THE ELUSIVE SELF: AN ARCHETYPAL INQUIRY

BY GARY McGEE – WAKING TIMES

 

“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.” -Albert Einstein

One of the many difficulties we find in living an “examined life” is the constant feat of overcoming the perceptual self. What we need regarding the inner-self is not fixed conviction but adaptability. Perhaps it is just as much the case that we are changing as it is that time is moving. And so we must be just as adaptable toward the vicissitudes of self as we are toward the vicissitudes of time.

For our purposes here, let’s imagine using Nietzsche’s Dionysian-Apollonian Dynamic as a tool to leverage our adaptability. Imagine a teeter-totter in your mind: the Teeter-totter of the Self, if you will. On one side we have Apollo. On the other side we have Dionysus. One goes up, the other goes down. One cries wolf, the other is wolf. One sighs, the other howls. In order to maintain an examined lifestyle both of these inner-archetypes must have their say. Nietzsche’s concept of the Over-hero (or Übermensch) is the hero who constantly overcomes the illusion of the self. The Over-hero oversees Apollo and Dionysus going through the motions of “play” on the Teeter-totter of the Self. The Over-hero knows that it’s when the “game” becomes serious, as opposed to playful, or when one side gains too much power over the other, that stagnation becomes the default and the examined life comes to an end.

First, we must accept that the problem of the Self is a complex one, riddled with paradoxes and contradictions. Yes, it is possible to be part of the problem and part of the solution at the same time. Understand: hypocrisy is a crucial aspect of fallibility, and fallibility just so happens to be the essence of the human condition. But by cultivating awareness of all factors involved, and learning to weigh the consequences of our actions, we can begin to make choices that contribute less to the problems and more to the solutions. This is the beauty of the fallibilistic approach: it is inherently an overcoming of itself. Like Walt Whitman wrote, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” We all contain multitudes, and not just physically. Our minds contain a vagary of multitudes. This is because our brains were designed by the trial and error of mutation and time: what’s known as evolution.

Human evolution has brought about a modular brain, where a deep menagerie of selves creates the mind that calls itself “Self”. It explains why we are conflicted, inconsistent, and hypocritical. It reveals how we have a multitude of evolutionary layers overlapping, like a giant onion in our skulls, reeking of multifarious odors. Each layer has an evolutionary importance of which we are just beginning to scratch the surface. But we do know that each module, each part of this infinitely fascinating organ, is a prerequisite for our being here. Every module, whether outdated or not (and some are), is necessary for there to be such a thing as homo sapien sapien: a creature that has the capacity to live an examined life.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,” wrote Charles Darwin, “nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” The one most adaptable to change is the one who can be the most fluid and flexible in the face of adversity, as well as the most courageous and daring in the face of complacency. This, essentially, is the Dionysian-Apollonian Dynamic. It is not just adversity that prevents existential growth and puts an end to most journeys, but also complacency, contentedness, and comfort. Those who would interrogate the many layers of consciousness are the Over-heroes who seek all that looms beyond the surface of things. They pursue mystery (a Dionysian act of courage) until the very substance of reality is revealed to them, then they make sense and order out of it (an Apollonian act of courage), and then they pursue further into mystery (Apollonian death/Dionysian rebirth), and the process is repeated constantly, while always seeking to reinvent the self. This is the essence of living an examined life. This is self-interrogation par excellence.

Our perception of self is as much a construct of a construct as it is an abstraction of an abstraction. The self is not one single thing. It is not an essence; but a process. It is simply what a psycho-physiological system does, the side-effect of an organism having gone through the motions of evolving. The sense of individuality that arises from this process is multifaceted. It’s almost as if the billion-bundled neurons in the brain, coupled with the physiology of the body, came together to perform a symphony. The music from this symphony is what we call the self. Similarly, the masks we wear are multifaceted, even though we still remain an individual. The “roles” we play while wearing our masks are merely versions of who we are, and not entirely who we are. “To switch to a cinematic metaphor,” writes Julian Baggini, “we may ‘edit’ and ‘direct’ ourselves, but it is still ourselves who is being edited and directed.” The psycho-physiological unity of experience is who we are. And that experience is forever in the throes of change.

As it stands modern man has been suffering from an over-abundance of the Apollonian dynamic. Weaning ourselves from the 2,000-year Apollonian rigidness takes a very powerful Dionysian assault on our weltanschauung, one that wakes us up with a ruthless cognitive dissonance. Now enter Dionysus: the creative, intoxicating, impulsive, non-rational, nature-based archetype, the individuated untermensch (under-man). This energy is necessary to get us back in touch with our bodies, with the sacred garden of our flesh, so that we can learn, build upon, and evolve the consecrated blossom of our soul blooming in the always harsh “desert of the real.”

But a Dionysian frenzy toward self-liberation only gets us so far. At some point there must come a sobering, an Apollonian continuity and unity that produces a construct of self that is able to function in an ever-changing world. Perceptually the self exists; actually it’s just an illusion. But we live in a reality where our perception is, quite literally, everything. So we must ‘go through the motions’ of having a self, despite, and maybe even in spite of, the illusion. Because as far as we are concerned, the illusion is all we have. The Apollonian continuity of self is a grounding of our multifaceted Dionysian nature into one coherent construct that we can call ‘Individual’. The back and forth play of the Apollonian-Dionysian dynamic is crucial for healthy evolution. The acceptance of the illusion of the self, and the ‘going through the motions’ of being oneself, is what I call self-legerdemain, or ontological sleight of hand.

In the same way that a physicist cannot perceive both the momentum and location of an electron in space, an individual cannot perceive both the multiplicity and the continuity of the self. The concept of ‘I’ is elusive. Any attempt at perceiving it as a “thing in itself,” is akin to trying to eat our own face. Similarly, the concept of ‘now’, like the concept of ‘self’, cannot be located in time, for as soon as one declares a “now!” the moment has already become the past. As soon as one declares “I am myself,” the moment has passed and the self has changed.

So not only are we Creatures of Self in any given instant, we are Voyagers of Self eclipsing all ‘Now’s’. Just as there can never be a ‘now’, there can never be a ‘self’. And yet, paradoxically, perceptually, there is always a Now and there is always a Self. And so self-legerdemain is an act of strategic, healthy denial. Like Jonathan Swift wrote, “Happiness is a perpetual possession of being well-deceived.” It is strategic because we use it despite the illusion. It is healthy because it keeps us sane, and it keeps us aware of the difference between two very important concepts: the Perceptual, and the Actual. (I write more on this concept in my article A Heuristic Inquiry into the Correlations between Consciousness and Theoretical Physics.) But what’s important to understand right now, is that the self is a multifaceted, fluid, ever-changing, amorphous illusion that, nonetheless, must be treated as real. We are a fluid yet binding flux. It’s the permanence of self that is an illusion, not the impermanence of self. After all, the ‘self’ is just as real as ‘now’ is real. Our ‘self’ is just as much a thing moving through time as ‘now’ is a thing moving through time. Some might even argue that the self, through conscious observation, is what’s doing the moving. Like Julian Baggini wrote, “’I’ is a verb dressed as a noun.”

The important thing to understand is that mental paradigms are not necessarily bad. They are cognitive constructs we use to perceive reality. The Apollonian and Dionysian are just two archetypal examples of mental paradigms. Actually, all paradigms are unique to the individual. And since change is the fundamental construct of the cosmos, so too must our paradigms change, lest we stagnate and become locked into a particular neurosis. Breaking mental paradigms is like killing Hydra. When you break one, two more pop up. Like psychological dominoes toppling over each other. Epiphanies and Eureka moments are those times when we manage to take out many “heads” all at once, and the avalanche of mental paradigms popping up can literally change the way we perceive reality.

