Jung & The Wonderwall of Broken Songs

I had some fun playing with this one over the past few weeks. We start here, with a listen...


The interesting thing about that song is that it's actually comprised of four different songs. We can think of these different songs as "voices".

Here's the "voice" of each group separated out from the compilation above. It may be helpful to listen to each individual song so we can understand more about each "voice".

1: Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams (I walk a lonely road...):

2: Oasis - Wonderwall: (Today is gonna be the day that they throw it all back to you...):

3: Travis - Writing to Reach You (Everyday I wake up and it's Sunday...):

4: Aerosmith - Dream On (Sing with me...):

Now we drag in this model...


I've been "playing" with each voice and attempting to place them upon the Jungian model of the psyche. If we go purely by the way they are presented in the compiliation this is what we get...

1: Green Day = Persona/Ego
2: Oasis = Shadow
3: Travis = Anima/Animus
4: Aerosmith = Self

What we can (potentially) "hear" in each voice:

1: Persona/Ego (Green Day): I'm all alone here. My image has been broken. This hurts. It's painful. Slowly, the ego comes to the awareness that it is not entirely alone: "My shadow's the only one who walks beside me..."

2: Shadow (Oasis): This voice has an almost accusatory quality to it but as the relationship builds between ego and shadow the shadow calls out, "Save me". Confronting and accepting the shadow brings the possibility of redemption.

3: Anima/Animus (Travis): We immediately hear the spiritual/transpersonal overtones: "Everyday I wake up and it's Sunday". Sunday is a day associated with the holy. The anima/animus is the Soul Image. If we go deeper into the lyrics we hear this voice saying, "The inside is on the outside... I've been trying to reach you. I only want to teach you about you. But that's not you." This voice possesses the awareness that there is more to the totality of the psyche than the ego alone and serves as an introduction to the larger Self.

4: Self (Aerosmith): This voice is surprising, uplifting and it contains the opposites: "Sing with me, Sing for the year, Sing for the laughter, Sing for the tear... Dream on. (The video mistakenly identifies the singer as Eminem but most of us can probably recognize the voice of Steve Tyler from Aerosmith.)

The compilation song "Wonderwall of Broken Songs" presents us with a snapshot of Jung's model of the psyche. Some of you may find you can clearly associate some of your voices/experiences within the framework of Persona/Ego; Shadow; Anima/Animus and Self.

How the Jungian Model can help us understand the experience of psychosis...

First of all, it can help us understand what happened: our egos collapsed. Therefore, recovery requires that we rebuild our sense of self-identities and in the process, rebuild the wall that separates conscious from unconscious. We may never again be able to rebuild it to the same strength it was before which means unconscious content might still come forward to some degree but we can learn other methods of dealing with that.

Secondly, it can help us understand some of our experiences during psychosis. For example:

- Painful imagery/experience is often related to that wall coming down -- the collapse of self-identity.

- Negative voices or "apparitions" are often associated with the shadow. For example, if you have voices telling you you're no good, they are probably arising from your shadow. In some cases, people may be able to trace these voices back to earlier experiences in their life and thus, their personal shadow. For example, maybe you will discover your voice sounds an awful lot like a school mate that bullied you all through elementary school. In other cases, the "voice" is much larger -- it's the voice of Satan, the embodiment of all evil. In those cases, you might be dealing with humanity's collective shadow.

- If we're very lucky we'll get some positive voices. These voices seem to arise from the area of the anima/animus. Note that there's a bit of overlap between the shadow and the anima/animus. So, if you're male and you hear a negative female voice, this might be coming from the area of the negative anima. If you're a female and you have negative male voices, this might be related to the negative animus. Ideally however, the anima/animus can serve as a guide to the unconscious. In my own experience, it was my animus who served as my constant companion through my weeks of psychosis -- best therapist ever!

- If God, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Kali, Shiva, Krishna, etc. shows up in your experience, you can place these figures in the realm of the Self. I've observed that whenever such a figure shows up, this often produces a positive result. For example, an individual who self-identitifies with Christ during an episode of psychosis might also be self-identifying with intense compassion, brotherly love, redemption, salvation, etc. Contrary to feeling shame or embarrassment for this kind of self-identification it can be helpful to recognize that it's both common and potentially very beneficial.

See also: Jung's Model of the Psyche

This is an outstanding compilation and absolutely brilliant how you’ve placed it onto the Jungian model. It works. I love this and the progression that is made throughout this piece.

It is always a pleasure to read your posts Spirtual_emergency, thank you for sharing

Thanks much SE. A book that I think you would find interesting is Science and the Akashic Field by Irvin Laszlo. It is explaining a mechanism for Jung's collective unconscious. It also explains how libido energy can also carry information.
Best regards, Shoe

Thanks Shoe, I've been thinking long and hard about the concept of "energy" since I had my last conversation with Joan. Quite honestly, I think there's a part of me that wants to say, "poo" as a means of "maintaining rationality" yet I can't deny what I experienced so I'd best start exploring that aspect a little more. It's my understanding Rupert Sheldrake (sp??) has some good stuff out there too.

Meantime, just a brief aside -- I'm deeply discomforted by the idea that anyone might think I'm any kind of "expert". I'm not and it would be unfair of me to present myself as such or allow others to do the same. I do however, enjoy sharing what I have learned and am learning. It also just so happens that writing is a skill that comes quite naturally to me. Other people have other skills that may not be as easily discernable in this environment.

It's critically important that other people share their voices because you just don't know when what you say is going to touch some deep chord in another person and be helpful to them. There's so much variety in personal experience and so many different approaches that are going to help. If we all share what worked for us, others are going to be able to find their own answers because there isn't just one.

~ Namaste

Your welcome SE. I hope that things have stabilized on the home front for you.
Laszlo mentions Sheldrake's work in his book. Stan Groff is a big fan of Laszlo's work also.
Jung's theory has helped me. I have read John Perry, Robert Johnson, Edward Edinger & Stan Groff.
When I came across Mahoney's theory and his book and website and reflected on the content of my episodes it really hit home for me. He has his whole book posted at his website.
http://www.schizophrenia-thebeardedl...dy_Disease.pdf
Here is a recent radio interview that he did. I downloaded it, and it played find on my Real Player.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wams
I am a little reluctant posting this stuff here as I would hate for it to trigger any one. The material can be very ego dystonic meaning the ego can't accept such thoughts.
Mahoney is not a fan of Jung though, but sometimes it is good to see from another's perspective. Something interesting that I read about Jung is that he wrote in a letter to Freud about his fear of becoming a homosexual. I believe that was probably the root cause of his so called "confrontation with the unconscious"

Kind regards, Shoe

Hello Shoe,
Yes, the home front is certainly more stable. Thank you. Meantime, I found the book -- the reviews look appealing: Science & The Akashic Fields.

The former contents of this post have been shifted to a new topic.

Elsewhere, a friend posted this link to an interview with Laszlo: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3v...the_shortfilms