Quand Freud fait défaut et Jung fait jeune dans l`encéphalisation

Quand Freud fait défaut et Jung fait jeune dans l'encéphalisation des corps imaginaires
Freudian Fatal Failures vs. Jung's Schatten’s Success in Grounding Imaginary Bodies
Marie-Agnès Cathiard (University of Grenoble III)* & Christian Abry (Musée Dauphinois, Grenoble)
Il n'est pas immédiat en choisissant un thème de débat—en l'occurrence les points de rencontre entre
mythologie et psychanalyse— de faire appel d'emblée à une distinction qui soit aussi fondamentalement
opérationnelle que l'est celle entre (con/di)vergence (rotations des globes oculaires) et accomodation
(modification de la courbure de la lentille du cristallin), dans la vision binoculaire. Un tel choix nous amène
à considérer que certains malentendus persistants pourraient simplement provenir de différentes attitudes
sur la clarification d'acceptions implicites dans l'usage métaphorique non critique de convergence,
confluence, etc. Munis de cet emprunt conceptuel aux sciences de la vision, qui implique que les
divergences sont bien destinées aux objets distaux (à longue distance, sur le long-terme), tandis que les
convergences sont requises pour les objets proximaux, on peut espérer parvenir à ramener des
controverses à leur propre effet d'échelle. Il va de soi que l'accomodation (par les muscles ciliaires), parce
qu'elle est généralement en synergie avec la convergence (muscles extraoculaires), ne doit aucunement
être confondue avec celle-ci dans les coordinations binoculaires. En prenant deux exemples où la théorie
freudienne a fait défaut sur le long-terme pour des phénomènes devenus maintenant neuralement mieux
connus, le membre fantôme et la paralysie du sommeil, et en reprenant nos efforts récents pour faire
connaître un succès en imagerie cérébrale sur l'Ombre de Jung, nous ne perdrons pas de vue notre
position scopique en évaluant la place respective dévolue aux motifs narratifs mythologiques qui ont été le
plus répétitivement repérés dans l'héritage de l'Humanité: ceux qui nous parlent de ces ontologies
surnaturelles que sont le cauchemar et autres corps fantômes.
It is not common in focusing on a topic —presently the proposed meeting points between mythology and
psychoanalysis— to call for an operational basic distinction such as (con/di)vergence (eye-ball rotations)
vs. accommodation (modification of lens curvature) borrowed from binocular vision. Which means that
some misunderstandings could be simply the outcomes of different approaches in the clarification of
metaphorically received acceptions and in the uncritical use of convergence, confluence, and the like. With
this conceptual loan to vision that divergences are used for far away objects (long-distance, long-term
views), while convergences are required for objects close by, one can hope to articulate controversies at
their proper scale level. Of course the fact that accommodation (ciliary muscles) is generally synergetic with
convergence (extraocular muscles) does not mean they are to be confused in binocular coordination.
Taking two examples of Freudian failures in the long-term to account for now better known neural
phenomena, phantom limb and sleep paralysis, and adding our recent endeavor to acknowledge a brain
imaging success for Jung's Shadow, we will not lose sight of our optical stance while evaluating their
respective scopes for narrative mythological motifs, repeatedly landmarked in the heritage of Humanity:
those concerning such ubiquitous supernatural ontologies as the nightmare and other phantom bodies.
