Author | Erich Neumann |
---|---|
Original title | Die große Mutter. Der Archetyp des grossen Weiblichen |
Translator | Ralph Manheim |
Country | Switzerland, Israel |
Language | German |
Subject | Mother goddesses, Feminine archetypes |
Publisher | Bollingen Foundation, Princeton University Press |
Publication date | 1955, 2d ed. 1963, 2015 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
Pages | 379 text + 185 plates |
ISBN | 0-691-01780-8 (paperback) 0-691-09742-9 (hardcover) |
LC Class | 55-10026 |
The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype (German: Die große Mutter. Der Archetyp des grossen Weiblichen) is a book discussing the mother goddesses by the psychologist Erich Neumann. The dedication reads, "To C. G. Jung friend and master in his eightieth year". Although Neumann completed the German manuscript in Israel in 1951,[2] The Great Mother was first published in English in 1955.[3] The work has been seen as an enduring contribution to the literature inspired by Jung, and was the first to analyze an archetype with such depth and scope.
Summary
Great Round of female archetypes
An abbreviated abstract of Neumann's diagram, identified as "Schema III",[4] will here introduce the book's narrative and analysis. At the rim of the circle, or Great Round,[5][6] are situated several mother goddesses and related female entities drawn from the history of religions.[7][8][9] To represent a typology, Neumann selected six representatives.
Mary Isis Sophia
X
Lilith Kali
the witches
These figures are grouped in two polar opposites: the Mother axis (Isis-Kali); the Anima axis (Sophia-Lilith); the two axes intersect in the center of the circle, forming a large X (shown here reduced in size). The lower quadrant is considered negative, with both Lilith and Kali being half positive and half negative. A vertical connecting the 'archetypal Feminine' (Mary-the witches) is mentioned.[10]
Neumann in his Schema III drew upon the values of traditional cultures, with a strong caveat: the Round here is 'reductionist', a simplification for brevity and clarity, in analytically positioning these figures of the psyche: each is ambivalent.[11] In human nature of each individual, these symbolic figures possess great power, dynamic and polyvalent, in potential or as activated. Further, depending on the context, each archetypal figures may "shift" or "reverse" into its opposite.[12] The two dimensional diagram is, accordingly, actually three.[13] Schema III:[14]
- Kali, the terrible Mother (sickness, dismemberment, death, extinction);[15] and the Gorgon.[16]
- the witches, negative change,[17] as in a fairy-tale witch;[18] also: the Furies.[19]
- Lilith,[20][21] the negative Anima (ecstasy, madness, impotence, stupor); and Circe.[22]
- Isis, the good Mother (fruit, birth, rebirth, immortality); also: Demeter and Ishtar (Inanna).[23][24]
- Mary (spiritual transformation); also: Kwan-Yin (Avalokiteśvara).[25]
- Sophia,[26] the positive Anima (wisdom, vision, inspiration, ecstasy), the Muse; also: Maat.[27]
These female figures are not of precise attributes, nor rigid, fixed characteristics, but are changeable,[28] as explained both objectively by religious history,[29][30][31] and subjectively by archetypal psychology.[32][33] Hence, there is overlap in the Great Round positions.
Archetypal articulation and consciousness
Following the theme of his The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949; 1954),[34] Neumann first tracks the evolution of feminine archetypes from the original uroboros (primordial unconsciousness). These archetypes become articulated from the "Great Round".[35] "The psychological development [of humankind]... begins with the 'matriarchal' stage in which the archetype of the Great Mother dominates and the unconscious directs the psychic process of the individual and the group." Eventually, from the symbolic Great Round, new psychic constellations are articulated, e.g., the Eleusinian Mysteries.[36]
Increasingly, opportunities opened in these ancient cultures for spiritual transformation which liberated the individual ego consciousness, the awareness of self. The "rise to consciousness" through a semi-unconscious social process affecting the group becomes institutionalized as ritual.[37][38] Later more individual paths may evolve to augment this process.[39][40]
Cultural, academic issues
Psychology of gender dichotomy
In Neumann's prior work The Origins and History of Consciousness, the Great Mother archetype is eventually transcended by the mythic Hero. His victory personifies the emergence of a well-established ego consciousness from the prior sway of unconscious or semi-conscious forces (characterized by female symbolism). The gender-dichotomy framework, however, favored a focus on the liberation of male consciousness.[41][42]
In his subsequent The Great Mother, Neumann directs most of his attention to the feminine archetypes, elaborating their nature and qualities. Its seldom-stated back story, by default, is the emergence of the ego consciousness of the male hero. Yet the book closes with a brief summary of the "primordial mysteries of the Feminine", including the Eleusinian of the mother and daughter Demeter and Persephone, and the transformative figure of wisdom, Sophia.[43] "Neumann was well aware that The Great Mother [emphasized] only one side of the story, and had plans to complement the study with a volume on the female psychology of the Great Mother." His early death foreclosed such a companion volume.[44]
