A Proposed Study of the Religious Significance of Self Mutilation and Bulimia
to Inform the Clinical Practice of Psychotherapy.
Introduction:
I am pursuing the notion that individuals who suffer from self -harm (or self inflicted violence) do so as an act of survival to transcend a confusing and bizarre situation. My clinical observations lead me to conclude that:
The child who experiences Trauma regresses into primitive ways of thinking as a means of coping where there are no stable adults available to guide them into progress/constructive ways of thinking.
With normal parenting a child is protected from trauma or if trauma occurs, receives adult guidance to transcend it and thereby acquires skills to cope. Without such guidance a child falls back on innate primal functions described by Jung as 'the collective unconscious' (Jung 95:408). Harrison aptly documented this primal behavioural development as 'aversion based upon ignorance and fear- 'do ut des" (Harrison 91:161).
It appears to me that years before the problem of cutting manifests the traumatised child haphazardly travels backward through the collective social/psychological development that has taken mankind thousands of years to transcend , like some H. G. Wells Time machine going back into antiquity and falls upon ancient primitive thinking and magical aptly thinking described by Harrison (ibid).
The patient having regressed and stumbled upon primitive thinking while in a state of confusion does so primarily because of the absence of adequate parental/adult guidance.
The act of self harm develops post-puberty as a means of coping with the 'antonymous complex' (Jung 90:25/187) consequent to the untreated trauma.
Another common factor in self harm is the confusion/disrespect concerning food. Food has taken on negative meaning. However this area of concern is indeed complex and would require more space than I have available here.
As their Therapist my task includes assisting the patient to transcend from the primitive act of 'doing' to the reflective use of the 'symbolic' whilst at the same time retaining the meaning the patient has already found within the act of self harm.
I would like to share with others the possible connection between the act of self harm and the experience of the mystical in an attempt to inform psychotherapeutic practice when working with patients who suffer from acts of self mutilation (cutting). Thereby treating the act of self harm as a sacred act which needs to be transformed into a symbolic experience by exploring other ways less harmful ways to integrate the need to self mutilate.
The first Hypothesis:
That the act of 'blood letting' and 'secret hunger' may compare with cannibalism (as a power) or cultural system as does the symbol of the Eucharist (as a power) or cultural system compares with religious mystical experience.
The act of self harm is a primitive method of coping with chaotic and terrifying circumstances, totally lacking the subsequent process of reflection. The 'choice' of doing self harm may be a regressive one reaching back into the 'collective unconscious'(see also Jung 60:112ff) as observed in the primitive rites of cannibalism, (documented in anthropological studies undertaken by Bynum and Sanday (Bynum 88:206/7) (Sunday 86:117)).
Within the psyche of the cannibalistic cultural system the act of self harm also lacks the transforming symbol, and so the channelling of energy never leaves the realm of the diffuse. Combine the absence of reflection with the absence of a transforming symbol creates a 'stuck' condition where the subjects themselves become the symbol of blood in their own eyes. That females in particular, identify themselves as food, to eat and be eaten of God, focussing on hunger sensations as food preparers, food abstainers and as (breast) feeding bodies.
Therefore, the illness of self mutilation is not necessarily one of self hate, but a primitive means of coping, derived from the collective unconscious. Thus the subject, while still a child, regresses into primitive religious rites trying to expiate the internal suffering and chaotic experience. Self harm itself then becomes a symbol of chaos equated with all that must be dominated, controlled or repressed.
The second Hypothesis:
That there is a process which includes steps which can be identified in the transformation from primitive action to creative symbolism as can be found within the history of Christian teaching of the Eucharist. Such a process may include the 'notion of naming' illustrated by Jung: ....'The words of the Sanctus, "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini," ("Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.") This rite points to the expected appearance of the Lord, a preparation, on the ancient principle that "naming" has the force of a "summons."(Jung 91:213).
Observations from clinical practise:
Regression by the patient into antiquity in order to find a solution can have consequences in other functional areas of the psyche. A classic primitive method of thinking involves 'splitting'. Such a person caught up in this mode of behaviour may develop 'autonomous complexes' as a perverse way of coping (say) with the persistent bullying or past sexual abuse. It is as though that part of their past which they found difficult, even impossible to come to terms with, is 'severed' and forms into an 'autonomous complex' (Jung 90:ibid) of hurt, shame and hatred. A second autonomous complex may then arise to 'cope' or handle the first complex. This second autonomous complex takes the 'high ground' and is given the duty of punishing the pain and hurt captured in the first autonomous complex. Consequently, the Ego, in order to prevent direct contact with the pain of past suffering will rely upon the second complex to make direct contact. This may be done, as we well know, via the act of cutting or rejecting (vomiting.)
At this stage of disintegration, the act of cutting itself is a primary form of communication between the Ego and the antonymous complex containing the deep hurt experienced in the past. If the act of cutting is understood in this way, the Therapist is suddenly faced with the act of cutting as a 'God send' because if contact between the complexes were to cease altogether, the patient would be beyond help! The psychological split would be complete.
Instead, the Therapist must also see the second complex 'the cutter' not as something to be despised, but rather as a complex that has the nature of the 'sacred' (Jung 91:301). The second complex has been unconsciously formed to 'cope' with the shame, pain and chaos within. It can be likened to a high priest/ priestess whose job is to expiate, to bleed away the sins of the past.
Bibliography:
C.G.Jung. Vol' 5 ' Collective Works ' Symbols of Transformation' 1995: London.
C.G.Jung. Vol' 7 ' Collective Works 'Two Essays on Analytical Psychology' 1990: London.
C.G.Jung. Vol' 8 ' Collective Works 'The structure and Dynamics of the Psyche' 1960: London.
C.G.Jung. Vol' 11' Collective Works 'Psychology and Religion: West and East' 1991: London
Caroline Walker Bynum .'Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women' 1988 California.
Peggy Reeves Sanday. 'Divine Hunger: Cannibalism as a Cultural System' 1986 Cambridge.
J. E. Harrison 'Prolegomena To the study of Greek Religion.' 1992 Princeton University Press.
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