Archetypal Patterns in the Rituals of Swazi Kingship
Carolyn Harford (University of Swaziland)
This paper applies the psychoanalytical concept of archetype developed by Carl Gustav Jung (Jung 1959)
to aspects of the ritual construction of kingship in traditional Swazi culture (Kuper 1944, 1947). Following
Jung, it assumes that archetypes are part of the human collective unconscious which, in turn, is part of the
biological inheritance of homo sapiens. As a consequence, archetypal material is available for encoding in
any human mental product including dreams, myths and other narratives, material artifacts, social
organization and ritual. Such products cross-culturally may be expected to show significant similarities as a
result of their common base in the human unconscious, apart from their grounding in human material
conditions. In traditional Swazi culture, as in other African societies (Mbiti 1990), the health and fertility of
society is linked to the well-being of the monarch (Kuper 1947). In this sense, the monarch is a culture
hero. There are certain aspects of the succession, preparation for kingship and actual reign that suggest
that the figure of this culture hero is constructed in a way reminiscent of child gods and heroes from other
cultures around the world who represent Jung’s (2002 [1951]) archetype of the puer aeternus `eternal
child’. Three characteristics of this construction stand out in particular: 1) the King succeeds to the throne
as a minor, undergoing a ritually specified phase as a child, during which he is given the lifelong
designation of uMntfwana `Child’ (Matsebula 1988); 2) the King reigns with his mother, or a mother figure,
in a rare, if not unique, dual monarchy; 3) certain rituals, particularly those associated with the Incwala
`First Fruits’ ceremony position the King as beset by enemies, including some from his own clan (Kuper
1944, Apter 1983). This combined figure of a child with his mother fighting his enemies is reminiscent of
Greek and Urgo-Finnic myths and folktales such as those described by Kerényi (2002 [1951]). The paper
suggests that such a construction enhances the psychological power of the cultural complex in which the
Swazi monarchy is embedded, by linking the status of the highest-ranking member of the society, the one
responsible for its well-being, with that of the most helpless, as Kerényi (2002 [1951], p. 39) says “… the
revelation of divinity in the paradoxical union of lowest and highest, weakest and strongest.”
Myths of Popular Culture
Katy Khan (Unisa)
The aim of this article is to explore some critical moments in the formation of ‘popular’ culture studies. This
objective is not exhaustive, cannot be exhaustive in the space of a single article, since popular cultural
studies have grown into an academic industry which not even five live-times of academic work by any
individual can exhaust! This article is therefore, a rapid but hopefully, provocative view of understanding
popular culture. The article uses the concept of myth to problematise some aspects of the debates of
popular culture in some works by the Frankfurt school, the pioneering work of E. P Thompson, Stuart Hall
and in the case of Africa, the work of Njabulo Ndebele. None of these works claim to be canonical in their
treatment of popular culture. However, the problem identified in this article and therefore to be addressed is
that there still remains a certain condescending theoretical attitude in the definitions of what is popular by
works indicated above. To be sure, each of these writers on popular culture have evolved from previous
standpoints and yet it is still important, particularly from an African perspective where the popular is still
viewed as inferior, to trace the genealogy of this mistrust of the popular. We argue that myths and symbols
of popular culture should be viewed as social constructs; they do not represent the interests of everyone in
the community in the same way, forever.
“A Flower is Love Something”: Myth Analysis of Hyacinth
Sibusiso Hyacinth Madondo (University of South Africa)
With any kind borne on thy neck or hand
Secure from peril visit every land.
On all thy wand ‘rings honours shall attend
And noxious airs shall ne’er thy health offend;
Whatever prince thy just petition hears
Fear no repulse, he’ll listen to thy prayers.
Midst other treasures to adorn the ring
This gem from Afric’s burning sands they bring.
The Lapidarium of Marbodius
This paper is not intended as a pretentious introspective study of the self but as an in-depth psychoanalytic
study of the word “hyacinth” in myth and legend. The word “hyacinth” derives from the Greek ύάκινθος
and the Latin hyacinthus, Old French “jagunce”, Modern French “jacinthe” or “hyacinthe”, Spanish “jacinto”,
Italian “giacinto”, Polish “jacek” and designates a stone, a flower, a bird and a colour. It is an anthroponym
of the Greek ephebe beloved by Apollo and inadvertently killed by him (Apollo). The beautiful flower known
as the hyacinth sprang from the blood of the slain young man and this flower is the first bearer of the name.
