You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 13th, 2008.
This one is about the Child Complex.
There is some debate in contemporay Jungian psychology as to what archetypes are more important. In my own work with patients, I too don’t find everybody in need to explore every complex and archetype. For example – I didn’t run into many patients who need to get in touch with “The Musician”. However, several archetypes seem to be ‘popular’ that nearly everybody has to/wants to deal with them.
The Child Complex is one of these. After all, everybody was a child.
I got through 4 years of intense psychoanalytical theory training without hearing any professor say the words ‘Inner Child’. “Getting in touch with your Inner Child” became popular in the 80s. It is a popular process as many people have obvious hurts from childhood that continue to haunt their present. It also allows them to be ‘childlike’ again, and allow some parental figure (the therapist usually) to be the adult who will take care of them.
Like all archetypes, The Child is neither good nor bad but with good and bad attributes. You know the good elements of the Child– being carefree, open, innocent, playful, and curious about the way thing are. When you are a Child you have all sorts of growth potential. On the negative – well, we all know how nasty children can be to each other, and we’ve all seen the negative elements – screaming, selfish, ill-behaved creatures. In brief; brats.
I am wary when people want to get in touch with the Child archetype. What is their goal here? If it is to work through hurts to move on to being a less traumatized and victim-driven Adult, than the process is a good thing. In no way should the Child complex end up ‘running the show’.
We all know child-like or childish adults; they make lousy mates and co-workers and bosses, as they are acting like children, not adults.
An element of the Child Archetype is a child’s sense of justice. It is punitive and concrete.
If you are good = you deserve a reward.
If you are bad = you deserve to be punished.
And –
If you did not do anything wrong = life should not be punishing you.
When I hear patients upset they are good people, they haven’t done anything wrong, or they are trying so hard to be good, yet ‘look how bad life is screwing me over’ I know I am dealing with someone with a Child in charge of the Psyche. An inflated inner Child is shown by anger at the world when it hasn’t given them what they feel is fair. Sometimes this ‘Dog in the Manger’ won’t let anybody else have happiness or growth until it is satisfied ‘justice’ is achieved.
Like all complexes, the Child complex needs to be examined and ‘put in its place’ with just the right amount of psychic energy. (this diminishing of an inflated complex is where we get the word ’shrink’).
The Ego is driving the van - the Child is in its chair.
Children can be cute passengers but they are lousy drivers.
