Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of ThoughtJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Philosophy
Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Libido (Psychology); Mother and child; Psychoanalysis; Subconsciousness; Symbolism (Psychology)
Miss Miller remarks that besides the name “Asurabama” she also thought
of “Ahasuerus” or “Ahasverus.” This phantasy leads to a very different
aspect of the problem of the unconscious personality. While the previous
materials betrayed to us something of the infantile theory of creation,
this phantasy opens up a vista into the dynamics of the unconscious
creation of personality. Ahasver is, as is well known, the Wandering
Jew; he is characterized by endless and restless wanderings until the
end of the world. The fact that the author has thought of this
particular name justifies us in following this trail. The legend of
Ahasver, the first literary traces of which belong to the thirteenth
century, seems to be of Occidental origin, and belongs to those ideas
which possess indestructible vital energy. The figure of the Wandering
Jew has undergone more literary elaboration than the figure of Faust,
and nearly all of this work belongs to the last century. If the figure
is not called Ahasver, still it is there under another name, perhaps as
Count of St. Germain, the mysterious Rosicrucian, whose immortality was
assured, and whose temporary residence (the land) was equally
known.[366] Although the stories about Ahasver cannot be traced back any
earlier than the thirteenth century, the oral tradition can reach back
considerably further, and it is not an impossibility that a bridge to
the Orient exists. There is the parallel figure of Chidr, or “al
Chadir,” the “ever-youthful Chidher” celebrated in song by Rueckert. The
legend is purely Islamitic. The peculiar feature, however, is that
Chidher is not only a saint, but in Sufic circles[367] rises even to
divine significance. In view of the severe monotheism of Islam, one is
inclined to think of Chidher as a pre-Islamitic Arabian divinity who
would hardly be officially recognized by the new religion, but might
have been tolerated on political grounds. But there is nothing to prove
that. The first traces of Chidher are found in the commentaries of the
Koran, Buchâri and Tabare and in a commentary to a noteworthy passage of
the eighteenth sura of the Koran. The eighteenth sura is entitled “the
cave,” that is, after the cave of the seven sleepers, who, according to
the legend, slept there for 309 years, and thus escaped persecution, and
awoke in a new era. Their legend is recounted in the eighteenth sura,
and divers reflections were associated with it. The wish-fulfilment idea
of the legend is very clear. The mystic material for it is the immutable
model of the Sun’s course. The Sun sets periodically, but does not die.
It hides in the womb of the sea or in a subterranean cave,[368] and in
the morning is “born again,” complete. The language in which this
astronomic occurrence is clothed is one of clear symbolism; the Sun
returns into the mother’s womb, and after some time is again born. Of
course, this event is properly an incestuous act, of which, in
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