Edward F. Edinger

The author explains the processes through which modern man might recognize his archetypal psyche

Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche

Ego & Archetype

Laura Mei

The Self is the ordering and unifying center of the total psyche (conscious and unconscious) just as the ego is the center of the conscious personality. Or, put in other words, the ego is the seat of subjective identity while the Self is the seat of objective identity. It is expressed by certain typical symbolic images called mandalas. A mandala is a holy circle or bounded place that is a representation of wholeness. As Robert Johnson writes in his book, 𝘖𝘸𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸, "Mandalas are devices that remind us of our unity with God and with all living things."

[Erich] Neumann, on the basis of mythological and ethnographical material, has depicted symbolically the original psychic state prior to the birth of ego consciousness as the uroborus, using the circular image of the tail-eater to represent the primordial Self, the original mandala-state of totality out of which the individual ego is born.

Practically all of us, deep down, have a residue of inflation that is manifested as an illusion of immortality. There is scarcely anyone that is thoroughly and totally disidentified from this aspect of inflation. Hence, when one has a close call with death, it is often a very awakening experience. There suddenly comes a realization of how precious time is just because it is limited. Such an experience not uncommonly gives a whole new orientation to life, making one more productive and more humanly related. It can initiate a new leap forward in one’s development, because an area of ego-Self identity has been dissolved, releasing a new quantity of psychic energy for consciousness.

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