Here’s a Jungian description of terrorism. Worth reading.
+++
“Terrorism is a manifestation of the psyche. It is time we recognized the psyche as an autonomous factor in world affairs.
“The psychological root of terrorism is a fanatical resentment – a quasi-psychotic hatred originating in the depths of the archetypal psyche and therefore carried by religious (archetypal) energies. A classic literary example is Melville’s Moby Dick. Captain Ahab, with his fanatical hatred of the White Whale, is a paradigm of the modern terrorist.
“Articulate terrorists generally express themselves in religious (archetypal) terminology. The enemy is seen as the Principle of Objective Evil (Devil) and the terrorist perceives himself as the “heroic” agent of divine or Objective Justice (God). This is an archetypal inflation of demonic proportions which temporarily grants the individual almost superhuman energy and effectiveness. To deal with terrorism effectively we must understand it.
“We need a new category to understand this new phenomenon. These individuals are not criminals and are not madmen although they have some qualities of both. Let’s call them zealots. Zealots are possessed by transpersonal, archetypal dynamisms deriving from the collective unconscious. Their goal is a collective, not a personal one. The criminal seeks his own personal gain; not so the zealot. In the name of a transpersonal, collective value – a religion, an ethnic or national identity, a “patriotic” vision, etc. – they sacrifice their personal life in the service of their “god.” Although idiosyncratic and perverse, this is fundamentally a religious phenomenon that derives from the archetypal, collective unconscious. Sadly, the much-needed knowledge of this level of the psyche is not generally available. For those interested in seeking it, I recommend a serious study of the psychology of C.G. Jung.
– from the Archetype of the Apocalypse (1999), “Editor’s Preface,” p. xvii.
Yes, this makes great sense, thanks so much for the reference; I’d like to read more. Where does the problem lie, in the personal psyche of the zealot projecting through the collective paradigm of religious tenets or in the manipulation of individual psyches by the authorities projecting the collective paradigms? Both I guess, but I can’t help imagine with John Lennon how much better off we’d be without patriarchal religions. The fact that zealots are bred by all of them and that this costs us great psychic and physical pain should say something, no?
Great post! Yes, it’s one collective consciousness & so we too are one with the terrorists, abusers and criminals, therefore ” be the change you wish to see”, when we are no longer in conflict with self & others conflict will stop showing up in the collective & when we can welcome all our emotions including the ones we label as negative- anger, frustration etc when we can love each of those states in us as they arise, instead of suppressing or using spirituality as an emotional by pass then we shall see peace in the world. If we can forgive them even though they are not sorry & pardon ourselves for what we see as negative, we will see the end of war.
These terrorist events are to focus us in fear, horror, anger, the less we focus on them the less we feed those emotions in the collective. One world, one love, one peace !