Living Simply, An Important Aspect of Living Sustainably

(The following presentation was given at 10^th Annual Sustainability Summit and Exposition held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 6-7, 2013 <www.sustainabilitysummit.us>)

Americans are not living in a very happy place right now. There are looming threats to an already problematic health care system. Wages have been stagnant for decades and two-income families struggle to keep their heads above water. Meanwhile, the 1% are making off like bandits. A spate of bad weather phenomena is making us uneasy about the developing apocalyptic dimensions of climate change. The American Dream seems to be slipping through our fingers.

There are many and complex reasons for these problems, but today I will focus on an issue that goes to the core of our unhappiness—consumerism. Seventy percent of our economy is driven by consumerism and the American consumer and the American economy supports a substantial proportion of the world's economy through our exports and imports.

There are two main problems with consumerism. First, our poor planet can't sustain the high levels of consumption in America and the rest of the developed economies. We are destroying the very fabric of our existence as we contaminate our air and water. We engage in ever riskier means of obtaining oil and gas; runoff of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides pollute our streams and rivers; and we are contemplating an open pit mine in northern Wisconsin that will destroy an entire watershed feeding into Lake Superior and sustaining an Indian tribe. The second major problem with consumerism is its very premise---you can buy your way to happiness This runs contrary to every form of perennial wisdom. “Can't buy me love!” the Beatles sang.

Why is consumerism so powerful? Again, there are many and complex reasons but, as I see it, there are two outstanding factors. The first major problem is the corporation as the dominant economic form. Corporations are given the rights of a person but international corporations are often more powerful than people's governments as they suppress worker's rights and environmental standards in the name of greater profits. Corporations are amoral at best; they have no concern for any children or grandchildren let alone the seventh generation. Their only concern is with making a profit for the shareholders in their quarterly reports, and most of the shareholders are very wealthy people.

Advertising is the handmaiden of corporate dominance and the power of consumerism. Some of the best and brightest, some of the most creative individuals, earn huge salaries for generating desires and creating brand identity. Nothing is sacred: even the drool factor in babies is exploited to begin to establish brand identity. Advertisers prey on our fears and anxieties, our instinctual desires and lusts, envies and greeds, to sell products often harmful to our health and to the environment. And thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, corporations can now pump unlimited sums of money into political campaigns driven by clever and often deceptive ads: welcome 1984! Jung said big organizations like big corporations and big businesses, big machines and big militaries, are the modern day versions of the monsters in the myths and fairy tales of old. (1)

The second major reason for consumerism is the empty, meaningless lives most people live. True, a good portion of this arises from being constantly bombarded with the message that consumption will make us happy. This cultivates a narcissism which undercuts a basic human need—the need for intimacy and a sense of community. Research has show that beyond a modest income and adequate amounts of food, clothing, and shelter, plus decent health care, the most important elements in a happy life are the time to cultivate good relationships with family and friends, pursue topics of personal interest, and involvement with community affairs. Before the age of television, working men, and it was mostly men, used their evenings to engage in political discussion and community activities.

 

There are many, including the renowned Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who maintain that the most important need for humans is to have a sense of meaning and purpose in one's life. “Man cannot stand a meaningless life,” Jung said. (Jung 1977, p. 439) Religions and the great spiritual and philosophical traditions have forever facilitated and guided humans in the quest for meaning and purpose. Many modern men and women no longer feel contained within these forms; they are what Jung said are modern men and women in search of a soul.

This search, what Jung called the process of individuation, is basically Jung's antidote to consumerism. Having a sense of soul, living a soulful life, is much more precious, more priceless than anything a VISA card can buy. Jung told Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, there had to be something positive and equally powerful to replace the core of an addiction. (Jung 1976, p. 623-625) This became the central concept in AA—the need for a sense of a Higher Power. Consumerism is a craving, an addiction, and soul-making is a positive way to fill the void in the consumer. Jung said the journey within to discover the breath and depth of one's psyche is like a voyage into the immensity of the cosmos. (Jung 1964, p. 103)

There are two central concepts in individuation/soul-making. The first is what I call an ecology of the psyche, an important aspect of ecopsychology. Ecopsychology is a new and important field of that began to emerge in the mid 90s. It studies how our attitudes, values, perceptions and behaviors affect our relationship with the environment. It calls for a new relationship to our inner world and a re-formulation of our social, economic, educational, political and spiritual systems which will enable us to live sustainably. I call ecopsychology the psychology of ecology and the ecology of psychology. It is the subject of the four volumes of my books, The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology.

An ecology of the psyche is best illustrated by thinking of a dream that we are in along with several other people. Our dream ego is closest to our conscious ego state. But who are all those other people? They are, and are more than, parts of ourselves. They can represent aspects of ourselves that we can't stand and which we project out onto others, thereby proceeding to belittle and persecute them. They can be aspects of ourselves that are positive potentials which we recognize and envy in others. They are often people of our opposite and complementary psychological types: if we are a strong thinking type we may dream of a strong feeling type person; if we are a strong introvert, we will probably dream of a lot of extroverts and being in extroverted situations like public places and larger gathering of people. We should think of ourselves as a walking tribe composed of our ego and all those little people within. Our challenge is to be in good relationships with the “little people within.” How well we relate to them is how well we are related to others in our waking state.

