Jung's shadow:negation and narcissism of the Self

Abstract

The cave walls of prehistoric man record two contrasting hand impressions: the one positive - a direct imprint; the other negative - a blank defined by a halo of colour. Jung's disturbed, displaced contact with his mother led to a struggle in establishing an integrated sense of 'I'; instead to create a sense of Self he brilliantly contrived to illuminate the darkness around that blank impress. The resulting lifework, enhanced by Jung's multifarious capacities as artist and philosopher as well as physician, is deeply impressive; yet Winnicott (1964) in his review of Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963) nevertheless alludes to Jung's 'own need to search for a self with which to know' (p. 450). Passages from the autobiography are considered that appear to corroborate Winnicott's contention that Jung had a 'blank', potentially psychotic, core. Yet it is also argued that the psychoanalytic mainstream has undervalued the subtlety and creativity of Jung's own intuitive response to his shadow and that a sympathetic appreciation of this can still valuably inform our contemporary approaches to narcissistic disorders, especially dissociation.

Winnicott's invitation to ‘further games of Jung‐analysis’

“…The motif of the ‘gap’, the toxic ‘no‐thing’, of a core emptiness, again correlated with experience of an affectively ‘dead’ contact with the mother, was developed by André Green's () discourse around what he called a ‘psychose blanc’. Green, in similar vein to Winnicott (whom he much admired), also writes of the often manic investment in the ‘patched breast’—the driven but desperate attempt to bridge the ‘gap’ or to cover the blankness (Meredith‐Owen ).…”

“…This current paper draws on some additional Winnicottian texts, including two case reports, to correlate Winnicott's interest in Jung to his wider concerns with the assimilation of ‘primitive destructive impulses’; the establishment of a ‘unit‐self’; and the origins of psychotic structure. More particularly, these texts illuminate just what Winnicott inferred by his cryptic assertion that ‘Jung lacked a self with which to know’ (Winnicott , p. 453; Meredith‐Owen ). Whether or not (see Kalsched , Ch.…”

“…This connection was much in my mind when writing in an earlier paper, ‘Jung's shadow: negation and narcissism of the Self’ that, ‘Jung was built on such a grand scale that we are almost invited to see, or to imagine we can see, writ large in him—in both his creativity and his pathology—what we may catch only faint glimpses of in ourselves’ (Meredith‐Owen , p. 675). And, of course, such projection‐inviting stature also accrues to Winnicott, who, with his preference for paradox over pronouncement, offers a broad remit to his reader to make what ‘use’ of him they will.…”

Staging the Shadow: Writing, Academic Subjectivities, and Hidden Selves

“…Self-deception became a theme of our discussions, as did the importance of looking at the ways in which the self could be co-opted ideologically to discipline and to filter out more life affirming ways of living. As a result of our conversations about these themes, we began to think about Jung's ideas of persona and shadow (Bolea, 2016;Meredith-Owen, 2011) and how these might help us to look at ourselves askance somehow, to unsettle our "common-sense," and to consider the types of multiple selves that coexist within our own subjectivities and how these multiple identities might not be always be neatly contained and directed by our intentions. We also began to think of methods that would help us dig beneath the surface and challenge us to engage in uncomfortable provocations.…”

Jung, Winnicott and the divided psyche

“…It is striking how many writers in the Jungian tradition, particularly in the last 30 years, seem to have been convinced by this pathologizing critique of Winnicott. Perhaps the best examples of this tendency are the recent articles of William Meredith‐Owen (2015, 2014, 2011a, 2011b). Although his papers undoubtedly contain a wealth of insight, when it comes to Meredith‐Owen's analysis of Jung and of MDR it is sometimes hard to differentiate Meredith‐Owen from Winnicott.…”