THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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In lung's model of mind, even more so than in Freud's, the psychic components are
semi-autonomous, owing to lung's incorporation of the impersonal collective
unconscious (Frey-Rohn, 1974). The most independent, spontaneous components are
consequently called autonomous complexes. The autonomy of these aspects is such
that their influence is felt to be ego-alien, strange, and even endowed with magical
power. Meier (1984) refers to the complex as:
a relatively compact structure, which lives the life of a foreign body or
corpus alienum in the psychic organism as a whole ... In this respect their
nature is in no way different from that of living organisms, a peculiarity
which undoubtedly invests them with an uncanny atmosphere (p. 204).
In addition, complexes have a personified quality, which makes them appear to be
separate personalities. The complex, said lung, "behaves like an animated foreign
body in the sphere of consciousness" (1948, p. 96). lung, struck by this quality
referred to complexes as "fragmentary personalities" or "splinter psyches", which have
their own consciousness (1954, p. 201-204). This convinced him that the psyche is not
an indivisible unit, but rather a collection of split-off sub-personalities, which co-exist
without normally destroying the continuity ofthe individual's existence:
The tendency to split means that parts of the psyche detach
themselves from consciousness to such an extent that they not only
appear foreign but lead an autonomous life oftheir own. It need not
be a question of hysterical multiple personality, or schizophrenic
alterations of personality, but merely of so-called 'complexes' that
come entirely within the scope ofthe normal (lung, 1936, p. 121).
lung adopted the term dissociation from Pierre lanet (1859-1947) to refer to this
splitting process. lanet defined dissociation as an inherently pathological process,
whereby parallel associative mental systems split off and function independently of
normal consciousness as "secondary existences" (NolI, 1989). For lung, however,
dissociation was a fundamental, adaptive psychic process, leading to psychological
differentiation and expansion. Normal psychic life is characterised by multiplicity,
rather than unity, and complexes are the embodiment of our psychic plurality. But
lung also acknowledged that when dissociation is initiated by trauma or extreme
psychic conflict, the resulting complex is neither benign nor readily assimilable into the