The second important aspect of individuation/soul making is Jung's concept of the Self. The Self is described as the center and centering force in the psyche. It's what brings all aspects of the psyche into relationship with each other. The Self can be thought of as whatever it is that creates our dreams with their cast of characters and the interactions and relationships between them. The Self is experiences as the image of God within if you are a Jew or a Christian, and at the cultural level as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Wakan Tanka (Lakota Sioux), etc. It can also be experienced as a magnificent tree, a sacred landscape, or what an indigenous person would call a “spirit animal.”

The process of individuation is dependent on developing a good Ego-Self axis, best illustrated by the Chinese glyph, or picture-word, for the Sage—“The ear listening to the Inner King,” the Inner King or Queen being the Self in this case.

How does one connect with the Sage and develop a relationship with it? Dream work is an excellent way and many Self images come through dreams. Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis with an approach that works with symbols are also good ways. So is meditation, deep reflection, intensive journaling, artistic and creative expression, and following personally meaningful spiritual and religious traditions.

These all require a certain degree of living the simple life. They require a preoccupation with one's inner journey, a valuing of reflection, time out and time away from it all, removal of clutter and a slowing down of the pace of things so one can be in a good “listening” position. Jung commented on how difficult it is to live the simple life (2) and railed against such things as an increasingly noisy world, time-saving gadgets that just increase the pace of life, and a goal of “keeping up with the Jones.” (3)

The last central concept for living sustainably and establishing a simple life is Jung's idea of the “two million-year old man within.” One of his biggest challenges was for modern men and women to unite their cultured side with “the indigenous one within.” Such a person would be connected emotionally, spiritually and symbolically with the land; a person for whom that is one of the most important goals in life. To do this we need long periods of immersion in nature, a lot of “hang time” with it—this is pretty simple. It includes a myriad of things like hiking, nature study, birdwatching, and gardening. (4)

The antidote to consumerism and an important aspect of living sustainably is to cultivate a simple life and carve out the time to spend with family and friends and soul-generating activities. It is not that “time is money” but what you spend your time on indicates what your values are, what you value. Just remember all those priceless things that credit cards can't buy.

Notes

1. Jung saw “such great abstractions” as large organizations, powerful systems, political ideologies and enormous machines as being demonic--autonomous archetypal phenomena seemingly beyond our control. (Jung 1977, p. 16-18) The modern archetypal dragons, as Jung saw them, are the “great machines, cars, big guns, [big organizations]…[that are] new terms for old things…but just as valid as the old ones.” He used the example of “all the little merchants…crushed by the Standard Oil Trust” who must have felt it to be “a great crushing monster” (Jung 1984, p. 538, 539):

After a while, when we have invested all our energy in rational forms, they will strangle us. They are the dragons now, they became a sort of nightmare. Slowly and secretly we become their slaves and are devoured…We are already strangled by our rational devices. One can see that also in enormous machine-like bodies of men, armies or other organizations, which all lead to destruction…Great organizations eat themselves up. (Jung 1984, p. 542, 543)

2. Jung said we must simplify, simplify, simplify. (Jung 1977, p. 48, 49) Describing his lifestyle at his Bollingen retreat on lower Lake Zurich, where he spent nearly half his time later in his life, Jung said:

I have done without electricity, and tend the fireplace and stove myself. Evenings, I light the old lamps. There is no running water, and I pump the water from the well. I chop the wood and cook the food. These simple acts make man simple; and how difficult it is to be simple! (Jung 1961, p. 226)

3. Jung had real problems with the noisiness of the modern world:

I personally detest noise and flee it whenever and wherever possible because it not only disturbs the concentration needed for my work but forces me to make the additional psychic effort of shutting it out…Noise is certainly only one of the evils of our time, thought perhaps the most obtrusive. The others are the gramophone, the radio, and now the blight of television...We must now add the nerve-shattering din of our modern gadgetry...Fear seeks noisy company and pandemonium to scare away the demons…Noise, like large crowds, gives a feeling of security…Noise protects us from painful reflection, it scatters our anxious dreams, it assures us that we are all in the same boat and creating such a racket that nobody will dare to attack us.


The dark side of the picture is that we wouldn’t have noise if we didn’t secretly want it…The real fear is what might come up from one’s own depths—all the things that have been held at bay by noise. (Jung 1984, p. 388-390)


Concerning our world of gadgets and time-saving devices, Jung opined:
 
Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. They by no means increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before…All haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say....


All time-saving devices…merely cram our time so full that we have no time for anything. Hence the breathless haste, superficiality, and nervous exhaustion with all the concomitant symptoms—craving for stimulation, impatience, irritability, vacillation, etc. Such a state may lead to all sorts of other things, but never to any increased culture of the mind and heart. (CW 18, ¶ 1343)

“Keeping up with the Jones” leads to a focus on material possessions:

        All too often an American worker who owns only one car considers himself a poor devil, because his boss has two or three cars. This is symptomatic of pointless striving for material possessions. (Jung 1977, p. 202)

Meaningless jobs lead to meaningless lives:

          See how men slink to work, only observe the faces in the trains at 7:30 in the morning! One man makes his little wheels go round, another writes things that interest him not at all. What wonder that nearly every man belongs to as many clubs as there are days in the week, or that there are flourishing little societies for women where they can pour out, on the hero of the latest cult, those inarticulate longings which the man drowns at the pub in big talk and small beer? (CW 7, ¶ 428)

4.  Jung was particularly concerned about those who live in large cities without any connection with nature. They need plots of land to work so the primate in them can come to life and they can have a sense of ownership of the earth. “We keep forgetting that we are primates and that we have to make allowances for these primitive layers in our psyche,” he said. (Jung 1977, p. 202) “Without my piece of earth, my life’s work would not have come into being.” (Jung quoted in Sabini 2002, p. 5) Gardening and owning one’s own home are “important for the chthonic powers.” (Jung 1976, p. 320)

References

Jung, C. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung [CW]. 2^nd ed. H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler and W. McGuire, eds. R.F.C. Hull, trans. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.

