This quote from director of the film Hellboy 2, Guillermo del Toro, seemed to strike a cord with me in that it expressed exactly what Hillman, and other archetypal Psychologists, Jungians and Freudians/psychoanalysts have been doing. Through the use of grand narrative, metaphor, and stories, most notabaly through ancient Greek texts, our common concerns, (which Hillman labels as Universali fantastici, in A terrible love of war) of Death, Power, Love, Worship, initiation, Ancestors and the making of art and war, are always expressed most effectively through a narrative. To understand these themes, one needs to enter the world of story, suspend assumptions, and predjudices, disregard the sometimes comforting confines of structured scientific thought and remain open to the suggestive powers of these narratives.

This essay will make use of the concept of Power, as described by Hillman in “Kinds of Power”. The reason for the choice of Power as a concept is the following: 1) it seems to be an integral part of waging war, war being one of Hillman’s Universali Fantactici, 2) Power is an ongoing issue between political groups, social orders cultural groups, family structure and infact all facets of society, 3) with the recent elections in the USA, there seems that there may be a shift in how that nation’s power is exerted.

There is a certain personal power in laying yourself open to understanding the human condition as described in the metaphorical sense. By remaining open to the messages told, we are essentially learning about nature, and how we are driven by it because we are inherantly part of natures narrative. The notion of healthy and unhealthy forms of power is discussed by Hillman in “Kinds of Power”. He states that for power to be understood holistically one should adopt Aristotle’s four causes: 1. Efficiency with concern for nature (material cause) 2. Aesthetic values (formal cause) 3. Efficiency and 4. Spiritual principles (final cause). Currently there is an obsession to focus on the efficient execution of power. This is seen in business, and politics. An example is the assumption by the USA that the Iraq war could be waged in an efficient and rapid manner. Or that the capitalist economic system should seek profits at all costs necessary to maximise economic gains. Efficency is seeked through lower operating costs, lower staff numbers, higher product turnover etc. The reality is that both the execution of power through war (as seen in Iraq) and the execution of power through economic war (as seen in the US stock market) has failed, as documented by the recent market slump, and America’s vote for a president who promised to exit the Iraq war. The failure of these two systems at exerting power is supporting evidence that without consideration of all the psychological elements needed to exert holistic forms of power (as per Aristotle’s four causes outlined by Hillman), failure is bound to occur, either by society as a whole, or the individual.

Considering that our political and economic systems are manufactured by humans, they are therefore suceptable to the same psychological failures and drawbacks that individuals are prone to. If current political and economic systems used Aristotle’s narrative of power, as described by Hillman, they may have avoided their current failures in power. In my opinion, there is something that image, myth/metaphor can teach these conceptual man made issues. Our failures as individuals, as cultures and as societies are in most cases due to a lack of understanding of ourselves, and an avoidance of archtypal stories and themes. An understanding of the personal story, and an investigation of society through narrative and metaphor can lead to an understanding of ourselves personally, and of ourselves as part of nature. As stated by Adam Philips in Darwin’s Worms, we develop ideals such as progress, cure, absolute knowledge, pure goodness to protect ourselves from the the natural world, and the confronting nature of it. We construct these false narratives (perfection, progress etc) to avoid the true natural narratives as described by Greek mythology, Freud’s; Hunger, Sex, Shelter, the pull towards Death, or the universai Fantastici of Hillman of Worship, Violence, Death, Disposal and Mourning, Initiation, The hearth, Ancestors, the making of Art and War. We fear these, because we cannot control them, yet if we understood them we would realise there is no need, nor neccesity to control them.

The Role of Scientific methods and Narrative in psychology
We know very little about the grand narrative of the universe we live in, and the earth we are part of, and therefore we inevitably know very little about ourlseves. Stories/narratives and metaphor provide catharsis and understanding of ourselves as well as nature. We understand the small semantics of nature, but the large narrative is still not understood to a large extent. Here in lies the role of the grand narrative, and metaphor. These forms of investigation have similar traits to qualitative methods, in that broad concepts are investigated and fleshed out. Themes are found, and only when we understand these concepts, and grasp the semantics of them, can we investigate them in a quantitative sense. Qualitative methods come before quantitative methods, and the use of qualitative methods are the hallmark of a science that is only scratching the surface of it’s topics. This is stated by Kuhn (1962) and is labeled by him as the “pre paradigm” state of a science. Taking a Kuhnian view of science (Kuhn, 1962) it is accepted that psychology is currently pre paradigmatic, (Stanovich, 2007; Stoner and Green, 1992; Petersen 2007). Psychologies pre-paradigm state may require the use of broader inductive methods to tease out more general theories and avenues of investigation, and this is especially evident in the health psychology realm where there is a return to narrative based methods of investigation, (Brocki and Wearden, 2006; Smith, 1996; Shaw, 2001). Although they are not archetypal as such, there is a realisation that the story is just as important as the quantitative data, and can infact provide greater insight into the human condition during times when we might know very little about it.

When researchers and practitioners adopt a micro view of psychological issues, and disregard the interplay between narrative and metaphor, qualitative, and quantitative methods, (Smith, 1996; Shaw 2001) the efficacy of psychology as a science is diminished. This is not due to the inadequacies of the investigation methods, but due to a narrow minded view, and disregard for narrative that specialist psychologist training may create. The dismissal by the psychology professional of the value of narrative, and metaphor to describe and treat people diminishes insight into the self, their clients and the general human condition.

Psychology currently is dominated by cognitive behavioural treatment methods. There is some danger to this though. If we continually dominate all of our impulses to some mechanical test of self control and identify the human being with “Will” the impulses we repress will return, Hillman thinks, we will make the mistake of hubristically assuming we already know the full range of human powers, that is precisely what we do not know until we entertain our ideas of power, love and other archetypes. Adam Phillips in “Darwins Worms” (pg.17) describes this notion of “being open” to the suggestability of the stories we are told by Freud, Jung, Darwin, Hillman etc. We construct our world based around moral codes, social ethics, religious and political doctrines, and then expect the natural world around us, and the humans with which we inhabit it to abide by these laws and codes. The problem arises when the forces of nature, such as hunger, sexual desire, the pull towards death place their power onto us. Inevitably the power of nature wins over the Will power of humans.

Power in society
It would seem that psychology and society in general has advanced an immense amount in the last century. We are now able to treat depression, OCD, “fix” social anxieties, and measure the insidence of different psychopathologies within society (Crossley 2000). Although to what extent have we mastered these socially/culturally defined ailments? Many neurosis based DSM TR IV classified disorders are managed through medication, cognitive behavioural methods, or even a combination. This is an example of medically based powers being exerted onto the general population. The medicalisation of societies problems is again an example of Power being exerted through an attempt to create efficency, much like the example of War and Economic efficiency provided above. In making treatment of ailments, and madnesses more efficient, psychologists are supposedly providing assistance to the economy, and society by being able to control, and even suppress unwanted forms of madness. As stated by Adam Phillips, when someone is being destructive, or self-descructive they aren’t going against nature, but going against our socially created norms. In an attempt to create efficiency, society develops a list of the “unatural” from human acts that are purely natural.Although to what extent is this suppresion of madnesses healthy?

The ancient symbol of the Ouroboros, used in many cultures symbolises the cyclical birth, death and rebirth, and the feeding of one entity on itself and it’s past. It is a cycle, and one that is discussed by Jung originally, and by Callan (1977) in a paper discussing the ideas of Mexican Writer diplomat and poet, Octavio Paz. It is used by these scholars as a description of the unification of the concious with the unconcious, a realisation of the self through experience, and insight which is achieved through story, narrative and self reflection. These are techniques in treatment, and self treatement that society, and psychology as a profession do not currently promote, due to it’s percieved inefficiency, as a treatment method. The assumption of ineficiency is even supported by some academics as can be seen in the response to an email regarding Psychoanalysis treatment methods (see Appendix A). Once again certain sectors of the health community, have exerted their power, onto individuals in the name of efficiency. The danger to this is that society is sheilded away from who we are and the cycle of self discovery described by Jung, Paz, the ancient story tellers and others is never attained. When power of self discovery is taken away from the individual, and society controls what are the accepted and not accepted forms of madness, and the treatment methods we are allowed to take, we are left with a lop sided individual who will inevitably fall apart much like the example of the Iraq war, and the world economic system.

In “Darwin’s Worms”, Phillips describes Darwin and Freud’s ideas as being seen as “scandalous” when they were first expressed to the public because it pulled apart peoples ideal of themselves, and required people to re analyse who they were. The role of Psychoanalysis is exactly that, and the role of Archetypal psychology is a similar one of analysis through universal metaphors. Metaphors which have existed across cultures for centuries, and hence, is essentially a psychology that is just as old. It isn’t the aim of psychoanalysis or Archetypal Psychology to take power from other scientific methods, but it should be seen as an avenue, or a bridge to understanding complex human stories that are still yet not able to be investigated by quantitative methods. Just like Qualitative methods feeds theories to Quantitative methods, Metaphors, archetypal Psychology, and myth may be able to feed context and information rich theories for qualitative methods to investigate. The value then of such a psychology in modern treatment methods is obvious. It places the power of self insight into the hands of the individual through metaphor. Self insight and understanding are ultimately more effective than the power of supression through medication.