THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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symbolic concepts of all religions are recreations ofunconscious processes in a typical,
universally binding form" (Jung cited in Heisig, 1979, p. 36). The narrative form in
which these unconscious processes find expression is myth. All religions comprised
mythical accounts of divinities, and "every myth is a projection of unconscious
processes" (Jung cited in Heisig, 1979, p. 35). Jung (1940b) provides a more
comprehensive definition ofmyth:
Myths are original revelations of the preconscious [i.e., collective] psyche,
involuntary statements about unconscious psychic happenings .... Modern
psychology treats the products of unconscious fantasy-activity as selfportraits
of what is going on in the unconscious, or as statements of the
unconscious psyche about itself' (p. 154-155).
The above interpretation of religious mythology is, of course, consonant with Freud's
understanding of mythology as "psychology projected into the external world" (Freud,
1901b, p. 258). In the first stage of his work, Jung saw religious phenomena - as did
Freud - as the pathological manifestation of infantile libidinal impulses, analogous in
many respects to psychological symptoms. Unresolved childhood oedipal impulses
become displaced via the process ofsublimation onto a symbolic father-figure, God, to
whose omnipotent authority individuals, as 'children of God', subject themselves.
Children's ambivalent relationships with real fathers become 'spiritualised' into
relationships with transcendent paternal figures, and formalised as religious dogmas.
Religion is thus an elaborate fantasy system based on an illusory world of supernatural
entities, which ultimately reflects a lack of self-insight into childhood conflicts on the
part of its adherents. In short, Jung begins by upholding Freud's critique of religion,
reducing it to an "ascetic response to uncontrolled instinctuality" (Jung cited in Heisig,
1979, p. 29).
Jung's attempt to understand the psychological significance of symbolism witnessed a
changing attitude toward religious phenomena. His study of comparative mythology
began to convince him that symbols refer beyond the personal drama of actual parentchild
relationships, to a deeper and more mysterious layer of mind that cannot be
reduced to Freudian interpretation. Symbols, because of their function of connecting
us to deeper layers of psychic reality, are now seen as having a "life-promoting" and