This fancy word and concept Dr. Jung got from the Greeks. Enantios means opposite. Dromos is a quick movement. The movement of opposites. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher around 500 B.C.E, had the notion the universe does not tolerate imbalance. When a one-sided attitude persists, inevitably the opposite attitude comes up in an automatic attempt to restore balance. This is seen in people and in society.
This ‘law of balance’ is one of the main postulates in Jungian psychology. Things unbalanced cause problems and invariably find a solution towards balance. If you don’t consciously balance yourself, the unconscious will do it for you (and to you). Achieving balance is at the heart of all Jungian psychology.
It should be noted the term ‘opposites’ does not mean opposition in the sense that there is a fight between two parts in which one might be victorious. Both sides are necessary in the operation of the mind and life. In every part of Jung’s psychology the concept of mental energy appears as a play of compensating opposites.
If there is no space in a person’s or culture’s psyche for something, invariably something busts through. If “X” is suppressed or denied, “X” breaks through and upwards. As one patient told me once “It’s like I barred the front door but it snuck round the back and came in through the window”.
Often this unconscious process is not pretty. An example; I’ve seen this in pastors who have or give no space for sexuality, only to be caught in scandals or wracked with what to do with sexuality.
Enantiodromia is also seen when someone is trying so hard to be ‘white’ that they end up being ‘black’ anyway. They become precisely want they want to avoid. An outside observer can easily see this, if the person can’t.This is seen in folks trying so hard to be helpful. They end up being quite selfish in their charity. Very polite people can be actually a nuisance. A major example of enantiodromia is a person trying so hard to be in control that they are in control of little.
Such a fancy word and such a common phenomena.
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June 18, 2007 at 5:24 AM
deldell
Oh my, I WAS your example of a pastor who had no room for sexuality.
June 18, 2007 at 9:46 AM
BID
It’s too early in the morn for such big words! But I see what you mean. Very well put.
June 18, 2007 at 10:20 AM
Lemuel
Are we talking Michael Jackson here? LOL!
Urspo – no, Michael Jackson is an example of a Child Complex and Shadow in cahoots and way too much energy to both of them
June 18, 2007 at 11:59 AM
DougT
Great post. You are taking your writing to a whole new level.
Urspo- oh, oh. I better write some nonsense tomorrow.
June 18, 2007 at 2:29 PM
Robert
Having balance is good. It’s what I believe and what I strive for. And I also believe that in order to achieve that, we should act naturally in accord with our hearts.
Thanks for the big word Ur-Spo, as if I can remember it! ehehe!
Urspo-despite a decade or more of using it, I still have to look up its spelling.
June 18, 2007 at 4:38 PM
Joel
Does it mean that the opposit of the word is also as big? lol
Can you recommend a sort of Jung 101 I could read?
Urspo – I hope these entries count as “jung 101” 🙂
June 18, 2007 at 4:47 PM
tigeryogi
My brain hurts…. 😉
Urspo – it will have to come out!
June 18, 2007 at 5:28 PM
Mark H
Well THIS is familiar territory and I recognized a tough Father (despite the belt and yells, controlled very little) among others. This post gave me pause to remember them in my life………….it’s kind of sad really, because their lives are more closed to them than they know. THANKS for this time I took to reminisce, SPO, this was very well written.
June 18, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Maggie
I know this is not Jungian psychology but I associate balance with good luck and bad luck.
Whenever things are going really good with me, I know there is some bad stuff right around the corner. Same when things are going really bad…….. good things are coming my way.
It just happens that way, I don’t know why. Do you?
Urspo -actually that is more the Law of Undulation. All things fluctuate in their intensities; all things swing like a pendulum
Enantiodromia about the conscious attempt to keep the pendulum on one side, which is a cosmic psychic nono.
June 19, 2007 at 11:38 AM
BentonQuest
I remember running into a pastor while I was a chaplain at a hospital. As we were talking he looked at himself lying in the bed and said, “I guess God is trying to slow me down.”
June 20, 2007 at 11:44 AM
Joel
I was looking for something to read more then just once a week. Not a bad thing mind you, you telling us about it. But it’d be fun to read and I could discuss it with you afterwards.
June 22, 2007 at 8:44 PM
Doug
This little bit of wisdom is something I would like to have engraved on my soul. I can see my own conscious and unconscious imbalances sometimes, but I rarely see how to resolve them.