Working in the field of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse we know the effectiveness of AA. People familiar with the CD field do not any longer question its effectiveness. AA's success may be explained on the basis of its ability to keep it simple, to instill and maintain hope through abstinence, and by providing an understanding supportive community which encourages working the "steps" in order to restore sanity to one's life and maintain ongoing recovery. However, we believe that AA is much more than a system for achieving and maintaining sobriety. We believe AA is effective also because it provides a meaningful psychological system for facing and transforming one's defenses, disowned parts, and affective vulnerabilities into conscious challenges which are faced with the support the system provides. Our purpose here today is to explore the ways in which AA as a psychological system and the theoretical models proposed by Carl Jung fit and work together. Jung's psychology relies heavily upon his concept of psychological archetypes - literally, first patterns - blueprints of the basic human drives and qualities that we all share." Even though we are all unique individuals we also contain within our deepest selves a plurality of these drives and behaviors, which we express in our own ways. In exploring and explaining archetypes Jung and others considered Greek gods and goddesses to be the perfect models because their images were distinct and predictable. They never varied from their type. Some of the Greek gods and goddesses you may be familiar with are: • Aphrodite - Goddess of love, Sexuality and Sensuality • Athena - Goddess of Wisdom and Crafts, Logic and Self Assuredness • Hera - Goddess of Marriage and Commitment • Hades - God of the Underworld - the Unconscious • Ares - God of War - Warrior, Dancer, Lover • Poseidon - God of the Sea - Emotions and Instinct • Apollo - God of the Sun - Lawgiver • Dionysus - God of Wine and Ecstasy - Mystic and Lover Other popularized archetypes are the Shadow and the Anima and Animus. Carl Jung is reported to have said (Robert Johnson) "We do not believe in the reality of Olympus, so the ancient Greek gods live on for us today as symptoms. We no longer have the thunderbolts of Zeus, we have headaches. We no longer have the arrows of Eros, we have angina pains. We no longer have the divine ecstasy of Dionysus, we have addictive behavior. Even though we no longer recognize the gods, we experience their powerful forces - we experience these forces as symptoms. When we ignore our inner drives and patterns, the blueprints we were born with for designing our lives, we experience symptoms. Robert Johnson wrote... If we don't deal with our shadow, it deals with us. The same is true for all of our unacknowledged inner figures. The opposing themes of Apollonian and Dionysian consciousness may perhaps be the two most important terms of alcoholism. Apollo and Dionysus were both Gods. We'd like to look at them, at their energies, as being foundational to the development of addictive behavior. The Dionysian element of "divine intoxication" was perceived by Jung to be an important human experience that required some expression within ritualistic confines. As religious constructs changed, humanity gradually rid itself of such "pagan" manifestations and left room only for "mourning, earnestness, severity, and well-tempered spiritual joy." The loss of Dionysian consciousness speaks to the triumph of rationality over irrationality; thinking over feeling; the concrete "masculine" ideals of power, aggression, and progress over the intangible "feminine" values of receptivity, growth, and nurturing. Jung stated that possession is part of the religious experience and that intoxication, is "the most direct and dangerous form of possession." By excluding the more exuberant, irrational Dionysian elements from its ritual, Dionysus has become the Devil. Instead of divine intoxication, we end up with addiction and alcoholism, possessions by the dark side of the neglected archetype. Possession by shadow elements.
Richard I
Jontry, Ph.D., MAC, CAC Diplomate |
