Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

628 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
From ancient lore, we know that Psyche is the third and fairest daughter of an earthly king. This
maiden is so honored for her beauty that Aphrodite (or Venus) herself, the goddess of beauty,
grows jealous of her, and sends her son Eros (or Cupid) to cast his arrows at Psyche to have
her fall in love with a monster. The king is compelled by Apollo, the god of light, to leave his
daughter alone on the rocky mountaintop where her husband, a winged serpent, will come to her.
Eros, smitten himself with love for Psyche, takes her instead through a grassy fragrant meadow
where she finds rest beside shining waters. She is brought to dwell in a glorious mansion and Eros
becomes her love, but only in darkness, coming to her by night. Psyche embraces this union with
joy, and knows her kind mate can be no monster. Yet, she is filled with doubts when her jealous
sisters raise questions about the man or monster she can never see. Finally, one night, she shines a
lamp upon his sleeping form to find that he is indeed her handsome beloved. He awakes, though,
and flees: Psyche loses her love for lack of trust. Tormented, she spends her life searching for
him. She pleads with Aphrodite herself who, with no intention of honoring her promise to reunite
Psyche and Eros, gives her many dark and humanly impossible tasks to perform. Yet, in each of
them, Psyche is helped by nature’s creatures. Returning from her journey to Hades (hell) to bring
back the beauty of Persephone (death) for Aphrodite, she opens the box of Persephone’s dark
beauty in her curiosity and falls into a deep sleep. By now, Eros is healed of his heart wounds and
is himself in search of Psyche. He awakens her and enlists the help of Jupiter against Aphrodite’s
fury. Psyche herself is given immortality and the pair are joyously reunited for all eternity.
What does this story say—about Psyche, about her education, her mind, and the way of
knowledge? In concert with Socratic wisdom, this myth tells us that things are not as they appear
to be, that insight is often realized in the experience of darkness, that the light of truth is but
one facet of understanding. When we reach the limits of our own knowing, become aware of our
own ignorance, it is then and there, perhaps, that we actually approach wisdom. Knowing itself is
elusive and enigmatic, the process of learning nonlinear, even surprising and unpredictable—in
the moment, unique, experiential. Education is constituted by irreplaceable “Aha” moments we
are incapable of manipulating or regulating, and these are usually preceded by periods of intense
questioning, difficult confusion, and rigorous inquiry. Genuine understanding, as well, emerges
from authentic questions that involve the heart as well as the mind.
This story tells us, especially, that Eros is a central figure in understanding the path of Psyche,
her passions and purposes. It is her heart for Eros that engenders her education and growth. Eros,
also known as Cupid, is amour’s messenger, the god of love. The son of Aries (or Mars) the
god of war and Aphrodite (or Venus) the goddess of beauty and sexual love, he is known in lore
also as one who often creates confusion, shooting arrows into the hearts of mortals and gods,
compelling them to love. A handsome man in Psyche’s myth, he is also the forerunner to the
baroque baby angels of Christianity—guided as well by love for Psyche. In either case, the figure
speaks of Psyche’s binding relationship with the divine, that which is sacred and immortal. She
must, perhaps, know him only in darkness, and through great difficulty, but her journey with
him—and unbreakable union—is ultimately one of great joy and blessing. In traversing this path,
she also comes into her own fullness—of beauty, love, and glory. Knowledge is achieved via
marriage with experience in the fullness of love. And confusion is not an enemy but a precursor
to new understanding.
Freud, realizing the power of eros for psychological understanding, uses the term, in fact, to
signify what he identified as the source of all human action—sexual energy or desire. Even here, he
reduces the power of this image, for Eros is the life impulse itself—complex and even paradoxical.
Psyche is drawn by all Eros embodies: creativity, evolution, process, passion, and transcendence.
Eros is the man who leaves his mother, goddess of sex, to know love with another—to unite
with Psyche, the soul—mutually, in relationship. In so doing, he smites himself, moves beyond
himself, with his own arrow of love. Since there really is no story of Psyche without Eros, Freud