History of Psychology through Symbols: From Reflective Study to Active Engagement. Volume 1: Historic Roots [1 ed.] 0367466759, 9780367466756

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Endorsements
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. History of Psychology through Symbols: From Reflective Study to Active Engagement
Introduction
How to Engage the Text
Assume a Critical-Emancipatory Perspective
Engage Symbols as a Universal Teacher
Embrace the Existence of Shadow in All Human Activity
Situate Psychological History in Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems
Apply History to Daily Life
How to Engage Each Chapter
Reflect on Each Symbol
Read the Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems Analysis
Read the Historic Developments in Psychology
Consider Applying the Emancipatory Opportunities
Answer Key Course Questions
Review the Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
Review References
Review the Impact of Symbols on Learning
How to Engage the Two Volumes
Volume One – The Historic Roots of Modern Psychology
Volume Two – The Development of Modern Psychology
The Four Forces of Modern Psychology
The First Force – Psychodynamic Psychology
The Second Force – Behavioral Psychology
The Third Force – Humanistic-Existential Psychology
The Fourth Force – Transpersonal Psychology
Questions 1
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
2. Symbols of the Axial Age: The Age of Psychological Transformation
Introduction
Psychology beyond the Greeks
The Origin and Goal of History
Scientific Method
Controversies
Symbol and the Universalistic Vision
Shadow
Beyond Western Ethnocentrism
Zoroastrianism – Iran
Historical Analysis of Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrian Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Zoroastrianism
Hinduism – India
Historical Analysis of Hinduism
Hindu Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Hinduism
Buddhism – India
Historical Analysis of Buddhism
Buddhist Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Buddhism
Confucianism – China
Historical Analysis of Confucianism
Confucian Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Confucianism
Daoism – China
Historical Analysis of Daoism
Daoist Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Daoism
Judaism – Palestine
Historical Analysis of Judaism
Psychology of Judaism
Emancipatory Opportunities in Judaism
Questions 2
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
3. Symbols of the Greek Era: The Foundation of Western Psychology
Introduction
Greeks in the Axial Age
An Encounter with Myth
From Mythology to Philosophy
Greek Era
Historical Analysis
Greek Psychology in the Axial Age
The Pre-Socratic Revolution
Classical Greek Philosophy
Emancipatory Opportunities in Greek Philosophy
Questions 3
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
4. Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras
Introduction
The End of the Axial Age
Hellenistic Age – Greece
Historical Analysis of Hellenistic Age
Hellenistic Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Hellenistic Psychology
Christian Era
Historic Analysis of Christian Era
Christian Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities in Christianity
Islam
Historical Analysis of Islam
Psychology of Islam
Emancipatory Opportunities in Islam
Questions 4
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
5. Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment
Introduction
Renaissance
Scientific Revolution
The Enlightenment
The Renaissance
Historical Analysis of Renaissance
Renaissance Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities of the Renaissance
The Scientific Revolution
Historical Analysis of the Scientific Revolution
Psychology and the Scientific Revolution
Emancipatory Opportunities of the Scientific Revolution
The Enlightenment
Historical Analysis of the Enlightenment
Enlightenment Psychology
Emancipatory Opportunities of Enlightenment
Questions 5
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
6. The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness: Past, Present, and a New Vision for the Future
Introduction
A New Vision
Definition of Mental Illness
A Community Mental Health Vision
Mental Illness
Historical Analysis of Mental Illness
Historically Based Best Practices
A Half Century of Darkness: 1900–1950
The End of Moral Treatment
The Psychiatric Pharmaceutical Revolution
First Generation Antipsychotics
Second-Generation Antipsychotics
The Psychological Revolution in the Treatment of Mental Illness
Behaviorism
Psychoanalysis
Jungian Analysis
Existential and Transpersonal Psychology
The Community Mental Health Revolution
Deinstitutionalization and the Birth of Community Mental Health
Community Psychology
Clinical Psychology and the Realigned Community Mental Health System
Innovation and Best Practices in Community Mental Health
The Consumer and Family Member Revolution
The Psychiatric Survivors Antipsychiatry Movement
Controversy between Clients and Their Families – Involuntary Care
National Alliance on Mental Health
Emancipatory Opportunities to Transform the Mental Health System
Questions 6
Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols
References
Index

Citation preview

History of Psychology through Symbols

Volume One of The History of Psychology through Symbols provides a groundbreaking approach by expanding the roots of psychology beyond the Greeks to concurrent events during the same period (800 BCE–200 BCE), defined as the Axial Age by German-Swiss psychiatrist Karl Jaspers. The Axial Age emphasized seeking the universal connection that unites all humanity, a focus not on what one believed, but how one lived. This includes the human desire to connect to something greater, the totality of being human, explained by using symbols, the universal language. This volume describes the psychological implications of the Axial Age through the developments of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as Greek thought. Rooted in the Axial Age, Volume One explores how the Christian and Islamic eras influenced psychology, which resulted in the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, which provided the historic roots of modern psychology. Rejecting the idea that science transcends historical events, this volume provides a political, socioeconomic, and cultural context for all the historic developments. The chapter on the history of mental illness provides inspiration for a new mental health system with specific recommendations for radical system reform. In the spirit of the Axial Age on the importance of how one lives, there is an emphasis on engagement with symbols and with specific exercises, called emancipatory opportunities, to apply the lessons of psychological history to daily life. This book is ideal for those seeking a dynamic and engaging way of learning about or teaching the history of psychology and would also be of interest to students, practitioners, and scholars of science, philosophy, history and systems, religious studies, art, and mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, as well as those interested in applying the lessons of history to daily life. James L. Broderick, PhD, ABPP, is Board Certified in Clinical Psychology and currently in private practice in Santa Barbara, California. He is the former Chair of the Clinical Psychology Program and current adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, California; he was formerly the director of Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol services in Shasta and Santa Barbara Counties in California. Website: newlifesb.com