            CW 7. 1966. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology.  

            CW 18. 1976. The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings.

       1961. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Aniela Jaffe, ed. Richard and Claire Winston, trans. Random House: New York.

            Ed. 1964. Man and His Symbols. Doubleday and Co.: Garden City, NY.

        1976. Letters. Vol. 2. 1951-1961. Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, eds. R. F. C. Hull, trans. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.

         1977. C. G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters. W. McGuire and R. F. C. Hull, eds. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.

          1984. Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930 by C. G. Jung. W. McGuire, ed. Princeton University Press: Princeton.

Merritt, D. L. The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe, Fisher King Press: Carmel, CA.

            2012. Volume 1: Jung and Ecopsychology,

            2012. Volume 2: The Cry of Merlin: Jung, The Prototypical Ecopsychologist.

            2012. Volume 3: Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory.

            2013. Volume 4: Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View.

Sabini, M. 2002. The Earth has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C. G. Jung. North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, CA.

Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View

News Release - April 17, 2012 - Just Published:
Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View  — The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume IV
by Dennis L. Merritt

Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects explores the environment, with the Midwest as an example, using traditional Jungian and Hillmanian approaches to deepen our connection with the land, the seasons, and insects.

The Dalai Lama said how we relate to insects is very important for what it reveals much about a culture’s relationship with the psyche and nature.

"I had several Big Dreams in my last year of training at the Jung Institute in Zurich, including a single image dream of a typical Wisconsin pasture or meadow scene. This was the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen because it shown with an inner light, what Jung called a numinous or sacred dream. Since returning to Wisconsin I have let the mystery and power of that dream inspire me to learn and experience as much as possible about the land and the seasons of the upper Midwest, a process of turning a landscape into a soulscape."

"The means of doing this are presented in Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View, volume IV of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology. This involves the use of science, myths, symbols, dreams, Native American spirituality, imaginal psychology and the I Ching. It is an approach that can be used to develop a deep connection with any landscape, meeting one of the goals of ecopsychology. Carl Sagan believed that unless we can re-establish a sense of the sacred about the earth, the forces leading to its destruction will be too powerful to avert."

—Dennis L. Merritt

Front Cover: A Monarch butterfly on Buddleia in Olbrich Gardens, Madison, Wisconsin. This “King of the Butterflies” is probably the best known of the North American butterflies and is the chosen image for the Entomological Society of America. The caterpillar feeds on the lowly milkweed, genius Asclepias, named after the Greek god of healing. The plant and the insect are toxic to most organisms. The insect is known for its uniquely long and complicated migrations. Photo by Chuck Heikkinen.

DENNIS L. MERRITT, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology, Zurich, Switzerland, he also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. in Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has participated in Lakota Sioux ceremonies for over twenty-five years which have strongly influenced his worldview.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 

and a growing list of alternative titles. 

www.fisherkingpress.com

A Jungian Perspective on the Most Important Issue of Our Time—Climate Change

by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst, Ecopsychologist

www.ecojung.com

(This talk was given at the Fordham conference, Jung in the Academy and Beyond: The Fordham Lectures 100 Years Later, held at Fordham University on October 26 and 27, 2012. It will be published in the Proceedings)

As Bill Clinton might say, “It's the environment, stupid!” Our devotion to science, technology and the capitalist system has culminated in a unique moment in the human relationship with the environment. Our species is at or near the peak of a prosperity bubble about to burst. We have exceeded the carrying capacity of the biosphere and we are still breeding. (1) We are overusing antibiotics and deadly bacteria are becoming immune to everything we have. (2) We are mining our precious water resources (3), coral reefs are dying as the oceans become warmer and more acidic (4), and most alarming, we are experiencing this as the very beginnings of the negative consequences of climate change. It will include massive droughts and floods, freak storms, the spread of diseases (5), famine, water wars (6), and the elimination of 30 to 50% of the species. (7) Experts tell us we may have but 10 years max to turn the Titanic around with regard to the most devastating aspects of climate change. (8) The apocalyptic conditions we are inexorably moving towards are truly in the archetypal domain, requiring an archetypal analysis and suggestions for dealing with it. Enter Jungian ecopsychology, a topic I have been writing on for the past 16 years, having just published the third of the 4 volumes of The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology.

I discovered Jung while working on my doctorate in entomology in Berkeley starting in 1967. My area was insect pathology, using insect pathogens instead of chemicals to manage insect pests; Silent Spring had made a deep impression on me. Eventually I came to realize the ecological and political dimensions of Jung's concepts, and was able to bring my two backgrounds together within the developing field of ecopsychology.

