748 The Eternal Youth: Discussion on Refusal to Grow up from Jung’s Perspective | The Beast Loves Wisdom

Beast press: In the past two days, I have listened to the [Audio Book Review] series of talks between Jia Ling and Kai Yu on youtube. It seems that Jia Ling is a fan of Jungian psychology and has recommended many Jungian psychology produced by Mind Workshop study works. It also reminds me of the reading notes of "Eternal Youth" written by Beast in January 2019 and the insights of teacher Hu Yinmeng's workshop in September 2019. Let me share it here.

Dream sharing: The participants of this workshop revealed a common problem to a considerable extent, that is, the psychological issues of "eternal youth" and "eternal maiden" that Jung and his female successors have studied in depth. Since the responsibility of raising children in the modern lifestyle mostly falls on the mother, the father mostly assumes the external responsibility of earning a living. As a result, the child is overly dependent on the mother and loses positive models and love of the opposite sex. The coming-of-age ceremony emphasized by many aborigines brings the psychological implication of "letting the negative side die and the positive side be reborn, and vice versa". Therefore, even when they grow up, they have their own intimate relationships, but there is always a future in their hearts. Adult children always look forward to a woman or man who can satisfy their various requirements, and then form problems such as projection, anger, not wanting to be responsible for themselves, unable to control emotional reactions, etc., and when these problems are still buried in the Before our hearts are transformed, it is impossible for our intimate or ally relationships to be harmonious. Ken Wilber once said that those who directly enter the systematic practice without psychotherapy usually show the personality traits of "avoiding" the shadow side of the spirit, so the most important basis for a person's growth and spiritual progress is to expose and In the face of inner shadows and potholes, no one can detour!

The book recommended today is "The Problem of the PUER AETERNUS: The Problem of the PUER AETERNUS" (The Problem of the PUER AETERNUS), authored by Marie-Louis von Franz, published by Mind Workshop in November 2018 The traditional Chinese version translated by Xu Bizhen. Knowing that this book was recommended by Teacher Hu Yinmeng in the Fuxian Awakening Gate WeChat group some time ago, he also sent a few excerpts from the book.

The cover copy reads: Is he full of dreams, free and easy, or is he a mother, a scumbag, a fake Wenqing? The subtlety of growing up is letting go of certain illusions without becoming cynical. The article also appended a very good recommendation preface by Jung analyst Hong Suzhen " From Ripples of Darkness to Ultimate Light: A Road of No Return for Eternal Youth"

The story of "The Little Prince" (The Little Prince) is popular, but the life of the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) is full of mystery. He loves flying and takes it as the theme of his writing, but from his works and paintings, Jungian fairy tale analysis master von Franz sees unusual issues...

The Latin word puer aeternus, which means eternal youth, comes from the ancient Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphosis". He is the child god of ancient Greek mystical rituals, a holy boy, and a child who is deeply enveloped by his mother's love and cannot complete the process of individuation and grow up to maturity.

Men who identify with the eternal youth archetype are often full of charm, full of creativity, and pursue dreams all the time; although they have already grown up, they still have the mentality of teenagers, full of vitality but unable to live on a down-to-earth basis. They are emotionally unable to enter into a stable relationship, and in life they always dream of a better future and cannot take each day in front of them seriously. Whether it's changing jobs over and over again, or changing partners over and over again, being out of touch with reality frustrates them and makes others feel sorry for them.

This book is compiled from the winter lectures given by Dr. Marie-Louis von Franz at the Jung Institute in Zurich from 1959 to 1960. She believes that the phenomenon of eternal youth will become more and more common. Hidden spiritual issues.

From Ripples of Darkness to Ultimate Light: An Eternal Youth's Road to No Return

When the rational tradition derived from ancient Greek and Roman culture was simplified into scientism in modern times, its methodology even extended to the field of humanities, developing the so-called social sciences and changing human perception of the world. At this time, people are in awe of the universe and arrogant, only "science" is supreme, abuse the principle of Occam's razor, boldly manipulate mechanical causality, and ignore human sensibility and spirituality intentionally or unintentionally.

In the real world, the energy of human greed is respected, free competition is encouraged, and conflicts and struggles between people and groups are used to detonate the kinetic energy of wealth accumulation and promote the enlightenment movement. Universal Value. However, this great and sacred historical process blossomed into the terrible French Revolution. King Louis XVI of France, who supported the Enlightenment, tried to abolish serfdom, and tolerated non-Catholics, and the heads of more than 70,000 people were chopped off by ruthless rational thinking at the Place de la Concorde in Paris without hesitation .

The irrational results of rationality have triggered the sentimental and reactionary trend of the Romantic literary movement. On the one hand, novels such as "Frankenstein" (Frankenstein) show doubts and fears about science; Find the source of power in the wild blood of the European Germanic ancestors in the metaphors and clues of romantic legends such as elves, wizards, knights, princes, and princesses.