In the end we are, all of us, emergent phenomena. The illusion is that we’re in control. The self is a complex system of neurological firings and physiological reactions that happen to form a pattern that is unique to “being” you. Just as storms are an emergent expression of a complex system known as weather, the self is an emergent expression of a complex system known as the human condition.

Perhaps time is just Reality’s way of preventing everything from happening at once. Perhaps space is just Reality’s way of allowing a place for everything to happen. Perhaps space-time is just Reality’s way of allowing everything that’s happening to be perceived. And perhaps the Self is just Reality’s way of perceiving itself. And suddenly we are not so small.

Inception

Jung

Freud and Narcissism

Freud: On Narcissism

Primary Narcissism: Definition from Answers.com

Jung and Active Imagination NOT Transliteration (skill for individuating in norm)

Carl Jung and Active Imagination | Evolver.net

Active imagination is a specific therapeutic technique of entering the imaginal world that was pioneered by Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) in the early twentieth century. We could think of it as forced intercourse between two corroborating aspects of being–the ego and the personal unconscious–that make up the transcendent self. Central to the endeavour is the plucking of an image, mood, picture, or event from the ocean of the unconscious, personifying or clothing the former in a way that makes it entirely comprehensible to the conscious mind, and then engaging it through spoken dialogue or some other implicitly understood form of communication. Throughout the entire length of the psychotherapeutic process you are engaging hitherto unacknowledged facets of yourself, other selves if you like, by allowing them to float up to an imaginal world existing between the conscious and unconscious universe. Your own role in this intermediary realm reflects that position–you have conscious control of feelings, actions, and words originating from the sphere of your own ego that should not under any circumstance extend to those communicated to you by your personified subselves.

What do you find by entering the imaginal world through active imagination? You discover the current state of psychic affairs, usually one that is both fragmented and irreconcilable. You meander about the imaginal landscape consciously participating in an internal drama and forging energetic relationships with all other inhabitants of the land. You make friends and enemies; you engage in love, war, heroic journeys and religious pilgrimages; you’re forced to act diplomatically and sign unconditional treaties of peace with hostile personalities or come to some sort of compromise about shared control of your body’s cerebral function with less hostile ones. You also learn a thing or two about yourself from other resident personas that you didn’t think were native to your own being. More often than not, you encounter viewpoints and feelings radically different from your own and at times you’ll find that yours will be ignored, overlooked, ridiculed, or fiercely resisted. Your fellow personalities have minds of their own and will often say and do things that might surprise, worry, frighten, infuriate, offend, or embarrass you. Why might this be so?

Well, the terrain from which these personified images have sprung is inextricably connected to the collective unconscious. As a cosmic and overarching entity, the former is ethically indifferent and morally neutral. It cares not for core and essential values deemed of utmost importance to the personal ego, the ethical balance of one’s conscious life, or the preservation of social standards that serve as adhesives in human relationships and culture. Its only purpose is to express the totality of its archetypal leitmotifs, either by facilitating a conscious channel for them to materialize in the phenomenal world or by projecting them into the realm of the imagination where the ego can actively and purposefully explore evolutionary possibilities associated with each one through guided fantasy, active imagination, or some other technique aimed at authentically illuminating unconscious material. This omission of social taboos and conventions that dictate and condition nearly all conscious interactions in the world of consensual reality from the realm of consciousness might mean that certain actions and words coming from undervalued and unacknowledged subselves will be crass and outrageous. Whatever the case may be, the two complementary and usually conflicting aspects of the total self (ego and unconscious) will converse until a feasible resolution can be reached. The length of time needed to achieve this depends on the nature and depth of the prevailing issue and how deeply entrenched in the black humus of the unconscious its roots actually are; it could take anything from a single session of active imagination to a whole cluster of them extending over weeks, months, and sometimes even years to see tangible results.

Carl Jung made ample use of the process on his many patients to drastically narrow the gaping chasm between the conscious will of the personal ego and the disenfranchised contents of a persona unconscious yearning for expression. The underlying theory behind this is when natural tendencies remain hidden as unrealized potentialities deep within the unconscious they manifest as neurotic imbalances. These might be experienced as subtle worries, irritations, or angers of no discernible cause that keep popping up at various intervals throughout the day or as vivid, disturbing nightmares and night terrors that can overturn an individual’s natural sleep cycle. By participating actively in a process which aims to descry the nature and purpose of an unacknowledged and fragmented image through dialogue, you intercept, confront, and resolve the inner conflict before it can materialize in the realm of dreams; in hypnagogic images; and in passive fantasies. Jung found that there was a vast reduction in the number of dreams and the repetition of archetypal content when one used active imagination in coming to terms with the psychospiritual situation of the inner life on a frequent basis. From this perspective we could say that this particular psychotherapeutic method serves two important purposes: to hamper the development and progression of neurotic behaviours and undesirable idiosyncrasies deemed to repeat throughout one’s life when left unaddressed, and to open up a channel of communication between the personal ego and the other muffled ‘voices’ within the unconscious longing to be listened to and engaged on an imaginal level. A most desirable consequence of achieving these two aims is that the complimentary opposites comprising the total self are harmonized and the newly unified personality can continue developing on the less travelled path of self-actualization; a path on which an individuating person awakens to the greater reality of the interconnectedness, the meaning, and the harmony inherent in the cosmos.

Sometimes, we awaken to find that our intricate psychological armoury is being pierced by sharp, painful arrows of inflation, torment, obsession, and other fiery temperaments. For some strange reason the pain is referred and unspecific, emanating to the totality of our anatomy; we can neither localize their point of entry into our bodies nor put a finger on specific causes. These are all latent neuroses and sterile vices hidden within the unconscious that are begging to be plucked out one by one and consciously integrated with psychological impulses already known to and acknowledged by the personal ego. The best way of bringing unconscious content to the imaginal world where it can be grasped by the conscious mind is to relax by reclining on a comfortable sofa or chair with the eyes closed and posing one or more of the following questions: What then is this? Where is this feeling coming from? Is it perhaps somebody who has something important to tell me? Is it somebody who feels differently than I? Who are you? Why are you upset? Show me what you look like.

More often than not, personified images will appear quite spontaneously before you can rattle off a train of questions longer than the Nile River. Once you have a clearly defined image in your mind’s eye you can proceed with an imaginal role-play that involves robust and often frictional communication between your own viewpoint and a conflicting one spawned by the ‘voice’ of an inferior subself or being. An important thing to remember with respect to conscious participation is that you must not allow the trajectory of the conversation to proceed along paths with feeling responses that are premeditated, forced, or controlled exclusively by you. Irrespective of how you might feel towards any one particular subself–in essence a personified blemish, weakness, or obstruction to the natural predispositions of your unconscious life–you must never sabotage or hinder the natural current of imagination by putting words into the inner person’s mouth or by determining their actions. Let the inferior subself say and do what he or she wants and be as unruly as he or she wishes to be, without consciously intervening as to prevent embarrassing words from being spoken and uncomfortable circumstances from arising. A determinative of true wisdom is the ability to listen without preconditions or judgement. Such an emotionally uninhibited approach to participation is probably the only way you’re likely to establish an authentic and accurate representation of the current psychic state of your inner life and thus get anything beneficial out of this psychotherapeutic exercise. Failure in giving yourself over to the contingencies of the imaginal cascade and allowing yourself to willingly experience angers, qualms, delights, titillations, and whatever else the transpiring communion with the individual subself calls for renders the entire proceeding obsolete. In hindsight, the absence of any prepared script to guide the intercourse between conscious and unconscious as well as the notion of relinquishing total control to chance is what makes Jungian active imagination different from other more rigid systems of visualization like guided fantasy or creative imagery.