The Blind Side of Psychology is its Relationship with Nature

Psychology has been painfully late in addressing environmental problems. Jungian analyst and archetypal psychologist James Hillman summed it up in the title of his book: We've had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--and the World's Getting Worse. (9) He noted that the environment we have ignored and mistreated is making its importance known to us through its pathologies, much like human pathologies made the reality of the unconscious known to Freud. (10) The collective psyche of our species is deeply disturbed by our collapsing faith in science and the redeveloping human limitations in confronting nature, and it has been more a heroic confrontation than an enlightened relationship. The field of ecopsychology began to emerge in the 1990s. It examines how our attitudes, values, perceptions and behaviors affect the environment. It calls for a reformulation of our political, cultural, economic and educational systems to enable us to live sustainably. Like deep ecology, it maintains that we are capable of a far deeper connection with nature which will serve as a natural basis for protecting the environment. (11) Jung, who died in 1961, recognized the magnitude of the shift in consciousness necessary for these things to happen when he foresaw a paradigm shift coming in the West, what he called a “New Age” and the “Age of Aquarius” (12), a shift which will certainly and necessarily have an ecological base.

Jungian Ecopsychology

There are two focal points from a Jungian ecological perspective for facing these issues. First is Jung's challenge to become more conscious, which for Jung meant to bring as much light as possible into the unconscious. It is clear this must now include greater consciousness of our niche in nature and greater awareness of environmental problems. This requires a knowledge of science as well as the archetypal dynamics of the apocalypse which will emerge ever more strongly, prompting more polarization in our society and a movement towards unreflective extreme religious positions. (13) The second Jungian ecopsychological focus is on the archetypal energies imaged by Hermes. Language and communication, Hermes' domaines, are being manipulated 1984-style by corporate interests using eco-propaganda, advertising, and “greenwashing.” One of the few hopes I have for humankind is for Hermes the communicator offering the possibility for easy and widespread dissemination of holistic messages and a new vision for humankind if we can develop one. Hermes leads the way or leads astray—it's our choice.

To develop a new vision I propose that we create a team of experts from all fields who can communicate well with each other as they provide a deep analysis of our problems as a species and develop a plan all the world leaders can get behind. This team would include ecologists, psychologists, economists, spiritual leaders, scientists, technologists, educators, and indigenous peoples.

There are many innate ecological aspects in Jung's system and in the practice of Jungian analysis that could be part of this vision. Jung talked about the people in our dreams as “the little people within” and emphasized the importance of being in relationship with them. This is an ecology of the psyche, quite the opposite of the conquering ego position presented by Freud. Freud described the relationship with our inner world much as he described our relationship with the environment. Within us is the “seething caldron” of the Id requiring a vigilant defense against the polymorphous sexually perverse inner child. With regard to the environment Freud wrote:

We recognize, then, that countries have attained a high level of civilization if we find that in them everything which can assist in the exploitation of the earth by man and in his protection against the forces of nature--everything, in short, which is of use to him--is attended to and effectively carried out [flood control, canals, agriculture, mineral extraction and elimination of wild animals]. (14)

Jung challenged us to unite our cultured side with “the two million-year-old man within,” a goal that would help us use science and the arts to achieve an emotional, symbolic and spiritual connection with nature. (15) It would bridge a connection with the Native Americans and there deep and profound sense of oneness with Turtle Island—the North American continent. This dovetails with Jung's challenge to academia to incorporate a sense of the numinous. Without this, Jung said, we will never have a holistic educational system. (16) Carl Sagan, who as co-chair of A Joint Appeal by Science and Religion for the Environment, presented a petition in 1992 stating:

The environmental problem has religious as well as scientific dimensions…As scientists, many of us have had a profound experience of awe and reverence before the universe. We understand that what is regarded as sacred is more likely to be treated with care and respect. Our planetary home should be so regarded. Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred. At the same time, a much wider and deeper understanding of science and technology is needed. If we do not understand the problem it is unlikely we will be able to fix it. Thus there is a vital role for both science and religion. (17)

Deep ecology calls for the deepest possible analysis of our dysfunctional relationship with nature, and Jung offers this through his examination of the evolution of the God-image in the West. (18) Myths and religions help establish and maintain basic attitudes, values, perceptions and behaviors, especially with regard to women, our bodies, sexuality and sensuality, and nature.

Complexity Theory Applied to Jungian Concepts--Experiencing Universal Processes

Most exciting for a scientist like myself is the application of complexity theory to basic Jungian concepts. Complexity theory has been put on a par with relativity theory and quantum mechanics in terms of its revolutionary and transformative ideas. I see it as the archetypal feminine in the world of mathematics because it focuses on such issues as process, the irrational and non-linear, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and sensitive dependence on initial conditions. With a given that humans inhabit and cultures evolve through symbolic systems, increasing psychic energy in our complexes (“hangups”) causes them to morph and self-organize into a higher symbolic level, the archetypal. (19) Increasing psychic level at the archetypal level will cause it to morph and self-organize into the archetype of the Self which integrates all archetypes in the manner of an organism. (20) Using this approach, we can say that humans emotionally, symbolically, sensually and spiritually experience the basic dynamics of the universe, and by definition for our species to fully realize our niche we have to connect to ourselves, others, and nature in this manner. This involves creativity and the arts and a proper focus in our educational and psychological systems. (21)

