Tag Archives: the mid-life transition

January 23, 2021 · 8:42 am

A Mid-Life Perspective: Conversations With The Unconscious

A momentous shift in values is taking place today. Dwarfed by the fascination with technology, the wisdom of the soul sinks under the weight of concrete knowledge. Science and religion have become adversaries; the individual, a mere tool for powerful interest groups. Our dual natures are increasingly brought into relief by ideological and political conflicts, the split in our personalities reflected back to us as in a mirror. — Evan Hanks

This post is about a book of poetry — but, it is first and foremost a psychological work. As such, it is a spiritual one, for the aims of psychology are (or should be) inseparable from those of religion and philosophy; namely, to define human consciousness in relation to the instinctual psyche.

Based on the psychology of C. G. Jung and inspired by Goethe’s Faust, this book is a chronology, in poetic language, of the change in perspective prompted by the mid-life transition.

Jung wrote that the unconscious has been engaged in this process over hundreds of thousands of years, and for most, it guides them through it with relatively little friction. But for those who are deeply moved by it, it is a spiritual and psychological journey which leads into the individuation process.

This process involves coming to terms with the unconscious, and the change in thinking required for it is founded on the conflict of opposites. It has many parallels with the cultural shift in values we are experiencing today. The old religious view of good and evil is giving way to a rational, scientific one which only further splits our notions of reality. Science has dissolved the metaphysical images of the past and conceived a new objectivity. So fascinated by it is this new-found vantage point, it assumes that it can be applied to the psyche as it is to the physical world. It cannot. The psychic world of images is only indirectly based on concrete reality.

Jung has demonstrated that what we identify with as consciousness is only one partial complex of associations in an animal psyche forged over eons of evolution. To add to this problem, Jung saw the intellect as only one among a set of balancing functions which orient perception. As an information processor, it must be supplemented by its opposite, feeling, to give it meaning and value in the context of a greater whole.

Along with the subjective nature of consciousness, the alternating development of opposing functions only compounds the problem of observing ourselves with any verifiable objectivity. Consciousness changes over time, and we have no fixed reference point by which to observe the psyche as science has in the material world.

Because the effects of the unconscious can only be inferred, Jung compared our dual perceptions of the inner and outer worlds historically, over time. He found that consciousness is relative to changes in focus which reflect swings in our development.

This book is a story and an example of how such changes may be perceived when a dialogue, an exchange of ideas, is entered into with the symbolic figures of the unconscious. This dialogue is presented in the form of an exchange between four figures. Three represent the unconscious standpoint; the fourth, the reactions of consciousness to the spiritual/philosophical demands which initiate the individuation process.

It began with eight illustrations portending the journey in pictorial form, and these are dispersed throughout the text according to the development of the ideas with which they are associated. The conversations describe the gradual elaboration of them through focus and concentration on dream images. Poetry seemed best suited to express the emotional conflicts I experienced and so began a sixteen-year process of recording my reflections on the “voices” which speak though the unconscious.

As self-reflecting animals, we are many things. Our natures will always defy our own definitions, for we are not products of ego-ideals. We are natural beings shaped by inborn functions with which earthly reality has outfitted us. To come to terms with our own wholeness; to resolve the split between man and nature, conscious and unconscious, science and religion, we will be compelled to listen to nature more closely — beyond the loud din of those who cannot hear her voice. It is the soft, almost inaudible whisper of the human soul that wants to be heard: the search for subjective truth in a concrete world of illusion.

See Amazon.Read preface.

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March 28, 2019 · 5:34 pm

The Modern Plight of Homo Contradictus

“So, do be good, show you can set the fashion./ Let fantasy be heard with all her chorus:/ Sense, Reason, Sentiment, and Passion;/ Yet mark you well! bring folly too before us!” — Goethe.

A new round of proposals before Congress to change the taxonomic designation of Homo Sapiens to Homo Contradictus has resulted in a fierce firestorm of controversy, once again finding our lawmakers deadlocked in indecision. The current review by the Super Committee tasked with resolving the issue has likewise reached a stalemate.

The next step in the process will be the selection of a Really Super Committee which will review the procedures reviewed by the Super Committee to ascertain the reasons for its failure to reach a decision. It will comprise eight members each from the respective parties as opposed to the six respective appointees comprising the Super Committee.