The wonderful thing about active imagination is that it transcends dealing with moods, conflicts, and qualities that bubble beneath the surface of our conscious minds. You can use the technique to explore fascinating personalities and aspects of yourself wishing to be lived out, or heroic adventures that have occasionally manifested in passive fantasy; to continue an offensive dream that ended abruptly or unsatisfactorily until closure is attained; and to consciously experience the spiritual plane. Whatever your agenda may be, always proceed with caution and with the utmost respect for the generative powers of the collective unconscious. It doesn’t hurt to remember that archetypal forces are insurmountable, eternal, and transcendent powers or “fields of energy” that appear in the intermediary imaginal world clothed in humanistic garments for the sake of making themselves lucid and concrete to the human intellect. Those who refuse to remain firmly rooted to the earthbound realm of consensus physical reality and maintain clear differentiations between fantasy and the real world can become overwhelmed, possessed, and even severed from outer environmental influences when these archetypal fragments are blasted out of the unconscious. Generally speaking, personified images and events that take on a life of their own within the diverse and autonomous terrain of the psyche are symbolic interpretations of one’s current egocentric situation and are not directly connected to the objectified subsistence of the same images and events in the external world of phenomena and forms. Thus, we should never imbue personified images with exterior physiognomies that look identical to or resemble living relatives, friends, or acquaintances. Doing so gives the psyche the perfect excuse to blur the lines between the real and the imagined and aids in the fruition of illusions and delusions about one’s affiliations, relationships, and communions with others along with the greater community at large.

While labouring on this formulative level may be quite meaningful, constructive, healthy, and second-nature to experienced users of this therapeutic technique, first-time users and amateurs will often question the authenticity of the experience. There is nothing unusual about doubting labours on the transpersonal level, especially when those labours involve communing with psychic presences that are, in fact, subordinate configurations springing forth from the diverse and autonomous ground of your own psyche. Is it an authentic experience or are we merely making things up and engaging in child’s play for the fun of it? The important thing to remember when entertaining such doubts (because I’ve had them too) is that any act of imagination, whether voluntary or involuntary, involves a summoning of pre-existing archetypal contents from the unconscious, a transformation of these images from configurations of protean existence to personified forms (i.e. gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, men and women), and finally conscious manifestation. You cannot imagine something that isn’t lying dormant in the fertile slime of your own unconscious; you cannot grant it form unless it is a pre-existing aspect of your own becoming, a potentiality sown into the fabric of your own being. Consequently even slight fabrications of images and feeling responses in the imaginal world are faithful echoes of your unconscious voice.

Marie Louise Von Franz, Robert Johnston, and other Jungian psychotherapists have faithfully endorsed and developed a quaternary or four-stage approach to active imagination that builds upon Jung’s prototype. The initiatory phase involves clearing the conscious mind of random psychobabble and allowing fantasy content to emerge from the depths of the unconscious in personified form. This naturally blends into the second stage where the candidate selects one of the images that has surrendered itself to conscious expression and enters into a dialogue with it without impinging upon its ‘rights’ to self-determination. The third introduces the concept of moral conduct which separates humans from all other creatures on the planet: a set of ethical parameters that one should use during formative communication with subselves as to prevent the dialogue from degenerating into a primitive or inhumane altercation. Finally, no session of active imagination should be executed without a conscious intent to transpose the subtle, rarefied resolution to the earthbound dimension of existence. There just has to be a practical element, a way you can incorporate the conscious resolution into the circumstances of your own life. If you don’t complete the last phase and make it concrete the imaginary role-play would have all been for nothing. So think practically!

Jung and Archetypes

It’s a book of essays on a theme, like most of his other books. Here’s an attempt to describe the whole theory in a few paragraphs. Jung suggests the existence of a 3-layered psyche consisting of (1) the conscious (active part of the mind), (2) the personal unconscious (thinking over which we have little or no control), and (3) the collective unconscious (unevolved, animal-instinctive mental activity). The collective unconscious is “collective” in the sense that humans resemble each other the most at the lowest, biological levels. “The body’s carbon is simply carbon” (pg. 173). We inherit the collective unconscious from the common pool of human characteristics, like morphological aspects of the body such as arms, legs, etc.

The “archetypes” originate in the collective unconscious and are the psychological equivalents of Platonic Forms. (I realized about halfway through the book that archetype-figures also appear in the personal unconscious, where they’re called “complexes”). The most important archetypes appear to be the Shadow (the inferior aspects of the self which we hide from others), the Anima/Animus (our object(s) of desire), and the Wise Old Man (e.g., teacher, medicine man). He also discusses a Mother archetype and a Child archetype and indicates the existence of numerous others. Identifying strongly with an archetype leads to psychosis.

The heart of the book is in the first essay, but the rest is useful in fleshing out descriptions and giving examples. The collective Anima archetype, for instance, can be found among movie stars and in the general pop culture. Devils and tricksters often represent the Shadow archetype. Tolkien’s Gandalf is a good instance of the Wise Old Man. It’s not so easy to identify a particular individual’s Anima complex or Shadow complex.

A few things bothered me about the book. For one, Jung indicates that the “Primitive mentality differs from the civilized chiefly in that the conscious mind is far less developed in scope … The Primitive cannot assert that he thinks; it is rather that something thinks in him” (pg. 153). This is a dubious kind of distinction between civilized and uncivilized states of mind that seems to have gone out of fashion over the decades. Also, I couldn’t tell from this book what methodology Jung used to determine the significance of dream symbols. Does every dream about climbing a tree represent the psyche climbing the “World Tree” toward higher states of consciousness? Do snakes always represent the unconscious? Is every old woman in a dream an example of the Mother archetype? Etc.

 