Analyzing the Problem in the Collective Unconscious

 Consciousness and every layer of the collective unconscious can be scrutinized for dissonance with regard to our relationship with the environment. (22) At the personal intrapsychic level, our relationship with the unconscious sets the pattern for our relationship with others and with nature, an example in complexity theory of scale invariance. Our family, especially attachment issues with the mothering figure, can lead to an anxiety, emptiness and a narcissism which consumerism and fundamentalist religions prey upon. Our national myths of the cowboy and conquering the wild West engender a conquering attitude towards nature and a religion of progress. Issues are compounded by the growing polarization in societies between believers and non-believers and the haves and have-nots. We are heading towards a dangerous period, especially in America, as it faces the archetype of decline—a problem for a country with an adolescent mentality epitomized by our myths of exceptionalism and the independent cowboy. Our hyper-independence makes us paranoid about any hint of socialism which many equate with communism. It is a revolutionary period (hexagram 49 in the I Ching) with the dangers of fascism increasing as economic, social and environmental conditions deteriorate. The Judeo-Christian religion established core values in Western culture which have little connection with nature, the body and sexuality. The Western Oedipal complex of human intelligence trumping the Great Goddess imaged as the Sphinx is poised to inflict the plagues of Thebes upon the entire planet and literalize John's apocalyptic vision. (23) Ecotheologian Thomas Berry described the Myth of Wonderworld as the myth of the West, now spread worldwide, as originating in John's Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. A thousand years of abundance and human perfections were supposed to precede the end of the created world. Humans decided to manifest the myth themselves when it didn't occur by divine grace. Berry writes, “The millennial myth was absorbed into, and found expression in, the modern doctrine of progress—which has seen humans trying to bring about this promised state through their own efforts by exploiting the resources of the earth.” (24) Jung challenges us to unite our cultured side with the primeval ancestors, what he called “the two million-year-old man within” at the clan and tribal level of human relationships. Such a person would have a relationship with the animal ancestor foundation of the psyche like an indigenous person speaks of spirit animals. The deepest disturbance in our collective unconscious will be at the animal soul level, because for the first time in the history of life on earth, one species will be responsible for eliminating 30 to 50% of the other species. And through the consequences of climate change we will decimate the basic requirements for our life as an animal: food, water, shelter and a relatively stable climate.

Aldo Leopold and Our Ecological Niche

Aldo Leopold described a science that deepens our appreciation of nature, helps us realize our ecological niche, and makes us aware of how we are destroying the environment. (25) We must realize that the climate change problem is a species problem, not just an American or European or Chinese problem. We must appreciate the unique niche of our species in nature as the only species able to use science and technology to violate the laws of nature and exceed the limitations nature brings about through restrictions of food, water, and the spread of diseases. This makes it imperative for our species to be conscious and wise in our relationship with nature and oriented towards living sustainably.

"We are the Origin of All Coming Evil"

From the more cultural perspective, our educational systems must make us more cognizant of our cultural evolution, the evolution of our religious forms, and the archetypal dynamics of the God-image within. Jung said we need more psychology, and famously added, “We are the origin of all coming evil.” (26) We have to teach a psychology that educates students about archetypes, the shadow and projection, and how to live a meaningful life, for Jung proposed individuation as the best antidote to consumerism. (27) The archetype of the provider side of the Great Mother with her desire for stability has captured our species aided by the wonders of science and technology giving us an abundance of food, clothing, shelter, cheap energy and good health. The fatal flaw is our lack of wisdom and a lack of collective social and environmental consciousness.

Corporations as Modern Day Monsters

 Environmentalists and most scientists have been suffering from the Cassandra complex for several decades so the problem is not with science. (28) Jung's claim that big corporations are the modern day monsters (29) provides an archetypal take on corporations as persons and the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision. (30) The British Royal Society sent two letters to ExxonMobil in 2006 chastising them for funding organizations deliberately trying to confuse people about climate change, attempting to convince the populace there was serious disagreement among scientists about the human factor in climate change. One ad agency was the same one hired by Phillip Morris in 1993 to create doubt that second hand smoke can cause cancer as the Surgeon General's report in 1992 had indicated. (31) In a related story, I quote from the end of the 2012 Frontline program on PBS, “Money, Power and Wall Street”: “It's very difficult to change gods, and in the modern age, our god is finance. Except its turned out to be a very cruel and destructive god.” A very real aspect of a paradigm shift will entail a revisioning of the concept of corporations. They have the rights of a person but with no concern for children, grandchildren or the seventh generation; their only goal is to maximize profits no matter what. Corporations and large financial institutions are now above governments and international politics. Without changing the rights of corporations, strict oversight of financial institutions, and the elimination of tax haven shell-games, we are just rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic—they will always be several steps ahead of us. I describe on my blog also on this site how I see the film Hunger Games as an analogy to our present political situation veering towards fascism, defined as the union of corporations with government. This is conveyed in a quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross," not written by Lewis but expressing his sentiments.

