Essays On A Science Of Mythology – Jung And Kerenyi

of darkness or twilight, of non-differ- entiation betwecn subject and object, of unconscious identity of man and the universe. This phase of non- differcntiation produces the go~d!’f~:gg,_ which is both man and universe and yet neither, but an irrational third. To the twilight consciousness of-pi:i;nltive man ‘],t seems as if the egg came out of the womb of the wide world and were, accordingly, a cosmic, objective, external occurrence. To a differentiated consciousness, on the other hand, it seems evident that this egg is nothing but a symbol thrown up by the psyche or~ what is even worse~a fanciful speculation and therefore “nothing but” a primitive phantasm to which no “real- ity” of any kind attaches.

Present-day medical psychol- ogy, however, thinks somewhat differently about thcse “phantasms.” It knows only too well what dire disturb- ances of the bodily functions and what devastating psychic consequences can flow from “mere” fantasies. “Fantasies” are the natural expressions of the life of the unconscious. But since the unconscious is the psyche of all the body’s autonomous functional complexes, its “fantasies” have an aetiological significance that is not to be despised.

From the psychopathology of the indi- viduation process we know that the formation of sym- bols is frequently associated with physical disorders of a psychic origin, which in some cases are felt as de- cidedly “real.” In medicine, fantasies are real things with which the psychotherapist has to reckon very seriollsly indeed. He cannot therefore deprive of all justification those phantasms which, because of their realness, primitive man projects even into the external world. In the last analysis the human body, too, is built of the stuff of the world, the very stuff in which fan- tasies are manifested; indeed, without it they could not be experienced at all.

Without this stuff they would be like a sort of abstract crystal lattice in a solution where the crystallization process had not yet started. The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness expresses it. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus at anima; hence the “child” is such an admirable formula for the symbol.

The uniqueness of the psyche is a magnitude that can never be made wholly real, it can only be realized approximately, though it stW remains the ab- solute basis of all consciousness.

Head of a Bow-stretching Eros Copy from the time of Hadrian of an original presumably by Lysippus. Berlin, private owncrship 2. Winged Eros Hellenistic (c. md century, D.C.). Munich, Muscum fur Antike Kleinkunst. Photo Karl Bauer 3. Putta with Dolphin Roman. Naples, Musco Nazionale 4. Child with a Lamp, wearing a cucullus Roman. Rome, Musco Nazionale 5. Sleeping Arnor Bronze. Venetian, end of 15th century.

Vienna, private ownership Illustrations 2, 3 and 5 are taken from the book by Glaser, Ein hi17lmlischer Kindergarten, with the kind permission of F. Bruckmann, Publishers, Munich. PROLEGOMENA I BY C. KERENYI 1 W HAT is music? TVhat is poetry? “What is mythol- ogy? All questions 011 which no opinion is pos- sible unless one already bas a real fee/iug for these tbings. That is natural and obvious enough.

Not so, however, our feeling in the case of tbe last wl1Jzed. Only the greatest creations of mythology prope1′ could hope to make clear to modern man tbat here he is face to face with a phenomenon which “in profundity,’permanence, and ‘universality is comparable only with Nature herself.”

1f ‘we ‘want to promote “a real lmo’Lvledge of mythology, we must not appeal at the outset to theoretical comiderations and judge’ments (not even to Schelling’s, from wlJ01ll the quotation hi praise of mythology comes). Neither sbould ‘lve talk overmuch of “sources.” The ‘Lvater must be fetched and drunk fresh from the spring if it is to flo’LV througb us and quicl(en our hidden mythological taleuts.”· But-here too there’s many a slip bet’Lvecll the cup and the lip.

True mythology has become so completely alien to us that} before tasting of it, ‘we ‘l.vould do ‘l.pel! to pa1tSe and consider-not only the uses aud dangers of mythology (the psychologist and physicirm of the mind will have something to say about this later on), but also our possible attitude towards it. We have lost our immediate ff!..eling to! the great realities oi’-J~’~ spirit-;-f1.nd to this ‘world all true mythology belong:f.::.Jj ~lo~t it precisely became of our all-too-willing, hefpful, and efficient science, It explained the drink in the cup to us so -well that rz»e }.:.new all about it beforehand, far better than tbe good old drinkers; and we were expected to rest content rwith our }mowing better or even to rate it higheT than unspoiled experience cmd enjoymen~.

We bave to asl.:. ourselves: is an immediate experience and cnjoymeut of mythology still in any sense possible? 0 At all events we can no longer dispense with the freedom from falsehood tbat true science confers upon us. TVhat ‘we demand besides’this freidom, or rather demand back from science, is just this feeling of im- mediacy bet’L;e~;z ‘;;’rs;Tves and scientific subjects. Sci- ence herself must throw open the road to mythology that sbe blocl.:.ed first with ber interpretations a71d then ‘with her explanations-science always understood in the broadest sense, in thls case theh~;’ic.~T~’ifd psy- c!JologTca[ as ivelr”q~ the culturar and anthropologiqal stltdy oJ myths.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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