“Jim Broderick’s History of Psychology Through Symbols is a radically original and deeply thoughtful way of creatively reimagining a story that we tend to see as hum-drum and all-too-familar.” Christine Downing, author of Mythopoetic Musings “Long fascinated by the analysis of myth, symbol, and story-telling in understanding the human psyche, I approached The History of Psychology through Symbols by Jim Broderick with great interest. I was rewarded with an incredibly original, evocative, and encyclopedic yet highly readable work that employs the very medium he analyzes – the experience and meaning of symbols. Charting its political, historical, and socioeconomic evolution, Dr. Broderick invites the reader to explore the power of symbol from the earliest religions to modern psychology. It is with great pleasure that I recommend this book to all who share the enchantment of the symbolproducing brain.” John C. Robinson, PhD, DMin, author: Death of a Hero, Birth of the Soul; What Aging Men Want: The Odyssey as a Parable of Male Aging; Bedtime Stories for Elders: What Fairy Tales Can Teach Us About the New Aging

History of Psychology through Symbols

From Reflective Study to Active Engagement Volume 1: Historic Roots

James L. Broderick

Designed cover image: © Getty Illustrations by Danuta Bennett First published 2024 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 James L. Broderick The right of James L. Broderick to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 978-0-367-46675-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-46460-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-46676-3 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763 Typeset in Times New Roman by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.

To my wife, Janness Broderick, whose love has changed my life and whose support for this book was always unwavering. To my late cousin, Vickie Laboto, whose struggles with mental illness inspired my work as a psychologist and my call in the text for a radical reform of the mental health system. Finally, to my deceased parents, Jim and Kay Broderick, who provided the support to explore the world without fear and to my sister, Cheryl Tolin, who always supported following my dreams.

Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfrancis.com

Contents

Acknowledgments 1 History of Psychology through Symbols: From Reflective Study to Active Engagement Introduction 1 How to Engage the Text 2 Assume a Critical-Emancipatory Perspective 2 Engage Symbols as a Universal Teacher 4 Embrace the Existence of Shadow in All Human Activity 8 Situate Psychological History in Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems 10 Apply History to Daily Life 14 How to Engage Each Chapter 14 Reflect on Each Symbol 14 Read the Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems Analysis 14 Read the Historic Developments in Psychology 14 Consider Applying the Emancipatory Opportunities 14 Answer Key Course Questions 15 Review the Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols 15 Review References 15 Review the Impact of Symbols on Learning 15 How to Engage the Two Volumes 15 Volume One – The Historic Roots of Modern Psychology 15 Volume Two – The Development of Modern Psychology 17 The Four Forces of Modern Psychology 17 The First Force – Psychodynamic Psychology 17 The Second Force – Behavioral Psychology 18 The Third Force – Humanistic-Existential Psychology 18 The Fourth Force – Transpersonal Psychology 19 Questions 1 19 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols 20 References 20

xi 1

viii Contents

2 Symbols of the Axial Age: The Age of Psychological Transformation

23

Introduction 23 Psychology beyond the Greeks 23 The Origin and Goal of History 24 Scientific Method 24 Controversies 26 Symbol and the Universalistic Vision 26 Shadow 27 Beyond Western Ethnocentrism 27 Zoroastrianism – Iran 27 Historical Analysis of Zoroastrianism 27 Zoroastrian Psychology 28 Emancipatory Opportunities in Zoroastrianism 32 Hinduism – India 33 Historical Analysis of Hinduism 33 Hindu Psychology 35 Emancipatory Opportunities in Hinduism 41 Buddhism – India 41 Historical Analysis of Buddhism 41 Buddhist Psychology 45 Emancipatory Opportunities in Buddhism 52 Confucianism – China 52 Historical Analysis of Confucianism 52 Confucian Psychology 55 Emancipatory Opportunities in Confucianism 60 Daoism – China 61 Historical Analysis of Daoism 61 Daoist Psychology 63 Emancipatory Opportunities in Daoism 67 Judaism – Palestine 69 Historical Analysis of Judaism 69 Psychology of Judaism 72 Emancipatory Opportunities in Judaism 76 Questions 2 77 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols 77 References 78

3 Symbols of the Greek Era: The Foundation of Western Psychology Introduction 81 Greeks in the Axial Age 81 An Encounter with Myth 82 From Mythology to Philosophy 83

81

Contents ix Greek Era 84 Historical Analysis 84 Greek Psychology in the Axial Age 89 The Pre-Socratic Revolution 95 Classical Greek Philosophy 101 Emancipatory Opportunities in Greek Philosophy 112 Questions 3 113 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols 113 References 114

4 Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras

117

Introduction 117 The End of the Axial Age 117 Hellenistic Age – Greece 118 Historical Analysis of Hellenistic Age 118 Hellenistic Psychology 120 Emancipatory Opportunities in Hellenistic Psychology 124 Christian Era 124 Historic Analysis of Christian Era 124 Christian Psychology 126 Emancipatory Opportunities in Christianity 142 Islam 143 Historical Analysis of Islam 143 Psychology of Islam 145 Emancipatory Opportunities in Islam 149 Questions 4 149 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols 149 References 150

5 Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment Introduction 153 Renaissance 153 Scientific Revolution 155 The Enlightenment 155 The Renaissance 156 Historical Analysis of Renaissance 156 Renaissance Psychology 161 Emancipatory Opportunities of the Renaissance 169 The Scientific Revolution 169 Historical Analysis of the Scientific Revolution 169 Psychology and the Scientific Revolution 173

153

x Contents Emancipatory Opportunities of the Scientific Revolution  181 The Enlightenment  181 Historical Analysis of the Enlightenment  181 Enlightenment Psychology  186 Emancipatory Opportunities of Enlightenment  198 Questions 5  201 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols  201 References 202