Jung and Archetypes

Jung’s books are not easy reads, but they are almost invariably eye-openers. I recommend first reading his student’s works (von Franz, Barbara Hanna, Joland Jacobi), his “Man and His Symbols,” & (especially with respect to this book) Joseph Campbell & Jean Shinoda Bolen. It helps a lot to understand mythology when exploring the collective unconscious. Jung goes to great lengths to show how the denizens of the collective unconscious (archetypes–universal images~Plato’s view) map onto very different cultures throughout time & space–appearing in art, dreams, visions, etc. Bolen uses Greek goddesses & gods to depict these. Jung disliked neologisms (creating new words) instead he transplanted them from other disciplines to map into his psychological theories & constructs–thus, “archetypes” & “complexes”–paralleling General Systems Theory (cf. biologist von Bertalanfy’s works). “Complex” comes from mathematics’ complex numbers. Jung knew & conversed with physicist Pauli, Kabbalah professor Scholem, & many other famous, high-caliber scholars. It is important to realize, when reading this book, the important differences between archetypes of the collective unconscious & complexes of the personal unconscious–though they have the same names! Thus, the mother archetype is the pure image of motherhood–with both positive & negative aspects. But, each person has an actual, individual mother (or lack thereof–absent mother). The interaction or combination of these two forms one’s mother complex. As in math, it has a rational part (actual mother) & an imaginary part (archetype). In math, the imaginary part is multiplied by i, the square root of minus 1–which cannot exist, yet mathematicians use it creatively! So does Jung. Even modern works by “post-Jungians” often confuse or confound these two. The Anima/animus is particularly prone to this confusion. Unfortunately, Jung added to this confusion IMHO by calling the anima soul & the animus spirit. The anima/animus use gender & projection to enable people attune to the Self, the overarching archetype (others are essentially subsets). It is the image of wholeness &, thus, the object of psychological individuation–not integration. Jung says one cannot integrate the entire unconscious–that is beyond human capability. This is more subtle than it seems–esp. regarding western mystics’ unio mystica (union with God) & eastern enlightenment. Jung attempts to assist people evolve, ~the U.S. Army: “be all you can be,” rather than a thin veneer of civilization–p. 269 “Outwardly people are more or less civilized, but inwardly they are still primitives.” Further, p. 322 “The view that we can simply turn our back on evil & in this way eschew it belongs to the long list of antiquated naiveté’s. This is sheer ostrich policy & does not affect the reality of evil in the slightest.” Therefore, Jung includes the negative aspects of both archetypes & complexes. Finally, as scientific psychologist, Jung notes that p. 269 “We should never forget that in any psychological discussion we are not saying anything about the psyche, but that the psyche is always speaking about itself.”

Links

Watch Videos Online | “Remembering Jung” series, talk with Marie-Louise von Franz | Veoh.com

Sigmund Freud

Glossary of Jungian Terms

The death drive – Hussain H Zaidi

 

Jung Links

Carl Jung Depth Psychology | Scoop.it

Carl Jung | Think Jung

Your children are your greatest teachers | Nooga.com

Down the rabbit hole into the dark land of dreams – St. Louis Beacon

Carl Jung’s Red Book | World of Psychology

Hitler – Carl Jung

carl jung | Tumblr

A Short Video on Carl Jung’s Concept of the Shadow « The Amazing World of Psychiatry: A Psychiatry Blog

Katie SanforD, MA, MFC

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The Daily Mandala

Carl Jung and the Mandala

Dr. Judith Rich: Beauty and the Beast: Learning to Love Your Shadow

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Carl Jung’s Theory of Collective Memory – YouTube

Carl Jung and the Shadow: An Introduction

Carl Jung’s Archetypes | wired cosmos

Carl Jung: Modern Man in Search of a Soul | Orwellwasright’s Weblog

Carl Jung Video on Shadow Projection – Blogs – PersonalityCafe

The Shadow and Carl Jung’s Solution to Evil.

Carl Jung, Part 1: Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity

The Excavator: Carl Jung – The Power of The Imagination

A glossary of Jungian terms.

Archetypal Constellations

 

Jung Links

The Daily Advance

 Carl Jung |

Why read this book?  It is designed to help lead you back to a deeper level of experience, a level of aliveness that many of us have forgotten as we move through our busy daily lives and routines.

Since this book required looking deep inside me to find my dragon within; it transformed my life in just one year!  There are exercises along the way to help you expand your awareness at a deeper level.  These exercises do take time, so if you want a fast reading book with no thought provoking things to contemplate then this book may not be for you.  What I did was read the book in a skimming fashion first then re-read it taking notes.  Then I took notes and placed them into the computer.  After I digested it all I have decided even if this is a long review, it was well worth my own transformation and it will be for you as well.

INTRODUCTION:Shaeri wrote this self help book because she learned to help herself.  She learned how to love herself and let go of her inner suffering and pain.  This book is a synthesis of the most helpful theories, techniques and experiences, which Shaeri put together into a spiritual practice that she calls, “Dancing with your Dragon.”  It is written in simple language that is easy to access and understand.  It just takes time. It is about consciousness, awareness, love for yourself to begin to see yourself clearly and to let yourself be as you are, even if some part of you has judgement that you are somehow unworthy and or unacceptable.  True change will take place with unconditional love and allowing it to be in your life.  It is written for the part of you that lies deep under the surface of your rational mind, the part of you that FEELS.  It is divinely inspired and uniquely yours.

PART ONE-THE DRAGON  (In Pursuit of the Dragon)

We have to face our inner Dragon and a Dragon is a symbol.  It represents ourinner world and is responsible for our inability to love ourselves and others.  The dragon is not easily accessible in our conscious minds.  It lived deep in our unconscious.  When we grew up we learned that we should to take the selfish, angry and violent parts of ourselves and put them in jail or otherwise known as repression.  But the fact remains that we all want to feel alive and are able to awaken our body, our emotions, and passion is what opens up those live feelings.   We also grow up moving through life trying to be all things we thought we are supposed to be in order to be accepted, approved of, successful and loved.  Shaeri says, “It means being skinny, talented, entertaining, and cheerful and a walking “lie.”  All of the energies that she thought were bad, meaning all of the energies that she thought would not bring me what I wanted, she put in jail.  All of that stuff and pretending just made her Dragon stay longer and stronger the older she got.”

THE INNER KINGDOM (HER STORY)

Shaeri was in a relationship in the 1990s and thought she loved her boyfriend.  She tried to find love in the relationship, but it make her feel hate.  They argue about something, she felt wronged and always called her mother for advice. She wanted to hear that her boyfriend was bad, he hurt her and how wrong he was to do that.  She wanted her mother to tell her to leave him.  That is NOT what her mother told her!  She would tell her that her boyfriend was a great man and leaving him now would not change anything, she insisted that the problem was in Shaeri.  She said that until Shaeri resolved the inner relationship, the outer relationship world would remain the same.  It might be a different guy, it might be a different movie, but the story line would be the same.  Shaeri determined that she had mini me’s living inside her with different characters playing different roles in her life.  She needed to explore her inner “intolerance.”

This led to talking about how we all have Archetypes.  Archetype is derived from the Greek word achetypos, which means “stamped first.”  It is used to describe a quality that has distinguished itself from the formless whole.  All of these archetypes are living symbols that contain an individualized quality or power that expresses through us.  These create the story of our lives.

The secret is to learn that it’s not really the other person who’s creating your problems or your emotional pain.  The pain is the result of your relationship with a particular archetype as it expressed through the person. Since you can’t change the person or the archetype you can change your relationship to the archetype.  You need to change your relationship with the archetypes inside of you which in turn will make your relationship with those archetypes in the outer world will change as well.

For example, let’s say you are having trouble with a mean boos in your outer world.  In Dancing with your Dragon you take the focus off the outer boss. You discipline yourself to stop reacting to or blaming your boss on the outside.  This form of reaction gives the other person your power, with you literally handing it to them.  Instead of focusing on your outer mean boss, you look for your inner mean boss.   You look inside for a part of yourself that is being mean to another part of yourself.  You start to really listen for the inner voice that is riding you about your skills or talents, you listen for the inner narrator that is complaining that you are not good enough, smart enough, fast enough or what have you.  Once you become aware that the mean boss is actually living in you, things can being to change.  This work allows you to sop Acting OUT and lets you begin to start acting IN.  Go inside of yourself to begin to rewrite the script of your life by recognizing and becoming responsible for the inner scenario that is creating the outer scenario.  The secret is to resolve the relationship between your inner mean boss, and your inner well meaning employee, your life will be different.  She calls this the “magic mirror.”

