Religion & False Fanaticism Custom Essay

Before proceeding, please read the course syllabus and the course requirements for the final paper.

Here are my ideas on the subject:

In his book “The thought of the heart and the soul of the world- the section on ‘going over to another order’” (61-63), Hillman wrote:

Trust aisthesis, the sense of the heart; otherwise we go over to another order. I can hardly stress enough the importance of this trust, for the individual aesthetic response is also the watchdog against the Devil who slips into our lives where we least expect, dressed in the most conventional disguise….
The novelists William Styron and George Orwell, and the social philosopher Hannah Arendt, in writing of totalitarian evil and the Nazi systematic murders in particular, have each come to the conclusion that evil is not what one expects: cruelty, moral perversion, power abuse, terror. These are its instruments or its results. But the deepest evil in the totalitarian system is precisely that which makes it work: its programmed, single-minded monotonous efficiency; bureaucratic formalism, the dulling daily service, standard, boring, letter-perfect, generalities, uniform. No thought and no responsiveness. Form without anima becomes formalism, conformism, formalities, formulas, office forms- forms without luster, without the presence of body. Letters without words, corporate bodies without names. All the while beauty is sequestered into the ghetto of beautiful things: museums, the ministry of culture, classic music, the dark room in the parsonage- Aphrodite imprisoned.
The general and the uniform happen in thought before they happen in the street. They happen in thought when we lose touch with our aesthetic reflexes, the heart no longer touched. So when we are dulled, bored, an-esthetized, these emotions of bleakness are the reactions of the heart to the anesthetic life in our civilization, events without gasping- mere banality. The ugly now is whatever we no longer notice, the simply boring, for this kills the heart. Our recourse to Aphrodite, and our first way of discovering her is in the disease of her absence.

If we consider all the Abrahamic religions to be totalitarian systems, then we can begin to connect to what Hillman has stated above. No thought and no responsiveness. These systems have imprisoned Aphrodite, dulling the heart, and the results are the reactions of the heart to this anesthetic life in our civilization. Religion slips into our lives dressed in the most conventional disguise, and we have been programmed to conform, to no longer respond from the heart, to be imprisoned in this standard mode of living. We no longer notice the power abuse, the terror, the cruelty and moral perversion because we have lost touch with our aesthetic reflexes.
What have we done in the name of religion? What does history show us, and continues to do so? With the absence of Aphrodite, our world in falling deeper and deeper into chaos- wars, terrorism, poverty, ecological destruction, etc… These are the diseases of Aphrodite’s absence- the symptoms that point clearly at what we are lacking in our civilization, in our humanity. And these are the gods, ever present amongst us, from an archetypal point of view- gods in the diseases- signposts of archetypal forces. Is there any difference between Religions and the Nazi systematic murders? Isn’t this the Devil in disguise?

What is behind these symptoms, disturbances, disorders, psychic pain? These symptoms point to the soul! Hillman said, “Recognize that suffering is part of the deal” and “sit with the symptom in order to hear its appeal.” Pathologizing is a fundamental activity of the psyche. The soul produces crazy patterns of thoughts, Politics, etc…, and we are lived by forces beyond our control ( and in mythology of earlier times, these forces were called gods). But we must meet those by imaginal thinking, through metaphorical rather than literal thinking.

In an interview, psychologist James Hillman remarked:

I am attacking the theories of psychotherapy. . . . It makes every problem a subjective, inner problem. And that’s not where the problems come from. They come from the environment, the cities, the economy, the racism. They come from architecture, school systems, capitalism, exploitation. They come from many places that psychotherapy does not address. Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. What I’m trying to say is that, if a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it’s also in the system, the society.

In another interview, America and the Shift in Ages, Hillman said that “other beliefs and structures are crumbling- white supremacy, male supremacy, the influence of monotheistic religions, and the belief that we are ‘the good people’.” If such institutions do not appear to be in decay, it’s because they are so staunchly defended, and that, Hillman says, is a sign of their lack of vitality — “If they were vital they wouldn’t need to be defended. And the fanaticism we’re witnessing goes along with the deterioration of the vitality of these myths.”

‘Fanatical’ comes from the word fanatic, which itself came from the Latin fanaticus, meaning "mad" or "inspired by a god." The root word is fanum, or "temple." With fanaticism comes absolute faith which corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
The Monotheistic paradigm of ‘true believers’ is exclusive. In fact, all paradigms that espouse absolutes, are exclusive. In doing so, they set up a dualistic form of imagining the world to be able to justify their world views.

