Empath

The Empath (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An empath is a person who apparently recognizes, understands and possibly feels the emotions of another person or possibly living beings and organisms, such as animals and plants. Different schools of thought variously try to explain the phenomenon of empathy.

Psychologists say that the empath physiologically copies another person’s emotions based on observable cues. Religious perspectives believe the empath feels another’s emotions due to a mystical connection among all people (some mystical schools would extend this to all living beings, organisms and even inorganic material like rocks, gems, and stones).

In contrast to the psychological explanation for empathy, some mystics claim to know another’s thoughts and/or feel their emotions – called the reading of hearts in Catholicism – near or at a distance with no observable cues.

Reading of Hearts. The knowledge of the secret thoughts of others or of their internal state without communication is known as reading of hearts. The certain knowledge of the secret thoughts of others is truly super-natural, since the devil has no access to the spiritual faculties of men and no human being can know the mind of another unless it is in some way communicated. But knowledge of the secrets of another’s heart may be conjectured by the devil and transmitted to a person, or they may be surmised by a deluded individual who takes his conjectures to be supernatural illuminations.¹

Estimating the prevalence of the gift of empathy is difficult for a variety of reasons, the most obvious being that many people wouldn’t want to talk about their empathetic abilities for fear of ridicule. Not surprising then that the psychiatrist Carl Jung said that most individuals are unwilling to talk about their experience of the paranormal because of potential repercussions.

Empaths are differentiated from psychopaths. Apparently psychopaths often can sense another person’s feelings but try to use that ability to manipulate and exploit. Empaths, on the other hand, try to use their perceptions for the common good.

The idea of empathy has been thoroughly explored in science fiction and fantasy. At top right of this entry we see a scene from the 1968 Star Trek episode called The Empath.²

—

¹ AUMANN, J. “Mystical Phenomena.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 105-109. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.

² Fair dealing / fair use rationale of this low-res copyright image.

Related articles

• theory of mind… (mymorninglatte.wordpress.com)
• Empathizers Anonymous (dreambles.com)
• Empathic Repatterning (nicoleciccarelli.com)
• Empathic People? (inesmedem.wordpress.com)
• Why Republicans and Democrats Can’t Feel Each Other’s Pain (psychologicalscience.org)
• Empathy, a Blessing and a Curse. (ralphiesportal.me)
• Empathy (ask.metafilter.com)
• Call for Participation: Empathy Conference (empathyinthecontextofphilosophy.com)
• Empathy with Artificial Intelligence (antiresume.wordpress.com)
• Building a Muscular Empathy (psychologytoday.com)
• The Six Habits of Highly Empathic People (romankrznaric.com)
• What is Empathy? (brucemayhew.wordpress.com)

Electra Complex

Electra and Orestes, from an 1897 Stories from the Greek Tragedians, by Alfred Church (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to Freudian theory, the Electra complex is the group of feelings arising within a young girl, aged three to five, who wishes to possess her father and eliminate her mother.

For Melanie Klein, these feelings begin as early as the first year of life.

The Electra complex is outlined less clearly than the Oedipus complex, the counterpart complex for young boys. With the Electra complex the girl apparently envies her father’s penis, desiring it for herself to the extent of fantasizing about bearing his children—the origin of the term “penis-envy.” Her unrealistic, unattainable desire causes her to resent her mother. And the young child’s mind translates her extreme psychological discomfort into the fantastic belief that she’s been castrated by her mother.

A feminist response to this is expressed as follows:

The idea that the Electra complex is referred to most of the time as “penis-envy” shows where Freud was in his thought process. He simply thinks the male psyche is the dominant entity in human relations, and that female influence is secondary. This may be due in part to his belief that girls have weaker superegos, where morality is developed and values internalized. We develop this judicial component of our personality during the phallic stage.¹

—

¹ Amy Simokaitis, “Freud: Let’s Talk about Sex,” October 13, 1999. http://www.umsl.edu/~mgriffin/psy302/Simokaitis/electra_complex.html

Educated

Education vs Experience (Photo credit: gtalan)

‘Educated…’ Ironically, this might be one of the most unexamined ideas in contemporary culture. What does it mean to be educated?

Psychologists now admit that most IQ tests are culture-bound. Kids growing up in ghettos are more likely to do poorly on professionally engineered tests. If so-called Ivy League children were to spend a few years in a ghetto without their parents’ resources nor social connections, how ‘educated’ would they be in that environment? Clearly the education of a street kid and a wealthy person differ. Both are educated but the social status attributed to each is unequal and discriminatory.