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

In order to get to know you the trick is getting to know your inner archetypes and they will show you the answers to your own personal powers.  The word power comes from a Latin root which means, to be able.   Thus power is our ability to be in charge of our lives, our ability to run our own show.  Dancing with your Dragon helps us learn to reclaim our rejected archetypes and the power that lies behind them.   The quest for the dragon is about becoming aware of the hidden needs or desires that underlie our personal use of and our personal relationship to power.    It is about understanding our deepest needs for power and our deepest fears about power.  It’s about understanding how these needs and fears affect our behavior and ultimately push us to make the choices that create the stories of our lives.  What a Revelation!

The Practice Exercise is very helpful and I started a notebook so that I can learn from all of which I am seeking to learn from this book.  Like I said, it takes time to read this book and that is why it took about a year to develop what to say in this review. That was started on 01/23/2012.

Let me say that this book goes along with the Law of Attraction!

CHAPTER TWO THE DRAGON AND THE DANCE OF POWER

This book teaches you how to live balanced between the spiritual and material worlds.  It is about enjoying life but not getting attached to earthly things.  It’s about finding pleasure in what comes your way without seeking material things out of need, fear or addiction.  It’s about learning to live and play from the center of your divine energy.

“Our values are reflected by our thoughts and feelings not what we believe we should be thinking and feeling if we are good people, but what we actually are thinking and reeling right in this moment.”

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR POWER PRACTICES

We have been trained and programmed by our upbringing and by our life experiences to work with power in a particular way.  Our inner programs are usually operating on automatic, meaning we are not aware of them.  These programs may be beneficial or they may not, but if you are not happy with your life and you want to make changes, the first step is to simply become aware of your current relationship with power.

DEVELOPING YOUR DRAGON-OMETER

The Dragon ometer is an inner tool that can help you discover how and where your power is flowing and why.  It happens in the “now.”  It notices and registers your use of power as it is happening.  It notices what is going on and makes you aware.  It perceives power and monitors its flow without judgment.  The key to working with this tool is being objective.  How do you recognize the behaviors you use such as, flattering others so that they will like you, using sexual energy to get attention, dominating another person with your intellect, making fun of someone in order to get a laugh, or even constantly taking care of others with the hope that they will give you love in return.  This tool can help us become conscious of these and many other types of behavior designed to get us something.

THE DRAGON-OMETER AND SELF WORTH

On what do you base your worthiness or sense of self?  Worthiness is a feeling of usefulness, being wanted or loved.  Each person that we find ourselves in relation with can have a different sense of our value or use.  They may enjoy being around us if we bring them something they want, but be totally uninterested if we express a quality that they don’t find appealing.  Many of us are taught to perform in order to be liked which in turn creates a false self to the outer world. As we grow into adults we slowly learn that those disciplines are not what the real self really is.  The bottom line is that we cannot make everyone happy so why not be happy yourself!  This can lead you to your “true calling” by realizing that all you need is to believe in yourself and your own potential regardless of what people in the outer world might think.  We all need to stop trying to prove our worth.  Then Shaeri takes you to a practice session to help you see and evaluate how we work with our power.  I know for a fact that after reading this that I always give my power away!  That is something I am currently changing.

YOUR EMOTIONAL WAK-UP CALL

We need to become aware when something happens in our outer world that disturbs our inner peace.  For example you need to pay attention when you become emotional or have an emotional reaction to something because it is the key to unlocking what is really going on inside of you.

“Whatever we are uncomfortable with on the outside is a reflection of what we are uncomfortable with on the inside.”

If we have no tolerance for someone who is controlling, we might need to take a look at our own need to control.  In other words, if you can’t stand something about someone then look inside and see what you cannot stand about yourself.  That is the key to solving your problems emotionally.  For example if someone who is needy and wants attention all of the time, and that need causes disgust in our inner world, there’s’ a good change we also have a needy quality living inside of us too.  The inner work to do involves isolating the part of you that I afraid or intolerant of say anger, and that part of you that is angry and allowing them to come to terms with each other on the inside.  The inner work involves isolating the needy quality inside and the part other can’t stand neediness and allowing them to meet.  This will create a union.

We need to train ourselves when a relationship to a person in the outer world triggers our emotions.  If you can’t stand the behavior of someone in the outer world, recognize it thought the principle of the “Magic Mirror.”  The intolerance of something or someone is a reflection of your state of mind, never theirs.  Just go inside of yourself and you will solve your issues.

CHAPTER THREE (THE DRAGON AND THE CHILD WITHIN)

Much of our power can be lost in the process of learning to please our parents by being good as we grew up and wanted to impress them or do what was right.  We need to learn to reclaim our power and develop the ability to use it wisely.  Growing up our parents want to help us learn and as our authority figures we give our power away to them.  They have to train us to get along in the world that we will depend on for survival when we get older.  Most parents make us into a mini “them” and don’t let us see or be our true potentials.  As we get older we need to separate ourselves from what our parents trained us to be or do to help ourselves grow and mature into the persons we are meant to be.  We need to connect with the inner child that is still untamed and untrained, the part of you that has hungers and needs and is struggling to meet them.  It is called the “wild child” within.  This child is connected to your feelings and lives deep in your physical body, deep in your inner world.

RULES AND THE INNER REBEL

When we want and need things from someone, then that someone as power over us.   They can then manipulate or control us by giving or withholding the things we want and need: approval, money, nurturing, respect, gratitude and so on.  We also can do the same and control others by either giving or withholding the things they want or need.  Manipulation always happens at the level of the dragon. These are energy games and we need to become aware and learn to let them go.

CHAPTER FIVE

Power is found not only in what we value about ourselves, but also n what we do not value.  It is found in the things we like about ourselves and the things we do not like.  It includes everything, even the things that seem shameful, frightening or too horrible to admit.  All of these things contain power.

I did some research on my current conditions and decided to add this;

 ACNE: Not wanting to face up to new things, so living in the past. An eruption of all the conflicting & tormented feelings locked inside. The eruptions represent the longing for release to accept yourself & find your inner beauty.

BLOATING/FLUID RETENTION: Accumulation of your emotions in the small intestine.

ULCERS: Eating at you, trouble doing something to resolve an issue. Inability to be able to digest the new.

GALL STONES: (Gall Bladder Stones & Concentrates Bile): Bitterness, hard thoughts, condemning, pride, resentment. Unwilling to let go of the perception of being locked in. Trying to please others and feeling bitter about it.

Gallbladder: represents our ability to process or digest our thoughts, attitudes or emotions. Attack is strong dislike of a decision we made a short time, day before attack (“what have I done”?).  We might justify the decision in different ways, but inside, we fear that others may think it was made for selfish reasons.

Gall Stones: Obsessing about what others may think about us or our choices.

When you find yourself in a situation where your energy is being used to dominate, manipulate or control another person in order to have your personal needs met, you are involved in a Dragon drama.  This means that we choose to hurt and blamed the other or even ourselves for life’s difficulties rather than take responsibility for our own emotional reactions to life.  This happens on an unconscious level. There are three main roles we play:

• Child/Victim
• Blamer/Controller
• Fixer/Rescuer

Behind each of these roles is an energy need for:

1. Love
2. Attention
3. Respect or control

The following is from http://www.angriesout.com/grown20.htm

I think it is important to understand the roles above and how to solve them.

Playing the Roles always Create Lose—Lose—Lose. No One Wins in the Drama Triangle.

All positions:

• cause pain.
• come from denied pain.
• perpetuate lies and unhealthy secrets.
• come from a sense of shame and cause shame.
• come from feelings of unworthiness.
• are about a loss of personal power.
• perpetuate guilt and a “sick sense of love.”
• keep people caught in dysfunctional behavior.
• are passed down to the next generation of children.

