VOLUME XXIV 1951 PART IV

THE CONCEPT OF THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE

BY MICHAEL FORDHAM*

It is habitual for your President to express his is provided by and expressed in these meetings.
appreciation of the honour you have done him One can compare the two activities with
in electing him to preside over the section’s a mandala, the concentrate at the centre and
deliberationsfor one year. I am just as sensible the less organized and often warring con-
of the honour as those who have preceded me, tents between the centre and the periphery.
but perhaps you will permit me to say shortly I have to qualify this, however, by stating that
why I personally so regard it. This section I cannot see many signs of the schools being
provides the best meeting ground for the indissolubly united.
various schools of analytic psychology and Be this as it may, our meetings draw to
psycho-analysis and has at the same time kept their deliberations those whose lucid minds
its doors open to the psychiatric and experi- make it an honour to be associated with them.
mental disciplines. Though its title is the I only doubt my capacity to make an adequate
Medical Section it has been able to recognize contribution measured in terms of originality
and welcome to its membership lay analysts or clarity.
and psychotherapists of various persuasions, And now to turn to my subject: the term
psychologists, psychiatric social workers and ‘objective psyche’ was first introduced by
others who have taken a prominent part in Jung (1940) some years ago in order to cover
its deliberations. the field of research which he had previously
My own inclinations fit very well into this defined as the collective unconscious. The
pattern. As one who has adhered to the school term ‘objective psyche’ has, however, the
of analyticalpsychology I regard it as essential advantage for our present purpose in that it
to be at least informed of the activities of includes the individuality which the word
others and discuss developments with those of ‘collective’ excludes. Moreover, the term
a different persuasion. In my view it appears ‘objective’ states the quality of experience in
that both intensity and extensity of study are a more rich and definite way than the term
required. The intensity is provided by study ‘collective unconscious’. The conception
within the temenost of a ‘school’, the extensity refers to those psychic contents which can-
* Clinic Director of the Society of Analytical not be seen as part of oneself as a known
Psychology, Assistant Director of the Child subject. They always have been and s t i l l are
Guidance Clinic of the West End Hospital for only seen objectively, i.e. they are separate
Nervous Diseases; President, Medical Section, from oneself (the subject) and are different in
British Psychological Society. nature from the whole idea one has, or
t The term remenos properly refers to a sacred indeed, can have or could have of oneself as
place. It is here used in an equivalent psycholo- an ego. In consequence they have usually been
gical sense. Just as in religion the sacred place or experienced as cosmic.
temenos contains a central symbol, so the school The objective psyche was and is conceived
contains an idea or value to which its members
subscribe and which forms the basis for research and experienced as different in nature from
or teaching. Within the confines of a school there the ego as a conscious or unconscious function.
is protection for the germinal concepts which are It has given rise to all sorts of religions, culture
not yet ready to be the subject of adverse critical patterns, scientific theories and illusions. It
examination. seems inevitably to project itself, or rather,
hied. Pay&. m v 1s
222 MICHAEL F O R D H A M
it is found projected. Looking back histori- ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical
cally, it seems as if it has been almost literally probings, his very concepts of the true and the
living its own life projected into the stars as false will still have reference to his particular
astrology, into matter as alchemy, into moun- traditions and customs-the life history of the
tains, trees, groves, into heaven, into hell and individualis first and foremostan accommoda-
only within the tiny span of rather more than tion to the patterns and standards traditionally
half a century has it become a subject-matter handed down in his community. From the
for psychology as if there were nowhere else moment of his birth the customs into which he
for it to go; thus it appears in interpersonal is born shape his experience and behaviour.’
relations where it is mistakenly understood This concept is static.
personalistically or in mass psychosis where it Anthropologists have, however, developed
can be seen in political philosophies or quasi- other concepts to account for the spread of
religious wars. It is only, so far as I know, cultures; as, for instance, that contained in
through psychological understanding that it Prof. Kroeber’s Huley Memorial Lecture for
can be brought into real relation with man. 1945 on ‘The ancient oikumene as an historic
Psychological method is, however, the instru- culture aggregate’ (1945, p. 10). In this he
ment which could never achieve its integration compares the spread of culture to ‘. . .a spark
without the fact of individuality which somehow falling on a textile, slowly smoul-
separates each man from his fellow. In dering and finally enlarging its way through
short, it is because of the individual diff- a fabric, the greater intensity of combustion
erences that the objective psyche can be being always where the flame has reached only
integrated. In doing so it does not become less just lately; until the spatial frame of the
objective, it becomes a psychological object- cultural web is reached, so to speak with the
a ‘presentation’ as the late Dr H. G. Baynes oceans.’