The above, of course, is one extreme example. More subtle forms of discrimination based on arbitrary views of education are found practically every time we venture out into public spaces. And erudition – or even spiritual knowledge – doesn’t necessarily translate into a decent, morally integrated person.

Related articles

• What is Iq? (socyberty.com)
• Education: Beating the I.Q. Test (time.com)
• School Health & Wellness News Roundup: Week of April 16, 2012 (cityconnectsblog.wordpress.com)
• We Should be Thankful for Student Loans (loans.org)
• G is for Genius (mommasmoneymatters.com)
• On Intelligence – Week 21 (26 – 30 March) (tuele.wordpress.com)
• Thesis Proposal – Overrepresentation of Blacks in the Special Education Classroom (thinkingbookworm.typepad.com)
• The Need to Believe in the Ability of Disability (psychologytoday.com)
• Tiny gene change affects brain size, IQ: scientists (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Bryan Caplan’s signaling model and on-line education (marginalrevolution.com)

Sigmund Freud

Entrance to Freuds consulting room (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a Jew of Austrian parentage and the founder of psychoanalysis. He studied medicine in Vienna and then neurology and psychopathology. He was marginalized by the medical community for his interest in the idea of infant sexuality. Today he, perhaps ironically, is often frowned on as a reductionist.

Freud remains one of the great innovators of the modern age. He attempted to scientifically outline the idea of the unconscious which formerly had been represented in literature, philosophy and nineteenth-century occultism.

His psychoanalytic techniques of free association and abreaction were influenced by several other contemporaneous “doctors of the mind,” most notably Jean-Martin Charcot, but Freud made them uniquely his own.

His works were almost entirely destroyed by the occupying Nazis. In 1938 he reluctantly withdrew from Vienna to London, leaving behind several sisters, all of whom died in concentration camps.

A habitual cigar-smoker, his relationship with his daughter Anna became extremely close; she acted as secretary, friend and confidant. Freud eventually contracted jaw cancer but refused pain-killers because they dulled his mind and interfered with his work.

After Freud’s death Anna further elaborated on the idea of defense mechanisms, distinguishing herself as an important thinker in her own right.

Related Posts » Catharsis, Cathexis, Censor, Civilization and its Discontents, Ego, Electra Complex, Eros, Fromm (Erich), Icebox effect, Id, Jung (Carl Gustav), Klein (Melanie), Moses and Monotheism, Neurosis, Object, Oedipus Complex, Parapraxes, Pleasure Principle, Psychopath, Psychosis, Reality Principle, Repression, Sadism, Masochism, Secondary Revision, Stages of Psychosexual Development, Superego, Thanatos, The Future of an Illusion, Unconscious

Related articles

• Mortensen tackles loquacious Sigmund Freud (upi.com)
• My hero: Sigmund Freud (guardian.co.uk)
• A DANGEROUS METHOD Blu-ray Review (collider.com)
• Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality Traits (marlenebertrand.wordpress.com)
• The Psychodynamic Theory (socyberty.com)
• Freud (ackermansketchpad.blogspot.com)
• Fictionalizing Sigmund Freud’s baby sister (macleans.ca)
• The Question of God – C.S.Lewis and Freud (rodiagnusdei.wordpress.com)
• Taproot Theatre imagines if Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis came to tea (phinneywood.com)

Folklore

Burning of Marzanna as a symbol of winter during the spring equinox is one of remains of pre-Christian beliefs in Polish culture (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The term folklore was coined in 1846 by W. J. Thomas to replace the previous notion of popular antiquities. Difficult to define, folklore is now understood as the knowledge, customs, beliefs, rituals and orally transmitted information of a given culture.

According to professor T. Henighan,¹ the Freudian child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim makes a distinction between folklore and fairy tales. Fairy tales are a type of folk tale in which:

• The names of heroes and heroines are absent or ordinary
• Supernatural but not divine beings are mentioned
• Positive outcomes are the norm
• Childhood and adolescence figure prominently
• The actual content (i.e. Oedipal material) is obscured through elaborate symbolism

Some suggest that the definition of folklore must also include the academic study of folkloric data, because by studying folkloric content from of a different set of cultural assumptions (those held by an academic), the original content is necessarily interpreted and altered.

Folklore is often associated with the marginalised or popular dimension of a given culture, in contrast to the written stories of orthodox religious organizations. Some scholars limit folklore to so-called primitive cultures, while others extend the concept to apply to modern social formations—e.g. the destructive folkloric beliefs and practices of the Nazis (i.e. Aryans as the ‘master race’).