The word “hyacinth” is probably derived from the Syriac word “zargono”, closely related to the Arabic
“zarqun” for “vermilion” and corrupted into “jargon”, later to “zircon” and “jagunce”, designating zircons or
yellow stones of East India1. As a stone it is deemed to have the following life-enhancing proprieties:
protection against plague, healing of wounds, warding off of phantoms, magical spells and lightning. It also
guarantees a cordial reception for travellers. The hyacinth flower is borne by a plant that grows from a bulb,
and its colour ranges through red, blue, white, pink, violet and yellow. These colours are associated
respectively with games and sport, constancy, lovableness, playfulness, sorrow and jealousy. The word
also used to denotes a kind of water-hen with purple plumage, or a hyacinth macaw, or a purplish-blue
colour resembling that of a common variety of hyacinth.
Deconstructing the myths of human trafficking: a psychoanalytical perspective
Dr N Mollema
Although trafficking in persons is regarded as a contemporary form of slavery, the crime of human
trafficking originates from the first international anti-slavery agreement in Paris. Entitled the International
Agreement for the Suppression of White Slave Traffic 1904, this agreement addressed the fraudulent and
abusive recruitment of white women for prostitution. Subsequent international instruments such as the
1921 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and the 1950 Convention for the
Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others all focused on the
female gender and sex trafficking. The most progressive legislation on trafficking in persons is the UN
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000).
Although acknowledging that trafficking may also occur amongst males, this instrument perpetuates
previous conceptions of gender. Recent studies done by the US Department of State prove however that
there are a significant number of male victims of forced labour and sex trafficking. Trafficking in persons is
perceived as a gendered problem, but only in the sense of the unequal power relations which reinforce
women’s secondary status in society. The assertion is made that the majority of victims are females, being
exploited by mainly males. Yet according to the UN, most traffickers are female. This paper will follow a
psychoanalytical approach to deconstruct issues such as gender in trafficking, the sensationalism of the
sex industry, and research statistics in the crime of human trafficking in order to produce not simply a
refutation of the relevant points of view, but a synthesis of opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative
transformation in the direction of the human-trafficking dialogue.
Psychology and the Fiction of JRR Tolkien: From Jung to Freud?
Julie Pridmore (University of South Africa)
Abstract: This paper will examine some of the considerable literature on psychology and identities in
Tolkien’s work particularly his fantasy text The Lord of the Rings. I will look at the focus on Jung in earlier
work in this field and then examine in some detail the recent emphasis on Freud’s psychoanalytical
approach and its possible applications to Tolkien’s works.
Personal mythology construction within psychoanalytic autofictional writing
Karen Ferreira-Meyers (University of Swaziland)
1
See L. Marcel Devic, Dictionnaire étymologique des mots français d’origine orientale (Arabe, Persan, Hébreu, Malais), Amsterdam, Oriental Press, 1876, « jargon ». Abstract : In this presentation, I will show the inextricable link between autofiction, psychoanalysis and the
textual construction of personal mythologies. The link between autofiction and psychoanalysis became
apparent only through Doubrovsky’s work as a writer and a literary critic. Burgelin (2010 : 18, my
translation) interrogated this link which, according to him, is typical of the context of France « perhaps
because the subject of identity transformations is experienced more intimately, introvertedly and reflectively
there ». He further observes the intensity of the questioning of fragments of the individual, the possibility
and impossibility of language, the links between writing and bodily representations, the devastating effects
of
secrecy
and
the
fatal
power
of
words.
In
his
1998
article
entitled
« Autobiography/Truth/Psychoanalysis », Doubrovsky remembers this link:
L'écrit est, pour l'analyste, meurtre du patient [...]. Le patient n'est pas supprimé mais digéré [...].
L'écriture est la revanche sur la parole, par absorption [...]. La lutte à mort par écrit est combat
pour le poste narratif. Qui avale qui, c'est décider qui a droit de perspective.
For Doubrovsky, psychoanalysis resembles a boxing match. It has the same function as the Stoic
teachings in the hypomnemata analysed by Foucault – a discourse which will only be functional by guiding
a larger integration of its double truth, imaginary and factual, sexually driven and reflexive, but which can
only resolve its contradiction through writing : « by being in a perpetual motion within the confines of this
double meaning, creating its own ambiguous, androgynous meaning, writing is invented through
nevrosis », writes Doubrovsky (1988 : 70).