The Roles that Keep You Stuck in Unhappy Relationships

Remember that you can have some traits of each of the roles and switch back and forth between them!

Perpetrator—“I Get To Feel Safe by Hurting Others and Putting Them Down”

• Stuck in a false sense of superiority and defense mechanisms keep people in denial.
• Addictive role—feeling the adrenalin rush during anger and rage. Getting high from fighting and witnessing fights. (If you get energized watching the Jerry Springer show, you might check out adrenalin addiction.)
• Unconsciously uses anger as an energizer to keep depression at bay.
• Needs to be in control and uses verbal or physical force to stay in power.
• Deals with threat, new ideas and conflict with anger to stay safe in the role of being the dominant person.
• Uses blame, criticisms, attacks and then venting to release stress.
• Is highly judgmental of others and angry when others do not do what they say.
• Self righteous judgments about others weaknesses subtly allows the weakness to continue.
• Strong sense of entitlement—“you owe me” and willing to use verbal or physical force to get it.
• Feelings of frustration trigger the right to get angry rather than deal with own uncomfortable feelings.
• Unable to feel vulnerable and denies own weaknesses.
• Shame based and uses negative behaviors to cover up/deny own problems.
• Strong need to be right and not have their authority challenged.
• Finds reasons to make others wrong and scapegoats them.
• Believes others deserve the abuse and punishment the Perpetrators dishes out.
• May have had a parent who modeled aggressive behavior and winning through force.
• May have had a parent who spoiled the child setting up feelings of entitlement and getting his way.

Rescuer—“I Get to Feel Safe by Enabling Others”

• Stuck in a false superiority with defense of acting unselfishly to help others.
• Addictive role—feeling good at the expense of others rights to take care of themselves.
• Good guy beliefs, such as takes the “high moral ground” of rescuing and enabling others.
• Needs to be in control of others to avoid own feelings and problems.
• Garnering self-esteem by being seen as unselfish for someone else’s own good.
• Uses rescuing and enabling to connect or to feel important.
• Highly judgmental of others and angry when others do not do what he/she says.
• Blames Perpetrator for problems in the family while refusing to address one’s own problems.
• Is anxiety driven and uses rescuing to reduce feelings of anxiety.
• Guilt’s self when not involved with other’s problems.
• Has shame about loss of self to meet others needs.
• Super caretaker role can create sense of giving own self away and create depression.
• Strong sense of entitlement with the Victim of “You owe me because of all I’ve done for you.”
• Can become a martyr/Victim when he/she feels that he/she has been taken advantage of by others.
• Parents the child though meeting his/her own needs of shame and guilt rather than meeting the needs of the child to be a responsible person who is allowed negative consequences and learns from them.
• May feel guilty and try to make it up to a child because of a divorce or due to choosing a lousy spouse who abuses, scapegoats or neglects the child.
• May feel guilty and try to make it up to a child because of drinking or using drugs when the child was small, neglecting the child or being a single mom.
• May feel guilty and try to make it up to a child because of a handicapping condition or a perceived weakness in the child.

Victim—“I Get to Feel Safe by being Submissive”

• Stuck in a false sense of being unworthy with defenses of feeling sorry for self and passive aggressive behavior.
• Deals with threats by giving in, in order to feel safe and is submissive when others act inappropriately.
• Unable to stand up for self and avoids confrontation.
• Believes his/her needs do not count.
• Can be overly sensitive, wish-washy and unable to make and stick to decisions.
• Doesn’t take responsibility for own feelings.
• Feeds off of the beliefs of Perpetrator and rescuer that he/she cannot take care of self.
• Has shame base for being irresponsible and inept.
• Is anxiety driven and makes excuses for staying stuck in Victim-hood.
• Blames Perpetrator for problems in the family.
• Anger, resentment and retaliation through manipulation and refusal to act as a responsible adult.
• Moves between “Poor me” and anger with blaming others “He/she is bad.”
• Angry when goes along with what the Perpetrator or Rescuer says to do.
• Feels stuck and unfulfilled in life but does not risk moving forward.
• May have had a lenient or overly-protective parent who set up expectations of helplessness.
• May have had a parent who feels anxiety when the child has to suffer natural consequences from mistakes.

A Fourth Role—The Neglector—“I Get to Do What I Want and Ignore the Needs of Others”

While Karpman did not describe this dynamic, the Neglectful Parent can cause anger, trauma and fears of abandonment in children.

• Involved in own interests and needs and does not recognize the needs of the children.
• Is self involved and withdraws from family connections to meet needs outside the home.
• Highly involved in career, hobbies, volunteer work, affair, drinking or drugging.
• Leaves children to fend for themselves.
• Can be absent-minded not there or cold and rejecting.
• Expects oldest child (usually a girl) to raise the younger children.
• Sometimes expects a child to take care of their needs. This creates a parentified child who has to give up their childhood to take care of others. The parentified child grows up learning codependency at an early age and is often angry at missing out on getting to be a child.

A Fifth Role–The Wise, Resilient Child—“I’m Not Like Them!”

Another dynamic not described by Karpman is the child in the family who is often wiser than the parents who knows from an early age that things are not right in the family. This child understands that there must be a better way to live than to keep wounding each other with offensive behavior. He or she starts to look outside the home for positive role models—a teacher, neighbor, healthy relative, friend’s parent or coach. If the child has talent, he/she is reinforced with attention and encouragement for his hard work. He/she becomes resilient in dealing with the dysfunction of the family and seeks healthier people to hang out with. He/she works hard and his/her identity becomes associated with hard work and talent. High achievement becomes the new defense to bolster up self esteem, but it makes the person one sided. Achievement becomes the self esteem rather than balancing all the skills necessary to form connection and create a happy family life.

The resilient child becomes successful in life due his/her incorporation of positive work skills. Working hard and even workholism becomes a defense strategy to feel good and getting the praise that comes with being seen as an excellent worker. All may go well for many years until working hard to keep self esteem high is not enough. The person starts to feel empty and have the sense that something is missing in their life as he/she has literally withdrawn from contact in the family he has created. He/she starts to feel the imbalance that spending long hours on the job or on hobbies has created. Having only limited defenses—working hard and perhaps drinking or drugging, the person turns more to what has worked in the past—working harder. But achievement no longer is enough to fill the void inside.

At this time, there may be a crisis–perhaps a mid life crisis. The defense of achievement does not work anymore. At this juncture in life, there is a choice. The resilient child grown up can either crash into depression or acting out in addictions OR start to examine the early pain of being brought up in a Drama Triangle family where unhealthy behaviors were the daily norm. This can be a shakeup time where the person decides to go into recovery and address the pain of the past. It may take the form of searching for a spiritual identity and true meaning in life. Some people believe this shake-up time is the Soul’s calling.

The Call from the Soul

The Soul reaches out to get the person to examine the unresolved pain of the past to provoke personal and spiritual growth. There are certain developmental milestones across life where the personal pain is so great that the person is willing to be open and stop some of the defenses he/she has built up. The pain of the past has to be addressed. Severe pain of the present life can be an impetus to get the person to wake up and learn, stretch and grow spiritually. The call from the Soul comes forth to spur the person into becoming the best person they can be.