The line dividing primitive folklore and contemporary belief is blurred and cannot always be easily discerned. The psychologist C. G. Jung discusses this in connection with the Nazis and their disturbing beliefs and practices. For Jung, this exemplified an entire race engulfed by the destructive power of an archetype, in this case, the Wotan archetype.

—

¹ The Meanings of Myth (earthpages.org)

Related Posts » Odysseus, Unitarianism, Werewolf

Related articles

• folklore & fantasy (modflowers.wordpress.com)
• Fairy Ring Folklore (socyberty.com)
• Tom Mould on Folklore and Personal Revelation (bycommonconsent.com)

Fixation

Français : Théorie de Freud English: Diagram of Freud's psyche theory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fixation is a a psychoanalytic term that describes an individual becoming stuck on an object (a Freudian term that includes people) associated with a given phase of libidinal development.

Fixation is often marked by infantile attitudes and behavior, the compulsive choosing of objects and a general decrease of energy since available energy is diverted into an object of the past.

Freud’s theories have been criticized for not being able to explain genuine religious or paranormal experiences. But these types of experiences – or, at least, the personal interpretation of them – arguably can be colored by our psychological underpinnings.

So New Age and religious enthusiasts who dismiss all that Freud has to say often seem to have unresolved personal issues that can hinder their spiritual development. By the same token, reductive Freudians who can’t see that there’s more to life than what goes through the senses and the nervous system could be equally as stuck.

Related Posts » Freud (Sigmund), Regression, Stages of Psychosexual Development

References:

• Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1977, p. 52.

Related articles

• Freud vs. Kohlberg: Gender Development (greeneyezwinkin5.wordpress.com)
• What Is Psychoanalysis? (psychology.about.com)
• Freud – You’re Mental! (socyberty.com)
• Analyzing The Proliferation Of Therapy (cbsnews.com)
• My hero: Sigmund Freud (guardian.co.uk)
• A Dangerous Method – (2011) (storefronttheatre.wordpress.com)
• “You’re Hung Up About A Lot In Britain” – David Cronenberg Interviewed (thequietus.com)
• Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality Traits (marlenebertrand.wordpress.com)
• Freud and Einstein Letters: How Do We End War? (danieltutt.com)

Isolation

Sigmund and his daughter Anna Freud via Wikipedia

In psychoanalysis, isolation is a defense mechanism developed by Sigmund Freud (and later by Anna Freud) in which a painful or traumatic memory and its associations are separated from the rest of conscious experience.

With isolation, memory is not repressed but the emotive content and associated feeling tones are severed or weakened almost to the point of non-existence. Related thinking, feeling and outward activity are essentially blocked for a period after having recalled the painful event.

This artificial stripping of the affective component from memory could occur, for instance, with victims of sexual abuse, rape or natural catastrophes.

Related articles

• Psychoanalysis Encyclopedia: Isolation (enotes.com)
• Sigmund Freud (iiteeeestudents.wordpress.com)
• Sigmund Freud Timeline Important Dates in the Life and Career of Sigmund Freud (iiteeeestudents.wordpress.com)
• Id (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Kabbalah: The Mystical Origin of Psychoanalysis (blogcritics.org)
• He’s Back: Freddy Crews Claws Freud (psychologytoday.com)
• Introjection (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• First Mention: Sigmund Freud, 1909 (nytimes.com)
• What is the specialized of sigmund freud (wiki.answers.com)
• Sabina’s Saga (Part 1) (drvitelli.typepad.com)

Introjection

Group photo in front of Clark University Sigmund Freud, Stanley Hall, C.G.Jung; Back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi. Photo taken for Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts publication - uploaded by Psychology Pictures via Flickr

Introjection is a Freudian defense mechanism in which one relates to an external object in terms of its imagined instead of actual functioning.

The imaginary content is called an introject and can take negative or positive forms—e.g. the punitive mother, the kindly grandfather, the distant father, and so on.

According to Freud, introjection plays a role in the development of the superego and in diminishing separation anxiety. And it’s considered a normal aspect of psychological development leading toward ego independence.¹

There are a couple of issues here to be considered.

First, it should be stressed that introjection is part of a developmental process and as such, involves a series of ‘necessary mistakes’ in understanding—mistakes that must be overcome for true maturity to arise. However, we never really stop distorting our world, so it’s problematic trying to determine exactly where healthy imagining starts and unhealthy imagining stops. As in most scientific assessments, not a little bit of human bias is involved.

