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REFLECTIONS: BOOKS & EVENTS JOURNAL

OF SANDPLAY

THERAPY®

Volume 26

Number 2 © 2017

EGO AND ARCHETYPE BY EDWARD EDINGER

A Reflection by Leslie Johannes Seattle, Washington, USA

With Jung’s “most basic and far-reaching discovery” of the archetypal psyche, “we now know that the individual psyche is not just a product of personal experience” (my emphasis). And so, begins Edinger’s incredible treatise on the ego’s relationship with the archetypal psyche. In Part I of three Edinger discusses individuation and the stages of development, giving form to processes that can be challenging to grasp. He methodically outlines and amplifies the concept of “ego” and its relationship to the “Self.” He begins by grounding his thinking on Jung’s descriptions of the individuation process and the nature of its ongoing relationship to the Self, Neumann’s depiction of the original psychic state “prior to the birth of ego consciousness” as the uroborus, and Fordham’s postulation, based on clinical

observations of infants and children, that the Self is “the original totality prior to the ego.” Edinger then stands on this ground and presents his thoughts regarding a spiral or repeating circular process of development consisting of “ego-Self separation” and “ego-Self union,” the center and circumference of this relational process– a paradoxical reality – being the Self with the connecting energy being the ego-Self axis. Just contemplating all that Edinger presents in a single page of type continues to be a mind-blowing feast.

Edinger amplifies the processes of “ego inflation” and “ego alienation,” processes integral to human development, yet also places we can become stuck and lose our way in a variety of ways for which he provides clinical examples. In addition, he incorporates a wealth of religious and mythical material that show how these two states and their dynamics may be lived out and cause us suffering.

Edinger then brings forward, in Part II, the symbol as a life-giving and nurturing energetic that rectifies and relativizes the “alienated ego” as well as the “inflated ego” with its source of being, the Self. He makes clear the ways in which this deadening, painful, sometimes torturous state of alienation is created by the need for ego-Self separation when there is a one-sided ego-Self union, an identification with the Self (God or the god/ goddess) or an “inflated ego.” He discusses ways that client dream images (and we can infer sandplays) out-picture and illuminate aspects of dynamic, living processes for the purpose of rectifying the ego’s unbalanced relationship with the Self and significant others. Balance is experienced by the individual when the ego is separate, yet in relationship with the Self through the ego-Self axis – which can also be thought of as the reconciling third. Edinger has an amazing capacity to make clear these processes as well as what we can often miss about a symbol or the symbolic process, writing, “there is something behind these images that transcends consciousness” and the symbol “will not be changed by rational exhortation” (p.112-113). My sense in reading what Edinger has to say is that the symbol is an out-picturing of something that is very much more alive than I could ever have imagined.

About the individuation process and the goal of individuation, Edinger writes in Part III,

The trinity archetype seems to symbolize individuation as a process, while the quaternity symbolizes its goal or completed state. Three is the number for egohood [which is always in the dynamic flux of being “made”], four is the number for wholeness, the Self. But since individuation is never truly complete, each temporary state of completion or wholeness must be submitted once again to the dialectic of the trinity in order for life to go on. (p.193)

The clear message here seems to be, we are never fully baked and it is when we are experiencing moments of healthy balance with the Self that we sense ourselves as being truly whole. Thanks to the clarity and communicability of Edinger’s thinking on the dynamic relationship between ego and archetype, I sense a firmer grasp in my own thinking of the amazing and always shifting dynamics involved in the personal and professional ways I interact with life as I experience it through the evolving nature of my own subjective ego and my relationship with the objective and deeply principled Self.

In conclusion, I return to the beginning, where Edinger writes on p.7, “The Self is born, but the ego is made; and in the beginning, all is Self.” In contemplating this invitation to encounter the reality that this statement presents, I realize that as a Sandplay Therapist, I can get lost, as Edinger says we all can, in the “nostalgia” I experience toward original wholeness, both personal and historical. I am reminded that I need to continually be mindful that the energies in the archetypal psyche can be as powerful and destructive as a level 5 hurricane or as welcoming as a warm breeze carrying the songs of mating birds and the scents of spring blossoms. If, as a Sandplay Therapist, my goal for myself as well as for the people I serve, is an encounter with the Self for the purpose of maintaining or rectifying the ego-self axis and the ongoing developmental process of individuation, I will be required to come to know, in more and more ways, just Whom/What it is that I am addressing. REFERENCE

Edinger, E. (1972/1992). Ego and Archetype. Boston & London: Shambhala.

LESLIE JOHANNES, MEd, LMFT, CST-T, maintains a fulltime private practice in Bellevue, Washington, where she works with children, adolescents and their families, as well as individual adults, couples, and adult psychotherapy groups. An STA (Sandplay Therapists of America) & ISST (International Society for Sandplay Therapy) teaching member and AAMFT Approved Supervisor, she works with interns, associates and therapists interested in earning state licensure as well as STA Sandplay Practitioners and STA Associates interested in expanding their knowledge, experience and clinical practice of sandplay therapy. She is co-founder of Northwest Sandplay Therapists, currently serves on the STI committee, has served on the board of the Jungian Psychotherapists Association in Seattle, Washington, and has served STA as co-chair for the STA 2014 National Conference, The Spirit of Story in Sandplay. She has written for The Alliance Forum magazine in Seattle and for the Journal of Sandplay Therapy (JST). CORRESPONDENCE: leslie@lesliejohannes.com

EGO AND ARCHETYPE BY EDWARD EDINGER A Reflection by Leslie Johannes Seattle, Washington, USA

KEY WORDS: Sandplay Therapy, Jung, dream, ego-Self axis, ego inflation, ego alienation, encounter with the Self, symbol, individuation, development, subjectivity, Trinity, process, quaternity, goal.

ABSTRACT: This reflection piece briefly describes Edinger’s conceptualization of the relationship between the human ego and the archetypal psyche as described by C.G. Jung. Edinger posits that a conceptual link, which he names the ego-Self axis, provides the conscious ego a means of reconciliation with the archetypal Self for both its inflated state as well as its alienated state. Edinger’s amplification of his concept and its ramifications, particularly for the Sandplay Therapist, are reflected on.