What happens when the ‘heart’ has no reaction to what it faces, an anesthetized heart turning the variegated sensuous face of the world into monotony, sameness, oneness? If we wish to find the responsive heart again we must go where its seem to be least present. What is passive, immobile, asleep in the heart creates a desert which can only be cured but its own parenting principle that shows its awakening care by roaring. The more our desert the more we must rage.

In his book “ The True Believer: thoughts on the nature of mass movements”, Eric Hoffer stated:

“To ripen a person for self sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctness. He must cease to be George, Hans, Ivan, or Tadao- a human atom with an existence bounded by birth and death. The most drastic way to achieve this end is by
the complete assimilation of the individual into a collective body. The fully assimilated individual does not see himself and others as human beings. When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Moslem, a member of a certain tribe or family. He has no purpose, worth and destiny apart from his collective body; and as long as that body lives he cannot really die.”

The factors are:

Make believe
“Dying and killing seem easy when they are part of a ritual, ceremonial, dramatic
performance or game. There is need for some kind of make believe in order to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is only when we see ourselves as actors in a staged (and therefore unreal) performance that death loses its frightfulness and
finality and becomes an act of make-believe and a theatrical gesture. It is one of the main tasks of a real leader to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or light-hearted dramatic performance.”

Fanaticism
“The fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure. He cannot generate self-assurance out
of his individual resources out of his rejected self but finds it only by clinging passionately to whatever support he happens to embrace. This passionate attachment is the essence of his blind devotion and religiosity, and he sees in it the source of all virtue and strength. Though his single
‐minded dedication is a holding on for dear life, he easily sees himself as the supporter and defender of the holy cause to which he clings.”
“The fanatic cannot be weaned away from his cause by an appeal to his reason or moral sense. He fears compromise and cannot be persuaded to qualify the certitude and righteousness of his holy cause.”

When we look at what Hillman had to say about totalitarian systems, Religions in this case, and what Hoffer had to say about True believers, we can connect the dots to demonstrate how this uniform, programmed, single-minded monotonous efficiency has led to all the present illnesses- all the chaos.This is how religion breeds fanatics, stripping away the individual identity and distinctness of people.

And to what end? Why is all this happening? It is all about Power, about politics- violence, chaos, mass destruction. What we see is false fanaticism because the cause is an illusion, a created idea to control humanity or the masses. We see blind devotion and religiosity. What is the soul trying to tell us through these ideas, thoughts, social phenomena- through all the symptoms and illnesses?

And the most important thing to keep in mind is this: How do we analyze all the above through the lens of Archetypal Psychology. What we are doing is lifting phenomena out of its literal context to a metaphorical context (whether its ideas, people, thoughts, or social phenomena)

Course Description:

Dr. James Hillman originally conceived of what he and others call Archetypal Psychology as a critical response to trends is Jungian Analytical Psychology. They felt that the emphasis on the clinical and analytical aspects of Jung’s work had begun to minimize the importance of several elements of this revolutionary perspective including the reality of the psyche at a collective as well as personal level, the role of the image and imagination in psychological life, and the interplay of psyche and culture. 
Archetypal psychology, therefore, moves beyond clinical inquiry and locates its identity within the Western imagination, finding affiliation with the arts, culture, and history of ideas. Its central aim is the appreciation and development of soul through the cultivation of the life of the imaginal. We investigate the history and central ideas of this rich psychological perspective, focusing on concepts such as archetype, image, seeing-through, and the soul of the world, anima mundi. 
In this course we will spend time locating the roots of Archetypal Psychology within the classical Jungian tradition, we will engage the principle points which have distinguished Archetypal Psychology to the degree that it warrants its own course of study, and we will explore what it means to do depth psychological work in the archetypal mode. 
In addition, we will explore work by some of the prominent scholars of Hillman’s work, Nor Hall, Patricia Berry, Ginette Paris, Ed Casey, Mary Watkins, and others. Students will develop ways to apply Archetypal Psychology to their ongoing work in the field.
Course Schedule and Reading
First Day: Why Archetypal Psychology

