Wounded healer
Wounded healer is an archetypal dynamic that psychologist Carl Jung used to describe a phenomenon that may take place in the relationship between analyst and analysand: 'Jung...warned of its dangers as well as its necessity'.[1]
For Jung, 'a good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's examining himself...it is his own hurt that gives a measure of his power to heal. This, and nothing else, is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician'.[2]
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[edit] Mythological origins
In Greek mythology, the centaur 'Chiron was known as the "Wounded Healer" because he was poisoned by one of Hercules's arrows'[3] by dropping it on himself. Unfortunately, 'Chiron was unable to heal himself and so suffered the pain of an incurable wound'.[4]
It is also possible that Jung derives the term "wounded healer" from the ancient Greek legend of Asclepius, a physician who in identification of his own wounds creates a sanctuary at Epidaurus in order to treat others. By contrast, the figure of 'Apollo Medicus could be said to subvert the ancient folkloric motif known in Jungian discourse as the "wounded healer": the physician whose "own suffering and vulnerability...contribute crucially to the capacity to heal"'.[5]
[edit] Jung's wound
It has been suggested that 'because of his "wounded" childhood, Jung was to embark, even as a child, on ways to integrate his life'.[6] He certainly made early use of the Chiron myth in this connection, claiming that 'wounding by one's own arrow means, first of all, the state of introversion';[7] and fully recognised that 'certain psychic disturbances can be extremely infectious if the doctor himself has a latent predisposition in that direction...For this reason he runs a risk - and must run it'.[8]
Gradually the positive aspects of the wounded physician archetype came more to the fore, with Jung emphasising that 'it is no loss, either, if he feels that the patient is hitting him, or even scoring off him: it is his own hurt that gives the measure of his power to heal'.[9]
Jungians however would probably acknowledge as well that 'Jung was a wounded healer who sometimes wounded those he healed'.[10]
[edit] Practical example
The following is an example of the "wounded healer phenomena" between an analyst and his/her analysand:
- The analyst, through the nature of his profession is consciously aware of his own personal wounds. However, these wounds may be activated in certain situations, especially if his analysand's wounds are similar to his own. (This can be the basis of countertransference).
- In the meantime, the wounded analysand "inner healer" is unconscious to him, but potentially available.
- The analysand's wounds activate those of the analyst. The analyst realizes what is taking place, and either consciously or unconsciously passes this awareness back to his analysand.
- In this way, an unconscious relationship takes place between analyst and analysand.[11]
Jung felt that this type of depth psychology can be potentially dangerous, because the analyst is vulnerable to being infected by his analysand's wounds, or having his or her wounds reopened. Also, the analyst must have an ongoing relationship with the unconscious, otherwise he or she could identify with the "healer archetype", and create an inflated ego.[12]
[edit] Problematics
'Guggenbühl-Craig warns of the dangers of inflation and splitting in members of the helping professions, whereby the "wounded" pole of the archetypal image gets projected onto and left with the patient, who in turn projects the "healer" pole onto the analyst'.[13]
As a result, 'both analyst and patient need to withdraw these projections so that the inner healer is activated in the patient'.[14]
[edit] Cultural analogues
The character "House", from the television series of the same name, can be considered as an example of this archetype in modern pop culture; his physical and emotional scars are both a burden and a driving force in his need to fix the problems of others while destroying himself.[citation needed]
T. S. Eliot wrote: 'The wounded surgeon plies the steel/That questions the distempered part;/beneath the bleeding hands we feel/The sharp compassion of the healer's art'.[15]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ L. Burns/E. I. Burns, Literature and Therapy (2009) p. 126
- ^ Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens, Jung (Oxford 1994) p. 110
- ^ B. H. Clow/C. C. Clow, Catastrophobic (2001) p. 232
- ^ Robert C. Smith, The Wounded Jung (1997) p. 177
- ^ Jamie Claire Fumos, The Legacy of Apollo (2010) p. 59
- ^ Smith, p. 2
- ^ C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious (London 1944) p. 181
- ^ C. G. Jung, The Practice of Psychotherapy (London 1993) p. 172
- ^ Jung quoted in Stevens, p. 110
- ^ Mary Ann Mattoon, Personal and Archetypal Dynamics in the Analytical Relationship (1991) p. 486
- ^ C.G. Jung "The Psychology of the Transference", The Practice of Psychotherapy (CW 16), par. 422
- ^ C.G. Jung "Fundamental Questions of Psychotherapy"; ibid. para. 239
- ^ P. Young-Eisendrath/T. Dawson, The Cambridge Companion to Jung (2008) p. 165
- ^ Young-Eisendrath, p. 165
- ^ T. S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays (London 1985) p. 181
[edit] Further reading
- Claire Dunn, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul (2000)
- J. Halifax, Shaman: The Wounded Healer (1982)
- Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1979-02-02). The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385-14803-0.
- Daryl Sharp, The Jung Lexicon (Toronto)
- David Sedgwick, The Wounded Healer: Countertransference from a Jungian Perspective (1994)