The proposal was first introduced by Democratic senator, Sheeza Throbak, and was originally intended as a response to legislation penned by her sister and Republican counterpart, I. Emma Throbak, which sought to change the erstwhile designation to Homo Digitalis. While the latter raised some eyebrows in their home state, most of the electorate assumed it referred to the new digital media age. When informed that Digitalis referred to the opposable digit, or thumb, as the main distinguishing characteristic separating humans from animals, it was tabled amid the confusion.

The former, however, soon went viral and swelled into a national call for action. A blistering barrage of on-line petitions sparked by such internet advocates as, Constant and Unremitting Causes and Please Don’t Delete This Urgent Message, prompted its consideration by the nation’s decision-makers, though it has since bogged down in partisan jousting.

I asked Stooges For Democracy spokesperson, Ella Fyno, of the effort to upgrade the scientific classification to be more reflective of real-life human behavior. “I’m undecided.” she stated flatly. “It seems a bit ambiguous, though I will say that I half considered signing the petition by the time I’d received the seventeenth e-mail.”

She scratched her head. It must be a cheap, generic shampoo she is using, I thought, as I watched the unsightly flakes of deceased epidermis fall onto the shoulders of her Italian wool, custom-tailored black sweater. It looked as if her hair had died as well. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the general implications of her response and determined to comb her mind for a more precise amplification of her widely spaced views.

“Our political system has gone awry.” she observed solemnly, “The ideologies of the two parties have grown so disparate that each seems engaged only in gainsaying the other. What was designed to give dissent and argument a proper hearing in the spirit of compromise for the exercise of our constitutional freedom in the service of democracy seems to have been forfeited for bald partisanry.”

She considered further and then declared with certainty, “I don’t know whether we can maintain any sure direction in the face of such extremes.” I pictured a human head with two faces, and I knew intuitively what she was referring to.

“Where do you see our new cultural consciousness taking us?” I asked, trying desperately to make sense of the questions swirling in my mind. “It seems to be going in two directions at once…” she stated unequivocally, “almost as if there were two sides of every individual — each invested solely in trying to thwart the other’s intentions.”

I was even more determined to seek a solution to this baffling conundrum, as Ms. Fyno emptied out the last of the wisdom from her tightly crowded intellect, “Half of me thinks it knows, but, honestly, the other half has no idea whatever.” Her candor was refreshing but of little avail.

Doubly driven to add another piece to the human puzzle, I felt bidden to a higher authority. I researched the top ten psychology blogs and contacted the office of Dr. Abnorm Drowze, the eminent and respected psychiatrist, Magna-Cum-Loud from Whichisit State, hoping desperately for insight on the confusion and uncertainty of our modern predicament. What I learned startled me.

“Can I help you?” was the first response I received — from his secretary, Candy. There are channels, I knew that. Buoyed by enthusiasm, however, I informed her that I was seeking clarification on a few of the basic existential questions which burdened humanity, and I felt sure Dr. Drowse could shed urgently needed light on them.

“You’ll have to schedule an appointment.” she stated curtly. I told her with some confidence that I was not on the line for a consultation, but that I needed Dr. Drowze’s informed, scientific opinion on the state of our culture today.

“Dr. Drowze is a very busy man!” she popped off. “Do you think he can just drop everything this instant for your paltry concerns, even as he is fleecing a poor, confused neurotic out of his life savings just so said neurotic can find the strength to somehow keep living long enough to support him and his profession, in spite of the fact that neither offers even the slightest pretense of warranty or return for its alleged services — and also to maintain his lavish lifestyle?”

She had a point. I tried to be reasonable, sensing that she was overworked and under great stress from her duties holding the acclaimed doctor’s office together amid the constant, clamorous queries for his expertise.

“When do you think he might be available?” I asked politely, trying not to rattle her cage, though I felt a little hot from her dismissive manner. “Who’s your insurance provider?” she asked briskly. I felt belittled and powerless. “I’ve got your insurance provider right here!” I blurted out, despite any consciousness of my sudden reaction. Fortunately, she was unable to witness my acting-out of the physical accompaniment to that statement.

“What do you mean by that?” she snapped, as if trying to pick a fight with me. I tried to pull myself together, “What?” I asked innocently. “What you just said!” she shot back angrily, obviously on the point of losing her manifestly tenuous composure. I searched for a more reasonable approach to her unprovoked ire. “I didn’t say anything.” Her tone was that of a teacher reprimanding a child, “Sir,” she said coolly, “I’m going to have to ask that you not call here again.”

