THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE KORE

that is, to arrange them under certain definite types. That is the method
of natural science, and it is applied wherever we have to do with
multifarious and still unorganized material. One may question the
utility or the appropriateness of the categories or types used in the
arrangement, but not the correctness of the method itself.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE KORE 309 Since for years I have been observing and investigating the
products of the unconscious in the widest sense of the word, namely
306 Not only is the figure of Demeter and the Kore in its three- dreams, fantasies, visions, and delusions of the insane, I have not been
fold aspect as maiden, mother, and Hecate not unknown to the able to avoid recognizing certain regularities, that is, types. There are
psychology of the unconscious, it is even something of a practical types of situations and types of figures that repeat themselves frequently
problem. The "Kore" has her psychological counterpart in those and have a corresponding meaning. I therefore employ the term
archetypes which I have called the self or supraordinate personality on "motif" to designate these repetitions. Thus there are not only typical
the one hand, and the anima on the other. In order to explain these dreams but typical motifs in the dreams. These may, as we have said,
figures, with which I cannot assume all readers to be familiar, I must be situations or figures. Among the latter there are human figures that
begin with some remarks of a general nature. can be arranged under a series of archetypes, the chief of them being,
307 The psychologist has to contend with the same difficulties as according to my suggestion,1 the shadow, the wise old man, the child
the mythologist when an exact definition or clear and concise (including the child hero), the mother ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth
information is demanded of him. The picture is concrete, clear, and Mother") as a supraordinate personality ("daemonic" because
subject to no misunderstandings only when it is seen in its habitual supraordinate), and her counterpart the maiden, and lastly the anima in
context. In this form it tells us everything it contains. But as soon as man and the animus in woman.
one tries to abstract the "real essence" of the picture, the whole thing 310 The above types are far from exhausting all the statistical
becomes cloudy and indistinct. In order to understand its living regularities in this respect. The figure of the Kore that interests us here
function, we must let it remain an organic thing in all its complexity belongs, when observed in a man, to the anima type; and when
and not try to examine the anatomy of its corpse in the manner of the observed in a woman to the type of supraordinate personality. It is an
scientist, or the archaeology of its ruins in the manner of the historian. essential characteristic of psychic figures that they are duplex or at
Naturally this is not to deny the justification of such methods when least capable of duplication; at all events they are bipolar and oscillate
applied in their proper place. between their positive and negative meanings. Thus the
308 In view of the enormous complexity of psychic phenomena, "supraordinate" personality can appear in a despicable and distorted
a purely phenomenological point of view is, and will be for a long time, form, like for instance Mephistopheles, who is really more positive as
the only possible one and the only one with any prospect of success. a personality than the vapid and unthinking careerist Faust. Another
"Whence" things come and "what" they are, these, particularly in the negative figure
field of psychology, are questions which are apt to call forth untimely 1 To the best of my knowledge, no other suggestions have been made so far. Critics have
attempts at explanation. Such speculations are moreover based far contented themselves with asserting that no such archetypes exist. Certainly they do not exist,
more on unconscious philosophical premises than on the nature of the any more than a botanical system exists in nature! But will anyone deny the existence of
phenomena themselves. Psychic phenomena occasioned by natural plant-families on that account? Or will anyone deny the occurrence and continual
repetition of certain morphological and functional similarities? It is much the same thing in
unconscious processes are so rich and so multifarious that I prefer to principle with the typical figures of the unconscious. They are forms existing a priori, or
describe my findings and observations and, where possible, to classify biological norms of psychic activity.
them- 183
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311 THE ARCHETYPES AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE KORE

is the Tom Thumb or Tom Dumb of the folktales. The figure corresponding fixions. The maiden who crops up in case histories differs not
to the Kore in a woman is generally a double one, i.e., a mother and a inconsiderably from the vaguely flower-like Kore in that the modern figure
maiden, which is to say that she appears now as the one, now as the other. is more sharply delineated and not nearly so "unconscious," as the following
From this I would conclude, for a start, that in the formation of the Demeter- examples will show.
