Essays on Jungian Psychology and Christian Thought

By the Reverend Bruce A. Hedman, Ph.D.

Abington Congregational Church and the University of Connecticut

1. Typology Chart

This chart attempts to summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the two attitudes (introversion and extraversion) and the four functions (sensing, intuiting, thinking, feeling). The SUPERIOR attitude and function is written in CAPITALS, while the inferior is written in lower case italics. The strengths are indicated with a “+” and the weaknesses with a “-.” A box with dark borders represents one person’s typology. For example, the first box in the upper left-hand corner represents an INTROVERT whose superior function is SENSATION. In the first column are summarized some strengths “+” of an introverted sensate with some weaknesses “-“ below. This person’s inferior function is an extraverted intuition, whose strengths and weaknesses are summarized in the second column.

	SENSATION	intuition	INTUITION	sensation	THINKING	feeling	FEELING	thinking
INTROVERT +	Absorbs detail internally; takes in nuance of atmosphere and personalities; artistic impressionism		Prophet, seerer, artist; foresees archetypal changes & tells society; focus on unconscious images		Builds up ideas; philosophical bent; back to the basics of science, ponder meaning of art; theoreticians		Well-defined values, morals, ethics, but not expressed outwardly; ethical backbone; exerts unconscious ethical influence
INTROVERT - -	Shows no outward reaction; stares, looks stupid unless auxiliary function cuts in		Misunderstood by contemporaries; day dreamers; don’t communicate well; get lost easily; aloof; oblivious to others		Black and white judgments, yes/no, love/hate; get lost in fantasy ; don’t care about others opinions; absent-minded		Will appear cold and unmoved; very hard to understand; inclined to melancholy
Extravert +		Grasps symbolic meanings; occasionally uncanny predictions		Fascinated by parapsychology but factually unreliable; one outward sensation can spark religious experience		Strong, warm, loyal feeling flowing outwards, very good or very bad tastes; whimsical but with affect		Interested in immense number of facts; but needs to drill deeper
Extravert -		Fears dark social trends, negative prophetic fantasies, outward events trigger forebodings about future; sordid		Immoderate easting; ignores body, vague about facts; oblivious to detail; bungling at sex, yet prurient, worried re money; neurotic OCD		“I love you, and I will make it your business”; black/white; easily poisoned by the collective; sticky, dog-like attachment		Monomania; one thought to explain all facts; negative tendency to become tyrannical, stiff, unyielding
EXTRAVERT +	Observes detail, smell, texture; concrete, practical, factually accurate, refined sensuality; artistic realizm		Recognizes future possibilities; “smells” opportunities, spots and facilitates creative artists; socially make “right” connections		Organizer, clarity in language, interested in the object, not the idea;		Makes friends easily; enables social life; reasonable, helps out, good taste, insight into character of others, spreads agreeable atmosphere
EXTRAVERT -	Soulless, skips theory for details, finds hunches or guesses unpleasant		Sows but lacks patience to reap; off to new opportunities, unpunctual; can’t wait		No subjective ideas; unconscious of personal motive, outwardly shows no feeling; rigid rules		Can become worn out; in neurosis becomes mechanical and calculating
Introvert +		Eerie ghost stories, primitive mysticism and occult		Sensitive to subliminal; not influenced by others		Mystical attachment to ideals but naieve; unconscious values impact others		Weakness can spark quest for meaning of life, but then can get swallowed by task
Introvert -		Suspicious of dark motives, ideas of persecution, melancholy, hypochondria, self-deprecatory, jealous fantasies; project anxiety		Neglect bodily needs; unmoved by nature’s beauty; neurotic phobias; sensation hinders clear perception; lack judgment		When alone becomes melancholy; hides feelings of love; “I love you, but it is none of your business”; defend values ruthlessly		Avoids abstract ideas; negative, critical, coarse jusgments; cynical, dark, negative outlook on life; if alone doubts self-worth

Sources: Von Franz, Marie-Louise (1971) Lectures on Jung’s Typology, Zurich, Spring Publications

Sharp, Daryl (1987) Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology, Toronto, Inner City Books

2. Doppelganger and “The Student of Prague”

I love the old silent films, and recently I saw a 1913 German silent film entitled “The Student of Prague.” The Student was famous for being the finest swordsman in the country, but he was very poor. The Devil struck a bargain with the Student that he would pay him one hundred thousand gold coins for “something” in his apartment. The Student knew he had no possessions that valuable, so he agreed. By a “special effect,” cutting edge for 1913, the Devil produced a bag which spewed out gold coins disproportionate to its size. Then the Devil looked around the humble dwelling, and peeled off the Student’s reflection in a floor-length mirror, and took that in exchange.

Later the Student fell in love with the beautiful daughter of a rich Baron, and she with him. But the Baron had betrothed his daughter to her cousin, the Baron’s only male heir, to continue the title within the family. The heir was enraged that the Student courted the Baron’s daughter, and foolishly challenged him to a duel. Knowing his daughter loved the Student, the Baron bargained with the Student that he could marry his daughter, if only he would throw the duel and let his heir live to inherit the title. The Student agreed, and on the morning of the duel went to the dueling field intent to let the heir live. But on his way the Student met the exact Image of himself coming from the dueling field wiping blood off his sword. His Image had taken the Student’s place, and had slain the heir.

Enraged that he now could not marry the Baron’s daughter, the Student fenced with his Image, but both were equally skilled swordsmen. Finally, the Student drew a pistol and shot the Image through the heart. But both the Image and the Student fell down dead.

