The recent proliferation of Adult Onset ADD, sometimes referred to as Adult Diffusion Disorder, got me to thinking about possible reasons for the unexplained decline of competitive focus in later life. Taking the thorny issue by the horns, I perused some old psychoanalytic ideas of the last century in an attempt to shed light on the conundrum.
I stumbled across the theories of C.G. Jung. However crude they appear from the modern standpoint, I wondered if the old philosopher might not have anticipated some unresolved glitches in the biological, statistical reality we take for granted. An admittedly irrational curiosity bade me look into his clumsy contributions to our all but final state of knowledge today.
Jung arrived at his idea of “individuation” through his experience with patients (an accounting for the craziness of the notion) along with his own process of coming to terms with a strange, occult entity he called the “unconscious”. His speculations of a “psychological” mid-life change accompanying menopause startled me, though I don’t know why. The changes intitiated by hormonal diminution were actually seen by Jung as also effecting an emotional development designed to acquaint folks with contrasexual “spiritual” functions. How gender and emotion could be linked to silly fantasies invented by primitives in their crude misinterpretations of cause and effect, I couldn’t discern.
Far-fetched though it seems, this idea was fitted into an even more bizarre model in which mind and body appeared as reciprocal factors designed for “purposes” beyond the satisfaction of physical need and social “instincts”. Though we know that consciousness is self-sustaining and simply endures the body as the relic drag of an out-grown animal heritage (besides sex), Jung yet conceived it as driven by deeper aims which couldn’t be seen or touched (!).
He believed that natural processes don’t strictly adhere to scientific ideas. The stages of conscious development appeared to him as fluid and relative, interpenetrating to such a complex degree that nothing could really be certain (where was his head at?). Instead of the primary determinants of bodily functions, Jung saw attending psychological processes which could be inferred through emotional experience. “Unconscious” drives were discernible through indirect reflections in behavior and were thought to change according to natural laws.
FYI: an interesting though equally irrational contribution to Jung’s model was the idea of ”centroversion” introduced by Erich Neumann, a long-time member of his coven. It was intended as a complement to Jung’s concepts of introversion and extraversion, the psychic mechanisms adapting us to inner and outer “worlds”. These spontaneous movements of “psychic” energy were seen as alternating of their own accord (what?!) as demands change with development and the reactions the environment evokes. Bear with me.
It was Neumann’s contention that centroversion is the organizing and directing function which coordinates the other two mechanisms in the gradual unfolding of its urge to consciousness, much like Jung’s weird concept of the Self. Though it smacks of an unprovable philosophical crutch, it was meant as a description of an “innate” force behind the evolution of the individual as well as the species!
Anyway, it doesn’t begin to emerge into awareness until the development of consciousness reaches a certain stage of separation from its “directives”. Everyone is supposed to suddenly feel disoriented and alone with vague and unidentifiable “yearnings” (?) and a sense that something is missing in their lives. Such feelings may correspond to the isolated experiences of a few rejected members of society, but it can’t in any way be indicative of healthy participation in the social norm.
Though Jung postulated this stage as reaching its peak at mid-life, he speculated that transitional periods could be so relative to personal experience even early dreams and memories could portend it; that “symbols” actually referred to functions which guide the unfolding of our true natures — even preceding the menopausal stage. He saw them as compensatory attempts by an “inner self” to maintain connection to it during critical stages in its shifts toward individual differentiation; though what this might mean for social life wasn’t elaborated.
Despite the fact that logic dictates complete certainty of our direction, Jung presumed this to be an illusion; that we’re obsessed with the technology of diversion and destruction our superior intellects have conceived. Though we know in our hearts they’re the only defense against inferior cultures, he yet suggested they were negative reactions to an unconscious past beyond the obvious necessity of paring down an over-crowded planet. He and Neumann even suggested that so-called spiritual development centered around inner awareness and not just biological and social needs!
For a reflecting consciousness, they maintained, these “forces” appear as religious symbols intended to compensate our animal natures, though how such irrational fantasies could signify an objective process of self-regulation is beyond my ken.
Come on! Self-regulation now allows us to depopulate millions from afar with one strike without having to suffer the quirks in personality suffered by the old Nazis’ hands-on approach. Don’t get me started. So convinced was the Catholic Church of the sacredness of life that over-population threatens the existence of even those who took it upon themselves to control everyone but themselves — all for their own egotistical power! This form of cultural direction is not only not new, it’s the only proven way to subjugate the ignoranti to its own prescribed needs. Anyway:
Since we’re given no instruction about this alleged transition, we don’t know what’s happening when it insinuates itself; it’s too opposed (I wonder why!) to what we’re taught. Jung insisted that we “project” inner events into the circumstances of outer life. The changes in personality are reflected back to us through relationships: divorce, career change, a new love-interest, a profound sense of inferiority, or the onset of depression and/or compulsive behavior — and all of these may occur in only one person in a matter of mere months! The marvels of modern medications were yet unknown in Jung’s day.
The goal of these conflicts is the re-focus from exterior life toward the “internal” authority which precipitates these changes. What is this superstitious obsession with some “thing” greater than ourselves? Neumann further added that the effects of centroversion were always the motive force behind development, the reason the symbols seemed to conform from stage to stage. Focus on the outer world in the first half of life prompts us to see their effects as originating in the environment.
That this is only partially so, slowly begins to dawn on the mind that discerns its own psychic activity “within”. They saw this as a religious and philosophical mind-trip, though because we’re unconscious of its symbols as the organizers of psychic life, it’s traditionally projected back onto dogmatic figures — references to the occult mindset of a century ago. Put on your waders, they went further:
If, with psychological knowledge, the conscious mind confronts its own “background” and withdraws its projections from the invisible figures through personal re-interpretation and emotional experience, it may discover the hidden language of “analogy” in them — thus magically entering into a new stage of awareness! The inward attention is supposed gradually to connect us with the “psychic” reality behind the changes going on in us. It begins to appear as a dual process in which outer and inner events reflect parallel paths of development. What this manifest baloney referred to, I couldn’t determine.
That opposing forces merge energies toward an end is, of course, not a new idea. The positive and negative poles which combine to produce electricity are familiar to everyone. But, Jung conceived this material truth (fasten your seat-belts) to apply to the mind as well! He implied that the analogy could acquaint us with the contrasts and contradictions between different ways of viewing life in the “transition” from an external orientation to an “internal” one. The collision of the two perspectives intended to inform the new direction creates the mental confusion designed to push us into it! Who’s confused?
Though many have observed that the individual relives the biological stages of humanity which precede its modern state; and though history portrays the intellect as gradually emerging from a rude emotional matrix, Jung actually saw this process as being driven by religious imperatives deeply embedded in the individual’s psychology and not by social and cultural exchange. The absurdity of this idea is apparent, and today we can only lament the backwardness of Jung’s concepts.