In this book, unlike any other book I have ever encountered, one gains a sense of what the journey through Limbo and nothingness is like and what the outcomes of this journey of “madness” can be. The outcomes concern something that Jung calls “individuation.”
Individuation
Carl Jung and his followers might have considered the “sick soul” to be not only inevitable, but also critical to the full maturation of a human being. One gains a sense of individuation by accepting and living with the many tensions inherent in the life of one’s soul. We are unlikely ever to arrive at the shore where our psychic tensions are abated. Only the twice born find this resolution.
Brugh Joy found it twice in his life. For Jung, it is not the creation of a third entity to bring about resolution of the tensions. There is no transcendent insight gained while dwelling on an Egyptian pyramid. This would be a triad solution. Rather, Jung envisions the tensions coming together in what he was labeled a mysterium conjunctionis, this being the remarkable (mysterium) nuptial (conjunctionis) of opposite halves (Jung,1978, p. 64). As Guggenbühl-Craig noted about marriage, this union is not “happy ever after.” Rather it is an ongoing interplay and interdependence of opposing psychic forces—much as the two sides are represented in the Ying/Yang and (in more complex form) the Mandalas that Jung so often found in his dreams and conscious ideations.
Jung does suggest that we need not “go it alone” when embarking on this perilous journey to individuation. We might find a guide, such as Dante found when descending into the Inferno. With the support of a guide, we find no resolution; but do find an acceptance of, engagement with, and, in many cases, creativity use of our psychic tensions. This was the case with Carl Jung. He found Philemon, who served as his guide into the world of rich imagery and life-changing insights that are conveyed in the words and images of The Red Book.
Two Dimensions
One final point. While the Triad enables us to view the world through three-dimensions, the movie screen and television set provides us with a Dyad view of the world. We see the two dimensions of up/down and left/right, but not the third dimension of forward/backward. Everything appears as a flat plane. We must “imagine” the third dimension of depth. As I have already noted, this may be what Carl Jung discovered when going mad at Küstnacht
There is a remarkable Victorian-era book called Flatland that was written by Edwin Abbot (1884/1992). This satirical novel encourages us to conceive of living in a world that contains only two dimensions. In such a world, it is hard to imagine what a third dimension would be (just as it is hard for us to imagine a fourth dimension). In this land, everyone is identified as a specific geometric figure.
Perfection is represented by a circle. And social classes are identified by the number of sides to be found on a resident of this flat community. For someone living in two-dimension flatland, the matter of hierarchy is particularly important—though there is no up and down by which to discern level of social class and level of control and authority. It would appear in Abbott’s Flatland that there is not much room for movement in social class. One’s physical appearance (geometric shape) is permanent and can not be changed.