put it when he wrote about ‘The unconscious Is this so different from Jung’s idea of the
as the real object of psychology’ (Baynes, cultural activity of an archetype? I am not sure
1950). :hat he has put it so explicitly, but I will formu-
Why I have preferred the term objective late it as follows. The conscious standards of
psyche will, I hope, become even more clear as a particular culture begin to wear thin, then
we proceed. I could equally well have referred there start all sorts of cults and new ideas
to the collective psyche, the psychology of the which reach out towards an adequate formu-
masses, were it not that I wanted to include lation for the activity of the collective
the individuality or self in the centre of this unconscious. Then these sparks coalesce
discussion. through a single figure, sometimes a real
In studying mass psychology anthropo- person, sometimes a mythological figure,
logical or biological concepts are useful; who inspires men already prepared for it
indeed, similar conceptions can be found in by the trends present in the thought and
either of these fields. values of the period. From this springs a
Anthropology has, for instance, made us new cultural impulse. Western civilization
familiar with the notion of culturepatterns. began in this way, and our contemporary
These are the patterns of civilization man has condition is in many respects similar to the
gradually developed throughout the ages and state of affairs before Christianity made itself
which determine the behaviour and beliefs of felt in the midst of the Roman Empire as
the members of any particular group. its foundations began to shake.
Ruth Benedict (1949, p. 2) says of culture Both the anthropologicalideastake account
patterns: ‘No man ever looks at the world of a seemingly objective process, two aspects
with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by of which appear and can be compared profit-
a definite set of customs and institutions and ably to the collective conscious (the culture
 THE CONCEPT OF THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE 223
pattern) and the collective unconscious (the tion has been made in this quotation. I quote
oikumene). They each imply an object which it because it illustrates how purely biological
acts on men and women, and there is no room thinking is able to arrive independently at an
for the individual as the source in these idea of regarding whole areas or parts of
patterns or dynamisms. ourselves in an objective manner.
Turning to the biological field, Prof. J. Z. In this section it is impossible not to think of
Young has chosen for his Reith Lectures (1950) my subject without considering the psycho-
the field of brain anatomy and physiology. He analytic theory of object relations. In this
presents many ideas, which to one with a theory the psyche is built up through the intro-
training in analytical psychology are congenial. jection of good and bad objects. Where it
For instance, he elaborates the notion of brain differs from the concept I am employing is in
models, the patterns and images of the real the fact that I attach rather more emphasis to
world which we laboriously construct and the original psychic nature of the object. Thus,
which apparently cannot be regarded as the if I have understood it correctly the theory
mirror image of an external reality at all. These postulates an external object which itself
are then integrated more and more till we get shapes the form libido takes before it is
the complex brain activity which we have introjected. On the other hand, Z assert that
termed mind, a term which seems to be falling the libido is predisposed to adhere to certain
under a cloud. The nuclei of activity co-ordina- objects. Thus in the infant’s relation to the
ting on the basis of a whole brain may one day breast he is inherently predisposed to form an
bring the archetypeswithinthe range of experi- image of the breast and no other-not, for
mental study. Next, Prof. Young included the instance, a jubberwock. This idea is I think
idea of random areas of brain function and obvious. Winnicott (1948) in his presidential
thinks they are significant, because through address expressed graphically and even drama-
random activitynew nuclei of organizationcan tically rather more than I am asserting. I refer
be formed. The idea that seemingly arbitrary to the passage on the infant’s capacity for
events tend to group themselves in a significant hallucinating a breast apparently before he
way (Jung, 1933,1950) and that this grouping experiences the breast his mother actually
is related to the psychical nuclei in the offers him. I would not regard this as impos-
unconscious, termed archetypes, would corre- sible, but I do not know how to find out
spond to the coalescence of random brain. whether it is true or not. I therefore prefer
activity and the formation of partially to adhere to the more cautious formulation
organized brain models. Further, the evolu- enunciated above.