The Germans have a word for this Image, “Doppelganger,” your double who can go around in your place. At the sight of a Doppelganger you are terrified with a cold chill to the bone. Scottish lore calls this the “Second Sight,” which often portends death. Last Sunday we read that, when Jesus came to his disciples’ boat walking on the sea, “they cried out in fear, saying, ‘It is a ghost.’” The word “ghost” is not quite accurate. The word is phantasma, meaning an “apparition,” a “wraith,” perhaps a “Doppelganger.” But no apparition would dare take on the likeness of Jesus, and he replies, “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus is Lord of the Spirits, as well as the Lord of Nature.

Psychologically, the idea of our “double” comes from our Shadow, that part of our personalities where lurk the bad attitudes and habits that we are ashamed of and do not own up to. Because we deny these in ourselves, we become very sensitive of them in other people. Psychologically, we “project” these onto other people, and despise in others what we ourselves really are guilty of. Jesus said, “Judge not lest you be judged, for by the judgment you pronounce you will be judged. … How can you take the splinter out of your neighbor’s eye and not see the log that is in your own.” In Christ we are to grow into deeper awareness of our own faults and failings, into a deeper knowledge of ourselves, so that in Christ we grow less terrified of our Doppelganger whom we see every day in the mirror.

---------Bruce

bahedman@earthlink.net

3. “Mirror” as an Archetype of Consciousness

You know that we are very proud of our two-year old granddaughter Mia. She loves mirrors. When she was one year old, she would kiss the “baby” she saw in our full length mirror. At two she stands in front of Sandy’s tri-fold mirror, looking into all three, and slowly closes it around herself, laughing. So we tried the “yellow sticky-note” experiment on her. Without her knowing it, we put a sticky-note into her hair. When she looked into the mirror, as a two-year old, she should have reached into the mirror for the sticky-note as being in the “baby’s” hair. But no, she immediately reached up to her own hair, recognizing that it was her reflection, something a four-year old would do.

Human beings have always been fascinated with mirrors. The oldest metal mirror found in an Egyptian pyramid dates to 1500 B.C. But before that, prehistoric man contemplated his reflection in still pond water. Mirrors are symbols of our knowing ourselves, archetypes of consciousness, if you will. Man is the only animal who not only senses the world around him, but is aware that he senses the world around him, who is both subject and object. Mirrors symbolize that we are aware of ourselves, because they “reflect” our own self-knowledge.

But, of course, our knowledge of ourselves can be twisted, and the mirror becomes distorted. In fairy tales the evil queen asks, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” expecting a self-satisfying answer. In Greek mythology the youth Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, as we can become inflated with our own self-knowledge. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula the vampire has no reflection in a mirror, because he is a predatory complex without self-awareness.

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said, “Know thyself.” There is a connection between knowing ourselves and knowing God. As Christians, we have all experienced a deeper awareness of our faults as we grow in grace. After the miracle of the draught of fish, Peter said to Jesus, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” After the bright light of the Damascus Road, the scales fell from Paul’s eyes, and he saw himself as never before. St. Augustine called this paradox felix cupla, “happy guilt,” as a deepening awareness of our faults shows our drawing closer to God. That is, knowledge of our shadow comes from knowing the Self.

Yet, in this life our knowledge is only incomplete. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face.” Yes, we do now know something of ourselves, we see in the mirror dimly, and can learn more. Individuation is a process which grows deeper in this life, but is never completed in the here and now. So we look forward to a life beyond this world when we shall see Jesus face to face, for “now we know in part; then we shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood.”

-------Bruce

bahedman@earthlink.net

4. The “Unlived Life”

In a distant parish a long, long time ago, I knew a woman, we will call her Susan, who inflicted on her children what the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called “the unlived life.”

She grew up in central Massachusetts during the Great Depression. Her father lost his job, and the entire family had to do odd jobs to make ends meet. After the Second World War Susan went to college in Boston, where in four years she dated seriatim five boys who were sons of Boston’s “Brahmin families” on Beacon Hill; but, she received no marriage proposals. After college she obtained a professional position in Boston’s Back Bay near Beacon Hill, and married a salesman, with whom she had a son and a daughter. Over the years she repeatedly turned down opportunities for professional advancement which would have taken her outside of Boston. When her husband’s promotion enabled them to buy a much finer house, she adamantly refused, because it was several miles west of the Back Bay.

Susan’s daughter married a man whose profession moved them to a different city far away. Yet, even after many years, she never could feel “at home” there; the stores, the markets, the restaurants, the houses were never as good as the Back Bay’s.

Susan’s son became a successful physician, who in time bought a nice residence on Beacon Hill. But he struggled with its mortgage, as it was somewhat beyond his means. This angered Susan, who told him that he had no business putting on airs, getting above his station, and struggling with a mortgage he couldn’t afford.

In her own mind Susan was not conscious of her long-held desire to become part of one of the families of Boston’s “Blue Bloods.” This was the life she unconsciously wished to lead, yet it shaped the life she actually led. She never consciously asked herself why she would not move out of the Back Bay. Her children unconsciously absorbed her “unlived life.” Her daughter never pondered why nowhere else could feel like home. Her son in part realized Susan’s “unlived life,” but this only angered her, because it stirred up unfulfilled desires in the shadow of her own mind. And her son was unconscious of why he took the risk and “bit off more than he could chew,” just to live in that neighborhood.

Carl Jung wrote about how children will unconsciously absorb their parents’ “unlived lives,” which will mysteriously guide their own life choices. The prophet Jeremiah quotes the proverb, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth have been set on edge.” (Jer 31:29) Yet, Jeremiah continues, that this proverb will be overturned in the new covenant, “when I put my law within them, and write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33). As we bring our hearts and minds before God, he will make us aware through the spirit within us as to why we want what we want. This consciousness of the “unlived life” can weaken its grasp on us. “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8: 32)

Bruce – bahedman@earthlink.net