6 The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness: Past, Present, and a New Vision for the Future

205

Introduction 205 A New Vision  205 Definition of Mental Illness  205 A Community Mental Health Vision  206 Mental Illness  207 Historical Analysis of Mental Illness  207 Historically Based Best Practices  221 A Half Century of Darkness: 1900–1950  233 The End of Moral Treatment  233 The Psychiatric Pharmaceutical Revolution  243 First Generation Antipsychotics  243 Second-Generation Antipsychotics  245 The Psychological Revolution in the Treatment of Mental Illness  247 Behaviorism 247 Psychoanalysis 247 Jungian Analysis  248 Existential and Transpersonal Psychology  248 The Community Mental Health Revolution  250 Deinstitutionalization and the Birth of Community Mental Health  250 Community Psychology  253 Clinical Psychology and the Realigned Community Mental Health System  254 Innovation and Best Practices in Community Mental Health  255 The Consumer and Family Member Revolution  260 The Psychiatric Survivors Antipsychiatry Movement  260 Controversy between Clients and Their Families – Involuntary Care  261 National Alliance on Mental Health  261 Emancipatory Opportunities to Transform the Mental Health System  265 Questions 6  267 Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols  268 References 268

Index

274

Acknowledgments

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank my wife, Janness Broderick, LCSW, for her ongoing support and love throughout the three-year writing process. I was also fortunate to find an incredible artist, Danuta Bennett, who embraced my vision and worked tirelessly to develop incredible artistic symbols that inspire an experience of history beyond my words. To The Pacifica Graduate Institute, particularly mentors Allen Bishop and Christine Downing, who always supported my work as chair and professor in the Clinical Psychology Program, and to the students in my history and systems classes that encouraged the development of a more dynamic textbook. To my writing editor, Barbara Brown, who gave me the confidence to write a book that was not only complex and detailed, but hopefully inspirational, visionary, and engaging. To my Santa Barbara ‘brothers’ Michael Kramer and Wayne Hewitt, who provided love and support throughout the challenging times of writing the two-volume textbook. None of this would have been possible without the encouragement and patience of Adam Woods, the editor at Routledge of Contextual and Historical Influences in Psychology (CHIP).

Figure 1.0

1

History of Psychology through Symbols From Reflective Study to Active Engagement

Introduction We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. - Albert Einstein

Inspired by the words of Einstein, the goal of this text is not to view psychology and history from the same thinking that has been unable to solve some of the most critical problems in history. The text is based on the belief that history becomes more deeply meaningful when it is experienced by active engagement, beyond reflective study. History comes alive when there is awareness that history lives within each human being, and when history is personally engaging, it becomes transformative because history is not just about the past, but the present and the future. Having taught a history and systems course for over 12 years, I have been unable to find a text that inspired students to see themselves as active participants in a dynamic and emancipatory historic process. I wanted them to reject the belief that history is over because, in many ways, it is just beginning as one looks at the current state of a world that seems unable to learn from history. My hope is that each chapter will be approached from the Einstein spirit to think differently, to suspend previously held biases because all the great thinkers in psychology wanted to make a unique and transformative contribution and were often frustrated toward the end of their lives because their vision appeared unattainable. Something changed dramatically when I brought symbols to my history and systems classes. Students began to see deeper meaning in the historic events in psychology. There was an awareness that history was beyond understanding great visionaries or their theories. Symbols spoke to a connection beyond American ethnocentrism, a link to the universal experience of being human. This inspired my vision for a different textbook that would guide the reader through symbolic representations of psychological theories. This led to Danuta Bennett, a visual artist and active member of the artistic community in Santa Barbara, California. Danuta’s artwork continually moves between the abstract and realistic styles. Usage of visual metaphor is a key aspect of her artistic expression and a tool for communicating complex ideas or emotions. Danuta has been an active participant in the local psychological world, a cofounder of the Aeolian Center for Psychotherapy and Creativity that provides lectures and workshops with a focus on psychology and the arts. Danuta is the creator of the symbolic artwork and digital collages throughout the text. For three years, both the author and the artist have been inspired by how symbols changed our understanding of the history of psychology and created the possibility for personal transformation. Another example of thinking differently requires an openness to the psychological importance of the Axial Age, the period from 800 to 200 BCE, in which one of the largest expansion of human DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-1

2  History of Psychology through Symbols consciousness occurred in human history (Vol. I, Chs. 2 and 3). The Greeks, in concert with developments in China, India, Iran, and Palestine, laid the foundation of modern science and psychology. Often relegated as simply religious or irrelevant to psychology, the Axial Age reminds us that the psychological issues raised during that period in history remain current and the problems unresolved. The text will come full circle with what Axial Age scholars confronted centuries ago with the development of transpersonal psychology in the last chapter (Vol. II, Ch. 6). In The Origin and Goal of History, Karl Jaspers (2010), a Swiss-German psychiatrist, identified the Axial Age and reminded us there was one single origin and goal of civilization that unites all humanity, but it is still unknown and remains a mystery to be solved. During the Axial Age, there was a belief that answers needed to be universal because the single origin can never be discovered by dogmatism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, or colonialism. Because no single nation or culture has all the answers, a dogmatic attachment to knowledge often encourages ignorance and even violence and brutality because of the tendency for hegemony which is the dominance, often oppression, of one country or social group over another country or social group. Where there once was religion, ideology, and scientific hegemony, there could now be the universality of human experience discovered through the truths from the Axial Age. For Jaspers, the Axial Age provided a model for a universalistic vision of civilization because the modern claims to exclusive truth and correct ideologies continue to cause fanaticism, international divisions, and war. In the final analysis, the Axial Age sages were more concerned with how one lived, rather than what one believed. It was most important to start with humanity as a universal, not sectarian, concept and for each person to become a model for the liberation of the world by living a life of humility, morality, ethics, and compassion. It is in this psychological consciousness where history could truly begin the emancipation of humanity. To achieve the goal of active engagement in the history of psychology through symbol, this chapter will address how to engage the text in each individual chapter and the two volumes. (Please note that Volume I, Historic Roots, and Volume II, Modern Development, each have six chapters.) How to Engage the Text Assume a Critical-Emancipatory Perspective I am nothing, if not critical.