tionary notion of continuity falls into line with Jung’s conception of the objective psyche
the conception of the collective unconscious, was arrived at through the study of psychiatric
and finally Prof. Young, in a quotation from disorders. Early in his researcheshe was struck
Proust, even wants us to consider ourselves by the difficulty of understanding the psychotic
not so much as a single but as many interacting process, and we have not got much further in
entities. The quotation from Proust runs: our grasp of the matter-neither the patient nor
‘I was not one man only, but the steady the doctor is really able to understand it, though
parade hour after hour of an army in close both all too readily produce explanations!
formation, in which there appeared according I want to underline the idea that many
to the moment impassioned men, jealous men schizophrenics are the victims of psychic
no two of whom were jealous of the same objectivity. Hallucinations and delusions are
woman’ (Young, 1950). experienced as objectively as we experience
Without putting this forward as a good similar and sometimes identical phenomena
example of what is meant by the objective in dreams, and as mystics have and still do
psyche, I think the necessaryreflectiveobserva- experience them in waking states.
15-2
224 MICHAEL F O R D H A M
I may here perhaps interpolate, in order to ference phenomena to support my thesis. If
make clear what I mean, that many of the the analyst is not present, there is no real
phenomena of schizophrenia have nothing to personal object, and the real objectivity of the
do with an illness. The phenomena, at least to psyche as ‘another person’ cannot be grasped
my mind, are only ‘distributed’ differently in substance-it can only be conceived. We
from the normal-or to put it another way, the can make a fantasy or an idea about the
capacity to communicate intelligibly to an object, but this is not sufficient to move us
ordinary man, is disturbed. deeply. It is when a real person, the analyst,
I was recently in touch with a schizophrenic becomes the real object, in other words, when
woman who asked a policeman to communi- the ‘hallucination’ becomes true, that we get
cate with me from the police station. The the measure of objective reality of which I am
policeman explained that she had been speaking.
brought in for obstructing the traffic. The If we suppose there are psychicalphenomena
woman gave a different story. She said which can be classed as objective and because
she had been doing figures of eight in the of this can usually be seen only in projection,
middle of the road; she had kept to her track then is there a means by which we can study
with precision and the stupid taxi-drivers had these objects? Assume that a psychotic is
nearly run her down. correct in many of the things he says only that
The taxi-drivers naturally did not know that he cannot handle them appropriately. Can
shewas drawingtheir attentionto eternalvalues we then achieve this kind of objectivity not
by acting out the symbol of eternity, the 8, be- only in the transference but also more specifi-
fore themin aplace they could not fail to notice. cally in relation to ourselves.
To expand this idea: if the same area as that It was with the aim of testing this that Jung
covered by the schizophrenic were marked off used active imagination. The term means that
with red flags, the known signs of danger, in by suspending our current presuppositions,
the place of a harmless lady, no taxi-driver in conscious and established models of thought,
his senses would drive over that area! It is feeling or extraverted perception, we try to
a problem of culture pattern and brain allow images to become a c t i v e t o treat them
model. as if they were entirely different but real per-
Quiterecently a patient whose interviewshad sons. In someways the term meditationor even
been largely dominated by persecutors who contemplation is more appropriate. Joanna
made her very depressed came to the interview Field (1950) uses ‘contemplative action’ for
a changed person. During the hour she looked the same process. My own objection to this
up at a picture on the wall and remarked that is that both terms have been used in mysticism,
I had put up a new one. But I had not in fact and contemplation in particular is concerned
done so; she simply saw a different picture. with the absence of an object-not at all the
Previously an important part of herself had, case in active imagination. However, so long
almost literally, been in the picture on the wall; as this is understood I think contemplation is
now she had become her own self and the a good word to express the subjective end of
picture became to her the one I saw. The the procedure. One might well develop this
woman saw the picture objectively before and line of thought by saying that the subject can
after the change in herself, only she saw be passive (observing) or active (reflecting,
a different image. This event occurred within drawing conclusions, or, more primitively,
the analysis and within the transference. I had taking part in the activity of the image or
been faced with a situation in which I had to images).
be understood as the real cause of the The conclusion drawn from the experiences
patient’s disintegration. of a growing number of people who have used
This illustrates a point about the trans- active imagination confirms the notion that
 THE CONCEPT OF THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE 225
certain contents of the personality are observations to see history and contemporary
peculiarly difficult to assimilate, i.e. under- events in a kind of psychological test-tube.
stand and control, and, indeed, that they can This subject is therefore important enough for
xiever be controlled by the ego. In assessing me to discuss, even though it will take us
this material it must be admitted that relatively somewhat off the main line of my argument.