Kore myth the feminine influence so far outweighed the masculine that the 312
The figures corresponding to Demeter and Hecate are supraordinate, not to
latter had practically no significance. The man's role in the Demeter myth say over-life-size "Mothers" ranging from the Pieta type to the Baubo type.
is really only that of seducer or conqueror. The unconscious, which acts as a counterbalance to woman's conventional
As a matter of practical observation, the Kore often appears in woman innocuousness, proves to be highly inventive in this latter respect. I can
as an unknown young girl, not infrequently as Gretchen or the unmarried recall only very few cases where Demeter's own noble figure in its pure
mother.2 Another frequent modulation is the dancer, who is often formed form breaks through as an image rising spontaneously from the
by borrowings from classical knowledge, in which case the "maiden" unconscious. I remember a case, in fact, where a maiden-goddess appears
appears as the corybant, maenad, or nymph. An occasional variant is the nixie clad all in purest white, but carrying a black monkey in her arms. The
or water-sprite, who betrays her superhuman nature by her fishtail. Earth Mother is always chthonic and is occasionally related to the moon,
Sometimes the Kore- and mother-figures slither down altogether to the either through the blood-sacrifice already mentioned, or through a child-
animal kingdom, the favourite representatives then being the cat or the sacrifice, or else because she is adorned with a sickle moon.5 In pictorial or
snake or the bear, or else some black monster of the underworld like the plastic representations the Mother is dark deepening to black, or red (these
crocodile, or other salamander-like, saurian creatures.s The maiden's being her principal colours), and with a primitive or animal expression of
helplessness exposes her to all sorts of dangers, for instance of being face; in form she not infrequently resembles the
devoured by reptiles or ritually slaughtered like a beast of sacrifice. Often
there are bloody, cruel, and even obscene orgies to which the innocent child
falls victim. Sometimes it is a true nekyia, a descent into Hades and a quest
for the "treasure hard to attain," occasionally connected with orgiastic who instructed her on the nature of woman in general. In these pronouncements a special paragraph
is devoted to blood, running as follows: "A woman's life is close to the blood. Every month she is
sexual rites or offerings of menstrual blood to the moon. Oddly enough, the
reminded of this, and birth is indeed a bloody business, destructive and creative. A woman is only
various tortures and obscenities are carried out by an "Earth Mother." There pennitkd to give birth, but the new life is not her creation. In her heart of hearts she knows this and
are drinkings of blood and bathings in blood/ also cruci- rejoices in the grace that has fallen to her. She is a little mother, not the Great Mother. But her little
pattern is like the great pattern. If she understands this she is blessed by nature, because she has
2 The "personalistic" approach interprets such dreams as "wish-fulfilments." To many, this kind of submitted in the right way and can thus partake of the nourishment of the Great Mother. ... "
interpretation seems the only possible one. These dreams, however, occur in the most varied 5 Often the moon is simply "there," as for instance in a fantasy of the chthonic mother in the shape
circumstances, even in circumstances when the wish-fulfilment theory becomes entirely forced or of the "Woman of the Bees" (Josephine D, l3acon, In the Border Country, pp, 1.11£.): "The path led
arbitrary. The investigation of motifs in the field of dreams therefore seems to me the more cautious to a tiny hut of the same colour as the tour great trees that stood about it. Its door hung wide open.
and the more appropriate procedure. and in the middle of it, on a low stool, there sat an old woman wrapped in a long cloak, looking kindly
S The double vision of a salamander, of which Benvenuto Cellini tells in his autobiography, would at her ... ," The hut was filled with the steady humming of bees. In the corner of the hut there was a
be an anima-projection caused by the music his father was playing. deep cold spring, in which "a white moon and little stars" were reflected. The old woman exhorted
4 One of my patients, whose principal difficulty was a negative mother-complex, developed a series the heroine to remember the duties of a woman's life. III Tantric yoga an "indistinct hum of swarms
of fantasies on a primitive mother-figure, an Indian woman, of love-mad bees" proceeds from the slumbering Shakti (Shat-Chahm Nirupana, in Avalon, The
Serpent Power, p. 29). Cf. infra, the dancer who dissolves into a swarm. of bees. Bees are also, as an
allegory, connected with Mary, as the text for the consecration of the Easter candle shows. See