Jung's Age of Aquarius will have an Ecological Focus

It will take the paradigm shift Jung described as a “New Age” and “Age of Aquarius” for our species to face and address the frightful realities of current and future environmental situations, our collective sense of guilt for the damage we continue to do to the planet and to the poor and disenfranchised who initially will suffer the most from climate change, and for our demonic role in the coming extinctions of millions of species on the planet. “Fate leads those who follow her, drags those who don't.” Jung said what is not brought to consciousness comes to us as fate. We can either consciously adopt an ecological perspective or let fate as ecological disasters eventually force such a perspective upon us, a perspective that will permeate all levels of human consciousness and behavior. To quote Jung, “We are beset by an all-to-human fear that consciousness—our Promethean conquest—may in the end not be able to serve us as well as nature.” (32)

Nothing is currently being done that is big and bold enough to address the gestalt of conditions that are producing climate change, conditions at the personal, cultural, social, political, economic, educational, and spiritual levels. I am firmly convinced that Jungian ecopsychology can make a significant contribution to this necessary dialogue. This has been the subject of my 4 volumes of The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes and Ecopsychology. Volume 1, Jung and Ecopsychology, examines the evolution of the Western dysfunctional relationship with the environment, explores the theoretical framework and concepts of Jungian ecopsychology, and describes how it could be applied to psychotherapy, our educational system, and our relationship with indigenous peoples. Volume 2, The Cry of Merlin—Jung, the Prototypical Ecopsychologist, reveals how an individual's biography can be treated as an ecopsychological exercise and articulates how Jung's life experiences make him the prototypical ecopsychologist. Volume 3, Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory, provides an archetypal, mythological and symbolic foundation for Jungian ecopsychology. I present Hermes as the god of ecopsychology and offer his staff as an emblem for ecopsychology. Volume 4, Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View (January 2013), describes how a deep, soulful connection can be made with these elements through a Jungian ecopsychological approach. This involves the use of science, myths, symbols, dreams, Native American spirituality, imaginal psychology, and the I Ching.

Two promising areas are the Earth Charter which promotes “a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace” (33) and the Transitions movement dealing simultaneously with climate change and peak oil. (34) Lester Brown's Plan B 3.O offers an astute and comprehensive analysis of environmental problems and many promising possibilities for tackling them in a Marshall Plan style.

Ten years is not a long time to bring about a paradigm shift, Jung's New Age, but the stakes are high. We are creating the conditions that will literalize John's dastardly vision of an apocalypse as he described it in the Book of Revelation.

Notes

1. Ralph Metzner, 1993, “The split between spirit and nature in European consciousness,” Trumpeter 10, Winter 1993, p. 2.

2. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/experts-fear-diseases- impossible-to-treat-7216662.html retrieved November 8, 2012.

3. Lester Brown, 2008, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, W. W. Norton & Company, NY, p. 69-75, 173-174.

4. http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/31/us-climate-oceans-E54U1ZB20090531 retrieved November 8, 2012.

5. http://www.climate.org/topics/health.html retrieved November 26, 2012.

6. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 retrieved November 26, 2012. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_sky_really_is_falling_20110530/ retrieved May 31, 2011.

7. http://www.climate-emergency-institute.org/species_loss_robert_m.html retrieved November 26, 2012.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-faces-catastrophic-loss-of-species-408605.html retrieved November 26, 2012.

8. http://www.nationofchange.org/stand-still-apocalypse-13540083558 retrieved November 27, 2012. This is a "must read" summary on the negative effects of climate change.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-chaos-predicted-by-co2- study-1676411.html retrieved May 31, 2009.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/07/climatechange.carbonemissions retrieved May 31, 2009.

Excellent updated information on the effects on the climate of the Canadian tar sands industry can be found at TarSandsRealityCheck.com. It counters the high-level pro-oil sands lobbying ongoing in Canada, the U.S. and Europe around the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and Europe on the Fuel Quality Directive.

9. James Hillman and Michael Ventura, 1992, We've had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy—and the World's Getting Worse, HarperSanFrancisco, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, NY.

10. James Hillman, 1992, The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World, Spring Publications, Woodstock, Conn., p. 89-130.

11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecopsychology retrieved November 24, 2012.

12. Carl Jung, 1973, Letters, Vol. 1, 1906-1950, Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, eds., R.F.C. Hull, trans., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, p. 285.

13. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/11/nation/la-na-tennessee-climate-law-20120411 retrieved November 24. 2012.

14. Sigmund Freud, 1929/l961, Civilization and Its Discontents, James Strachey, trans., W. W. Norton, NY, p. 39.

15. Carl Jung, 1977, C. G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters, W. McGuire and R.F.C. Hull, eds., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, p. 396, 397.

16. Carl Jung, 1969, Psychology and Religion: West and East, Vol. 11 of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung [CW], 2nd ed., H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler and W. McGuire, eds., R.F.C. Hull, trans., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, par. 735.

17. Carl Sagan, “To avert a common danger,” Parade Magazine, March 1992, p. 10-12.

18. Dennis L. Merritt, 2012, Jung and Ecopsychology, Vol. 1 of The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology [DFG], Fisher King Press, Carmel, CA, p. 54-70.

19. DFG Vol. 1, p. 46-49; Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory, DFG Vol. 3, p. 87-132.

20. DFG Vol. 1, p. 35, 36; DFG Vol. 3, Appendix C: Self and Organism, p. 190-195.

21. DFG Vol. 1, p. 109-124.

22. Barbara Hannah, 1991, Jung: His Life and Work, Shambala, Boston, p. 17; DFG Vol. 1, p. 25.

23. Peter Redgrove, 1987, The Black Goddess and the Unseen Real, Grove Press, NY, p. xiv, xv, xviii-xxix; DFG Vol. 3, p. 151-153.

