Perspectivism and shamanism in the Jungian clinic: the jaguar as an archetypal image of the Latin American cultural unconscious.
Ana Luisa Teixeira de Menezes, Walter Boechat
The Journal of analytical psychology February 2022 DOI: 10.1111/1468-5922.12763 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Amerindian perspectivism Jaguar Jungian psychology Jungianische psychologie Perspectivismo ameríndio Perspektivismus amerikanischer indianer Schamanismus Chamanisme Giaguaro Indigene mythologien Indigenous mythologies Mitologias indígenas Mitologie indigene Mitologías indígenas Mythologies indigènes Onça-pintada Perspectivisme amérindien Perspectivismo amerindio Prospettivismo amerindio Psicologia junghiana Psicologia junguiana Psicología junguiana Psychologie jungienne Sciamanismo Shamanismo Xamanismo Yaguar Индейский перспективизм Мифологии коренного населения Шаманизм Юнгианская психология Ягуар 土著神话 美洲印第安人 美洲豹 荣格心理学 萨满主义 视角主义 |
| Key points | Argues that Amerindian perspectivism and shamanism, in which humans and animals form a continuous field, resonate with Jung's ideas of synchronicity and the conscious-unconscious relationship, and proposes the jaguar as an archetypal image of the "numinosum" that activates the unconscious. The authors suggest this framework expands clinical understanding of the human being in the world and of the humanity in those who have become animal. |
Abstract
Amerindians, living in a perspective of synchronicity, attribute to symmetry a negative value that produces an understanding of unstable dualism cosmologies, in a continuous and dynamic imbalance, in a notion of complementarity between conscious and unconscious. These notions are in line with the view of synchronicity proposed by Jung (1952/1972) and Cambray (2013), a view that expands temporal, acausal boundaries, within a perspective of interconnection, resonance and correspondence. Amerindian epistemologies break-up the discontinuity between animals and humans. By establishing a parallel with the Jungian concept of the relationship between unconscious and conscious, we reach a dimension of personification of both, a continuous and permanent flow of meaning. We introduce the jaguar as a symbol of Amerindian cultures and as an archetypal image of the numinosum that activates the unconscious, in asymmetrical and symmetrical movements. This is a qualitative contribution of indigenous mythologies to the understanding of the relationship between unconscious and conscious. Through perspectivism and Amerindian shamanism, we reflect on the archetypal image of the jaguar, as a mythological Latin American knowledge, which contributes to an understanding of the human being in the world, in an instinctive and spiritual integration. Recognizing this cosmos expands the ability to observe and access another point of view, in which the human being is seen in the jaguar, a personification or psychification of his unconscious. In clinical practice, it means finding the humanity that was left behind by that human who became an animal. The shaman, as a therapist, takes on the role of an active interlocutor in the exchange of human and non-human subjectivities, in an amplification process.