few people have so far used the method, and The method is one which springs from
there are many analyses conducted by Jungian a spontaneous tendency of human beings.
analysis where it does not occur and where Whenever an incomprehensible event takes
dreams or transference phenomena can be place an attempt is made to understand it in
seen to fulfil the same function. Yet even so terms of what is already known. For instance,
there are too many who know nothing of such an incomprehensible feeling inside the chest
experiences and think them sheer illusion or or abdomen is sometimes said to be ‘cancer’
artefact. or ‘tuberculosis’ or something of that sort. If
It must be admitted, however, that the kind it be in the brain or felt to be in the mind the
of person who can employ active imagination term used can be ‘insane’, ‘mad’, or ‘schizo-
is important. There are those who like to think phrenic’. These words give a certain measure
of these persons in terms of psychopathology, of understanding to the experience-they are
but I prefer to put it in terms of types, since it amplifications, which can usually be analysed
is evident that many of those who can appre- out, reduced and replaced by more adequate
ciate the objective psyche through active and useful formulations. The understanding
imagination do not come within the range of of them can be deepened and related to
psychiatric abnormality. A certain capacity the internal and external life of the person
for introverted perception is necessary; it can concerned. The amplification at this level is,
be developed in analysis but not always in other words, simply the first step in knowing
sufficiently. The two perceptive functions, more about oneself.
intuition and sensation, can be used equally Amplificationscan occur at many levels and
effectively, though the quality of reality is are made for many reasons. Jung has pointed
given more by sensation which it seems needs out that the study of dream series reveals
a real object through which to realize the amplification. The dreams revolve round and
image. The woman who saw the image of round a central core which is at first referred
herself in the picture did so by means of to and then gradually becomes more and
introverted sensation; she needed the picture more in evidence till it appears with full
in order to see herself. Intuition needs no clarity.
object-as if by magic or revelation a whole As a method, amplification is different.
strain of images can emerge from nowhere. Parallels, from a variety of sources, are brought
The introverted intuitive is hard to analyse to throw an obscure element into relief. As
because directly any difficulty is to be met a a method it is not easy to handle and to my
strpm of ways out is invented. mind is sometimes overdone-the amplifica-
There are, I think, enough examples to tions become a means of embellishingthe ego
hazard generalstatements,but further evidence and can be used as a defence against realizing
is necessary to increase the probability of any an obvious fact which lies under one’s nose.
view we may formulate. We require a way of Defensive usage does not, however, invalidate
interdigitating our findings with comparable the method, but, because of its less valuable
phenomena in space and time. This way is the uses, it needs employing by one who can see its
comparative method of amplification. By inner relevance.
comparing the products of active imagination The comparative material usually used in
with similar material from past and present we analytical psychology for the purpose of
can bring all kinds of parallelsto bear upon our amplification is Werent from individual
226 MICHAEL F O R D H A M
experience inasmuch as it has been worked threatened by plagues and floods. I cannot
over by many people; it has either been handed resist the temptation of pointing out here that
down by word of mouth and edited or has been the function of medical psychology is strikingly
organized purposely through controversy and similar,inasmuch as our real work is concerned
the like so that the individual quality has been to bring into some measure of conformitywith
rubbed off it and to some extent the original everyday life those psychic elements which
creative experience has gone. I have thought cannot find appropriate expression.
of comparing it to statistical statements, or The work of analytical psychologists has
perhaps it is more closely like our psycho- shown that the great bulk of the mythological
logical hypotheses which represent statements parallels have to be drawn from religion, one
felt to be valid enough and useful enough to of the main regions in which the objective
a number of people. Clearly both these com- psyche hides. I need not elaborate this point.
parisons overlook important differences. Enough papers about it have been read before
The comparative method is useful to a this Society to assume this, whilst Jung (1919)
number of people for penetrating and under- in Switzerland and the late Dr H. G. Baynes
standingwhat is general in human psychology, (1940) and others have published large volumes
it establishes the objective non-individual on the topic.