- Othello, William Shakespeare

Critical emancipatory psychology provides a way to situate psychology in history. Rooted in critical theory of the Frankfurt School and Institute of Social Research, the Frankfurt School provided a psychological method during the twentieth century for understanding the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, and the failure of Marxist-Leninism in the Soviet Union. Critical theory appealed to this American living through the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s because it required an ability to both understand the prevailing historical conditions and provide the opportunity to free oneself from the ills of historical conditions. Friedrich Nietzsche (2010) believed a critical approach to history required the ability to break with past knowledge that appears sacrosanct and freely expose, without question, the mistakes of past understandings. This means freely examining without preconceptions how the lessons of history can inspire an openness to live differently to create a more just and psychologically healthy world. The critical theorists in mid-twentieth-century psychology added the emancipatory element to paraphrase a famous quote: Psychologists have only interpreted and understood

History of Psychology through Symbols 3 the world in various ways. The point is to change it. Throughout the text, it means that action starts by applying the learnings from history, not only toward major social and political change but also in daily life to take advantage of emancipatory opportunities that history provides, or in Nietzschean terms, living, not only studying, the gifts of history. I was fortunate to have parents that were supportive of education and open to knowledge that could make one uncomfortable. Having lived through the Great Depression, they believed that a highly educated population could prevent that horrific time in American history when so many people suffered. In my travels to China, Cuba, and, at the time, the Soviet Union, I was not fearful to listen to Marxist ideas. For instance, not to fear the view that society and science reflect the dominant social class or how economics impacts human behavior. However, I also witnessed the shadow of oppressive state control and the suppression of free thought that undermines the very liberation that Marxists espouse. Because of my nearly 50 years in mental health and psychology, I was fortunate to have been exposed to many diverse viewpoints that created an understanding that all the schools of thought are special and all the visionary leaders in psychology sought a dramatically different world. Rooted in Jungian and psychodynamic thought, I came to value behaviorism, humanisticexistential, and transpersonal psychology. My undergraduate background in experimental psychology taught the importance of a natural science perspective in psychology as I marveled how the behavior of the rats in my laboratory changed dramatically through the practice of behaviorism (Vol. II, Ch. 4). I attended the honoring of B. F. Skinner at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972 when Skinner was named the “Humanist of the Year” by the American Humanist Association for his contribution to improve the lives of the mentally disabled (Vol. II, Ch. 4). In graduate school, as I studied to become a clinical psychologist, I met Carl Rogers and marveled at his humanistic view and the power of unconditional positive regard and how people grow emotionally when they feel “seen” and “heard” (Vol. II, Ch. 5). In my own Jungian analysis with Robert Johnson, the writer of He, She, We, and other best-selling Jungian works, I experienced the incredible power of dreams and the collective unconscious (Vol. II, Ch. 3). Traveling to the Jungian Institute in Switzerland, I experienced the power of symbol in Jungian-oriented sandplay therapy with Dora Kalf, which changed my clinical perspective forever (Vol. II, Ch. 3). Having a transpersonal psychology class in graduate school from Stanislav Grof, the visionary in psychedelic treatment, I learned the potential healing power of psychedelic drugs (Vol. II, Ch. 6). Classes taught by Erving and Mariam Polster inspired the use of Gestalt therapy techniques in my clinical practice (Vol. II, Ch. 5). Being a mental health director and working in community mental health for 29 years, I learned how individuals with mental illness were confined throughout history to the constraints of political, socio-economic, and cultural systems and witnessed through activism and advocacy the power to change some of those constraints (Vol. I, Ch. 6). As the chair of the Clinical Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute for over six years, I learned the importance of teaching and training psychologists to value all Four Forces of Psychology, which include psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal perspectives (Vol. II, Chs. 2–6). What was often challenging was how to integrate all these meaningful experiences into a cohesive and theoretical understanding. The search led to Jürgen Habermas (1972), the critical theorist of the Frankfurt School, who provided a systematic way to integrate the divergent schools in psychology. Habermas spoke to my lived experience of three scientific interests in psychology. In the natural sciences, a technical, objective interest; in the humanistic sciences, a hermeneutic interest; and in the social sciences, a critical-emancipatory interest.

4  History of Psychology through Symbols Scientific Interests in Psychology Natural Sciences – Technical interest in objective measurement of observable phenomena. Humanistic Sciences – Hermeneutic interest in interpretation and explanation of phenomena. Social Sciences – Critical-Emancipatory interest to emancipate individuals from the constraints of political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems. A critical consciousness avoids the tendency in psychology to view scientific interests narrowly because these major scientific interests permeate the modern Four Forces of Psychology (Vol. II, Chs. 2–6) of psychodynamic (psychoanalysis and Jungian analytical psychology), behaviorism, humanistic-existentialism, and transpersonal psychology. Although in this framework psychanalysis would be considered a humanistic science, Freud was influenced by the natural sciences. Although behaviorism exists in the objective natural science world, hermeneutics influenced the development of cognitive behavioral therapy. Although humanisticexistential psychology is a foundational humanistic science, Maurice Merleau-Ponty added the natural science perspective. Although transpersonal psychology developed from the humanistic-existential force, with the renaissance in psychedelic treatment, there is an opportunity for a rapprochement between the natural and hermeneutic sciences for a better understanding of the healing potential of psychedelic drugs. Throughout history, psychologists have had a social science, critical emancipatory interest, wanting to change or improve the world, especially the great thinkers of the Four Forces of Psychology. Sigmund Freud believed that civilization was at risk because of its reluctance to accept the dangers of unconscious id forces. Carl Jung argued that communism and authoritarianism were degrading the individual. B. F. Skinner believed that societal engineering would save humanity from the ills of the modern world. Carl Rogers argued for a person-centered dialogic politics. Abraham Maslow believed that human needs had to be attained on a hierarchy and later argued the world was in great need for spiritual self-actualization. All the great thinkers and movements in psychology have been impacted by these three major scientific interests; the text will not only consider the differences but also the similarities, which are often neglected in psychological history. As an example, Skinner was fascinated by the Rorschach test and wanted to be psychoanalyzed (Vol. II, Ch. 4). Freud experienced the transpersonal world through his experimentation with cocaine (Vol. II, Ch. 2). Maslow was the first doctoral student of Harry Harlow, the renowned and controversial experimental psychologist (Vol. II, Ch. 5). Rogers and Aaron Beck, like many of the great psychologists in history, began their careers as psychoanalysts (Vol. II, Ch. 5). It is important to understand that the new visions of these pioneers required the ability and strength in the spirit of Einstein to not only break with past knowledge that appeared sacrosanct but create something new from the break. Engage Symbols as a Universal Teacher