Well, la-de-da, I thought. I half-considered a clever retort designed to turn her rudeness back upon her and make her understand that I was not to be trifled with. “So what?!” I replied alternately, “Then don’t call me again, either!” The office phones must have had caller I.D., because I called again and again after Candy hung up, seething to give Dr. Drowze a piece of my mind. After several days with no resolution (and a ‘Cease and Desist Order’ from the sheriff’s department), I quit calling out of sheer frustration — but not before I’d given a quite convincing account of my argument to the doctor’s voicemail service.

(For a serious look at Jungian psychology and the mid-life transition, check out my book here.)

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July 9, 2014 · 4:08 pm

Mid-Life: Psychic Evolution

Scan some of the online literature about mid-life, and you’ll be impressed by the volume and variety of signs and symptoms associated with it. Such mild regressions as chasing the gray away, face-lifts and tummy-tucks, sports cars and younger lovers, however, are only surface reflections of what’s happening unconsciously.

One thing is gaining recognition: transitional changes begin in the body but also have profound psychological effects, as mind and body are not separate by nature. Instincts once conceived as physiological for lack of a psychological perspective were euphemized as “drives” by ego-based psychologies unable to deny them — this, despite the sweeping psychic changes attending puberty and young adulthood. It was as if ego’s current state of knowledge relieved any further development save the rote learning of facts.

But, instinctive needs are generated by emotions portending more than just biological imperatives. I know I was raised with the fearful need for security — especially by staid adults whose knowledge and authority masked a deeper uncertainty —  in a world that is as relentlessly irrational and ever-changing internally as it is externally.

Mid-life is a profound test for a consciousness that would know everything but its own nature, and it’s usually repressed to whatever extent possible to mature while still nursing a youthful pose. The mystery of nature requires an increasingly complex organ of perception to manifest itself, and the urge to wholeness will never be fully comprehended by a partial consciousness. Psychic changes merge with physical ones on the smallest scale, however imperceptible to an ego fascinated by its own image.

The processes symbolized in these images, though, must already have attained a high degree of energy-intensity (value and purpose) and complexity to register consciously. How symbols originate and how we perceive them are a great mystery, but the greater confusion may be due to an older, more literal form of perception.

Since Jung began outlining his psychology over a hundred years ago, the mystery of symbols and their effects have been struck a heavy blow by material science. Yet, we’ve been driven by symbols, inspired by them, and instructed by them from time immemorial. This newer knowledge of the profound role they play in our psychology would, with reflection, allow an opportunity to re-connect with them on a more conscious level than the older metaphysical interpretations of who we once thought we were.

Depth psychology is acquainted with the focus and direction of consciousness as against the diffuse and irrational demands of the unconscious. Though the difference between the two ways of perceiving are naturally at odds, they’re also intended as complements.

They attract and repel at the same time, and only the weight of nature’s purposes decides which will prevail. Jung wrote that a very powerful attraction is needed to overcome the often hostile opposition between the sexes. The same is true for the mid-life transition — only here, consciousness is pushed to assume a greater responsibility on a higher level for its inner relations, just as couples adjust psychologically long after the unconscious attraction has initiated the still-sleeping urge to wholeness.

The greater problem of adjusting to the inner opposite certainly has its origin in the dual forces compelling the union of the sexes. Their profound demands for reconciliation find us making concessions we never conceived in our youth. Religious symbols have always drawn upon those analogies to describe their purposes.

Marriage is revered as a religious symbol for that reason, yet how many cling to the old ideal today for unconscious reasons they would rather not concede? We’re being pushed to make concessions to newer values, broader ways of seeing than the conventional, one-sided interpretations of the past. It’s not by choice or accident that old values are losing the efficacy they once had.

Though many contend that our religious heritage has only made for rivers of destruction (as it undeniably has, looked at only through that lens), our history must refer more to our interpretations of ourselves and our ideals than to anything inherent in the values themselves. One need only reflect to see that their intent is far distant from what we’ve achieved. The problem doesn’t lie with values or principles.