contents. But it is more than this; through it It is interesting that most of them come from
we can get behind the conscious elaboration the less known religious phenomena, from
to the central core, the common basis which Gnosticism, from early Christianity, from
lies behind the myth, custom, ritual or folk alchemy or oriental sources. The conclusion
tale and individual experience. It points can be drawn that our society, and in
towards the unconscious content-and this is particular its religious organizations, has
one which may or may not be capable of succeeded in integrating certain contents of
adequate expression in words, pictures or acts. the psyche into its structure, but other
It can point to a content which must stand as parts have been left out and still live un-
incomprehensible-an absolute unconscious consciously within the human organism, to
reality. come to life again under suitable circum-
It is the merit of analytical psychology that stances. All these lost contents were in the
it has undertaken the study of this comparative past invariably regarded as objective-the
material seriously. It has refrained from images were treated as objective and real.
premature judgement about its nature. But it It is as if the collective form has been specially
has made possible, however, tentative formu- designed to contain those psychic contents
lations concerning, for instance, the place of which human beings were unable to assimilate,
our socialinstitutionsin our cultural economy. and to hold them at a distance so that the more
Religion, for example, seems in some respects arbitrary even random activity of their lives
to have contained not only the emergent could not be realized as part of themselves and
cultural impulse but to have tended to take up they could be left to integrate the more
a compensatory function in relation to the manageable aspects.
social and everyday way of life. Christianity By treating religion empirically and by
is a religion of spiritual love and sacrifice; it relating it to the phenomena of the psyche.an
compensates the prevalent materialistic out- important step has been achieved without
look with its ego-centredand aggressivetrends. indulging in speculation. We need not assert
The compensation was even clearer in the either the absolute reality of religious content
contrast between the Roman Empire and the or that religion is a flight from intolerable
other-worldly beliefs. One can also point to reality. Religion is not one thing, but many,
the Eastern doctrine of illusion (Maya) in and we as psychologists are in no position to
a world in which human life was constantly make easy assertions about its manifold
 THE CONCEPT O F THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE 227
contents. The two assertions are really state- projection, identification, infantilism, reality,
ments about reality, a difficult topic and one conscious, unconscious, mind or psyche, we
that is becoming increasingly so. The belief understand each other. We are, indeed, just as
that certain religions deal with an absolute much in difficulty as the most primitive man,
reality-God-is neither more nor less sensible but whereas for him it is spirits that are the
than the flight theory, though the assumptions dangers, now these spirits have become funda-
lead to different experiences and conceptions mental postulates which grip us and will not
of reality. Acting on the assumption, even let us go. Any development in psychology is
experience, of the absolute reality of God leads resisted, any change in the structure of our
to one class of development, for instance, hard-won concepts is most difficult to bring
mysticism;acting on the belief that it is defence about-analysed people have not yet learnt
leads in a different direction, for instance, to how to manage themselves much better than
psycho-analysis as we used to know it. Which- their predecessors, not even by the most
ever notion is preferred we can say that the rigorous ventilation of the unconsciouspsyche,
evidence qf religion goes to support the idea of not even by classing ’their experiences as
the objective psyche. This leads to further infantile and living them through, nor by
understanding because there is a parallel contrastingthem with maturity or calling them
between the observation that active imagina- pathological, not even by the most skilful use
tion is no general method but only occurs in of interpretation.
some cases; the parallel comes from the fact But what is the alternativeto this lamentable
that religious revelation has only come .to inferiority-eclecticism, that claim to be
relatively few, whilst the mass of persons enlightened, to take what is best out of every
maintain their relation to religious experience great achievement and to resist the follies,
through the ritual, that is, indirectly. In extravagances and errors that go with it? It is
a similar way direct relation to the archetypes at least a position, but it is too much the
or primordial images is usually not too spectator’s role, the role of one who cannot
common, especially if we take the psycho- value aggression as a prime mover in creative
therapeutic field as a whole, though we can work, and there is too much of the cry of ‘let’s
infer the archetypes, and the main bulk of all agree where we can and have peace’. Lack
psychotherapeutic work is directed to the of conflict is undesirable. Jung said on one
foreground of the psyche. occasion :‘. . .peaceis unthinkable. Moreover,
Let us now turn nearer home to view our peace is uncanny because it breeds war’
own house, for I think we can still see the need (1947, p. xvii).
for myth and ritual here. Our schools of So in psychology we do not need to diminish
psychology have characteristics analogous to conflict. Indeed, I sometimesfeel disturbed by
ritual observance, and our societies are not so the alarming tendency to agreement’which
different from the old cults which centred sometimes makes itself felt, for I do not
round a divine truth. We may well say that our believe that as individuals we are sufficiently
truths are not animistic, they are real or mature, and we need our contemptible,
Scientifictruths, but though not identical they wrong, mistaken adversaries to keep ourselves
are analogous, and we do better to recognize healthy.