Creating the Escape Hatch—Rising Above the Drama Triangle

Some family members find it easier to get into recovery and change than others. Rescuers and Victims are usually more sensitive people and are more likely to read books, attend self help meetings and come to therapy to get help. Perpetrators are less likely to change as they seem to have a bigger dose of arrogance, defensiveness, shame and denial to overcome. Of course, the recovery is dependent upon seeing and releasing the underlying needs that the Drama Triangle roles feed into.

Sometimes other family members see the value of getting healthy in their interactions with others; others do not. You can interrupt your Drama Triangle role playing and change the way you interact with family members. The whole recovery movement—therapy, self help books, AA and other help yourself groups, Oprah and Dr. Phil—teaches you how to change YOUR part of the dynamics of interacting with others. You can only change yourself. You can learn to be direct and straight with people without playing games.

Education is the first key. Understand and observe the roles that you play and how you shift from aggressor to Victim to rescuer. Healthy relationships can happen if you are willing to work and change yourself and learn to act in ways that form intimate connections.

Through imagery, see yourself in the middle of the triangle. Observe yourself when you start to go into thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the Perpetrator, Victim and rescuer roles. Rise above the roles through being mindful. Mindfulness is noticing what is happening rather than reacting to it. Watch how you are about to get hooked back in—observing your emotions and body reactions that indicate that you are being triggered. From up above, look down on the behaviors of the people involved—not to judge but to understand.

Become accountable and own all thoughts, feelings and behaviors that keep you in the drama roles. Take care of yourself and your feelings and problems done. Expect and insist that others take care of their feelings and problems. Make getting clean your number one priority with your behavior.

Address addictions and co-dependent behaviors through self help groups such as AA, Al-Anon and Codependents of American Anonymous. There is tremendous, loving help out there if you but reach out and ask for it!

Stop the blame and shame game. Interrupt all blame either for self or others. Watch for attitudes and behaviors of “Who did it? Who can be blamed?” Looking for someone to be called on the carpet when something goes wrong is a constant in dysfunctional families. You can go one of two ways when there is an issue: You can look for someone to blame OR you can start problem solving.

The habit of blaming comes from being judgmental. Address your constant need to judge others when they do not meet your standards and values. Mind your own business! And don’t give too much credence to negative people’s opinion of you. Remind yourself, “What ____ thinks of me is none of my business. My business is to change so that I think well of myself.”

Address any irrational beliefs that you should be perfect. Error correction is analyzing your mistakes and deciding to act differently next time. The moment you realize that you have goof up, you have a choice: You can beat yourself up or you can figure out what you did wrong through problem solving. Stop self condemnation and learn from your mistakes.

Put yourself around positive people who don’t have the need to play the roles of the Drama Triangle. Insist on equality in relationships. Insist that people treat each other with respect. Figure out your values and what you will and will not put up with in your life. Set boundaries and stick to them giving consequences to those who continually go past the limits you have set. Your Bottom Line is that place where you decide to walk away when someone acts in ways you can no longer live with. Discontinue relationships with friends who use or abuse you.

Examine the dark sides of your personality and make friends with it. The shadow parts are those denied, repressed, acting out aspects of yourself which were formed during early family trauma. Keep your ears and eyes open and learn about your nasty behaviors which you may abhor. Keep your wisdom and heart open when you revert to the worst of yourself—these parts, when healed, hold many gifts for you.

Learn release techniques for processing unhappy memories of the past and current negative emotions. The techniques of hypnosis, imagery, cognitive behavioral interruption of negativity, Eye Movement Desensitization (EMDR), Thought Field Therapy (TFT), The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), The Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) and many others help process and release issues. Yes, you can do a lot to help yourself, but therapy is the fast track to moving off the Drama Triangle.

When there has been severe dysfunction in families, you can’t get to the depth of your pain on your own without an objective guide. Find a therapist who does not just let you talk. If you’ve been with the same therapist for some time and seem stuck, consider a new approach. Therapists who know the processing techniques listed above have better recovery success than ones who just listen to you.

Forgive yourself for learning the roles in the past and understand that you learned what was modeled for you. Therapists who use spiritual approaches to therapy are more likely to use techniques that help you forgive yourself and those who hurt you. One of the best techniques to promote forgiveness and moving on with your life is the Emotional Freedom Technique. This fast, effective technique incorporates forgiveness statement along with affirmations and acupressure to promote relaxation which helps neutralize strong emotions and attachment to problems.

Learn congruence which is the art of having your outside behavior match your inside feelings. In congruence, all thoughts, body states, emotions and actions are similar. When you are congruent, you state your feelings and act in a direct, fair manner. Make a new contract with friends and family members that you are going to avoid game playing and speak in fair, firm ways and express feelings. Learn the “I formula” and use it when appropriate—“I feel _____ when you _____. Understand that others will not change just because you express your feelings.

Get professional help early on for children who show signs of the dysfunction in the family. Anger issues, suicidal gestures, depression, use of alcohol and drugs and refusal to do school work, failing and dropping out of school are all signs of a child’s cry for help. Often the child’s acting out behavior is a barometer for the family, signaling that there is unaddressed family pain. Many families find help in getting off some of the Drama Triangle by first bringing a child who is hurting to therapy.

Interventions—confrontations with loving intent—can help bring insight and change to the family sometimes. When you come from a place of centeredness and love, you can ask a family member to look at their abusing, enabling or staying in Victim attitudes and behavior. Be prepared to get denial, anger or abuse in return.

The two rules in unhappy families are don’t shake up the system and don’t threaten the status quo. Understand that as you get healthy and refuse to play the Drama game, your family members may become angry and see you as bad if you refuse to play the old, manipulative games or call them on their dysfunctional behavior. If you stop bailing out irresponsible family members with your money and attention, you will be called selfish.

Some people choose to dissociate themselves from their game-playing family as they become healthy. If they do not pull away completely, they limit the amount of time they spend with dysfunctional members of their family. They shorten family visits where there is excessive use of alcohol and verbal abuse. They drop in on holidays before people become drunk and abusive instead of spending the entire day.

There is strength in numbers. Get together with members of the family who are ready to address the pain. Family dysfunction has to be recognized and processed. If you are the only one in recovery, get a support group of like minded people who are working on their own releases from Drama Triangle roles.

Healthy Skills for each Role Player to Leave the Drama Triangle

Perpetrator Role

• Stop denying that you reject, punish, or persecute others.
• Face the horrific reality that you have damaged others by your unrealistic expectations and anger.
• Give up the need to be right and feel self righteous and superior to others.
• Stop rationalizing and justifying domineering beliefs and behaviors.
• Get honest with yourself—tell yourself the truth! Own the effects of your loud voice, angry stare and cold shoulder on others. Catch and interrupt yourself when you increase the volume and force to get your way.
• When others disagree with you, ask yourself, “Am I really being threatened or is it just a difference of opinion?”
• Learn how your use of force makes you feel powerful and find healthy ways to feel good about yourself.
• Own how you are energized by getting angry. Identify the adrenalin rush that anger gives you.
• Find new, healthy highs and energizing experiences to replace the adrenalin high of anger.
• Attend anger management classes to learn anger containment and anger release techniques.
• Attend parenting classes to learn about children’s age appropriate behavior and learn appropriate discipline techniques.
• Monitor anger and take a time-out by walking away before you become verbally or physically abusive.
• Learn to feel vulnerable with uncomfortable feelings instead of exploding out in anger when stressed or threatened.
• Learn and use the Intentional Dialogue Technique (Harville Hendrix’s Imago Therapy) to feel empathy and compassion for others.
• Apologize to those you have harmed and begin the repair work to set the family on a healthy course.
• Get a life where you can live in peace, without anger!