As the mind explores a symbol (it) is led to ideas beyond the grasp of reason…Because there are immeasurable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully understand. - Carl Jung (1964)

History of Psychology through Symbols  5 Unique to history and system texts, Jungian psychology will provide a context to deepen the understanding of psychological history (Vol. II, Ch. 3). If Karl Jaspers contributed the concept of making conscious the universal drive during the Axial Age to discover the single origin of civilization, Carl Jung contributed the universal archetypes, which exist in the collective unconscious (Jung, 1954). When it comes to understanding the unconscious and the psychoanalytic movement, it is important to understand that Freud cannot be understood without Jung. Unlike Freud, Jung made the effort to base his psychological theories beyond Euro-centric thought. For Jung, symbols, the language of the unconscious, connect humanity to the universal experience of being human and allow for an expansion of consciousness beyond cultural constraints. The word symbol is rooted in the Greek sym, which means together or with another at the same time, and Bolon or bole, meaning thrown together. The Greeks used symbols to describe two halves of a coin which two parties broke between themselves as a pledge to each other. The symbol became a way to refer to a missing part a wholeness broken, forever sought. Symbols make history personal because they reawaken the human need to restore the connection that has been broken. Jaspers believed the universal experience of being human occurs through symbols because they communicate universal truths. Symbols transcend race, religion, and national boundaries because they point toward one singular human consciousness. In his book Truth and Symbol, Jaspers (1959) turned to symbols as the mediator between an objective and subjective experience of the world because in the encounter with symbols, a connection to the universal experience of being human occurs. Like the symbol of the Greek coin, an internal process is activated, which creates the feeling of completeness.

Figure 1.1 

Carl Jung believed symbols were the language of the unconscious because a symbol connects the conscious mind to the collective unconscious, which contains inherited psychic structures and archetypes that are present at birth and extend backward in time, even to unremembered prehistory (Jung, 1954). Symbols from the collective unconscious represent the universality of human history and transcend culture and national boundaries (Wilmer, 1987)

6  History of Psychology through Symbols Rooted in Hinduism, Buddhism, and many spiritual movements, a mandala represents a sacred journey for many generations, a journey that starts from the outside and through many layers of experiences moves to an inner core, which is the intent of all the chapters in this text. The process that starts from the outside, but through the engagement of symbols, becomes internalized as “lived history.” Jung (1963) believed the mandala reflected the inner state of the mind at the moment of being creative because the urge to make mandalas emerge at a time of intense creativity and personal growth, a time of a “profound re-balancing” process in the psyche. In terms of the history of psychology, the mandala symbolizes the “profound re-balancing” of the natural, humanistic, and social scientific impulses to restore a previously existing order and give expression to a psychology still in the process of creating something new, something that does not yet exist. The natural science symbol is rooted in the Axial Age Greek Theogony, a poem, an organized narrative by Hesiod (770–600 BCE), a myth that tells how the natural world came into existence and how the Greek gods established permanent control over the natural world. As many scientists believe today, the initial state of the universe was chaos, a dark void considered a primordial condition from which the natural world emerged. The Theogonies are part of Greek mythology that seek to articulate a universal reality, the universalizing impulse of the natural world (Sandwell, 1995). Those that follow the natural sciences view the natural world as a separate object of human knowledge, a third-person understanding. The hope is that the “natural science” gods can provide objective and technical information about the natural world symbolized by a “black hole” that radiates physical life, chaos, but still in darkness waiting for the natural scientists to explain its origin. The humanistic science symbol is rooted in the myth of Hermes and his gift of hermeneutics, which means in Greek, to translate and interpret. Since he invented language and speech, Hermes functioned as an interpreter and mediator between the human and divine worlds. He was also a trickster and was at ease with the limitations of language and speech because a healthy skepticism about words and language is essential. The limitations only highlight the importance of interpretation and translation of concepts in the pursuit of true knowledge. Hermes is often symbolized as a tortoise because human knowledge develops slowly and methodologically and is often a result of “divine inspiration.” Like the tortoise, everyone carries the story of humanity, the tortoise on their back, a human being on their fingerprints. Those that

Figure 1.2 

History of Psychology through Symbols 7 follow the humanistic sciences view the world subjectively, pursue a first-person understanding, symbolized by the tree of life because an individual is rooted in history and seeks a connection to the universal experience of being human. The social science impulse is rooted in emancipation from political, socioeconomic, and cultural constraints. Although the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln initially only freed those enslaved in the rebellious south and left slavery untouched in the north, it was not until the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1865 that slavery and involuntary servitude was abolished. The Latin meaning of emancipation is freedom from physical bondage and to no longer be considered as property to buy and sell. The idea of emancipation is deeply rooted in American culture and, although African Americans were physically freed from slavery, the constraints of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural bondage have continued throughout American history.