that in this realm we are the victims of our But if we are to eschew eclecticism,and if yet
natures, the victim of the selves which are these societies and organizations are to be
that selfwhichis at once ourselves yet emp5ati- regarded as containers and reminders of our
cally not ourselves. We cannot free ourselves inferiority, what alternative is there?
from custom and rite, we still need our initia- It turns on the problem of assimilating units
tions, even stereotyped methods of expression, of the objective psychethe archetypes; that
sothatweassumethatwhenweusesuchtermsas much is clear. It is a procedure which has
228 MICHAEL FORDHAM
never been done before in history because they, struggle for existence. The whole procedure
the archetypes, were not grasped as functions becomes most ‘unscientific’,it becomes highly
to be regarded psychologically. We still do not dramatic, chaotic and arbitrary, and even
know whether the correct method is psycho- people with very well-developed minds can,
logical, but it at least offers the most promising if they overcome their timidity, get seriously
means of doing it. disorientated, so that insight seems a weak,
It was perhaps the realization of this that useless instrument.
made Freud regard the value of religion as The gradual development which occurs
historical. In a sense I find myself in agreement under these circumstances has been described
with this view, though I cannot agree that the as individuation. Through this process, laying
intellect is capable of replacing it, because in emphasis upon individual rather than collec-
religion we can see the symbol of unity tive or social norms, we arrive in the end at the
appearing over and over again-the unifying self.
or uniting symbol of the self. Just as one starts from the totality as an
In order to realize the religious content we experience in childhood so one returns to it in
have to devise a way of treating the psyche as later life, though in a different way, and fully
just as much an object as religion treated its equipped with an organized set of thoughts,
god as objective, without, however, letting it feelings, sensations, perceptions, standards
get loose from the person. At the same time built out of experiences spreading over the
the conscious culture pattern which consti- whole of a lifetime.
tutes the realm of the ego cannot just be It is still interesting to observe, even though
overthrown as may very likely occur. it be a common, indeed everyday, experience
As far as I can see the culture pattern which for most of us, how childhood re-emerges in
makes the whole procedure at all possible is adult people. The infantile contents of the
science, but many phenomena of the objective psyche have only disappeared, they have not
psyche are the very things which scientists are been left behind for good, and they re-emerge
apt to treat as an anathema. They are simply again with a kind of significance which points
‘animism’-indeed, this procedure does open to the self. It is as if the image of the whole had
the door to animism, to revealed truth, and to always been there, essentially related to the
all that the physical sciences have sought to child-the image of the divine child, the
root out. The scientist, however, is bound to indissoluble unit of wholeness.
recognize facts, and nobody has ever succeeded Much of the fascinationof the psychology of
in stopping the unconscious expressing itself childhood springs from this archetype. One
in images. Indeed, as you will know, Jung almost feels sometimes as if all the conflicts of
regards the primordial image as innate whilst the world were to be solved by the child. The
the researches of psycho-analysts on very idea is to be found particularly in education
small children point in the same direction. It and modem education especially, so that this
is, I think, a fact that the aspect of the psyche is directed towards creating a child who will
that we call the unconscious can only express create a new world. It is to be found likewise
itself animistically in primordial images. If amongst child psychotherapists and also
this can be shown to be wrong then my appeal among analysts. It is supposed that preventive
to the scientificconscience falls to the ground. psychiatry is almost identical with child
This is the argument which once appealed to psychiatry, as if there were no parents, or, if
me and which still does, but in the interim there were, it is their business to sacrifice
certain changes have taken place, for once the themselves for the child. Is this good for
assimilation of the primordial images begins, the children in the long run? I hardly think
the intellect is caught and undermined, so.
embroiled in an inevitable life and death The world is not changed by children, it is
 THE CONCEPT OF THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE 229
changed by adult people-that fact is too often whole with an inside and an outside the
overlooked; moreover, it is changed by adult formulation can be clarified in important
people in a real sense who are able not only to respects; we need to alter the paragraph by
cope with ordinary everyday life but with a bit substituting the word ‘self‘ for the ego in one
more, who, in short, have that bit more which context. Then we get the following proposi-
will make a contribution of a positive character tions. The self is a dangerouspoisonous place;
to society. The developmental growing phase there are good and bad objects within the self;
of our life is childhood; perhaps that is why the ego, identified with the good objects, fears
the real self is so often to be found through the that it cannot defend them successfullyagainst
past. the bad persecuting ones.