Neumann did publish several articles, followed by an amplification of it, which outlined his multilateral understanding of the rise of a woman's ego consciousness and corresponding relationship to the Great Mother archetype.[45][46] Other Jungian studies, however, have addressed analogous paths of female consciousness.[47][48]
Archetype compared to archaeology
In an unpublished manuscript of the late 1930s, Neumann praised J. J. Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht (1861) [Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World]. Yet Neumann viewed him not as a cultural historian but as a "modern researcher of the soul". In fact, Bachofen's theory of "female dominated epochs" did not survive scrutiny, but had been "criticised and rejected by most contemporary historians". Although Marija Gimbutas's 1989 book advanced a position that inclined to the contrary, "most archaeological scholars today agree that there is no evidence for ancient worship of the Great Mother goddess... ."[49][50] Yet the idea of a privileged role for ancient women persists.[51][52][53]
While conceding the negative conclusions of cultural history and archaeology, there was an effort "to rescue Bachofen's concept of an age of gynaecocracy through a psychological revision." Starting from an article by Jung on the mother archetype,[54] Neumann expanded its range and depth. Utilizing many Eranos illustrations to supplement his text, he eventually produced his book, The Great Mother. It presents "a detailed examination of the different archetypal appearances of the Great Mother in mythology and religion." Liebscher cautions that it is "important today to read Neumann's study not as a contribution to a failed ancient cult of the Goddess but as an exemplary study of archetypal psychology."[55]
Reception
Psychologist James Hillman criticizes Neumann's reductionism in interpreting every kind of female figure and image as a symbol of the Great Mother. Hillman suggests that, "If one's research shows results of this kind, i.e., where all data indicate one dominant hypothesis, then it is time to ask a psychological question about the hypothesis."[56]
Jungian analyst Robert H. Hopcke, who calls The Great Mother "monumental in its breadth", considers it "Neumann's most enduring contribution to Jungian thought" alongside The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949).[57]
Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas "much appreciated" Neumann's book. His "psychological approach has opened new avenues in the interpretation... of the prehistoric Goddess." Yet Prof. Gimbutas felt that "the term mother devalues her importance and does not allow appreciation of her total character. Further, much of Neumann's archetype is based on post-Indo-European religious ideology, after the image of the Goddess had suffered a profound and largely debased transformation." Accordingly, for the prehistoric period, Gimbutas preferred "the term Great Goddess as best describing her absolute rule, her creative, destructive, and regenerative powers."[58]
Siegmund Hurwitz, among other references to Neumann, quotes approvingly from The Great Mother for Neumann's description and characterization of the "anima figure" as a distinct female archetype, to be distinguished from the originally more powerful mother type.[59]
Scholar Camille Paglia identifies The Great Mother as an influence on her work of literary criticism Sexual Personae (1990).[60] She has called it "a visual feast" and his "most renowned" work.[61]
Scholar Martin Liebscher writes, "Neumann's The Great Mother provided a watershed moment in the way archetypal studies would be conducted." The many previous monographs focused on a particular archetype could not compete "with the minute detail and careful structuring of Neumann's examination of the Great Mother archetype."[62]
References
- ^ Statue of Sophia (2000) in Sofia, Bulgaria.
- ^ Liebscher (2015) article, p. ix.
- ^ Neumann 1955, 1991. p. iv.
- ^ Neumann, TGM (1955, 2d ed. 1963), Schema III is between pp. 82 & 83, discussed at pp. 64-81.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p.18: The Great Round derives or evolves from the uroboros, a circling snake eating its tale, symbol of the primordial unconscious. The uroboros surrounds the nascent ego consciousness, which experiences it only darkly at the shifting edge of its fragile awareness (p.18). At an early stage the Great Round includes "positive and negative, male and female, elements of consciousness, elements hostile to consciousness, and uncosciousness elements" which are "intermingled" and undifferentiated". Cf., Ch. 12, pp. 211-239.
- ^ Neumann, Origins (1949, 1954), pp. 36-37: "the Great Round of the uroboros arches over" the beginning and end, the entire span of life. For a mature adult, "the uroboros symbol will reappear as the mandala".