Figure 1.3 

Fawodhodie ene obre na enam Emancipation (Freedom) Comes with Its Responsibilities The Fawodhodie is an Adinkra symbol from the Akan culture in present-day Ghana and the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire of West Africa. It is important because the Akan culture can be found in the Americas, because about 10 percent of all slave ships that embarked from the coast of West Africa to the Americas contained Akan people. Akan captives were known for seeking emancipation from slavery and were leaders in slave revolts and plantation resistance tactics (Appiah, 1993). The symbolically rich Ghanian culture views symbols as essential for enriching daily life because Adinkra symbols convey concepts, meanings, and proverbs on buildings, sculptures, clothing, pottery, and even household items (Korankye, 2021). The Fawodhodie Adinkra symbol requires that emancipation comes with responsibilities, that humanity creates their own destiny but must work hard and take personal responsibility for social change (Konadu & Campbell, 2016). Those that follow the social sciences view the world as based in social relationships because the universal experience of being human is being part of a system, a member of a society. Symbols will be utilized throughout the text to seek the deeper, universal, meaning that connects all of humanity. To understand the meaning of symbol, Jaspers believed it was essential to suspend the cognitive process and engage the symbol without rational judgment. Let the symbols speak for themselves; suspend judgment; let the symbol expand and enliven the message.

8  History of Psychology through Symbols Embrace the Existence of Shadow in All Human Activity Filling the mind with ideal conceptions is characteristic of Western philosophy but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. - Carl Jung (1945) We have Met the Enemy and He is US

- (Pogo) Walt Kelly (1987)

One of the greatest contributions of Jung is the concept of shadow, the unconscious part of personality that the ego rejects and often projects on others (Johnson, 1994; Jung, 1945; Stevens, 1991). It is also the aspect of personality that is suppressed because of social and cultural conditioning. Beyond the individual, the shadow has implications for understanding and changing history because shadow denial has led to unthinkable human suffering and violence. Examples in psychology include the shadow elements in the eugenic movement that inspired Nazism and the horrific treatment of individuals with mental illness (Vol. I, Ch. 6). Earlier in history, the shadow of the crusades was where Christians sought to destroy any remnants of Greek or socalled pagan culture (Vol. I, Ch. 4). The shadow of religious fanaticism in the inquisition and the politicization of religious beliefs (Vol. I, Ch. 4) led to the Renaissance and the Reformation (Vol. I, Ch. 5). A shadow is always present even when it appears there is no shadow. When there is talk of great progress and personal or social transformation, look for a shadow. When the internet developed, there was little concern of the shadow elements of economic exploitation, loss of privacy, or political and social disinformation. When Facebook was created, beyond the excitement of reconnection to old friends or a way to develop new relationships, there was little awareness of how the site could also become a forum for hate, intimidation, and psychological abuse. The question remains whether society has learned from these experiences or will continue to deny the shadow elements of so-called progress or the next “shiny object” like artificial intelligence.

Figure 1.4 

History of Psychology through Symbols 9 The Axial Age reminds us that changing consciousness is difficult because real change is not about satisfying the endless desires of the ego. Rather, a major goal of the Axial Age was to create systems of thought and ways of being to overcome the human suffering that resulted from an overemphasis on the needs of the ego. Shadow forces also dominated Axial Age societies because even with the expansion of consciousness there was no end to human suffering. This particularly applied to the role and place of women and the continuation of slavery in Axial Age societies. Men were the focus because men were viewed as the cause of much of the shadow of greed, violence, and emotional destructiveness. (Armstrong, 2008). The process of shadow integration usually starts with small beginnings, as when the Buddha acknowledged women as equal members of his sangha by the involvement of his wife and when his stepmother became the first Buddhist nun (Carrithers, 1996). In the 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886/2022), Dr. Henry Jekyll, a kind and respected doctor in an attempt to deny his shadow, developed a type of serum to mask his dark feelings and instead turned into Edward Hyde, the physical and psychological manifestation of his shadow. As the serum became ineffective, the shadow consumed him and he said, “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.” The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shows how the shadow can overwhelm, shock, and paralyze the conscious mind. When possessed by a shadow, Jung believed there was emotional entrapment, self-destructive behavior, and a lack of psychological development. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde remind that when the conscious Jekyll personality cannot integrate the Mr. Hyde shadow, the conscious Jekyll creates a separate destructive autonomous shadow that leads to a psychological death. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a Rorschach symbolizes the conscious ego and the unconscious shadow integrated. When this occurs, there can be numinous, awe-inspiring, and spiritual feelings because the mask of conventional adaptation is broken. These feelings can be fleeting because to assure that Mr. Hyde is under the conscious control of Dr. Jekyll requires the ongoing psychological challenge of shadow integration. The symbol also applies to societal shadow because history has shown the dire consequences when societies or professions like psychology deny shadow. In terms of societies, the shadow of racism, sexism, or authoritarianism has shown not only the risk to the physical health of individual lives, but also how shadow denial creates a psychological death for both the oppressor and the oppressed. Psychology has embraced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as the scientific model of the future, with the goal of psychology being viewed as a true science that will not only enhance its general credibility but also allow for the procurement of limited research funding. On the surface this looks like a positive effort to compete with China in the twenty-first century. In reaction, there has been a STE(A)M movement, advocating for the need for the arts, as one way to deal with the shadow of STEM, because in STEM there is no room for the arts, for history, for the subjective and transpersonal. Even beyond higher education, STEM is now taught in high schools throughout America as the true approach to psychology. During the Axial Age, Confucius believed that “the four arts” were essential for higher consciousness, social harmony, and the development of a virtuous and moral human being (Vol. I, Ch. 2). A true scholar or leader needed to learn a musical instrument, paint, do calligraphy, and play, especially the strategy game of Go. Confucius argued that unless humanity addressed the “four arts” and their own moral and ethical development, their teaching and leadership was not only flawed but dangerous (Chan, 1969).

