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In Part Two of Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido <\/i>(1912),[1]<\/a> Jung observed that \u201cEvery psychological extreme secretly contains its own opposite or stands in some sort of intimate and essential relation to it.\u201d Later in this same paragraph (\u00b6581), he defines enantiodromia[2]<\/b><\/a> <\/i>as \u201ca conversion of something into its opposite.\u201d He cites the Chinese Yin\/Yang as an example. While the general idea of \u201copposites\u201d is understood, the phenomenology of enantiodromic change is complex. The first level of complexity is that enantiodromia is a process<\/i>, not just a change from one state to another. For example, when a puer<\/i> psychology reaches extremity, there is no sudden change to a senex<\/i> psychology. There is, first of all, a period of breakdown<\/i> of the puer structure which leads to its collapse<\/i>. This is followed by a period of chaos<\/i>, <\/i>which in turn is followed by a period of the tentative and gradual emergence of senex \u201cseeds\u201d which in turn grow into senex structures<\/i>. This sequence of extremity\u2014breakdown, collapse, chaos, emergence, structure\u2014 is characteristic of all <\/i>enantiodromic change. The second level of complexity is that changes resulting from extremity are not always best conceptualized as \u201copposites.\u201d The quality of difference,<\/i> for example, is not always an \u201copposite.\u201d The quality of \u201csomething else,\u201d is not necessarily an opposite. The quality of \u201cotherness,\u201d may be something else other than an opposite. All of these qualities may be thought of as \u201cchanging course\u201d when extremity begins the breakdown cycle. For this reason, I use a more comprehensive, though invented word, ???????????? (allagiporeia), meaning \u201cto change course.\u201d <\/p>\n Jung also observed that the libido \u201cwills its own descent, its own involution\u201d and in a broader sense, its own demise (\u00b6681). To illustrate this, Jung referred to Reubens\u2019 Last Judgment, <\/i>and pointed to the foregrounded image of a man being castrated by the serpent. He says of this image, \u201cThis motif illustrates the meaning of the end of the world.\u201d Here Jung is thinking far beyond the psychology of the individual and speaking of mythology\u2019s crystallization of the phenomenon of extremity. This highlights the third level of complexity regarding enantiodromia: \u201cThe grand plan on which the unconscious life of the psyche is constructed is so inaccessible to our understanding that we can never know what evil may not be necessary in order to produce good by enantiodromia, and what good may very possibly lead to evil.\u201d[3]<\/a> Thus, what develops following any change of course, any enantiodromia resulting from the breakdown caused by extremity, cannot be known in advance to be for good or ill, no matter how one might regard it. For example, excessive greed invariably leads to breakdown. The financial crisis of 2008, led to the near collapse of the global financial system. What has emerged is not something \u201cbetter,\u201d but something that is worse by far, though \u201cmasked\u201d by the recovery of markets that most everyone feels is wonderful.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n The prospect of enantiodromia at any given time, the urge for a change of course, will always appear in dreams, visions, synchronicities, art and other manifestations of the unconscious. This is true both for individuals as well as groups and nations. The contents of these \u201cirrational\u201d messengers, will always be different <\/i>from what is found laid out in conscious intentions, plans, and programs. If change does not come about through conscious intention, then as conditions become ever more extreme, change will come about through intentions birthed and growing in the unconscious of individuals and the collective, changes that no one is prepared for, and no one knows how to control. <\/p>\n The Google entry for \u201cenantiodromia\u201d refers to the German film, The Lives of Others,<\/i> as a good example of the meaning of enantiodromia. This is one of my favorite films and I\u2019d suggest you watch it. The film portrays an absolute state police power (the East German Stasi) intent on suppressing art. Even though we \u201cknow\u201d the East German state fell 16 years before the film, the film dissolves this knowing and we are \u201cthere.\u201d Such is the art of the film itself.<\/p>\n What does one \u201cdo,\u201d then, in the face of an oppressive state (terror), or a looming catastrophe (climate change), or replacement by computer (machine intelligence)? We each must answer in our own way. My own answer lies first in trying to discern the wisdom<\/i> of dreams. Second, I take the dream not as something to be interpreted, explained, or understood, but as an occasion for involving the deep imagination. When one is \u201cexposed\u201d to the deep imagination (and not just ego fantasies), one begins to engender the creative potential of the objective psyche. This is likewise, the ground from which true art is generated and, as I have noted before, it is art that Jung says will serve as the welcoming eros for the Coming Guest. <\/p>\n So, the dream pictures me and others celebrating a final Ragnarok<\/i> with a toast of black vodka. In the next post, I\u2019ll describe what engaging this compelling image in deep imagination has given birth to.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Literally, \u201cTransformations and Symbols of the Libido,\u201d but <\/i>published in English as Symbols of Transformation<\/i> (CW Vol. 5)<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> The Greek word was coined by Stobaeus in the 5th<\/sup> century CE. There are numerous observations by Heraclitus of the same idea. <\/p>\n [3]<\/a> C. G. Jung. "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales." (CW Vol. 9, \u00b6397)<\/p>\n
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