184 Duchesne, Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution, p. 253.

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 THE ARCHETYPES AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE KORE

neolithic ideal of the "Venus" of Brassempouy or that of Willendorf, or personal consciousness. When anyone breathes, his breathing is not a
again the sleeper of Hal Saflieni. 6 Now and then I have come across phenomenon to be interpreted personally. The mythological images
multiple breasts, arranged like those of a sow. The Earth Mother plays belong to the structure of the unconscious and are an impersonal
an important part in the woman's unconscious, for all her possession; in fact, the great majority of men are far more possessed by
manifestations are described as "powerful." This shows that in such them than possessing them. Images like those described above give rise
cases the Earth Mother element in the conscious mind is abnormally under certain conditions to corresponding disturbances and symptoms,
weak and requires strengthening. and it is then the task of medical therapy to find out whether and how
3 13 In view of all this it is, I admit, hardly understandable why and to what extent these impulses can be integrated with the conscious
such figures should be reckoned as belonging to the type of personality, or whether they are a secondary phenomenon which some
"supraordinate personality." In a scientific investigation, however, one defective orientation of consciousness has brought out of its normal
has to disregard moral or aesthetic prejudices and let the facts speak for potential state into actuality. Both possibilities exist in practice.
themselves. The maiden is often described as not altogether human in 315 I usually describe the supraordinate personality as the "self,"
the usual sense; she is either of unknown or peculiar origin, or she looks thus making a sharp distinction between the ego, which, as is well
strange or undergoes strange experiences, from which one is forced to known, extends only as far as the conscious mind, and the whole of the
infer the maiden's extraordinary, myth-like nature. Equally and still personality, which includes the unconscious as well as the conscious
more strikingly, the Earth Mother is a divine being-in the classical component. The ego is thus related to the self as part to whole. To that
sense. Moreover, she does not by any means always appear in the guise extent the self is supraordinate. Moreover, the self is felt empirically
of Baubo, but, for instance, more like Queen Venus in the not as subject but as object, and this by reason of its unconscious
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, though she is invariably heavy with destiny. component, which can only come to consciousness indirectly, by way
The often unaesthetic forms of the Earth Mother are in keeping with a of projection. Because of its unconscious component the self is so far
prejudice of the modern feminine unconscious; this prejudice was removed from the conscious mind that it can only be partially
lacking in antiquity. The underworld nature of Hecate, who is closely expressed by human figures; the other part of it has to be expressed by
connected with Demeter, and Persephone's fate both point nevertheless objective, abstract symbols. The human figures are father and son,
to the dark side of the human psyche, though not to the same extent as mother and daughter, king and queen, god and goddess.
the modern material. . Theriomorphic symbols are the dragon, snake, elephant, lion, bear, and
314 The "supraordinate personality" is the total man, i.e., man other powerful animals, or again the spider, crab, butterfly, beetle,
as he really is, not as he appears to himself. To this wholeness the worm, etc. Plant symbols are generally flowers (lotus and rose). These
unconscious psyche also belongs, which has its requirements and needs lead on to geometrical figures like the circle, the sphere, the square, the
just as consciousness has. I do not want to interpret the unconscious quaternity, the clock, the firmament, and so on. 7 The indefinite extent
personalistically and assert, for instance, that fantasy-images like those of [he unconscious component makes a comprehensive description of
described above are the "wish-fulfilments" due to repression. These the human personality impossible. Accordingly, the unconscious
images were as such never conscious and consequently could never supplements the picture with living figures ranging from the animal to
have been repressed. I understand the unconscious rather as an the divine, as the two extremes outside man, and rounds out the animal
impersonal psyche common to all men, even though it expresses itself extreme, through the addition of
through a
7 Psychology and Alchemy, Part H.
6 [See Neumann, The Great Mother, PIs. la, 1\. This entire work elucidates the 187
present study.-EDlTORS.] .