- ^ At the end of his The Great Mother (1955, 1963), Neumann presents a rich array of 185 photographic Plates. His source was the Eranos seminars. This artwork of Feminine archetype includes sculptures, masks, ceramics, reliefs, paintings and drawings.
- ^ In Neumann's Origins (1949; 1954), the archetype is viewed from other perspectives, and in stages, e.g., the uroboros, creation myth, dragon fights of the hero; specifically in "The Great Mother" (Ch. III, pp. 39-101).
- ^ Cf., Jung, Types (1921, 1971), "The worship of the woman and the worship of the soul" pp. 221-240, at 235.
- ^ Neumann, TGM (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p.82/83: "Schema III". Analysis of axis M and axis A, pp. 64-81. The vertical F+ and F-, and its relation to Schema I at 18/19 is addressed (p.77). As ego consciousness advances, for good or ill, it moves from the center (more detailed than shown here) of Schema III to the periphery (p.78).The general chronology is the uroboros, the stage of the Great Mother, then the dragon fight (p.82).
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), pp. 65-66.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), at pp. 74-79: the negative pole of the Anima axis "can shift into the positive" (p.74). As ego consciousness at the polar points may become unable to differentiate, a figure "may shift into its opposite" (p.76). Cf. p. 293 (magic of "priestess and witch"). Cf. p. 305 (the archetype may "guide" or "beguile").
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p.77: Schema III can be viewed as a globe, with mother axis and anima axis continuing as meridians[[{{subst:DATE}}|{{subst:DATE}}]] [disambiguation needed].
- ^ Articles on Ishtar, Isis, the Greek, the Canaanite-Hebrew, Mary, Sophia, Kali, Kuan-yin and other figures were edited by Olson (1993).
- ^ Jung, "Archetype" article (1938; 1969), p. 82 {¶158}, mentions that Kali, here being a symbol of her ferocious negative aspect, is more. "In India 'the loving and terrible mother' is the paradoxical Kali."
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), Gorgon: Schema III & pp. 166, 169-170.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), re p.149 (death, distress, hunger; vampires, ghouls);
- ^ Cf., Neumann, "Stages" article (1953; 1994), p. 22. A fairy-tale witch "casts a spell over the daughter and imprisons her."
- ^ Neumann, TGM (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p.80.
- ^ Cf., Neumann, Roots ([1940]; 2019), "Lilith" at pp. 157-163, notes at 169-171. "Lilith's essential characteristic as a demon is not her devouring of children, however, but her profound hostility toward men" (p.160).
- ^ Hurwitz (1992), with two sections: historico-religious and psychological.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 1963 2d ed. 1963), pp. 80-81: analogous figures (e.g., Astarte and the Lorelei) as "alluring and seductive figures of fatal enchantment"; Circe in Schema III, e.g., Circe connived to drug men, turning them into beasts (pp. 273-274).
- ^ Neumann, (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p.80; Demeter, pp. 307-309.
- ^ Perera (1981): Inanna and Ereshkigal.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p. 80. Mary's maternity is likened to the "Jewish figure of the Shekinah"; Mary also shares attributes of the positive Anima, with the "virginal Athene". Kwan-Yin, the bodhisattva.
- ^ Neumann, "Moon" article (1950, 1994), pp. 116-117: "When the moon-spirit... in female form as Sophia" appears to matriarchal consciousness "the female Self has become visible to the woman's ego." Involved is "the transformation of the archetypal Feminine itself... its inherent spirit character [which] stands in opposition to the earth-unconsciousness of the archetypal Demeter" who refuses to surrender the daughter.
- ^ Neumann, TGM (1955, 2d ed. 1963), Schema III: the Muse, "the original seeress" and "the inspiring anima of the poets" (p.296). Maat, the Egyptian goddess of justice (p.80).
- ^ Cf., Jung, Symbols (1912; 1950, 1967), p. 236 {¶352}: the good mother in confusion might be seen by the child as a "most frightful danger" of the "Terrible Mother". Cf. Jung's 1938 article (1969), p.82 re Kali.
- ^ E. O. James, The Ancient Gods (NY: Putnam 1960), pp. 85-87, e.g., Isis "the Goddess of many names". Neumann drew archetypes from ancient goddesses; yet in history a specific deity was often 'compromised' by the henotheistic assimilation of a wide range of numinous powers. A local figure became goddess of a city, then the region, latter of the empire.
- ^ Mircea Eliade (1978; 1982), A History of Religious Ideas (Paris: Payot; Univ. of Chicago), syncretism: pp. 208-209, 277-298. Isis at 291, 294; Thoth and Hermes at 295-296.
