” it shows the world, so also does the ego become accustomed to recognizing and aligning itself with only one part of its shadow, to the projection of only one part of the anima or animus in object relations, and to the connection to only one image of the Self in its deep estimate of its individual worth. Rarer, and less comfortable, are alignments that occur with other parts of the shadow, projections of other parts of the anima or animus, and the acceptance of alternate Self-images. These variants tend to occur in analysis only because of the heightened receptivity of the ego during the analytic process, fostered by the empathic encouragement of the analyst. The split-off parts of the shadow, anima/animus, and Self, therefore, have been truly unconscious until they gradually emerge in dreams, symptoms, or affects within the transference, seeking a relation with the patient’s ego. Sometimes, in analysis, which has an inductive effect, such unsuspected contents appear suddenly, filled with energy charge and the demonic quality of the returning repressed, to capture and possess the unsuspecting ego. In the high-energy form, they threaten not only the analytic field, but the patient’s general behavior as well, which is inevitably altered.

In association with his complex theory, Jung offered two fundamental concepts to formulate the psychopathology that we see in analysis: splitting and possession. Complexes tend to split into complementary poles, such as spirit versus instinct, and one-sided alignments occur between the ego and one of the poles, producing personality imbalance and a latent dynamic tension between the opposed elements. Working through any split requires not only disidentification by the ego from the more familiar pole of the complex, but also affective recognition of the contrary pole. Such recognition requires immersion in the side that has been unconscious. There is an unconscious tendency toward wholeness and relief of tension that fosters the emergence, under accepting conditions such as analysis, of the repressed pole. The consequence is that at least temporary possession by unfamiliar contents is a regular part of the life and of the analytic process, an inevitable prelude to the integration of unconscious portions of the Self.

It follows that in addition to the watchful and containing presence of the analyst, a strong and resilient center of consciousness – an ego – is required in the patient to accomplish and survive the cycle of possession, disidentification, and final integration that is the process of analysis. Although some Jungians have denigrated the ego and its defenses as mere identification with the hero archetype, the integrity of the ego’s standpoint and its capacity for realistic judgment can make the difference between the success and failure of the analytic enterprise. A task of the analyst is therefore to estimate the capacities of the patient’s ego before the difficult work of exploring complexes is undertaken, and carefully to support that ego’s efforts at discrimination once the analytic work is under way.”

Sandner, Donald F., and Beebe, John, “Psychopathology and Analysis,” Chapter Summary from Jungian Analysis, edited by Murry Stein