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 THE ARCHETYPES AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RORE
vegetable and inorganic abstractions, into a microcosm. These addenda
characterizes our culture, which no longer knows the kind of wholesome
have a high frequency in anthropomorphic divinities, where they appear
experience afforded by Eleusinian emotions.
as "attributes." 318 I take full account of the fact that not only the psychologi-
316 Demeter and Kore, mother and daughter, extend the femi- cally minded layman but the professional psychologist and psychiatrist as
nine consciousness both upwards and downwards. They add an "older and well, and even the psychotherapist, do not possess an adequate knowledge
younger," "stronger and weaker" dimension to it and widen out the of their patients' archetypal material, in so far as they have not specially
narrowly limited conscious mind bound in space and time, giving it investigated this aspect of the phenomenology of the unconscious. For it is
intimations of a greater and more comprehensive personality which has a precisely in the field of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic observation that
share in the eternal course of things. 'We can hardly suppose that myth and we frequently meet with cases characterized by a rich crop of archetypal
mystery were invented for any conscious purpose; it seems much more symbols.s Since the necessary historical knowledge is lacking to the
likely that they were the involuntary revelation of a psychic, but physician observing them, he is not in a position to perceive the parallelism
unconscious, pre-condition. The psyche pre-existent to consciousness (e.g., between his observations and the findings of anthropology and the humane
in the child) participates in the maternal psyche on the one hand, while on sciences in general. Conversely, an expert in mythology and comparative
the other it reaches across to the daughter psyche. We could therefore say religion is as a rule no psychiatrist and consequently does not know that his
that every mother contains her daughter in herself and every daughter her mythologems are still fresh and living-for instance, in dreams and visions-
mother, and that every woman extends backwards into her mother and in the hidden recesses of our most personal life, which we would on no
forwards into her daughter. This participation and intermingling give rise account deliver up to scientific dissection. The archetypal material is
to that peculiar uncertainty as regards time: a woman lives earlier as a therefore the great unknown, and it requires special study and preparation
mother, later as a daughter. The conscious experience of these ties produces even to collect such material.
the feeling that her life is spread out over generations-the first step towards 319 It does not seem to me superfluous to give a number of ex-
the immediate experience and conviction of being outside time, which amples from my case histories which bring out the occurrence of
brings with it a feeling of immortality. The individual's life is elevated into archetypal images in dreams or fantasies. Time and again with my public I
a type, indeed it becomes the archetype of woman's fate in general. This come across the difficulty that they imagine illustration by "a few
leads to a restoration or apocatastasis of the lives of her ancestors, who examples" to be the simplest thing in the world. In actual fact it is almost
now, through the bridge of the momentary individual, pass down into the impossible, with a few words and one or two images torn out of their
generations of the future. An experience of this kind gives the individual a context, to demonstrate anything. This only works when dealing with an
place and a meaning in the life of the generations, so that all unnecessary expert. What Perseus has to do with the Gorgon's head would never occur
obstacles are cleared out of the way of the life-stream that is to flow through to anyone who did not know the myth. So it is with the individual images:
her. At the same time the individual is rescued from her isolation and they need a context, and the context is not only a myth but an individual
restored to wholeness. All ritual preoccupation with archetypes ultimately anamnesis. Such contexts, however, are of enormous extent. Anything like
has this aim and this result. a complete series of images would require for its proper presentation a
317 It is immediately clear to the psychologist what cathartic and book of about two hundred pages. My own investigation of the Miller
at the same rejuvenating effects must flow from the Demeter cult into the fantasies
feminine psyche, and what a lack of psychic hygiene S I would refer to the thesis of my pupil Jan Nelken, "Analytische Beobachtungen liber
Phantasien eines Schizophrenen:' as also to my own analysis of a series of fantasies in Symbols
of Transformation.
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189