The body politic: A Jungian perspective

Abstract

This article looks deeply into Jung's writings that illuminate fundamental realities of political life. These realities are evident in the body politic of today's twenty-first-century world. In particular, Jung's detailed description of the archetype Wotan (the “ancient god of storm and frenzy”) and his likening of Hitler (whom he experienced in person) to Wotan are presciently relevant to understanding prominent political figures in present-day global politics and the mass movements they incite. Jung's writings in fact challenge us to think specifically about the human dispositions, reactive tendencies, and affective motivations that generate and propel our troubled twenty-first-century international politics and its ongoing wars. These dispositions, tendencies, and motivations, in turn, point us toward understandings of human nature that bring to light its archetypal character, which includes its liability to hysteria, one form of which consists in the “talent” for believing one's own lies. Jung also names, but does not elaborate, a therapy that addresses hysteria, presumably turning individuals away from ignorance and disconnection and toward wholeness.