Incest
Incestuous
images or situations, which appear to confirm Freud’s view, do in fact sometimes
appear in dreams.
But Jung has explained in Symbols of Transformation that the
“longing for the mother” can also be understood in another way.
He sees it not only as an infantile
neurotic-regressive craving but points to the abundance of symbolic material
which indicates a concealed urge to
rebirth and transformation of the
personality.
TGL 41
I
said earlier that the contents which enter into the
transference were as a rule
originally projected upon the
parents or other members of the family.
Owing to the fact that these contents seldom or never lack an erotic
aspect or are genuinely sexual in substance (apart from the other factors
already mentioned), an incestuous character does undoubtedly attach to them, and
this has given rise to the Freudian theory of incest.
Their exogamous transference to the doctor does not alter the
situation. He is merely drawn into the peculiar atmosphere of
family incest through the
projection. This necessarily leads
to an unreal intimacy which is highly distressing to both doctor and patient and
arouses resistance and doubt on both sides.
The violent repudiation of Freud’s original discoveries gets
us nowhere, for we are dealing with an empirically demonstrable fact which meets
with such universal confirmation that only the
ignorant still try to oppose it.
The view which probably causes most offence is that incest is
a genuine instinct.
I
have long adopted the standpoint that the occasional occurrence of incest is no
proof of a universal tendency to incest, any more than the fact of murder proves
the existence of a universal homicidal mania productive of conflict.
I would not go so far as to say that the germs of every kind of
criminality are not present in each of us. But there is a
world of difference between the presence of such a germ and an actual conflict
with its resulting cleavage of the
personality, such as exists in a
neurosis.
2EoAP 24
Incestuous
images or situations, which appear to confirm Freud’s view, do in fact sometimes
appear in dreams.
But Jung has explained in Symbols of Transformation that the
“longing for the mother” can also be understood in another way.
He sees it not only as an infantile neurotic-regressive craving but
points to the abundance of symbolic material which indicates a concealed urge to
rebirth and transformation of the personality. TGL 41
This leads us to a consideration of the transpersonal significance of
mother. From this angle she is not so much a particular
person as she is the absolutely universal giver and preserver of life, and as
such she may be compared to the
unconscious which is
the source and origin of all psychic life. TGL 41
Like the personal, the transpersonal mother-image also has a negative
aspect which expresses a desire to hold the child back. In
myths and
fairy-tales this
is often depicted as the killing or devouring of the child.
Jung therefore speaks of the “terrible or devouring mother”.
In mythology this figure is portrayed as a gruesome and destructive goddess, the
Indian Kali for instance, and in fairy-tales as the cruel stepmother or the
witch, expressing the death-aspect of mother nature who kills her offspring from
tie to time and takes them back into herself. The
unconscious exerts a
corresponding influence in that it sets up a definite opposition to
the development of
consciousness or else it threatens to dim or even to extinguish the
painfully achieved consciousness. TGL 41
The yearning for the mother can therefore also be understood, in
non-mythological language, as the attraction exerted by the unconscious, a
constant occurrence that is comparable to the effect of the law of
gravity.
The development and preservation of
ego consciousness is, for
that very reason, often represented by the
hero myth, for it is an achievement
that can be compared to a fight with an overwhelming monster and which calls for
almost superhuman strength. TGL 43
From Freud the course moves to Jung. Personally I find
Jung as an interpreter of myths far more impressive than Freud.
Freud projects a Viennese family romance of Papa, Mamma, and their
boy-child into every mythology on earth, regarding myths not as symbolic of
adult insight, but as symptomatic of an infantile pathology; not as revelatory,
but as concealing; not as progressive, leading to maturity, but as regressive,
pointing back to childhood. Jung’s view, on the other hand,
is that the figurations of myth are to be read as the metaphors of a necessary,
almost pedagogical discipline, through which the powers of the psyche are led
forward to mature relationships, first to the responsibilities of adulthood and
then to the wisdom of age. TMD 8
As
Jung has explained in “Psychology of the Transference,” incest is probably based
on a genuine fundamental
instinct which could be described as kinship or endogamous libido; i.e. it
arises out of an authentic urge in the individual which aims at holding the
family together and protecting it from the disruptive influences of the outer
world. Opposing this instinct there is, however, a contrary
gradient of exogamous psychic
energy
which actually causes strange and distant things to appear alluring, thus
counteracting inbreeding and the psychic stagnation connected with it.
TGL 178
The
word “incest” has a definite meaning, and designates a definite thing, and as a
general rule can only be applied to an adult who is psychologically incapable of
linking his sexuality to its proper object. TDoP
It is no less unjustifiable to give the so-called Oedipus complex the status of a prime cause. The Oedipus complex is a symptom. Just as any strong attachment to a person or a thing may be described as a “marriage,” and just as the primitive mind can express almost anything by using a sexual metaphor, so the regressive tendency of a child may be described in sexual terms as an “incestuous longing for the mother.” But it is no more than a figurative way of speaking. The word “incest” has a definite meaning, and designates a definite thing, and as a general rule can only be applied to an adult who is psychologically incapable of linking his sexuality to its proper object. To apply the same term to the difficulties in the development of a child’s consciousness is highly misleading. TDoP 75
Procreation through incest is a royal or divine prerogative whose advantages the ordinary man is forbidden to enjoy. TPofT 102
If a man has no real relations with his wife, then obviously he seeks another outlet. And if he is not conscious of what he is seeking, or if he represses fantasies of that kind, his interest will regress on the one side to the memory-image of his mother, and on the other side it invariably fastens on his daughter, if there is one. This is what might be called unconscious incest. You can hardly hold a man responsible for his unconsciousness, but the fact remains that in this matter nature knows neither patience nor pity, and takes her revenge directly or indirectly through illness and unlucky accidents of all kinds. Unfortunately, it is almost a collective ideal for men and women to be as unconscious as possible in the ticklish affairs of love. But behind the mask of respectability and faithfulness the full fury of neglected love falls upon the children. TDoP 125
It is of course not possible for
parents to have no
complexes
at all. That would be superhuman. But they
should at least come to terms with them consciously; they should make it a duty
to work out their inner difficulties for the sake of the children. They should
not take the easy road of repressing them in order to avoid painful discussions.
The love problem is part of mankind’s heavy toll of suffering, and nobody
should be ashamed of having to pay his tribute. It is a
thousand times better in every respect for parents frankly to discuss their
problems, instead of leaving their complexes to fester in the unconscious.
TDoP 126