Rescuer Role

• Catch yourself in the act of feeling good because you helped someone. Stop basing your self-esteem on helping others.
• Give up the need to feel superior because you are the good guy who always helps others.
• Address your self esteem needs to control others and know what is best for them.
• Address your own problems, shortcomings and negative emotions instead of focusing on other people.
• Set limits about solving other people’s problems and put ALL of your energy in to solving your own.
• Learn the “hooks”—how others use guilt and manipulation to pull you into the Drama Triangle.
• Stop rationalizing and justifying your caretaking and enabling behavior.
• Stop feeling sorry for other people and giving them advice, money or support.
• When others overwhelm you with their problems, tell them you are not qualified to deal with such deep issues and suggest they get professional help.
• Get clean and sober with your codependency. Read at least five books on codependency and do the mind-opening exercises.
• Attend Adult Children of Alcoholics and AlAnon, get a sponsor and work the steps.
• Deal with your anger of being the good little girl or boy and the parentified child who did not get to have a childhood.
• Read five books on the heavy emotion of shame. Do the exercises in the books to help release shame.
• Interrupt guilty feelings when you refrain from unnecessary giving by reminding yourself that your old family programming is coming up.
• Define your new self esteem as a person who takes care of your own feelings, thoughts, actions and problems.
• Bow out of the drama and encourage the Victim to stand up to the Perpetrator whenever possible.
• Take an assertiveness course.
• Get a life where you are responsible only for yourself!

Victim Role

• Stop expecting someone else to rescue you. Think and problem solve for yourself. Act boldly.
• Take responsibility for your feelings, thoughts and actions that contribute to your Victim role.
• Be authentic with others and learn to state your feelings and your needs firmly.
• Learn the body sensations and reactions that signal you are about to collapse into helplessness.
• Listen to your constant Victim statements and break into them.
• Address the terror and release traumatic memories of being abused by Perpetrator.
• Learn to handle confrontation and deal with other people’s anger.
• Study Learned Helplessness and Learned Optimism (Martin Seligman) and apply the ideas from his research to your life.
• Challenge any belief or thoughts that say you are unworthy and can’t take care of yourself.
• Decide what you expect and state your minimum standard of behavior that you consider to be decent treatment from others.
• Set limits with Perpetrators and rescuers and walk away if they don’t respect your boundaries.
• Stop blaming the Perpetrator and rescuer and focus on getting out from under their influence.
• Deal with your anger at being a scapegoat and punished by others and your taking on the victim role.
• Start a self nurturing, self care program to bolster your ability to take care of your own needs.
• Take an assertiveness training course. Read five books on assertiveness. Take the course again.
• Surround yourself with new, positive friends and define yourself as an independent person who can handle life’s problems.
• Get a life where you are responsible for yourself!

Hello. My Name is _____ and I’m in Recovery from the Drama Triangle

Get honest. Recovery from family dysfunction is a time of facing the truth about your childhood and delving into the dark hole of lies, manipulations and devious behaviors that exist inside of you. It is about examining how you treat others and allow them to treat you. Drama Triangle work is Soul work. It is a call from your highest self to address the guilt, shame and sense of unworthiness within that percolates up and refuses to go away. You can create the space to watch and address your thoughts and behaviors as they present themselves daily.

Really get it that you’re playing out the familiar roles of Perpetrator, Rescuer and Victim does not serve you. It does not serve others. It is just something you have learned because it was modeled for you. So you need not have guilt or feel ashamed for what you have learned living in your family. As learned patterns of habit, the attitudes and behaviors that make up all the roles of the Drama Triangle can be unlearned. To do nothing to change the roles guarantees that thing will remain the same.

Real love in a family is a combination of checks and balances—calling a person on his inappropriate behavior when necessary and giving enthusiastic support for strivings for growth. Unconditional love given to disrespectful or destructive behavior reinforces the Perpetrator role as it does not provide any motivation for change. Unconditional love given to rescuing, enabling or victim behavior enhances continuing dysfunction. Real love is honest and asks the people in the family to become the best they can be without shaming or guilt trips. The ability to share feelings honestly and respectfully is one sign of healthy behavior in a family. Real love communicates a belief of positive regard for the person. It expects and gives respect to all family members.

The undoing of the pain is an ongoing process of emotional and spiritual maturity across the lifespan. It can be hastened through study, observation and confrontation of negative behaviors. You learn, stretch and grow each as you mindfully watch your interactions with others. The techniques from Energy Psychology Therapy and Imago Therapy are so easy to learn to help you release negativity with amazing quickness.

Forgiveness is the ultimate key to true change and recovery. It can’t be forced, but by studying this humbling process of release, it comes, sometimes out of the blue, to take you to a place of higher consciousness. Forgiveness happens gradually for some as there is a realization as Virginia Satir said, “We are all victims of victims of victims.” Forgiveness is threefold: forgiveness of self, others and whatever you call God. Start with yourself to accept that you are a person with strong feelings that were born of trauma and injustice that call out now for transformation. That’s why the Course in Miracles and the Emotional Freedom Technique have such depth. They have a process to touch into forgiveness which you can apply daily to bring about an overall acceptance and surrender of the injustices and betrayals that happened in your life to come to a place of calmness.

Remember, recovery from your family pain is a day-to-day process. Life becomes brighter and more cheerful when you address your personal pain. With practice and mindfulness, you can break down those walls of delusion of dysfunctional behavior you have built in a misguided attempt to stay safe. Make honesty the only language you speak. In your recovery from lies, deceits, and manipulation, decide to be as honest as you can and treat those you love with respect. The process of recovery is being mindful as you heed that call from your Soul to wake up and become all that you can be.

Resources

• Forest, Lynn. The Three Faces of Victim.http://lynneforrest.com/articles/fov.html
• Gottman, John & DeClaire, Joan. The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide for Building Better Connections with Family, Friends, and Lovers. Crown Publishers, 2001.
• Gottman, John & Gottman, Julie. Why Marriages Succeed or Fail. Simon & Shuster.
• Hendrix, Harville. Getting the Love You Want. A Guide for Couples. Henry Holt & Co., 1988.
• Namka, Lynne. Goodbye Ouchies and Grouchies, Hello Happy Feelings. EFT for Kids of All Ages. Talk, Trust & Feel Therapeutics, 2003.
• Namka, Lynne. The Doormat Syndrome. Talk, Trust and Feel Therapeutics, 2001.
• Namka, Lynne. Violence in Families. http://www.AngriesOut.com.
• Namka, Lynne. The Right Man and Right Woman Theory. http://www.AngriesOut.com.
• Seligman, Martin, Learned Optimism. Pocket Books, 1990.
• Utain, M & Oliver, B. (Eds.) Scream Louder. Through Hell and Healing with an Incest Survivor and her Therapist. Columbia University Press, 1988.http://www.abebooks.com.

The Importance of being Honest

You must practice the form of non-judgment.  It is helpful to see everyone you meet in a divine light.  See beauty in everyone!  This beauty will bring out the beauty in yourself.  Life then begins to flow more gracefully.  Not everyone will love us or respect us, but it won’t matter, because when you love and respect yourself that is all you need, other people’s opinions are only that, their opinions; their opinions can create their suffering, but they don’t have to create yours.  When you know the truth of whom and what you are inside, that’s all that’s important, no matter what anyone else might see or think.