Aside from our rational ability to focus on the most minute details (science) to the exclusion of a broader picture (life), there is another factor which exaggerates the rift between the real and the ideal. The tendency of ego to see anything outside its own interests as suspicious and dangerous is an even older part of our natures than the relatively recent Christian precepts of love and acceptance which at least set us a definable task through the latest stages of our evolution.

As I interpret Jung’s efforts, this task is not dissolving as much as it’s changing form due to the growing complexity of consciousness — and an expanding intellect fastened onto images of objectivity unimagined by the emotional cast of previous generations. Yet, this new sense of objectivity must remain compulsively tied to the material world to divert the fear and uncertainty which defines psychic development.

The new intellect is would further refute the primitive animal who lives beneath it. We can see in our history how the religious ideal failed to significantly change it except in our minds: the very illusions which compel its rebellion. Who today would know the spiritual side of this billion year old Leviathan?

This primitive side of our natures is in need of development for us to contend with its destructive power. But, we need examples to learn how to do it. Read more about the process here.

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April 10, 2014 · 3:34 pm

A Mid-Life Perspective: Conversations with the Unconscious

A Subjective Study of Science, Religion, and Consciouness

A Mid-Life Perspective: Conversations With The Unconscious

For those interested in new interpretations of old ideas, this post describes a very different kind of book, many years in its development. If you choose to read it, if you’re interested in the relations between conscious and unconscious, between man and nature, science and religion, it will be among the most original books you’ll ever read. It will likely upset your ideas of what your mind is for, just as it upset mine when I was forced by my own illusions (and those I inherited) to come to terms in some way with the unconscious.

It’s well known that new and original ways of looking at things take time to sink in, at least for those revolving around the self-flattering notions of who we think we are — or should or would be. Centuries-old religious ideals convince us even today that we can be who we “should” or would be, simply by believing it. This is the age-old way of ego, and most will remain convinced of its illusion as a defense against the unconscious — or, if you prefer, a God who makes demands on us and not just a comforting image of wishful thinking in times of despair.

The scientific view is equally convinced of this same illusion, having inherited it as duly as one is born with eyes and ears. Though, with no conception of a Deity but only an unconscious will to power, it seeks to “conquer” an external nature without taking serious note that she also works within; and dangerously so, for the double-sided hubris of humanity has been recorded since biblical times. The artificial reality we’ve spent millennia to achieve has become so toxic today, however, the current form of education will not much longer support it…

Based on the psychology of C. G. Jung and inspired by Goethe’s Faust, this book is a poetic description of the change in perspective prompted by the mid-life transition. For many, it will be only an odd curiosity. But for those who are deeply moved by this process, to confront the strange, symbolic figures which lead into the collective unconscious, this book will serve as a living example of the ideas and emotions encountered when an exchange, a dialogue, is entered into with the other side.

The subtitle, A Subjective Study of Science, Religion, and Consciousness, reflects the spiritual character of the philosophical depths to which these figures point; for as Jung wrote: because the unconscious consists of a living history of our mental functioning, any serious inquiry into it leads straight into the religious problem.

This problem is grounded in the opposites, and old religious ideas of good and evil still form the foundations of our world-views, whether we accept them consciously or not. They’re how we secretly see ourselves; how we relate to a greater whole both within and without, formed over centuries of intense concentration on the puzzling contradictions of subjective thought.

A major shift in values marks today’s fascination with science and technology, and the spiritual/emotional functions it ignores and represses only multiply the unforeseen consequences they create. The wisdom required to comprehend them is not accessible to the blind quest for rational facts — as if they alone would reconcile the inner division which is our fate.

Lacking an orientation to the inner counter-pole of the unconscious, we can only relate to it through the old concepts. But, these no longer suffice the complexity, the subtlety and diversity, the relativity of the changes taking place today. Without serious re-examination of our repressive view of nature and the psyche, we are only led deeper into the hidden snares which threaten from the dark shadows of an unconscious earthly reality.

Today, information and knowledge have become compensations for wisdom. The paradox is that the wisdom we need is secreted away in the knowledge we’ve repressed: the undeveloped soul of a human animal who yet sees nature as an antagonist and cannot accept the double laws of her demands. As a return for that, we’ve become our own greatest problem — and nature’s as well.

This book isn’t a remedy for this problem. It’s a way to identify and accept it; to find new ways to confront it; to enter a new psychological stage in nature’s ceaseless urge for development.

See Amazon.

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