Freud believed that in states of mental disorder, the suffering person can be lost to the world of form and definition, and dropped into a formless chaos of undifferentiated life, where the boundary lines between the ego and the external world become uncertain. This is why psychotic patients often report that they are 'at sea' and cannot distinguish the outlines of objects, such as chairs or tables, because their perception is blurred, and everything appears to be in a swirling chaos.
Psychosis plunges us into an oceanic void which precedes form, where everything is intermixed with everything else, and nothing can be perceived as separate from the chaotic stream. Jung would call this the descent (or nekyia) into the undifferentiated life of the consciousness, although it shares with spiritual experience the overriding sense that 'all things are one', that everything is connected and nothing is separate. However in psychosis this is far from a pleasant or elevating experience. It is deeply destructive and the ego seems to drown in the ocean of being, rather than be swept along blissfully by its current as in states of transcendental meditation or spiritual rebirth.
This is a vital point of difference that we need to make clear. What the mystic or guru experiences as a state of bliss can be experienced by the psychotic as a terrifying nightmare of disintegration. The waves of preconscious existence can be destructive, like a tsunami or tidal wave, but they can also bring healing if we relate to them in the right way. The ocean of being is the same ocean in madness and transcendence, but the difference between spiritual awakening and psychosis depends on the nature of the consciousness that encounters the ocean. Here we might learn from observations made by anthropologist Joseph Campbell in Myths to Live By:
The difference [between the mystic and the schizophrenic] is equivalent to that between a diver who can swim and one who cannot. The mystic, endowed with native talents for this sort of thing and following, stage by stage, the instructions of a master, enters the waters and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, unprepared, unguided, and ungifted, has fallen or has intentionally plunged, and is drowning. Can he be saved? If a line is thrown to him, will he grab it? . . . What I am saying is that our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep within that the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy; except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning.
Jung warns that if the ego 'lacks any critical approach to the unconscious ... it is easily overpowered and becomes identical with the contents that have been assimilated'. He says it is a 'psychic' catastrophe when the ego is assimilated by the self'. Jung insists that the ego must find a 'right relation' to the unconscious, and this involves, first of all, the ego preserving its integrity in the face of the ocean of being that makes up the collective unconscious.
Image sourced from: california photo scout
If the ego is not properly formed, if it has been damaged by trauma or eclipsed by devastating inner or outer experiences, it is not in a fit state to make contact with the ocean of being. When the ocean comes towards it the ego will drown, because it needs to hold its integrity before the onslaught of the unconscious. If it can't hold its integrity it is lost in the water and becomes a subhuman fish swimming in the sea, or, more fatally, it dissolves into the ocean like an aspirin dropped in a tumber of water. In states of psychotic depression or anxiety, dreams will indicate that the ego has been submerged under a wave, or lost to some distant galaxy or star. The metaphors will constantly change, but the message will be the same: an eternal force has obliterated the temporal personality. This becomes problematical, as I will explain, if the sufferer is a follower of a cult or creed which views such self-obliteration as a spiritual achievement.
Classic symptoms of such 'psychic dissolution' are inflation, depression, paranoia, mania, catatonia and bipolar disorder. In each of these states, the ego has been eclipsed and replaced by archetypal contents that substitute for the personality - the ego has been assimilated by the unconscious. In severe cases of psychosis, this may involve identifying oneself with an archetypal power or figure, in which the person claims to be Jesus, Caesar or Napoleon. Whoever the chosen figure is, it is apparent that the ego has been annulled by the unconscious, which has wiped out the human element and replaced it with an archetype that exerts a destructive impact.
Extract from Gods and Diseases: Making sense of our physical and mental wellbeing by David Tacey, Associate Professor in Humanities, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Published 2011
Psychosis plunges us into an oceanic void which precedes form, where everything is intermixed with everything else, and nothing can be perceived as separate from the chaotic stream. Jung would call this the descent (or nekyia) into the undifferentiated life of the consciousness, although it shares with spiritual experience the overriding sense that 'all things are one', that everything is connected and nothing is separate. However in psychosis this is far from a pleasant or elevating experience. It is deeply destructive and the ego seems to drown in the ocean of being, rather than be swept along blissfully by its current as in states of transcendental meditation or spiritual rebirth.
This is a vital point of difference that we need to make clear. What the mystic or guru experiences as a state of bliss can be experienced by the psychotic as a terrifying nightmare of disintegration. The waves of preconscious existence can be destructive, like a tsunami or tidal wave, but they can also bring healing if we relate to them in the right way. The ocean of being is the same ocean in madness and transcendence, but the difference between spiritual awakening and psychosis depends on the nature of the consciousness that encounters the ocean. Here we might learn from observations made by anthropologist Joseph Campbell in Myths to Live By:
The difference [between the mystic and the schizophrenic] is equivalent to that between a diver who can swim and one who cannot. The mystic, endowed with native talents for this sort of thing and following, stage by stage, the instructions of a master, enters the waters and finds he can swim; whereas the schizophrenic, unprepared, unguided, and ungifted, has fallen or has intentionally plunged, and is drowning. Can he be saved? If a line is thrown to him, will he grab it? . . . What I am saying is that our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep within that the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy; except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning.
Jung warns that if the ego 'lacks any critical approach to the unconscious ... it is easily overpowered and becomes identical with the contents that have been assimilated'. He says it is a 'psychic' catastrophe when the ego is assimilated by the self'. Jung insists that the ego must find a 'right relation' to the unconscious, and this involves, first of all, the ego preserving its integrity in the face of the ocean of being that makes up the collective unconscious.
Image sourced from: california photo scout
If the ego is not properly formed, if it has been damaged by trauma or eclipsed by devastating inner or outer experiences, it is not in a fit state to make contact with the ocean of being. When the ocean comes towards it the ego will drown, because it needs to hold its integrity before the onslaught of the unconscious. If it can't hold its integrity it is lost in the water and becomes a subhuman fish swimming in the sea, or, more fatally, it dissolves into the ocean like an aspirin dropped in a tumber of water. In states of psychotic depression or anxiety, dreams will indicate that the ego has been submerged under a wave, or lost to some distant galaxy or star. The metaphors will constantly change, but the message will be the same: an eternal force has obliterated the temporal personality. This becomes problematical, as I will explain, if the sufferer is a follower of a cult or creed which views such self-obliteration as a spiritual achievement.
Classic symptoms of such 'psychic dissolution' are inflation, depression, paranoia, mania, catatonia and bipolar disorder. In each of these states, the ego has been eclipsed and replaced by archetypal contents that substitute for the personality - the ego has been assimilated by the unconscious. In severe cases of psychosis, this may involve identifying oneself with an archetypal power or figure, in which the person claims to be Jesus, Caesar or Napoleon. Whoever the chosen figure is, it is apparent that the ego has been annulled by the unconscious, which has wiped out the human element and replaced it with an archetype that exerts a destructive impact.
Extract from Gods and Diseases: Making sense of our physical and mental wellbeing by David Tacey, Associate Professor in Humanities, La Trobe University, Melbourne. Published 2011
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