I have been struck by some more recent I admit the difficulties of describing this
publications from psycho-analytic sources. psychic situation m childhood, and have
They impress me as almost arriving at the myself pointed out that the ego and the self can
self through the study of children. become indistinguishable. This is, however,
In order to show what I mean let us start a special situation which does not justify their
from a passage in Mrs Klein’s paper: ‘The being identified. I also admit the difficulty of
psychogenesisof manic depressive states.’ She handling the problem verbally in this way, but
is discussing the situation which arises owing I think I am justified because I have struggled
to the loss of the loved object and the difficulty with the same problem myself. What I wish to
of assimilating it, She says ‘. . .the inside (of put forward is this: the self or the image of the
the ego) is felt to be a dangerousand poisonous whole is as much an object as the good and bad
place in which the loved object would perish. objects or the id.
Here we see one of the situations fundamental I do not know whether Scott had a similar
for “thelossofthelovedobject”;thesituation, difficulty in mind when he put forward his
namely, when the ego becomes fully identified intriguing formulations on the ‘body scheme’
with its good internalized objects, and at the (1948) which is defined as embracing the
same time becomes aware of its own incapacity conscious and the unconscious in a condition
to protect and preserve them against the inter- of integration as follows: ‘The body scheme
nalized persecuting objects and the id. This refers to that conscious or unconscious
anxiety is psychologically justified’ (Klein, integrate of sensations, perceptions, concep-
1948, p. 285). This paragraph strikes me as tions,affects, memories and images of the body
confusing because it is compressed within too from its surface to its depths and from its
narrow a framework, because the ego is some- surface to the limits of space and time. In
how swollen up and a thing inside itself. other words, part of the B.S. is a continually
There is difficulty in picturing the process changing world schemethe extended limits
because the ego is ‘a dangerousand poisonous’ of which have to deal with what can only be
place where no object can be put. Yet we learn called the limits of space and time’ (Scott,
that the objects are there: the internalized 1948, p. 2). This formulation corresponds
persecuting objects. Then we hear that the ego reasonably closely to Jung’s formulation of
is fully identified with its ‘good internalized the self. Scott’s notion, however, seems rather
objects’ and tries to protect them against the to express the circumference with an internal
‘internalized persecuting’ ones. What is organization, but I can find no reference to
containing what? The ego seems to be con- a ‘centre’ in the way Jung sees it, and Jungians
taining the objects which are persecuting it naturally want to know why. Nevertheless it
from without. Either theego has two functions has the kind of flexibility which is like Jung’s;
and is divided into two parts or else another it extends from cosmological dimensions to
concept is needed. the minutiae of embryology. It is a kind of
If we introduce another term to express the ‘subtle body’, ‘smaller than the small yet
230 MICHAEL FORDHAM
greater than the great’, as the Upanishads and the individuality is the only thing which
delineate the self. holds in the tension. The self is at first latent
Inasmuch as Freud defined the ego as a body and only gradually emerges; when it does so it
ego it strikes me as desirable for Scott to becomes clear that it also is objective, and
clarify his position by stating the relation through this fact can integrate the otherwise
between the ego and its boundaries, between seemingly uncontrollable collective objects or
the body scheme and its boundaries; because archetypes.
there seems to be the same condensation as The unintegrated objective psyche is highly
that in Mrs Klein’s article. There is a similar autonomous-it leads to mass phenomena
confusion about the relation of ego and object. such as I have referred to at the beginning of
In analytical psychology the self is dis- this paper. It leads to phenomena such as
tinguished from the ego and conceived in the those which Bion has described in so-called
relation of object to subject. It was suggested groups such as the flight or fight reactions; it
to me that Jung’s difference with psycho- leads to the demand for leaders, great men,
analysis on this point was due to a different heroes and gods. It finds enemies more or
concept of the ego, I looked up Jung’s less indiscriminately, but I need not continue.
pronouncements upon the subject, scattered As far as we know it is only by realizing the
through his works, and could find no essential individualitythat the autonomy can be handled
difference between him and Freud in this and integrated.