10  History of Psychology through Symbols Besides denying the importance of developing a psychologically balanced human being, STEM thought ignores the importance of the historical context of modern science, the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems that support as well as undermine scientific advancement. This text will not give “lip service” to systems because history proves that it is in systems where science develops and grows or is restrained and oppressed. Situate Psychological History in Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems Political Systems

The word politics is rooted in Greek, polis, which means “city.” As the term evolved in Greece it came to mean city-states ruled by citizens. It is the original view that all politics are local. During the Axial Age, Plato (trans. 1968) defined polis in the Republic as the best form of government because philosophers were acquainted with the Form of Good and could symbolically steer the ship of state in the direction of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. The Form of Good was associated with the sun, but only symbolically, because the sun is not true sight because good is a perfect, eternal, and changeless form outside space and time. For Plato, politics is rooted in understanding that the expression of political power, the expression of good, starts with understanding the transcendental state of human nature; those political leaders, philosopher kings, needed to seek knowledge from something greater beyond the limitations of the physical world. The message not only from the Greeks but also from the other Axial Age thinkers, was that political leadership started with internal psychological development that included a philosophical and spiritual foundation and a commitment to live a life of goodness, humility, ethics, morality, and justice (Vol. I, Ch. 2). Adolf Bastian, a German ethnologist, first introduced the term political psychology in 1860 in Man in History (Britannica, 2022). His theory of elementargedanke also influenced the Jungian concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious, as well as the comparative mythology of Joseph Campbell (Campbell, 1960). Political psychology emerged as a concept of political action during the Franco-Prussian war and the socialist revolution that occurred in 1871 with the creation of the Paris Commune, in which citizens seized political power in Paris and set up a revolutionary and egalitarian government in which the “state withered away.” The Paris Commune abolished government because when everyone took personal responsibility, a higher state of psychological consciousness assured the political viability of the commune. Communard leaders established progressive policies that separated church and state, abolished slavery, and child labor, and allowed workers to seize exploitative private businesses. Threatened, the French army during The Bloody Week in May 1871 seized control and, after only two weeks, dismantled the commune and executed thousands of Communards (Gluckstein, 2006). Chairman Mao Zedong would model the Paris Commune in Shanghai during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Inspired to study the political propaganda of World War I, Harold Lasswell, considered the first American political psychologist, applied Freudian and Adlerian personality theories to politics in Psychopathology and Politics (Lasswell, 2016/1930). Current thinkers identify three phases of political psychology in history that include the era of personality studies in the 1940s and 1950s dominated by psychoanalysis. The second era focused on political attitudes and patterns of voting behavior in the 1960s and 1970s characterized by the popularity of behaviorism. During the third era of the 1980s and 1990s, the psychological impact of political beliefs, information processing, social media, and international politics was studied (Houghton, 2015).

History of Psychology through Symbols 11 The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), founded in 1978, is an international interdisciplinary organization concerned with the relationship between political and psychological processes. The ISPP publishes the Political Psychology journal. Each chapter in the text will focus briefly on how political systems have impacted psychological history and how political systems supported or restricted the development of psychology, particularly the natural, humanistic, and social sciences. An analysis of political systems is essential because politics plays a key role in the advancement of science. The text will demonstrate that politics continues to impact scientific progress even with the modern attempt at political neutrality which often denies the role of politics in determining scientific progress. Socioeconomic Systems Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. - Frederick Douglass In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man. - Franklin D. Roosevelt Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Economic wealth provides special social privileges unavailable to those that struggle economically because economic wealth impacts all aspects of interpersonal relationships including marriage, family life, workplace interactions, and social status in community life. Historically, the lack of socioeconomic power has led to social unrest and revolution because history has shown that an excessive amount of centralized economic power, left unchecked, significantly disrupts the social order. American capitalism is rooted in a competitive, survival of the fittest psychology. Adam Smith (2003/1776), in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, laid the foundation for American capitalism by his beliefs on the nature of wealth, the necessity of free markets, and the benefits of specialization. Like much of early American history, Adam Smith was influenced by the Enlightenment, a period of great debate about social policy, ethics, and the nature of humanity. Having studied moral philosophy, Smith believed that people by nature wanted strong social relationships with other people, but he also believed a stronger motivation was self-love and social concern for family and friends. Because of human nature, people had a strong proclivity to shop and trade; Smith argued this made humans uniquely poised to trade and bargain for goods. He understood that a vibrant commercially based free market economy would mean that some would not be able to compete for wealth, or be unable to develop specialized skills, so the invisible hand of the government would provide a basic standard of living. This meant for the greater economic good of society a capitalistic socioeconomic system necessitated the existence of the poor. After the Great Depression in 1929, President Franklin Roosevelt intervened to save American capitalism with the New Deal, which, among many social reforms, created Social Security, which was the first economic safety net for the elderly, unemployed, and disadvantaged (Rauchway, 2015). During the social upheavals of the1960s, President Lyndon Johnson, in his effort to