In particular, I will examine Amélie Nothomb, Nina Bouraoui and Calixthe Beyala’s autofictional writing to
show how psychoanalytical autofiction helps in the identity construction of a personal mythology of both
author and characters.
Making and Missing Links: Cross-Disciplinary Myths And Metaphors for Human Trancendence and
Connectivity
Miranthe Staden Garbett (MGI)
This paper investigates the nature of human oneness and interconnectivity using an integral and crossdisciplinary methodology. It aims to interpreting and compare how the concept of human oneness features
in the traditionally opposed camps of theological (Genesis Creation Myth/Eden/Tree of
Knowledge/Babel/Body of Christ), psychoanalytical (transpersonal consciousness) and technicist (internet,
world-wide-web/global village/ cyberspace) discourse.
The mythology of Genesis situates humanity as originally one with the divine and all creation before ‘the
fall’. The transgression implied by Adam and Eve’s bite of the forbidden fruit redefines mankind’s relation to
the divine and to fellow human beings. New Testament doctrine claims that human redemption is made
possible through Christ’s sacrifice and evidenced through his resurrection. Thus human oneness in reenvisioned in terms of “the Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Body of Christ”. In biblical terms ‘oneness’ is
dependent on a realisation of the divine origins of man and our spiritual connection to one another and
ultimately to God. Transpersonal psychology and technological/digital networking also explore the nature of
human connectivity. However links are established using different methods and rooted in different
motivations.
Taking the symbol of the apple as a point of departure, this paper parallels biblical and digital ‘mythology’.
In short, if Eden represents the original spiritual oneness of creation with its creator, and eating from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil the first cause of division and duality, then the urge to autonomous
knowledge and earthly power inherent in Eve’s succumbing to the serpent’s offer of fruit from the forbidden
tree may be said to enjoying its peak in the digital age of information and communication.
Apple Mac is one corporation at the forefront of these developments in technology, communication and
ultimately human consciousness. Their logo, the apple with a bite taken out of it, while apparently bearing
no reference to the biblical symbolism, could be interpreted as sharing metaphorical similarities. The
triumph of material over spiritual is nowhere more manifest than in contemporary technicism where the
urge to connectivity and oneness is facilitated and hosted by digital technology. This is clearly evidenced by
metaphors and symbols such as the net, the web, the planet etc.
This paper thus aims to establish to what extent transpersonal psychology, digital communication/
technology and biblical mythology can be said to share certain ideas about human connectivity, to what
extent they diverge, and what conclusions can be drawn about their underlying motivations, methods and
discourses.
At the Crossing-Places: Myth and Fictional Reality in Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Arthur Trilogy
Janice Robertson (University of South Africa)
‘Myth [...] is to be taken seriously, because it reveals a significant, if unverifiable truth – we might say a
metaphysical truth’ (Frankfort, H et al. 2007:26). In Crossley-Holland’s Arthur trilogy (which consists of The
Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March), it is this kind of mythological truth
that leads young Arthur de Caldicot to discover his destiny through the Arthurian legends. By identifying
himself with the mythical boy-king, Arthur uses the experiences preserved in the cultural memory of his
people to understand his identity and the significance of his illegitimate birth. The knowledge he gains
becomes central to his quest for enlightenment – a quest which not only takes him far beyond the realm of
his physical experience but deep into his own consciousness.
“Annointed by the gods”: A critical assessment of the ‘divine right to rule’
Ilona Zager (UNISA)
Rulers had been using the term “annointed by (the) god(s)” for as far back as history is recorded, to justify
their rule over others. This paper will critically examine this practice and will focus specifically on Julius
Caesar and Octavian Augustus, who claimed descent from the goddess Venus Getarix and were also both
deified after their death. The question will also be asked whether rulers used these claims only to cleverly
manipulate the general populace as a propaganda tool to establish their own reign(s); and what the general
populace’s reaction to such claims were.