Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

The Demonic in the Self 67sciousness, the more it gives rise to different symptoms. In some cases, underthe influence of alcohol, for example, this other personality might temporarilytake hold of the individual – who subsequently becomes incapableof understanding his or her own behaviour. 52 The individuation process, asJung sees it, consists of confrontation and communication between the dissociatedparts of the self (for example, coming to terms with the femalecomponent in man, anima, or male in woman, animus); especially in the areasof creativity and satisfaction in life, contact with the “dark” part is important.53In Jung’s theory “demonism” denoted the state in which some inadequatelyintegrated complexes take control of the total personality. BecauseJung paid attention to the collective level, as well as to individual psychology,he identified a possibility for “collective psychoses of a religious or politicalnature” – something that the Nazi atrocities during the Second WorldWar seemed to suggest. 54 Rollo May’s theory of “the daimonic” has basicallya more neutral approach to this problematic area.The daimonic is the urge in every being to affirm itself, assert itself, perpetuateand increase itself. The daimonic becomes evil when it usurps thetotal self without regard to the integration of that self, or the uniqueforms and desires of others and their need for integration. It then appearsas excessive aggression, hostility, cruelty – the things about ourselveswhich horrify us most, and which we repress whenever we can or, morelikely, project on others. But these are the reverse side of the same assertionwhich empowers our creativity. All life is a flux between these twoaspects of the daimonic. 55The daimon was placed within various interpretative contexts in theprevious chapter. It is important to remember here that daimon is a conceptfrom a polytheistic culture, and that it antedates the development of moralor ontological dualism. The daimon suggests an unknown influence thatmight be benevolent or malevolent; in other words, it is a perfect myth forthe ambivalent status of the unconscious. Diamond points out that the rootsof modern psychotherapy are in demonology; even Hippocrates, the fatherof medicine, was originally trained as an exorcist, and, while launching modernpsychology, Sigmund Freud exercised a lasting interest in the “demonologicalneuroses.” 56 Discourses on the demonic and those on madness52 Diamond 1996, 96-97.53 See Jung, “Concerning the Archetypes, With Special Reference to the Anima Concept”(CW 9 [Part I], 54-72), “Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation” (CW 9 [PartI], 275-89); Stevens 1982, 210-43.54 Jung, “The Definition of Demonism” (CW 18, 648).55 May 1969/1989, 123. – May’s definition carries traces of the Christian discourse ondemonic possession; cf. Cyril of Jerusalem, quoted above, page 29.56 Freud’s interest in witchcraft, possession and similar phenomena may originate fromhis studies with Charcot. Freud translated Charcot’s discussions of the hysterical nature