respect. The ego is the part of the whole which, But what can this individual be? We are so
rooted in perception and so in the body and accustomed to think of him as opposed to
being the centre of the conscious yet stretches society-an individualist who looks after his
down into the unconscious.The part of the ego own interests or things of society as a kind of
which stretches down is called the shadow and nuisance. On the contrary, the individual is
correspondsto Freud‘s unconsciousego. Jung the integrate representing society which is the
would not, however, call the super-ego by this externalreflexion of himself. Societywas made
name-he allocates it to the archetypal matrix by man in relation to his environment, and so
of the psyche. is the individual who is therefore much more
But why am I making such a bother about a social being than the one who is ‘socialized’.
the objective nature of the psyche and its The individual knows his apparent enemy is
relation to the whole? It is because the two part of himself as an objective fact.
cannot be realized apart from the other. In But this formulation does not indicate that
many spheres the concept of the whole is to be many individuals in the present sense exist.
found, for instance, holism in philosophy, Society, as Ruth Benedict pointed out, is
holistic medicine-whilst we are outraged if a specialized product. Man has dismembered
anyone tries to undermine our cherished himself in order to create civilization, and so
assumption of the personality as a whole, the development of children involves disrup-
though at the same time we study it in tion of the unity of his being so that he can
fragments. build up his ego. This condition is no longer
But concepts of this kind make little feasible as a final solution. As our world
difference-it is the same old story of looking becomes more of a unit man finds it more and
for the self somewhereelse or cherishinga wish more dangerous to find enemies in it. His
for unity anywhere but in relation to our own one-sided development, which in a sense,
natures-that horror of horrors! The self can creates an unconscious, is shaken, and it
only be realized in the individual and will becomes essential for him to take up those
never be grasped by generalities. It grows neglected inferior and consequently archaic
out of the sustained conflict between subject and infantile aspects of his nature which at
and object in the sense I have defined them, first horrify him and which he tends to regard
 THE CONCEPT O F THE OBJECTIVE PSYCHE 23 1
as ‘a dangerous poisonous place’ or as a chaos formulate the psychological ideas which are to
and he omits to realise that from here the me the most significant and which guide the
self can emerge.* He cannot safely go back, direction of my work as an analyst. I hope in
and he has to re-establish that unity which he expressing them I have contributed towards
once destroyed without losing what he has objective psychological study and that I have
established through that quasi-purposive dis- fulfilled sufficiently what is expected of me as
integration which produced the ego and so your chairman.
consciousness. * This notion is not new. The alchemists,
We are at the beginning of our studies in this amongst many others, knew when they used the
field. My attempt has been to try and define it, prima materia to produce the philosopher’s stone
and I hope you will find a measure of satisfac- They almost got to a psychological position on
tion in it as a general statement. I have tried’to this topic, but they called it philosophy.

REFERENCES
BAYNES,H. G. (1950). The unconscious as the real JUNG, C. G. (1950). Introduction to the ‘ Z Ching’
object of psychology. Analytical Psychology (trans. by Wilhelm-Baynes). New York: Pan-
and the English Mind. London : Methuen. theon Books.
BAYNES,H. G. (1940). The Mythology of the Soul. KLEIN,m m (1948). The psychogenesis of
London :Baillikre, Tindall and Cox. manic depressive states. Contributions to
BENEDIC~,RUTH(1940). Patterns of Culture. Psycho-Analysis. London: Hogarth Press.
London : Routledge and Kegan Paul. KROEBER, A. L. (1945). The ancient oikumene as
FIELD,JOANNA(1950). On Not Being Able to Paint. an historical culture aggregate. J. R. Anthrop.
London:William Heinemann. znsr. 71, 1-2, p. 9.
JUNO,C. G. (1919). Psychologyof the Unconscious. S m , W.CLIFFORD(1948). Someembryological,
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. neurological, psychiatric and psycho-analytic
JUNO,C. G. (1933). Archaic man. Modern Man implications of the body scheme. Inr. J.
in Search of a Soul. London : Kegan Paul. Psycho-Anal. 19, 3, p. 1.
JUNG. C. G. (1940). The development of the W m m , D. W. (1948). Pediatrics and
personality. The Integration of the Personality. psychiatry. Brit. J. Med. Psychol. 21,229.
London :Kegan Paul. YOUNG,J. Z. (1950). Reith Lectures.The Listener,
JUNG,C. G. (1947). Individual and mass psycho- p. 780,21 Dec. 1950.
logy. Essays on ContemporaryEvents. London :
Kegan Paul.