24. Nancy Ryley, 1998, The Forsaken Garden: Four Conversations of the Deep Meaning of Environmental Illness, Quest Books, Wheaton, IL, p. 207, 208; DFG Vol. 1, p. 134 note 9.

25. Aldo Leopold, 1949, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, Oxford University Press, New York, p. 201-226; http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html retrieved November 24, 2012.

26. Jung 1977, p. 436.

27. CW 18, “Return to the Simple Life,” p. 582-588.

28. Cassandra offended Apollo and was cursed with the gift of prophesy but no one would believe her.

29. Carl Jung, 1984, Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930 by C. G. Jung, W. McGuire, ed., Princeton University Press, Princeton, p. 538, 539, 542, 543; DFG Vol. 1, p. 77, 165 note 87.

30. Citizens United was a landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision that overturned decades of restrictions on corporations and unions from contributing unlimited funds to political campaigns, claiming the restrictions violate First Amendments rights of free speech. Corporations are considered to be a person in this regard. The 2012 elections were the first to experience the effects of the new law of the land.

A "must see" 2003 documentary is "The Corporation," a film based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan, a University of British Columbia law professor. An excellent description of the film on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corporation_%28film%29) lists the sociopath traits of a corporation if indeed it were a person, which means that the business form dominating the world's economic systems is sociopathic, period. Running beneath the credits at the end of the film is a list of websites that elaborate on particular topics and offers opportunities to get involved in rectifying the problem.

31. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/19/ethicalliving.g2 retrieved November 24, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/20/oilandpetrol.business retrieved November 24, 2012.
An excellent video on climate change deniers is Potholer54′s latest video – “The evidence for climate change without computer models or the IPCC”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ6Z04VJDco

His video “Science vs the Feelies” makes some great points with good humor besides.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjD0e1d6GgQ

32. CW 8, par. 750.

Prometheus was the Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods for human use, enabling progress and civilization. His punishment was to be chained to a rock and have his liver pecked out by an eagle, the emblem of Zeus. The liver grew back by the next day and again eaten, a scenario eternally reenacted.

33. earthcharterinaction.org

34. transitionnetwork.org

Copyright 2012

Hermes, Ecopscyhology, & Complexity Theory

News Release - Nov. 1, 2012 - Just Published:
Hermes, Ecopsychology, Complexity Theory: 
The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume III
by Dennis L. Merritt

“Who ever does not shy away from dangers of the most profound depths and the newest pathways, which Hermes is always prepared to open, may follow and reach, whether as scholar, commentator, or philosopher, a greater find and a more certain possession.”  —Karl Kerenyi

An exegesis of the myth of Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle and the story of Hephaestus trapping Aphrodite and Ares in the act are used in The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe Volume III to set a mythic foundation for Jungian ecopsychology. Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory illustrates Hermes as the archetypal link to our bodies, sexuality, the phallus, the feminine, and the earth. Hermes’ wand is presented as a symbol for ecopsychology. The appendices of this volume develop the argument for the application of complexity theory to key Jungian concepts, displacing classical Jungian constructs problematic to the scientific and academic community. Hermes is described as the god of ecopsychology and complexity theory.

The front cover image is from a photo taken by the author of detail on an Attic Greek calyx krater by Euxitheos (potter) and Euphronios (painter) ca. 515 BCE. The gap between the horn-like extensions atop Hermes’ staff highlight his domain—the exchange and interactive field between things, as between people, consciousness and the unconscious, body and mind, and humans and nature.

Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory
The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume III

ISBN 978-1-926715-44-5
6 x 9
228 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 1, 2012

DENNIS L. MERRITT, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology, Zurich, Switzerland, he also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. in Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has participated in Lakota Sioux ceremonies for over twenty-five years which have strongly influenced his worldview.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 

and a growing list of alternative titles. 

www.fisherkingpress.com

The Indigenous One Within

by Dennis Merritt

One of Jung’s biggest challenges to modern men and women from an ecopsychological perspective is to unite our cultured side with what he called “the two million-year-old man within.” The “indigenous one within” is a person living in a sacred and symbolic relationship with nature, in a world where “we are all related”—the two-leggeds, four-leggeds, six-leggeds, etc. To understand Jung’s challenge, we begin by looking at our Western indigenous roots and the evolution of the Western worldview. Indigenous cultures, including our Celtic, Slavic and Teutonic ancestors, considered all elements of the cosmos to be spiritually alive and interrelated. Humans were seen as but one element humbly present in the grand scheme of things. (n 4) Our ancestors spoke of gods and goddesses and other beings in nature equal or superior to humans “such as giants and dwarves, elves and trolls, fairies, leprechauns, gnomes, satyrs, nymphs and mermaids,” Ralph Metzner notes. “These deities and beings could be communed with by anyone who was willing to practice the methods taught by the shamans and their successors the witches, the wise women of the woods—using magical plants and stones, chants and incantations, dances and rituals.” (Metzner 1993, p. 7)

Traditional cultures also tend to revere close relationships between people, making kinship and clan identities far more important than the individual person. Small groups allow easier connections and face-to-face interactions, facilitating democratic decision-making processes. In traditional cultures,

