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)
While in Job the two great tendencies are characterized simply as good
and bad, the problem in Faust is a pronouncedly erotic one; viz., the
battle between sublimation and eros, in which the Devil is strikingly
characterized through the fitting rôle of the erotic tempter. The erotic
is lacking in Job; at the same time Job is not conscious of the conflict
within his own soul; he even continuously disputes the arguments of his
friends who wish to convince him of evil in his own heart. To this
extent, one might say that Faust is considerably more honorable since he
openly confesses to the torments of his soul.
Miss Miller acts like Job; she says nothing, and lets the evil and the
good come from the other world, from the metapsychologic. Therefore, the
identification with Job is also significant in this respect. A wider,
and, indeed, a very important analogy remains to be mentioned. The
creative power, which love really is, rightly considered from the
natural standpoint, remains as the real attribute of the Divinity,
sublimated from the erotic impression; therefore, in the poem God is
praised throughout as Creator.
Job offers the same illustration. Satan is the destroyer of Job’s
fruitfulness. God is the fruitful one himself, therefore, at the end of
the book, he gives forth, as an expression of his own creative power,
this hymn, filled with lofty poetic beauty. In this hymn, strangely
enough, two unsympathetic representatives of the animal kingdom,
behemoth and the leviathan, both expressive of the crudest force
conceivable in nature, are given chief consideration; the behemoth being
really the phallic attribute of the God of Creation.
“Behold now behemoth, which I made as well as thee;
He eateth grass as an ox.
Lo, now; his strength is in his loins,
And his force is in the muscles of his belly.
He moveth his tail like a cedar:
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are as tubes of brass;
His limbs are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God:
He only that made him giveth him his sword....
Behold, if a river overflow, he trembleth not;
He is confident though a Jordan swell even to his mouth.
Shall any take him when he is on the watch.
Or pierce through his nose with a snare?
Canst thou draw leviathan with a fish-hook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?...
Lay thy hand upon him;
Remember the battle and do no more.
None is so fierce that dare stir him up:
Who then is he that can stand before me?
Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
—_Job_ xl: 15–20, 23–24; xli: 1, 8, 10–11.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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