Jung in the 21st Century Volume One

For those curious about how one could consider the work of Jung today, a great start is John Haule’s “Jung in the 21st Century Volume 1 – Evolution & Archetype”.

The stated aim of Volume 1 is to demonstrate that Jung’s work is fully compatible with contemporary views in evolutionary science, neurobiology, primatology, archaeology and anthropology. His approach is to link principles across disciplines and identify “consilience”.

Part 1 starts with looking at archetypes in the context of evolution and behaviour. Haule argues that archetypes can be seen as behaviour patterns manifesting in characteristic ways at characteristic times, thus tying the concept closely to instincts as Jung did. He is keen to emphasise the nature of nested hierarchies in these patterned responses. Language is used as a “model” archetype to articulate this layered complexity and he shows that communication accretes from limbic resonance through to the more complex responses of the neo-cortex. An example here is the development of mother-infant communication (motherese) in humans which relies on Haecker’s Biogenetic Law (“ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”), i.e. we carry the history of the race within us. He concludes with the „meaning of archetype": species-specific, inherited, physiologically embedded, and powerfully emotional, even numinous.

The book then shifts to primatology and the evolutionary roots of language in primate communication and sociality. The beginnings of language in „singing Neanderthals" is recapitulated from motherese and he points to story-telling in Archaic humans as evidenced by notations on bones. Robin Dunbar’s model of the transition from humming to language in Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language is used to argue for the evolutionary need of primates to work in groups. Grooming is a key bonding mechanism which re-emphasises the strong physiological currents at play in this discussion of archetypes. Ecological crisis – the Ice Age - drove the need to move within ever larger groups, in turn forcing the development of larger brains to better handle amongst other challenges the emerging complexity of social relationships. Language is then a consequence of the limitations of grooming.

The archetype of language developed from the archetype of sociality; the latter, also nested, introduces increasing levels of intentionality, amusingly demonstrated in the four levels of a TV viewer of a soap opera character knowing what another character believes about another’s intentions. That is, a folk theory of mind. And, as in soap operas, hierarchy gives rise to power, politics and also morality. We can look into 98% of our genes and see the emergence of the “Golden Rule” in the morality of the rhesus monkey’s reciprocity in grooming and feeding.

Haule refers to Mithen’s proposal that the modules of the mind, thus far independent, started to cross-fertilise when early humans realised that language was not just an extension of bonding but could also be applied to other challenges, e.g. tool making and hunting. Haule provides an additional explanation for this cultural growth by looking in the human mind’s capacity for alternate, polyphasic, states of consciousness in the „numinous art of the caves". The caves offer a dramatically organised space for ritual with each of the caves a meaningful whole. The caves are a tool for visionary journeys, with themes of transformation and death from the hunt, highlighting the osmosis between the subterranean vehicle of the cave and the spirit world behind the walls. It is a compelling image to imagine isolated individuals in the caves by firelight, fearful, cold and deprived of external stimulus. Lewis-Williams’ explanation of trance is used to show the subtle progression from individual identification through to full identification with the fretwork of the caves.

Haule then turns to the psyche and its neural substrate. Present day theories for the mind/body problem are insufficient. It is a simple step for the author to assume that science has not yet discovered the psychoid dimension of matter and to claim that most contemporary philosophical theory of mind and neuroscience will not be damaged by this discovery, merely in a better position to understand itself better. According to his thinking, consciousness is “system feature” of the brain, a higher order phenomenon. Materialism is reductionist; dualism is wrong for proposing something entirely different. The psychoid dimension bridges the gap of “emergence”. But we still need to join the brain image, the patterns of neural activation, with the psychic image, the woman in front of me. This is the “binding” problem and after explaining recent research Haule draws two exciting conclusions. Firstly, the picture of the brain and psyche whose identity is its history, that is “process is everything”. Secondly, the resolution of the “binding” problem through looking at neural chemistry and electromagnetic waves as two aspects of the same activity, the same psychoid matter. Key here for understanding polyphasic humans is that the activation is a whole-body response.

Psyche as process was called “Individuation” by Jung. Haule introduces Jung’s thinking here, showing the dialogue between Psychological Types (our conscious processes) and Symbols of Transformation (the structure of the unconscious) as a reflection of the ego moving through the dynamics between the public world and archetypal world in the broader context of the Jungian Self.

Haule starts with the Self and cites the biogenetic structuralists; a self is nothing more than being a single, unitary animal, a self emerges from organismic processes. The protozoan has - better: is - a self. The ego emerges from self as conscious, reflective process – Edelman’s “dynamic core” is key here, as is episodic memory. Individuation emerges from the tension between ego and self as psychic process. It is the larger story being spun by the dynamic core that „tells tales of an archetypal nature, impressing us with their depth of meaning and enduring significance."

Moving between the public and archetypal world is a dialogic process reflected also in dreams, and some attention is given to Jung’s view before looking for parallels in the neuroscience. Haule looks at the evolutionary significance of dreams, their purpose, and draws on Panksepp’s research relating the brain’s seeking system with dreams, their emotional intensity and their potential for numinosity. Similarly, complexes are assessed and the differentiation of complexes in the analytical process is proposed as a process of learning to respond flexibility to the world (in the neo-cortex) rather than talking the “low-road” of primitive patterns (through the amygdala).

This leaves some space for looking at altered states, and how these serve in the transformation process. Key here is the autonomous nervous system which can be tuned by practice – either sustained hyperarousal of the sympathetic (recall the caves) or parasympathetic (fasting, slow ritual, meditation) system. Through this tuning, the three levels of the brain (the cortex, the limbic system and brainstem) can be integrated when there is spillover between these systems – a hint at the “transcendent function”.

The final part looks at how primates and humans used ritual throughout time to alter consciousness. This section brings together the arguments made throughout the book; the caves, polyphasic society, phylogeny of consciousness and soul journeys. The history of consciousness is the history of the gradual emergence of individuality in primates and therefore also humans.

The book concludes with a call to arms: for us to seek a spiritual goal and emerge from unconsciousness and our monophasic one-dimensional culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am surprised that this is not more popular. It is a very strong reframing of what Jung intuited, in both breadth and depth. In particular, I liked the focus on neurobiology, genetics and primatology and the concluding call for a more polyphasic attitude to the wonder of life.