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DR Velimir Popovic The Phenomenology of The Self
DR Velimir Popovic The Phenomenology of The Self
OF THE SELF
• “Proprium”:
1. Awareness of a bodily self.
2. Sense of a continuity over time.
3. A need for self-esteem.
4. An extension of the “I” or ego beyond the borders of
the body.
5. An ability to synthesize inner needs and outer reality.
6. A self-image, a perception and evaluation of the self
as an object of knowledge.
7. There is the self as knower and doer.
8. There is on occasions a need to increase tensions,
expand awareness, seek and meet challenges etc.
Ego and self in
psychoanalysis
S. Freud
The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide, pervading
the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into
a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly
vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its
‘profane’, non-religious mood of everyday experience. It may burst in
sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and
convulsions, or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to
transport, and to ecstasy. It has its wild and demonic forms and can sink
to an almost grisly horror and shuddering. It has its crude, barbaric
antecedents and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into
something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become the hushed,
trembling and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of—
whom or what? In the presence of that which is a mystery inexpressible
and above all creatures.
(Otto, 1958, 12)
Jung’s ideas of the Self cannot be grasped without reference to its
numinous nature:
Religion, as the Latin word denotes is a careful and scrupulous
observation of what R. Otto aptly called the numinosum, that is, a
dynamic agency or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will. On
the contrary, it seizes and controls the human subject, who is always
rather its victim than its creator. The numinosum – whatever its
cause may be – is an experience of the subject independent of his
will.
Every creed is originally based on the one hand upon the experience
of the numinosum and on the other hand upon pistis, that is to say,
trust or loyalty, faith and confidence in a certain experience of a
numinous nature and in the change of consciousness that ensues.
The conversion of Paul is a striking example of this. We might say,
then, that the term “religion” designates the attitude peculiar to a
consciousness which has been changed by experience of the
numinosum.
(Jung, CW 11, §
6)
• The numinous strikes a person with awe,
wonder and joy, but may also evoke fear,
terror and total disorientation. Being
confronted with the power of the self arouses
such emotions, which always and everywhere
have been associated with religious
experience.
FEARS OF THE NUMINOSITY OF THE SELF
1 As a numinous dream.
2 As a waking vision.
3 As an experience in the body.
4 Within a relationship including the
transference/countertransference aspects of
psychotherapy.
5 In the wilderness.
6 By aesthetic or creative means.
7 As a synchronistic event.
Numinous experience is synonymous with
religious experience. Translated into
psychological parlance, this means the relatively
direct experience of those deep intrapsychic
structures known as archetypes.. The archetype is
a fundamental organizing principle which
originates from the objective psyche, beyond the
level of the empirical personality. In the religious
literature, what the depth psychologist calls an
archetype would be referred to as spirit;
operationally they are synonymous. But crucially
for the depth psychologist, the archetypes are
not only numinous manifestations of the divine,
they also play a part in the organization of the
personality.
Our experience of the transpersonal Self, which is considered to be
the totality of the psyche, may also be mediated by means of the
effects of one of its constituent archetypes. The Self cannot be
thought of as a unitary phenomenon, but rather as the source of all
the archetypes, so that any archetypal experience is an experience
of some aspect of the Self. These principles of intrapsychic
organization do not only produce exotic dream images; as discussed
later, they affect development, structure relationships and produce
archetypal transferences. [Kohut’s (1971) mirroring and idealizing
transferences (see p. 26) are just two examples of instances in
which elements of the Self unfold and require a human response.]
1. Mandala imagery,
2. Transcendent figures,
3. United opposites,
4. Natural phenomena.
1. Mandala imagery.
Mandalas are geometric figures which portray
symmetry, wholeness and completion. They are
usually combinations of circles or squares, in
dreams taking the form of cities, wheels, temples,
gardens, spirals, flowers or other natural forms.
Often these figures are quartered, and the number
four has traditionally been thought to express
completion. Jung noticed that this kind of material
tends to emerge in the dreams and fantasies of
people in crisis. He felt that the appearance of
mandalas is the result of the psyche’s tendency to
try to restore homeostasis by producing images of
order and harmony; they remind us that we have a
centre and a protected enclosure.
• Experience in practice confirms Jung’s view that their
occurrence is soothing in fairly healthy people,
especially those who are able to externalize them as
paintings, dance or sculptures. But in borderline people
in a state of disintegration they do little to prevent or
heal the fragmentation of the personal self.