Re: possession [View all]
I have a question on which I'd like the opinion of our professional psychologists and any other actually knowledgeable persons. I'm posting it here rather than in Religion because I don't want to have to wade through crap by the Usual Suspects or someone fantasizing about his numerous "graduate degrees."
My preferred approach to literature is archetypal criticism, based mostly on the work of Northrop Frye, Joseph Campbell and a handful of less well-known scholars. I've also employed Jung's work on archetypes and his theory of the four-part personality: Self, persona, animus/anima and shadow.
Ideally the other three principal archetypes become integrated in and through the Self at around the age of thirty. When that process goes wrong, the Self can be taken over by one of the other three. Jung refers to this as inflation. Eg., a person with an inflated persona can become vain, narcissistic, grandiose or delusional about the extent of his/her influence or abilities.
Is it possible that persons who believe themselves possessed by a demon are in fact experiencing an inflated negative archetype--something out of the shadow portion of the personality where we park all those nasty little things we're afraid of or don't like about ourselves or don't want other people to know? And if that may be so, is it also possible to apply an archetype-based treatment with some degree of success that extends beyond the placebo effect? Is it possible that an exorcism might actually be therapeutic under those conditions?
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