Another problem, one not really looked at by Freud or his hardcore followers, is that a person may be intuiting the unexpressed impulses and thoughts (aggressive or benevolent) of another which rarely (or possibly never) come to the surface, socially speaking. So if, for example, an aggressor is clever enough to mask his or her aggression in front of others, he or she may seem benevolent when, in fact, harboring aggressive tendencies. If a person picks this up at the intuitive level, he or she may be concerned, but a supposedly dispassionate psychoanalyst may dismiss that concern as a mere introject, when, in fact, it’s quite an accurate perception of aggression.

Freud’s at one time student C. G. Jung talked about the importance of intuitive knowledge to a greater degree than did Freud. Jung even incorporated intuition into his model of the self. But even Jung doesn’t really offer much more than an introductory analysis regarding the importance of non-localized, non-discursive knowing—at least, this is the perspective which most bona fide mystics would hold.

—

¹ Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1977, pp. 77-78.

Related articles

• Id (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Toronto International Film Festival 2011: ‘A Dangerous Method’ (Notes from the Road) (popmatters.com)
• A Dangerous Gender * Sabina Spielrein and the Masks of Jung and Freud (silkroadvisions.wordpress.com)
• ‘Dangerous’ film probes flaws in Freud-Jung friendship (ctv.ca)
• Inflation (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• do fish see water? (literarylew.wordpress.com)
• Let’s Learn From Jung and Freud (teezah.wordpress.com)
• SIGMUND FREUD: Psychoanalyst (time.com)
• What does ‘Freudian’ mean? (freudinoceania.com)
• Cronenberg ‘cures’ cast in Freud-Jung drama (pbpulse.com)

Inflation

Godman! by devan78 via Flickr

Most of us think of inflation as an economic term. But it’s also a psychological term, one coined by the Swiss psychiatrist, C. G. Jung.

For Jung, psychological inflation denotes the unsavory but, perhaps, temporarily unavoidable situation that can occur during the individuation process (another one of Jung’s ideas that points to a life-long process of self realization).

Inflation in the Jungian sense refers to a person’s ego-consciousness that uncritically and, often zealously, identifies with archetypal contents. This results in a loss of sensible discrimination and a regression into archetypal unconsciousness. It’s also “characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, often compensated by feelings of inferiority.”¹

Although some popular writers combine the ideas of inflation and conscious self-aggrandizement, for Jung the two are different mechanisms with different psycho-social outcomes.

Concerning religious leaders, teachers and alleged prophets, whether such figures are psychologically inflated (and trying to spread that condition to others) or, rather, genuine holy persons remains a matter of much and often heated debate.

Leon Schlamm’s excellent entry on inflation in the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, Volume 2, is freely available online for preview: http://bit.ly/qV25Um.

—

¹ Source: http://www.jungny.com/carl.jung.108.html from Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms & Concepts by Daryl Sharp, 1991.

Related Posts » Mythic Inflation, Paranoia, Klein (Melanie)

Related articles

• Super man, super human, Godman, Guru, Hero ……. (raol1810pr.wordpress.com)
• How God Relates Inversely (mymostfavoritethings.wordpress.com)
• Carl Jung, part 8: Religion and the search for meaning (guardian.co.uk)
• Guru/ Spiritual Guide (onelightmanywindows.wordpress.com)
• Bhutan Festival tours (tashinyendaadventures.wordpress.com)
• Guru / Spiritual Guide / Master / Spiritual Teacher (olmwsimpletruths.wordpress.com)
• Running is my Guru (longleggedfly.wordpress.com)
• Album on Sikh Saint Baba Nand Singh Ji Released (prweb.com)
• The Freedom to Be Spiritual, or Religious! – Pune, India (travelpod.com)
• Sikh-Diaspora Digest:some interesting posts (preetlari.wordpress.com)
• An In- Depth Look at the Emotional Center #1 (sarmoung.wordpress.com)
• Rick Perry: ‘As a Christian I Have a Directive to Support Israel’ (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Michele Bachmann (R-Mars): Ultra-Fanatic (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• I thought this video was pretty funny… (michigantelephone.wordpress.com)
• LONDON: Religious fanaticism. A powder keg set to explode (jewishinfonews.wordpress.com)
• Craziest Fundamentalist Republican Wins Iowa Straw Poll (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Christie ‘thinking about running now’ (atlmalcontent.wordpress.com)
• Iowa Family Leader’s Vander Plaats is a Birther (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Kindle Daily Deal! Pig Island by Mo Hayder for $0.99! (randomizeme.wordpress.com)
• What makes a fanatic (gregoryhamel.net)
• Intercession (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Foo Fighters Counter-Protest The Westboro Baptist Church (wzlx.radio.com)
• WI GOP turns on Tommy Thompson. He’s no longer a “real” Republican in party taken over by right-wing nuts. (americablog.com)
• Do Christians Love the Bible Anymore? (instrument-rated-theology.com)
• Right brain vs Left brain by Susan Sayler (updated) (atextbookoflove.wordpress.com)
• Atheists: Outrage Does Not Suit You (anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com)
• Individuation Process (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Jung, Carl Gustav (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• The archetypes are gods: Re-godding the archetypes, by John H. Halstead (humanisticpaganism.wordpress.com)
• Saturday Morning Coffee with Carl Jung PART III (Video) (beeryblog.wordpress.com)
• Shifting between the worlds of Carl Jung (mindhacks.com)
• One becomes Two (immanence.net)
• Carl Jung’s advice (cynthiawh.wordpress.com)
• ‘Dangerous’ film probes flaws in Freud-Jung friendship (ctv.ca)
• Immanence & the World of Opposites (immanence.net)

