2006
from
SouthernCrossReview Website
George W. Bush is suffering from a peculiar but not that uncommon form of madness in which a pathological part of his psyche has co-opted all of the healthy parts into its service.
Speaking about such a pathological condition, Jung commented that,
Bush has been taken over by an unconscious complex of the collective unconscious. We speak of a mother complex, or a father complex, but Bush has what we could call a savior complex.
Jung said,
The archetypal figure of savior is literally dreamed up into incarnation by the field to be both a compensation for and an expression of the disorientation and dissociation in the field.
Being a reflection of the greater underlying unified field, this figure will embody the unconsciousness of the time. Because of the unconsciousness in the field, the person playing the archetypal role of savior will reflect this unconsciousness and become inflated, blown up out of human proportion by the power of the archetype.
He will then, of necessity, be compelled to act
out his hubris in a way that is destructive for all who are under his
dominion.
Bush told an Amish group in 2004 that,
Bush imagines that God actually speaks to him as well; in 2003 he told Palestinian ministers that God told him to invade Iraq.
Jung commented,
Just because one hears an inner voice doesn’t
necessarily mean it is the voice of God. Listened to uncritically, we could
just as easily be seduced by the Devil.
This is to fall under the spell of the Devil,
who is rightly called “the deceiver.”
Jung describes such a situation by saying it is an,
He rightly feels himself “six thousand feet beyond good and evil.”
Because of his inflation, Bush literally feels
himself above human morality, as he is under the self-generating delusion
that he is the supreme moral arbiter, not realizing in the slightest that he
has fallen into his unconscious, whose dark side he is acting out. Because
of his pathological condition, he is the last person who should be the judge
of morality, the very last person on earth choosing justices for the Supreme
Court.
Paradoxically, by dissociating and projecting out our shadow, we become unconsciously identified with it, possessed by it, and unconsciously act it out.
Speaking about becoming taken over by a complex of the collective unconscious, Jung elaborates by saying,
Because of his complete unconsciousness, Bush has unwittingly allowed himself to become an instrument for evil, the dark half of the Self, to give shape and form to itself.
Speaking about what the devil symbolizes psychologically, Jung said,
Bush has become unconsciously taken over by the shadow
side of the savior archetype, which is to become possessed by the very thing
from which people need to be saved.
Jung said,
Any mental health professional would recognize
that Bush’s inflation is an expression of his unconscious identification
with (as compared to conscious realization of) God, which is an unequivocal
form of madness.
Speaking of a person who has fallen into such a pathological state, Jung said,
By being inflated, Bush is unconsciously accessing and unleashing the power inherent in the archetype - this is why he has such an enchanting power over his followers.
By identifying with the archetype, the archetype acts as an amplifier, enhancing beyond measure Bush’s hypnotic power over his followers. Because Bush is so taken over by the unconscious, he has a compelling and entrancing effect on others’ unconscious.
Only one who is seized by an archetype has a gripping effect on others.
To quote Jung,
By being so seized by an archetype of the collective unconscious, Bush becomes an agent that has a very powerful effect on the field around him.
He becomes a portal through which an underlying
psychic epidemic which non-locally pervades the field that I am calling
“malignant egophrenia” (see
The Madness of George W. Bush - A
Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis) feeds, replicates, and actualizes itself in
full-bodied form, in and over time.
Succumbing to the compulsive adrenaline rush of the “will to power” inherent in the shadow, Bush is, as Jung said in describing Hitler,
Bush has become arrogant and full of himself, a legend in his own mind, someone who feels he is not bound by law, and believes himself entitled to get away with murder.
Speaking about being unconsciously taken over by an archetype, Jung commented,
When we are gripped by an archetype and forced
to unconsciously act out its effects destructively, we are acting out the
dark side of this greater power. Etymologically, the word “transgress” is
related to the word “evil.”
To quote Jung,
When we become inflated by an archetype, there is a synchronistic correlation between the inner experience of being identified with the archetype and outer events.
The inner state of being possessed by the
archetype expresses itself by arranging external events so as to give shape
and form to itself. A person inflated by an archetype, such as Bush,
literally becomes the channel through which transpersonal, mythic forces
become materialized into our third-dimension, which just reinforces his
inflation in a diabolical feedback loop.
On the one hand, the power of
the archetype
coming through Bush attracts people to support him in his delusion who are
suggestible to the overwhelming unconscious power inherent in the archetype.