- ^ Robert Wright, Evolution of God (Boston: Little, Brown 2009), pp. 84-85: Sargon fused Inanna of Sumer and Ishtar of Akkad as one goddess; pp. 87-88: Hammurabi favored Marduk, who then absorbed many gods.
- ^ Jung, "Archetype" article (1938; 1969, in CW, v.9i).
- ^ Neumann, TGM (1955, 2d ed. 1963), e.g., p.38: In Hansel and Gretal the witch appears in an attractive gingerbread house, "but who in reality eats little children". The Terrible Mother may prompt the transformative 'fight with the dragon': "Perseus must kill [her] before he can win Andromeda". Circe, "the enchantress who turns men into beasts, meets the superior Odysseus [and] invite him to share her bed" (p.35), as ambivalent (cf., pp. 73-74). Circe and Medea, each was "originally a goddess, but has become a 'witch' in the patriarchally colored myth" (quote at p.288, cf. p.81).
- ^ Neumann (1949; 1954), pp. 5-127 (Creation Myth: I. the Uroboros, II. the Great Mother, III. the Separation of the World Parents: Opposition).
- ^ Neumann (1955, 1963), p. 18 (uroboros), p. 211 (Great Round).
- ^ Neumann (1955, 1963), p. 91 (quote); pp. 305-306, 317-321, cf. 162.
- ^ Neumann (1955, 1963), p. 11 (individual), p. 268 (ego consciousness), p. 281 (ritual).
- ^ Cf., Jung (1950; 1967), transformation: p. 224 [¶332] (The "incest-tabo" stimulates "the creative imagination" which leads to "the self realization of the libido". It "becomes imperceptibly spiritualized"); pp. 363-364 [¶569] (Until the son becomes conscious of himself, the libido treasure "lies hidden in the mother-imago, i.e., the unconscious". It is "one of life's secrets" that "the total personality, the psychic totality... consists of both conscious and unconscious.")
- ^ Neumann (1955, 2d ed. 1963), p. 355 (self, tree of life).
- ^ Neumann (1952; 1956), p. 153. "The most fascinating aspect of [the story] is... the liberation of the individual from the primordial mythic world, the freeing of the psyche."
- ^ Neumann (1949; 1954), pp. 39-101 (the Great Mother), pp. 131-151 (the Birth of the Hero).
- ^ Cf., Monick (1987), pp. 57-62, challenged Neumann's development theory of consciousness based on myths, interpreted as a male ego's heroic fight with the maternal uroboros (the unconscious origin). Instead Monick suggests a masculine archetype, coequal partner to the feminine, both originally inhabiting the unconscious.
- ^ Neumann (1955), pp. 27-28, 268 (hero from uroboros); 305-325 (Eleusis), 325-336 (feminine wisdom).
- ^ Liebscher (2015) article, pp. x-xi (quote, discussion).
- ^ Neumann (1950) and Neumann (1953).
- ^ See also Neumann (1952, 1956).
- ^ E.g., Perera (1981). This work focuses on the Sumerian goddess Inanna, also known as Ishtar, but the author notes at p.9 similar myths of antiquity, "the Japanese Izanami, the Greek Kore-Persephone, Roman Psyche... " among others.
- ^ Harding (1936, rev'd 1955).
- ^ Liebscher (2015) article, pp. vii-x (Bachofen, Gimbutas; two quotes at pp. viii & x). Footnoted is Goodison and Morris (1999) re contra Bachofen.
- ^ Goodison and Morris (1999), in their own lead article, "Rethinking figurines", chiefly criticize Gimbutas (1989) not for being necessarily incorrect, but for an unjustified preference for one interpretation of archaeological facts over several other competing views (pp. 22-24, 26, 37, 39, 42, 44-45). Their academic book also responds to publications by "non-specialists" associated with the "Goddess movement" (p.6).
- ^ Cf., Whitmont (1982). To continue Nuemann's work (p.39), Whitmont describes an historic era of conscious evolution, before patriarchy, when women's influence was paramount, not through governing institutions but through myth and ritual (pp. 42-47, 49-60, 67-68).
- ^ Rowland (2002): criticism of Neumann's Origins (p.57), seemingly without her being familiar with his subsequent work; Whitmont's Return improves and augments Neumann (pp. 59, 65), Whitmont "a major progenitor of Jungian goddess feminism" (p.60 quote, pp. 65-66).
- ^ Neumann (1956, 1979), p.245: Freud's "psychology of the feminine [is] a patriarchal misconception" which left him unaware of "the creative psyche which, mythologically, is connected with the Mother-Goddess and the prepatriarchal level of the unconscious."