Individuation Process

Original Statue of Carl Jung in Mathew Street, Liverpool, UK (1988). Made of plaster, it was vandalised and replaced in 1993 - Rodhullandemu via Wikipedia

Individuation process is a phrase coined by C. G. Jung to denote a life-long process of self realization. For Jung, the goal is not necessarily the riddance of evil and Christian perfection, which he sees as a somewhat skewed approach, but rather, ‘wholeness.’ Jungians – that is, followers of Jung – strive to know themselves and to become fully responsible for their actions.

Individuation entails an increasing awareness of various personas and primordial/inherited impulses that can obscure but are also a part of the self. The individuation process is said to move through various stages, symbolized and possibly aided by esoteric systems such as kabbala, alchemy and the Tarot.

Jung says that individuation gives us a new perspective on the cultural relativity of social norms. Although one may become more introspective and even ‘removed’ at some point in the journey, this hopefully does not end up in mere neurotic withdrawal (and this is a point where much debate could arise).

Instead, individuation gathers instinctual and social forces into a greater, more expansive sense of self. In contrast to individualism, individuation ‘sees through’ social norms but, at the same time, doesn’t entirely reject them. In fact, Jung often seems to say that a successful life is one that adapts to society—at least, in some way (another point where much debate could arise).

To compensate for the guilt that comes from being different or from partially leaving social norms and expectations behind, the individuating individual feels that she or he must create something of value to atone for his or her departure. Jung, in a rather authoritarian manner, says society has the “right” and “duty” to judge the individual harshly if she or he does not produce such a compensatory work.

Jung’s view here seems to limit compensatory works to material objects that can be perceived through the five senses—that is, the ‘great compensation’ must be something that everyone can understand. In his Collected Works Jung jokes about Tibetan Lamas sending him positive thoughts from some remote hill station. But Jung doesn’t pursue the idea much further.

Not surprisingly, Jung rarely displays genuine appreciation for the idea of spiritual intercession and the transfer of sin. But he’s not totally out in left field here. His work on alchemy and the psychological dynamic of transference provides a glimmer of hope. Jung concedes that personalities may mysteriously intermingle. But that’s about it.

For deeply prayerful and contemplative people,  Jung may be seen as not totally “wrong” but definitely at a kind of kindergarten level with regard to the subtle dynamics of the spiritual life. The American guru Ram Dass implied as much in his work, and it’s likely that other contemplatives in diverse faith traditions would see it this way too.¹

However, Jung was often feisty and quick to respond to a challenge. Were he alive today, he’d probably retort that contemplatives are absorbed in, or identify with, a particular archetypal reality without being able to appreciate other perspectives. And in some instances, this too seems valid.

—

¹ In a recent article about David Cronenberg’s film A Dangerous Method, Jim Slotek describes the Jungian idea of synchronicity as “Jungian spookiness.” But for contemplatives around the world and throughout history, meaningful coincidences are often seen as evidence of our essential interconnectedness and, in the largest sense, God’s plan. And for Catholics and other Christians, they could be evidence pointing toward the “mystical body of Christ.” As Colin Wilson once put it, they’re healthy, not scary.

Related Posts » Faeries, Karma Transfer

Related articles

• Jung, Carl Gustav (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Carl Jung on reason’s limits. (lifeondoverbeach.wordpress.com)
• The World of Opposites (thejungian.com)
• Active Imagination in the Creative Process (immanence.net)
• Transpersonal (thejungian.com)
• Carl Jung, part 8: Religion and the search for meaning (guardian.co.uk)
• The Conscious and the Unconscious (thejungian.com)
• Mortensen calls for release of more Jung letters (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Mortensen calls for release of more Jung letters (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Carl Jung’s advice (cynthiawh.wordpress.com)