“It is without doubt that the first immediate father of archetypal psychology is Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss psychologist”
James Hillman
In this session we will focus on the cultural, philosophical and Jungian roots of Hillman’s work. We will see Jung as the first archetypal psychologist and trace the central themes of this project including the realm of the archetype, monotheistic and polytheistic sensibilities, symbols and images, and also consider the influence of Henri Corbin’s work with the mundus imaginalis. We will begin to focus on the four modes of practice outlined in Revisioning Psychology: Personifying, Pathologizing, Psychologizing, and Soul Making.
During the day we will engage in an experiential exercise aimed at an encounter with images and attitudes as a way of generating a discussion of the reality of the psyche.
Required Readings for first day:
Hillman, J. (1975). Re-Visioning psychology. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Read pages ix-112
Casey, E. (2008). Quelle surprise! Going to the edge of things (with and for James Hillman). In S. Marlan (Ed.), Archetypal psychologies (pp. 97-112). New Orleans, LA: Spring Journal Books.
Quintaes, M. (2008). Hillman re-visioning Hillman: Polemics and paranoia. In S. Marlan (Ed.), Archetypal psychologies (pp. 73-94). New Orleans, LA: Spring Journal Books.
Corbin, H. (1972). Mundus imaginalis or the imaginary and the imaginal. Spring Journal, 1- 19
Second Day: A critical psychology
“As a social psychologist, I see archetypal psychology as the best way to prevent dogmatism and ideological violence. It addresses both the meditative interior of each person and the community of culture.” Ginette Paris
On the second day of class we will continue working with the themes from Re-Visioning Psychology and the four modes of practice and other key ideas from Hillman. We will examine several of the most important criticisms of psychology that have energized Hillman’s work, including his criticism of analysis and clinical psychology and developmental psychology. We will also discuss his take on the interplay of spirit and soul and his running engagement Christianity. Finally we will engage together in what many consider Hillman’s primary concern, relativizing the ego that so dominates our western notions of the self.
Required Reading for second day:
Hillman, J. (1975). Re-Visioning psychology. New York, NY: Harper and Row. Read pages 113-229
From the DPC 762 Electronic Reserves:
Berry, P. (1982). What’s the matter with mother? In Echo’s subtle body (1-16). Dallas, TX: Spring
Hillman, J. (2005). Peaks and vales: The soul spirit distinction as basis for the differences between psychotherapy and spiritual discipline. In Senex and puer (pp 71-95). Putnam, CT: Spring Publications
Paris, G. (2007). The archetype of mother. In Wisdom of the psyche (pp. 114-139). New York, NY: Routledge.
Giegerich, W. (1998). Is the soul “deep?” entering and following the logical movement of Heraclitus’ “fragment 45”. Spring 64, 1-32.
Third Day: In Practice
…the entire procedure of archetypal psychology as a method is imaginative. Its exposition must be rhetorical and poetic, its reasoning not logical, and it therapeutic aim neither social adaptation or personalistic individuating but rather a work in service of restoration of the patient to imaginal realities.
In archetypal psychology, Gods are imagined. They are approached through psychological methods of personifying, pathologizing, and psychologizing. They are formulated ambiguously, as metaphors for modes of experience and as numinous borderline persons. They are cosmic perspectives in which the soul participates. Mainly the mode of this participation is reflection: the Gods are discovered in recognizing the stance of one’s perspective, one’s psychological sensitivity to the configurations that dominate one’s style of thought and life.
James Hillman
The third day is dedicated to practice. What are the goals and the corresponding moves of Archetypal Psychology? Assuming that this psychology intends to escape the consulting room while taking with it the focus on a symptomatic psyche, what will be our work. We will consider a variety of applications which have responded to Hillman’s challenge, many of which have been contributed by faculty and students of our program.
Required Reading for third day:
Watkins, M. (2008). Breaking the vessels: Archetypal psychology and the restoration of culture, community, and ecology. In S. Marlan (Ed.), Archetypal psychologies (pp. 414- 438). New Orleans, LA: Spring Journal Books
Hillman, J (1981). The thought of the heart & the soul of the world. Dallas, TX: Spring Publications
Leaver, R. (2008). The work of James Hillman: City and soul, and Providence, RI. In S. Marlan (Ed.), Archetypal psychologies (pp. 438-460). New Orleans, LA: Spring Journal Books.
Casey, E. (1974). Toward an archetypal imagination. Spring, 1-32.
Hogarth, H. (1961). The garden of the Gods: Life from Haitian perspective. Spring 61, 61-82.

C. Course Requirements

Students will write a final paper 10-15 pages in length. Please refer to the Course Learning Objectives listed below as you develop your approach to this assignment.
– Develop a critical and integrative literacy in Archetypal Psychology and in its philosophical antecedents and contexts
– Be able to locate this field in relation to other depth psychologies
– Evaluate the efficacy of Hillman’s approach in work beyond the western cultural context
– Engage the unconscious through work with images and the imagination

Using archetypal approaches which will be discussed in the class and in the readings write a critical review of a particular cultural phenomenon, event, situation, or practice. For example, you may focus on a play or a film or a piece of music. You may focus on an event taking place in the world or in a particular community. Any phenomenon that lends itself to “seeing through,” as Hillman describes it, will work for this.
Again be sure to reference readings, lecture and class discussions as appropriate.