- ^ Jung (1938).
- ^ Liebscher (2015) article, pp. viii-x, quotes at p. viii ("rescue"), p. viii ("detailed"), p. x ("important").
- ^ Hillman 1979. p. 216.
- ^ Hopcke 1989. p. 70.
- ^ Gimbutas (1989), p. 316.
- ^ Hurwitz (1992) p. 231, cf. p. 217.
- ^ Paglia 1993. p. 114.
- ^ Paglia (2006), p. 4.
- ^ Liebscher (2015) article, p. xi.
Bibliography
- Books
- Bachofen, Johann Jakob ([1861], 1967), Myth, Religion, and Mother Right. Selected writings. Bollingen, Princeton University.
- Gimbutas, Marija (1989), The Language of the Goddess. Harper and Row, New York.
- Harding, M. Esther (1936, 1955), Woman's Mysteries. Ancient and modern. Longmans, Green, London; rev'd ed., Pantheon, New York; several reprints.
- Hillman, James (1979). The Dream and the Underworld. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-090682-0.
- Hopcke, Robert H. (1989). Jung, Jungians and Homosexuality. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-87773-585-9.
- Hurwitz, Siegmund (1992), Lilith the first Eve. Historical and psychological aspects of the dark feminine. Daimon Verlag, Einsiedeln.
- Jung, Carl (1912, 4th rev'd 1950; 1956, 1967), Symbols of Transformation. Bollingen, Princeton University, CW, v.5.
- Jung, Carl (1921; 1971), Psychological Types. Bollingen, Princeton University, CW, v.6.
- Jung/Neumann (2015), Analytical Psychology in Exile. The correspondence of C. G. Jung and Erich Neumann. Princeton University. Edited by Martin Liebscher.
- Monick, Eugene (1987), Phallos. Sacred image of the masculine. Inner City Books, Toronto.
- Neumann, Erich ([1940]; 2019), The Roots of Jewish Consciousness. v.1, Revelation and apocalypse. Routeledge, London.
- Neumann, Erich (1949; 1954), The Origins and History of Consciousness. Bollingen, Pantheon; Foreword by Carl Jung.
- Neumann, Erich ([1951], 1955, 2d ed. 1963; 1991, 2015), The Great Mother. Bollingen, Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-01780-8
- Neumann, Erich (1952; 1956), Amor and Psyche. The Psychic development of the Feminine: A commentary on the tale by Apuleius. Harper; Bollingen.
- Neumann, Erich ([1950s]; 1994), The Fear of the Feminine, Princeton University (collection of essays).
- Paglia, Camille (1993). Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-017209-2.
- Perera, Sylvia Brinton (1981), Descent to the Goddess. A way of initiation for women. Inner City Books, Toronto.
- Rowland, Susan (2002), Jung. A Feminist Revision. Cambridge: Polity.
- Whitmont, Edward C. (1982), Return of the Goddess. Crossroad, New York.
- Goodison, Lucy, and Christine Morris, eds. (1999), Ancient Goddesses. The myths and the evidence. University of Wisconsin & British Museum.
- Olson, Carl, editor (1992), The Book of the Goddess. Past and Present. Crossroad, New York.
- Articles
- Douglas, Claire (2008), "The historical context of analytical psychology" in The Cambridge Companion to Jung.
- Jung, Carl (1938, 1954; 1959, 1969), "Psychological aspects of the Mother Archetype" in Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Bollingen, CW, v.9i.
- Liebscher, Martin (2015), "Forward" to Neumann's The Great Mother, Princeton Classics Edition.
- Neumann, Erich (1950), "Towards a Psychology of the Feminine in the Patriarchy" in Jahresbericht, Psychological Club, Zurich.
- Neumann, Erich (1950; 1994), "The Moon and Matriarchal Consciousness" in Fear (1994).
- Neumann, Erich (1953; 1994), "Psychological Stages of Woman's Development" in Fear (1994).
- Neumann, Erich (1954; 1959), "Leonardo da Vinci and the Mother Archetype" in Art and the Creative Unconsciousness, Bollingen, Princeton University.
- Neumann, Erich (1956; 1979), "Freud and the father image" in Creative Man. Five essays, Bollingen, Princeton.
- Neumann, Erich (1959; 1994), "The Fear of the Feminine" in Fear (1994).
- Paglia, Camille (Winter 2006), "Erich Neumann: Theorist of the Great Mother", in Arion 13/3, pp. 1–14.