In a co-dependent relationship, Bush’s followers feed his identification
with the archetype, which simultaneously nourishes their own bewitchment, in
a perverse, self-perpetuating feedback loop which develops an autonomous
life of its own.
By being so unconsciously identified with the
archetype, Bush will literally attract to himself, like a lightning rod
attracts lightning, other people’s negative, shadow projections. These
people will strongly condemn Bush, and see him as being evil. And yet,
people who react against Bush in this way are unwittingly feeding the
polarization in the field, perpetuating the very diabolical energy they are
reacting against.
If we are accusing Bush of being evil, we are guilty of the very evil of which we are accusing Bush.
Bush is merely an ignorant human being who, due to his unrestrained greed, desire, and lust for power is unwittingly allowing himself to be used as an instrument of evil. Evil itself is a power, or principality that transcends the merely human dimension, as it is archetypal in nature and thereby is a content belonging to the collective unconscious.
Bush is simply a deluded human being who is dangerous because of his position of power, which allows him to act out his pathological process on the world stage.
We do not want to make the mistake of
attributing evil - an archetypal content of the collective unconscious - to
Bush as a person.
A true Faustian pact with the Devil, we discover
too late that what we have lost in the bargain is our soul. As in any such
bargain, we are ultimately responsible and accountable for our choices.
Identifying with the archetype of the savior is a compensation for a deep
inferiority, fear, and weakness. We become absorbed into the archetype due
to our inability and unwillingness to deal with the darker part of ourselves
that needs saving.
Bush is acting out the adolescent fantasies of a
war of good versus evil with our living sons and daughters as his toy
soldiers. Being inflated, Bush doesn’t relate to other human beings as being
autonomous or independent, but as pawns to serve his own narcissistic
blindness and masturbatory fantasies.
When we are inflated, we don’t accept any reflection or feedback from the outer universe that contradicts our puffed up image of ourselves.
Instead of being open, receptive, and learning
from the outer world, we continually interpret everything to support our
delusory self-image. When we become inflated, we become closed to any
information or in-forming influence from the outside world, which is a form
of psychic blindness. Instead of being in genuine relationship to the world,
a person who is inflated relates to the world through their own
narcissistically self-serving, grandiose self-image.
Jung continued that this resulted in,
Being caught up in inflation is like being sucked up by a cyclone, as there is literally no getting through to the person who is inflated, who has been taken over and lifted off the ground by a more powerful energy. Bush and his supporters feed into and off of and support each others’ unconscious madness so as to conjure up an impenetrable field around them that resists consciousness at all costs.
It is only when their world - which in this case
is our world, too - self-destructs that the universe forces them out of
their psychosis.
Talking about inflation, Jung said that it,
The fact that our government, led by an inflated madman, is insanely and endlessly investing in and feeding the industry of creating weapons of mass destruction is an extremely dangerous situation for all of us.
To quote Jung,
Bush has let the spirit out of the bottle which will undoubtedly destroy him.
Being possessed by the unconscious is a very dangerous situation, particularly when the person so taken over is in a position of power where he can act out as well as activate a virulent madness on the world stage.
Bush’s madness affects all those under his sphere of influence, which in this case is the entire planet.
Jung commented,
When such a “lowering of the mental level” happens collectively, a psychic epidemic becomes activated in the field.
The (collective) unconscious goes from being in
the background and comes actively to the foreground, where it makes itself
known by (destructively) giving shape and form to world events. It is merely
a question of mitigating the damage of this virulent psychic epidemic for
the rest of us.
To the extent that any of us get in touch with the part of ourselves that is a genuine redeemer and leader, we literally are dis-investing energy from the archetypal role of leader being dreamed up outside of ourselves in a pathological way. When we consciously and collectively access the part of ourselves that is a leader by our very nature, we become truly empowered.
Being in touch with our God-given power
engenders a situation in which the savior archetype is consciously
distributed throughout the field, rather than being localized and
concentrated in a single figure, which is a set-up for abuse.
As each of us wakes up, we discover that we can reciprocally empower each other so that we can consciously activate the archetypal figure of the savior in the collective unconscious itself.
Mediating, humanizing and incarnating this
archetypal figure consciously throughout the field, we connect in lucidity,
stepping into being agents of light who collectively dis-spell the darkness
in the field.
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