The “daemon” or creative impulse, a concept by Carl Jung

Life is a continuous flow of decisions, some with insignificant implications, such as the clothes to wear every day or the plate of a menu; Y others that can modify the meaning of our existence, What choosing a career path, a partner, a country of residence, having or not having a child.

Sometimes even the smallest decisions can be source of anxiety for many people.

Choices and circumstances

When making a decision, we may be concerned about ethical implications related, or what people may think of us if we perform a certain action, the satisfactions or responsibilities that surround them. Many times also, what can even torment us, is to think that the option that we do not take is better than the one we have. opted, or that the fact of deciding prevents us from opting for something better that may arise later (a partner, a job, a living place). In the latter case, the saying of "better bird in hand than a hundred flying" is reversed and the hundred flying birds are preferred to deciding on something, often by fear of making commitments that this decision implies.

In addition to being a continuous flow of decisions, our life is conditioned by multiple circumstances. Some of these circumstances precede us, such as the genetics that our parents give us, the expectations of them towards us, the socioeconomic and socialization context in which we we unwrap. We are also presented with circumstances throughout life, many of which do not give us possibility of choice, but rather they are presented to us (illnesses, employment opportunities, encounters, accidents). So we coexist between what we are choosing and what is being presented to us.

In various cultures and moments in the history of mankind, it has been considered that in the moments of indecision, especially in the most significant, operates a kind of "force" that induces us to act in one or another sense. This force is also attributed the responsibility to propose and induce the circumstances that allow expressing the "deepest being" of the people. On many occasions the circumstances that this force proposes or imposes are not to one's liking, nor are they part of the ego's expectations, understanding the latter as the most superficial aspect, the most childish part each.

We can consider this "force" as an archetypal element, in the sense that it has had various manifestations at different times and places in the imagery of humanity.

The daemon and destiny

The Greeks called it Daimon, the Romans recognized her as a particular "genius", in Egyptian mythology it may correspond to the Ba. In shamanic cultures it was called the “free soul”, the personal animal, the nahual. It was considered as a link between gods and mortals, with both beneficial and destructive attributes. In a celestial hierarchy, they could be classified as demigods. In Christianity, according to the light or dark connotation that is attributed to it, it can correspond to angels or demons. These images may be related to what we currently mean when we express the need to listen to our heart, feeling, intuition, soul, and from a more rational perspective conscience.

The existence of a "force" that leads us along certain paths is related to the notion of destiny; concept that has also had and has multiple perspectives.

The phrase of the pre-Socratic philosopher is popular Heraclitus, for whom the destiny of man is his character. This sentence can be interpreted as that what we are used to doing, that is, our way of being, our habitual behaviors, are what are forging the circumstances that we are finding in our lifetime.

In a somewhat similar way, for Sigmund Freud, the apparent fatal fate is unconsciously self-induced by the individual. He gives as an example those people whose friendships always end in betrayal, philanthropists to whom his protected return anger instead of gratitude, relationships that go through the same phases and end the same mode. From this perspective, people repeat over and over again in an "eternal return" lived experiences that do not have been sufficiently elaborate, and that they have been repressed for not being compatible with the values you consent. One of the premises of psychoanalysis is the "psychic determinism" of our actions and thoughts by unconscious contents.

In similar lines, Carl Gustav Jung He considered that what was not made conscious in the psychic realm, was lived abroad as a destiny. However, for Jung, the "compulsion to repeat" to live certain types of circumstances, are an attempt of the psyche to lead us towards the realization of our “deepest being”, towards the singular expression of our soul, of our potentialities. It is in this last sense that James Hillman, the greatest representative of archetypal psychology, a continuation of Jungian approaches, takes up the myth of the acorn of the soul.

The myth of the acorn of the soul

This myth alludes that in the same way that the acorn contains the pattern of the oak tree, each individual already has in himself his own potential of singular and unique possibilities.

Hillman highlights the presence in different religions, mythologies and systems of current and past thoughts, of the image of an "energy" of the unique soul of each individual, which seeks to unfold throughout life and which manifests itself as a "call", a vocation, a "destination". This singular energy is a third factor that joins nature and education in understanding the growth of individuals. Hillman argues that in order to respond to this call, it is necessary to "grow downwards" as trees do with their roots, and thus be able to meet again with the "real me”, With the deep needs of the soul.

For Hillman, the motivation for self-realization is not given by the outside but by the inner “Daimon” of each one. The daemon are manifested in the circumstances of life, in the opportunities that arise, in the closing doors, the accolades and the tripping, the triumphs and the defeats; in our fears, our phobias, our obsessions, our illusions, in synchronicities. In everything that leads us to express our most genuine aspect, what we have been for “Called”, and that many times it does not go in the same direction as the expectations of our ego, which seeks security and recognition.

A privileged means that our Daimon has to express himself are the dreams, and that is why they are a fundamental part of the Jungian psychotherapy. In certain moments of life, dreams are common in which we lose or break down our cell phone, or we try to dial and the numbers vanish. These images may be indicative of the difficulties our soul is having to attend or make the particular "call" for the realization of our "deepest being", of our vocation.

The vocation, this singular aspect that seeks to unfold our soul, is manifested in our talents, in the most pressing, in what cries out to express itself and that perhaps we have put aside due to ridicule or for not accommodating to our plans you consent. The vocation may or may not coincide with a profession. Hillman highlights that for example there are people who were born for "friendship" or for aspects that are not sufficiently valued because they are not productive in our society.

The conception of destiny, depending on how it is approached, can be a toxic, paralyzing, inhibiting idea of ​​action, but from the Hillmanian perspective it is a creative and stimulating idea. Thus, for Hillman, "catching the furtive winks of the daemon" is an act of thought and reflection, of seeing more Beyond appearances, delving into the background of events, requires meticulous reasoning. On his part, he considers fatalism to be a state of abandonment of reflection, which explains life as a whole from a broad generality. Fatalism, Hillman emphasizes, raises no questions, and consoles as it wields the need to examine how events are articulated.

Jungian psychotherapy and the daemon

Jungian psychotherapy promotes dialogue with our own “daemon” as a symbol of a factor that operates in us and leads us to be what we have always been, to display our best version. We can only feel truly satisfied when we listen to our daemon, who cares, sometimes slaps us, destroys our plans, facilitates encounters, introduces us opportunities.

The myth of the acorn is taken up in Jungian psychotherapy, also in the sense that, like the acorn possesses a wisdom that allows it to build the tissues, leaves, and fruits of the Oak; the individual possesses a "wisdom" to develop his own uniqueness and potentials. Jungian psychotherapy it does not intend to change a person or adapt them to what is socially accepted, as you cannot ask an apple tree that of pears. What is intended then is to provide the best conditions for each person to display the unique fruits of it. You cannot intervene in a seed to make it what it is not, but rather promote its own potentiality.

Jungian psychology when referring to gods, daemons, soul, deep being, etc., is not presupposing the existence metaphysical entities, or reflecting on their nature, which is the scope of theology or other areas of the knowledge. In the context of analytical psychology, these terms must be conceived as concepts related to images or psychic factors, which is possible observe in clinical practice, as well as in symbolic manifestations present in mythologies and artistic expressions of different places and times. Analytical psychology makes use of phenomenological observation and reflection for the understanding of psychological phenomena, as well as for the application of said knowledge, such as therapeutic method aimed at the well-being and mental health of people.