Reciprocity and belonging rule human interaction…Shared communal spaces and cooperatively tended land are…typical. The purpose of life is…to live in harmony with one’s group, honoring tradition and continuity with the ancestors, as well as the spiritual world, which provides for human needs. (Winter 1996, p. 53)

"The Hunger Games," Jung, Politics, and the Environment

 

The Hunger Games from a Jungian, Political, and Environmental Perspective

                

               Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst, Ecopsychologist

                                                www.ecojung.com

The movie The Hunger Games at one level depicts the adolescent's world on steroids and at another level relates to powerful forces stirring in America. As a nation we are struggling to find a new identity as the myths that have sustained us are showing their age and ineptness while the controlling powers are expressing themselves more strongly. In Games those controlling forces directed by President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland, are challenged by a powerful feminine energy in the form of sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen, played by Jenifer Lawrence. I see Hunger Games as a allegory of current American culture as Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials, was an allegory of McCarthyism in 1952 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible). 

The Story from an Archetypal Perspective

In the film the rule of the archetype of the Old King as embodied by the President is nearing its end. The King represents the dominant features of a culture depicted in its values, attitudes, behaviors and systems. (1) Old systems in Snow's realm are showing signs of strain in a decadent society that has lost its soul. The ruling power uses intimidation, deceit and diversions to maintain its position. The Capitol is the powerhouse and center of President's domain, a place of ultra modernity in its buildings, machines, and electronic marvels. It is inhabited by a ruling elite of shallow people living in luxury who are caricatures of humans with their bizarre clothing, makeup and behaviors. This society without a heart is epitomized by an annual event—the Hunger Games--captivating the entire culture. The games cruel nature is symptomatic of the absence of the Queen archetype--there is no feminine companion/counterpart to the President. The Queen symbolizes the Eros or archetypal feminine in a culture, the feeling values and how people relate to each other. In the film a primary feminine figure is the woman who reaps the tributes from the districts: a shallow, empty, painted woman enamored with the allure of the games.

Outside the Capitol lie twelve poor, starving, downtrodden districts still being punished for a rebellion over 74 years ago. Twelve is an archetypal number associated with wholeness (twelve months, twelve apostles). Here we have a kingdom of the haves and the have nots, reflecting the 1% and 99% in American society. Every year a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected at random as tribute (sacrifice) to represent their district in the Hunger Games. The randomness highlights the cruel uncertainty of fate, subjecting everyone to its fears. The games are an annual reminder of the punishment for rebelling against the powers that be, a punishment meted out in the form of human lives for the entertainment of the populace and a means of maintaining a fear in both city and country of the ruling power.

"A Dangerous Method" and Jung

   A Dangerous Method Seen From A Jungian Ecopsychological Perspective, Even

               Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst, Ecopsychologist

                                      www.ecojung.com

The film A Dangerous Method is remarkable in its presentation of the early days of the psychoanalytic movement that was to revolutionize our understanding of the human psyche. Superb acting dramatizes the relationship between two giants of the psychoanalytic world, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and the struggle between them that led to a painful split still reverberating through their two schools of thought over 100 years later. Sabina Spielrein, a former Jewish patient with whom Jung was to have an intimate relationship, functions in the archetypal feminine role of Eve in painfully forcing the raising of male consciousness through the discovery of countertransference. She became the seed of Jung's concept of the archetype of the soul, the anima or inner feminine in a man. Other significant elements in the film include the powerful role of sex in life and in the therapeutic environment, the the midlife crisis, the association experiment, and the issue the “Jewish” and the “Christian” cultural unconscious. As a Jungian analyst and ecopsychologist, I see in Sabina Spielrein as portrayed in A Dangerous Method as the catalyst that eventually led Jung to believe that a strong emergence of archetypal feminine energy in Western culture is the most important element in a needed paradigm shift. He called the shift a “New Age” and the “Age of Aquarius,” a shift with important ecological implications.

Why the Method was Dangerous

The beginning of psychoanalysis was particularly dangerous because it blew the lid off a culture trapped in a repressive Victorian worldview. Following Freud's initial exploration of the unconscious using cocaine and hypnosis, he developed a revolutionary approach called “the talking cure” which encouraged patients to tell their thoughts and fantasies to an analyst. What is repressed ultimately turns against us in a negative form, and what Freud discovered was the results of centuries of repression in our Judeo-Christian culture of powerful instinctual drives, especially sexuality. The material was so shocking Freud called it “the seething caldron of the Id,” full of animalistic drives, barbaric behavior, and childish immaturity, as he saw it.

While Freud was analyzing privately and primarily with sexually repressed and abused Viennese women, Jung, 19 years Freud's junior, began working in the world-renowned Burgholzli clinic in Zurich in 1900, the year Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams based on approximately 13 years of developing his methods and concepts. Eugene Bleuler, the chief at Burgholzli, insisted doctors live on the grounds of the cantonal mental institution, as depicted in Method, eat with the patients, and speak in their dialect. (Ellenberger 1970, p. 666, 667) Because of Jung's background, described in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he was particularly good at relating to schizophrenics and published an important paper on the topic. This, together with his development of the association experiment, convinced Jung their was an unconscious and led to his meeting with Freud.