The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype (German: Die groÃÆ'Ÿe Mutter Der Archetyp des grossen Weiblichen ) is a book about the mother goddess by psychologist Erich Neumann. Dedication reads, "For C. G. Jung's friend and master in the eighteenth year". Although Neumann completed the German manuscript in Israel in 1951, The Great Mother was first published in English in 1955. This work has been seen as a lasting contribution to Jung's inspired literature.
Video The Great Mother
Summary
Large Round of the women's archetype
As a brief introduction to a small part of the narrative and analysis of the book, presented here is a abbreviated abstract of the Neumann diagram identifying it as "Scheme III". Around the circle, or Big Round , various mothers and related entities drawn from religious history are placed. From these selected the following six representatives:
Mary Isis Sophia Is
Lilith Times
the magicians
Neumann, using traditional cultural values, describes different positions as: Kali, the terrible mother (sickness, slaughter, death, extinction); magicians; Lilith, Anima negative (ecstasy, madness, impotence, fainting); Isis, good Mother (fruit, birth, rebirth, immortality); Mary (spiritual transformation); and, Sophia, Anima positive (wisdom, vision, inspiration, ecstasy). They are grouped in opposite three poles: the axis of Mother; axis Anima; and vertical axis transformations .
Articulation and archetype awareness
Following his theme of The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949, 1954), Neumann first tracked the evolution of the feminine archetype from the original uroboros (primordial unconsciousness). This archetype becomes articulated from the "Big Round". "Psychological development [of humanity]... begins with a 'matriarchal' stage in which the archetypes of the Great Mother dominate and unconsciously direct the individual and group psychic processes." Finally, from the symbolic Big Round, the new psychic constellations are articulated, for example, the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Increasingly, opportunities can be open to various forms of spiritual transformation. In this process, the ancient culture involved provides a path to gradual liberation from the consciousness of the individual ego, and its self-consciousness. "Increased awareness" through a semi-conscious social process that affects the group becomes institutionalized as a ritual. Later individual paths can evolve to add to the process of spiritual transformation.
Maps The Great Mother
Academic, cultural context Psychology of gender dichotomy
The Supreme Pattern of the Mother, as discussed in earlier Neumann's Origins and History of Awareness , was eventually surpassed by mythical Heroes. His victory symbolizes the emergence of the established consciousness of the ego from the previously unconscious or semi-conscious forces. The gender dichotomy, however, needs to support a focus on the liberation of men's consciousness.
In his book The Great Mother Neumann directs most of his attention to the feminine archetype, description and further analysis. But the rare returning story remains fixed by default the emergence of the ego consciousness of the male hero. "Neumann is well aware that The Great Mother only tells one side of the story, and has a plan to complete the study with volume on female psychology from the Great Mother." Early deaths taken over work on this companion volume. Neumann publishes the article, followed by amplification, which outlines his multilateral understanding of the emergence of women's ego consciousness and the relationship that is in keeping with the archetype of the Great Mother.
Archetypes compared to archeology
In an unpublished manuscript of the late 1930s, Neumann praised JJ Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht (1861) Mother's Rights: the investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World . But Neumann sees it not as a cultural historian but as a "modern soul researcher". In fact, Bachofen's theory of "predominantly female ages" does not survive research, but is "criticized and rejected by most contemporary historians". Although Marija Gimbutas's book of 1989 advanced a position that tends to be the opposite, "most archaeological scholars today agree that there is no evidence of ancient worship of the Grand Mother Goddess...". But Bachofen's views remain influential.
While acknowledging the negative conclusions of cultural and archeological history, there is an attempt "to save Bachofen's concept of gynecologic age through psychological revision." Starting from an article by Jung about the mother's archetype, Neumann extends its reach and depth. Utilizing many Eranos illustrations to complete his text, he eventually produced his book, The Great Mother . It presents "a detailed examination of the different archetypal appearances of the Great Mother in mythology and religion." Liebscher warned that "it is important today to read Neumann's research not as a contribution to the ancient goddess's failed cult but as exemplary study of the psychology of typology."
Scientific acceptance
Psychologist James Hillman wrote that Neumann interprets every kind of female figure and image as a symbol of the Great Mother. Hillman believes that, "If one's research shows this kind of result, that is, where all data indicates a dominant hypothesis, then it's time to ask a psychological question about the hypothesis."
Jung's analyst Robert H. Hopcke, calling the Great Mother monumental in its widest ", regarded it as" the most enduring Neumann contribution to Jungian thinking "with The Origins and History of Consciousness i> (1949).
Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas calls Neumann's book "highly valued". "His psychological approach has opened up new avenues of interpretation... of a prehistoric goddess." However, Prof. Gimbutas feels that the term "mother" greatly undermines its importance and does not allow the appreciation of its total character.Furthermore, many of Neumann's archetypes are based on post-Indo-European religious ideology, after the image of the Goddess has undergone a major transformation and partly great disdain. "Therefore, for the prehistoric period, Gimbutas prefers the term" Great Goddess "because it best describes its absolute rules, its creative, destructive, and regenerative powers."
Siegmund Hurwitz, among other references to Neumann, cites the approval of The Great Mother for the description and characterization of Neumann of the "anima figure" as a different female archetype, to be distinguished from earlier stronger maternal phenomena. self.
The Camille Paglia scholar identifies the Great Mother as an influence on his literary criticism of Sexual Persona (1990). He calls it the "visual feast" and his "most famous" work.
Scholar Martin Liebscher writes, "Neumann's The Great Mother provides a decisive moment in how to do archetypal research." Previous monographs, each focused on a certain archetype, are abundant but they can not compete "with minute detail and careful structuring of Neumann's examination of Mother's Grand archetype."
References
Bibliography
- Books
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments