Ironweed Bloom
Freud died of mouth cancer in London, two days after Germany invaded Poland. For those in doubt or who may have been persuaded otherwise by conniving and devious men in suits sitting behind desks, the invasion of Poland occurred on the First of September 1939, it was the beginning of a World War that ended on the Second of September 1945 with the surrender of Japan. Oh Goody! In 1961 Karl Jung finished his last book, "Approaching the Unconscious," and in that same year, in Switzerland, on the anniversary of D Day, he died of heart problems. I was about nine or ten when he died and he was 85. Why now? The answer lies in the following sloppy précis of Jung's work: "...integrating the unconscious into the conscious to raise a well balanced authentic self...." Worth noting that this account, for Jung, the authentic self was to be realized by integrating the unconscious self into the conscious self. But at the same time Jung probably never used the words authentic or well balanced. Those words may have come when the clear and rather obvious employment opportunities in head doctoring became more and more apparent. A name, a glass framed certificate, a title, an office with a leather couch, a pretty word and bang goes the unconscious self in this search for a happy and sterile authentic. There is nothing authentic about a well disciplined, hard-working mind managing something like a Department of Health and Human Services or anything else. No sir! Banjaxed, half witted and kettle drum crazy, that's closer to the free willed authentic of the unconscious and woe unto ye should such a deranged individual sit behind a resolute desk. What Jung suggested was, the unconscious self and the conscious self were engaged in a process of individuation. Freud didn't mess around either. He offered no cure, like a boarding school matron what Freud gave you was a couple of bandages before he kicked you back to the front lines. All the same, if we live long enough, happy days will be here again for us old people when casting a net across the political and theological spectrum fails to yield a rich harvest of individuated jackasses