The Romantic literary movement influenced psychiatry, brewed psychoanalysis, and tried to establish another new interpretation system on the basis of the theory that mental activity is the biochemical operation of the nervous system. Therefore, Freud took "symbolic" materials such as myths and dreams into effective scientific data for research and induction, and believed that they all carry symbolic messages conveyed by psychological activities, which may be compensation for desire or trauma. The reduction and reduction analysis (deduction) of mental symptoms, pain, or doubts in life is believed to be inseparable from the instinctive sexual drive of human beings. Such a new psychological model, which connects rationality and sensibility in the human mind, has shocked the world. Although there are many supporters, scientists are hard to believe.

Freudian psychoanalysis raises the subconscious ripples in the dark mind out of the conscious level, and restores the original appearance of pain on the personal level, allowing people to gain a sense of reality and return to "normal" life. But is this the "answer" to life? Jung was not satisfied with this. He believes that not only that, but what those dark ripples tell may be older than the individual, and the fluctuations are more profound. For thousands of years, it has been repeatedly preached in everyone's heart, hoping that people will continue to deepen and "understand", not just "know". It is the unique spirituality of human beings, which includes sensibility, but has a wider scope, not only for individuals, but also for all human beings. The classic Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz (Marie-Louise von Franz) has a concise example in the book "The Eternal Youth", which illustrates the difference between "understanding" and "knowing" .

Von Franz had a young case who dreamed of becoming a writer but did not take any practical action at all. He came to her from the United States for analysis; another friend who traveled with him and went to Europe with similar confusion was the object of help. The Freudian analyst. After a period of time, the analysis temporarily came to a paragraph. Von Franz's case felt unhealed, but firmly believed that he would become a writer; while the friend who underwent Freudian analysis felt completely released, out of the control of the mother complex, full of energy and ready to return Live and enter the battlefield of life.

Those who are familiar with the psychoanalytic methods of Jung and Freudian schools understand that the key to the two young people's different responses to analysis is that one deals with ancient archetypes in the collective unconscious, while the other deals with complexes in the individual subconscious. This can also be said to be due to the differences in the two schools' understanding of the human mind, or their setting and processing. Jung believed that the painful signals sent by the unconscious are powerful, and to restore the symptoms to the ultimate of personal experience, there must be other reasons for being human.

The Jungian school wants to see the reality in the dark, so it adopts a synthetic or constructive method (Synthetic or Constructive method) that is different from reduction and reduction in clinical practice; while the Freudian school understands "symptoms" The meaning is to calm the emotional ripples aroused by the dark lake and help people return to life safely. Therefore, the individual subconscious is only a part of the collective, and Jungian psychology pays more attention to the collective unconscious, and the most important thing is the prototype theory. The archetype is an important master of the mind, eager to express, and cannot be compromised. Symptoms are only warning signs, and cannot be "handled", but can only be integrated.

"Eternal Youth" is an important and common archetype in Jung's theory. It is manifested as the idealized appearance of children and teenagers. They are youthful, full of vitality, eccentric, and unrestrained. People love and hate; creativity is unlimited, dare to love and dare Hate, forward courageously, adventures and provocations, make people both jealous and fearful. Von Franz's analysis of fairy tales, Eternal Youth is one of the themes she pays most attention to. In this book, she uses the French novel "The Little Prince" (The Little Prince) and the German novel "The Kingdom of No Space" (Das Reichohne Raum) as analysis texts to detail the ins and outs of the eternal youth. As far as the interpretation of this archetype is concerned, it is almost classical. A Jungian classic.

"The Little Prince" and "The Kingdom of No Space", the former has been spread all over the world and has become a classic; the latter is less known outside the German world, but after the introduction and analysis by von Franz, readers can't help feeling sympathetic . These two works can resonate, partly because of the structure of the writing and the wonderful effect of the plot, the reader's heart lake is full of sympathetic ripples. Most people yearn for those simple friendships, sadness, loss, mystery, and love. On the one hand, they feel pity for those good things in their own hearts, but they are also sad that they have been lost or have not been able to appreciate those good things. Although they yearn for them, they do nothing.

However, if it is just "feeling in the heart", it is only in the place where the personal subconscious is aroused. Franz reminds us that the eternal youth archetype behind the heart of the story hides the mysterious motif of human beings from ancient times. The seemingly romantic storyline is actually full of issues such as death, mother complex, rejection of ordinary, and protest against life. From the ancient myths and legends, to the storyline, to the creators, and even all the readers, they are all drawn by the mysterious archetype, lost and indulged in the same thread.

So we fell in love with the little prince at the same time. He came from the vast alien planet and died in the mysterious desert; even the author Saint-Exupéry himself flew high in the plane, practiced the eternal youth himself, and disappeared without a trace. . They replace us in being young, pursuing, melancholy, and then dying mysteriously. And the three young people in the Kingdom of No Space who explored the magic world, although they paid different death prices, they finally "entered the light forever, your white form is calling. Waves of waves, we will never grow old." This is their common choice, the fate of eternal youth.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019, the twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month, at 15:01 at Beast Aizhiju, Beijing