12  History of Psychology through Symbols end poverty, proposed Great Society and War on Poverty programs. Although Americans have historically been resistant to a national care system, the Great Society effort produced Medicare for health coverage for Americans over 65 and Medicaid for low-income individuals and their families. With these reforms and the development of strong trade unions, by the middle of the twentieth century, a strong middle class emerged resulting in a more balanced distribution of wealth in America. John Maynard Keyes (1995) and Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman (1990), two of the most prominent twentieth-century economists, disagreed about the role of government intervention in socioeconomic systems. Keyes, especially during the great Depression, believed government should play an activist role in influencing the economy, particularly the manipulation of taxes and government spending. Friedman on the other hand believed an activist government created more problems than it solved and supported the ideas of Adam Smith that free competitive markets left to themselves produced the best economic results. President Ronald Reagan put the economic ideas of Friedman into practice and opposed many of the New Deal and Great Society initiatives, viewing those programs as government overreach assuming the attitude that government was not the solution but the problem. He advocated for a socioeconomic system where economic wealth began with a vibrant and wealthy upper class whose economic successes would “trickle down” to everyone. During the twentieth century, there was a shift from an industrial-based economy focused on production and mechanization to a service-based economy focused on human services and technology. By the 1950s and 1960s, there was a significant increase in the middle class and college-educated individuals who had the financial resources to explore life beyond survival. A new generation of “baby boomers” grew up in financially stable and in often permissive middleclass families where psychology, seeking personal growth and envisioning a world beyond the experience of their parents, became popular. The middle class has historically been associated with modernity and defined broadly as everyone between the richest and poorest classes (Tarkhnishvili & Tarkhnishvili, 2013). By the late twentieth century, the decline of the middle class represented a dramatic socioeconomic change in the United States because between 1973 and 1993 there was a massive redistribution of wealth as $255 billion shifted from the middle class to the upper 1 percent (Dean, 2017). Since 2008, the ranks of the middle class have fallen 20 percent with few, if any significant wage increases since the 1970s, leaving 50 million people living in poverty in the United States. In concert with Axial Age thought regarding the importance of ethics, virtue, and morality, how one lives, Swiss economist Eugen Bohler (1970) applied Jungian concepts to economic science because he believed nowhere was the psyche more fragmented than in modern economic life (Vol. II, Ch. 3). For Bohler, what had been lost in economics was conscience, a sense of balance and wholeness, and an awareness of the contradictory elements that create economic disparities. The resolution of economic inequality was finding the lost morality in economic decisions. Without a rebalanced psyche focused on morality, governmental interference or redistribution of wealth would only strengthen collective mass psychology and decrease individual moral development. In response to the impact of socioeconomic forces, social psychology emerged in the nineteenth century to study the impact of others on the thoughts, feelings, and behavior as well as the psychological internalization of social norms. Social psychologists view human behavior as the relationship between mental processes and social interactions. In response to the turbulent 1960s, interest in cognitive dissonance, bystander intervention, obedience to authority, aggression, persuasion, gender, propaganda, and racism challenged the perceived overemphasis in

History of Psychology through Symbols 13 psychology on the individual and personality development. In the late twentieth century, interest turned to attribution, social cognition, self-concept, and ethical standards to regulate research. But most important in social psychology was concern for the application of psychology to transform social institutions like health, education, law, and the workplace. Each chapter in the text will briefly focus on the importance of socioeconomics because economics provides a way for psychologists to assess moral development throughout human history. Moral development is rooted in social justice, which is concern about the distribution of wealth, economic equality, and financial influence. The process of social justice ensures that individuals can fulfill their societal roles and be treated justly within society, symbolized by social justice, starting in the heart and mind of everyone, not only in societal leaders. Cultural Systems

Culture is the learned, shared traditions and values of members of an arbitrarily defined social system that includes physical expression in many areas of life ranging from the arts, music, sciences, education, technology, to dance, cooking, shelter, and clothing. It also includes the psychological dynamics of mythology, literature, and religious practices. The term culture is often used to make the distinction between high culture of the social elite and low culture of popular folk culture. Cultural psychology emerged in the twentieth century as the study of the way cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express, and transform the human psyche because the mind and culture are inseparable. Linked to Romanticism in the nineteenth century, Wilhelm Wundt (1916/2016), the father of modern psychology, in The Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind, compared the importance of folk psychology to experimental psychology (Vol. II, Ch. 1). Wundt believed experimental psychology explained the outer physical body experiences but did little to explain inner psychological phenomena. Because of its link to Nazism, the term folk psychology became taboo in the 1960s but influenced the development of cross-cultural psychology, which is concerned about the AngloAmerican and Euro-centric bias in psychology. In 1972, the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), established in Hong King, advocates for cultural diversity in psychological studies and research. Unlike cultural psychology, which believes in the limitations of cultural comparisons, cross-cultural psychology in the tradition of the Axial Age, seeks the cultural universals in behavior and mental processes. The IACCP, based at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, publishes the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. There was a move in the late twentieth century to replace transpersonal psychology with multiculturalism as the Fourth Force in Psychology (Pederson, 1991) More than a unique force, multiculturalism is a policy throughout the APA and its 54 divisions. The American Psychological Association (APA, 2002) Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Research, Practice and Organization Change require that all psychologists possess multicultural skills. Since the Three Forces, psychodynamic, behavioral, and humanistic-existential forces, are primarily rooted in European and Anglo-American cultural perspectives, transpersonal psychology is rooted in multicultural history beyond Western ethnocentrism and requires cross-cultural understanding of the universality of human consciousness (Vol. II, Ch. 6). Each chapter in the text will focus briefly on the importance of culture because culture provides a way for psychologists to assess how values, traditions, and social practices have influenced the development of psychology throughout history, and most importantly to free and emancipate scientific inquiry from a purely Eurocentric and Anglo-American cultural perspective.

14  History of Psychology through Symbols Apply History to Daily Life Be the Change you wish to see in the World

- Mahatma Gandhi

Since all the great thinkers in psychology wanted to advance knowledge and make the world a better place, the goal of the text is to not only study, but “live history.” This means applying the lessons of history to daily life. Throughout the text, emancipatory opportunities will connect learning to action, the relevancy of history to enrich daily living. They are called emancipatory opportunities because the cornerstone of critical-emancipatory psychology is liberation from oppressive societal restrictions and openness to the myriad of incredible human experiences that await expression. Certainly, the application of emancipatory opportunities is constrained by time in modern social life. Some of the chapters will be more interesting than others, but if one takes an attitude that history is alive within each person, some emancipatory opportunities will have more relevancy than others. The author made efforts to keep the emancipatory opportunities simple and doable. How to Engage Each Chapter Reflect on Each Symbol

The way to engage a symbol is by entering the inner world of thoughts and feelings with an attitude of openness to the unknown beyond the rational mind. Before reading the narrative, start each chapter by slowly reflecting on each symbol and “listen” for the meaning that might emerge, or just engage in the experience without forcing understanding. Remember that symbols have a universal meaning that transcends national boundaries and ethnocentrism. Read the Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems Analysis

Because psychology exists, and is determined by socio-historical developments, all the chapters provide a brief historic overview and analysis of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems that enhanced or constrained the development of psychology throughout history. Read the Historic Developments in Psychology

In the “Historic Developments” section, the focus turns to the visionary thinkers, the theoretical concepts, and clinical practices which emerged during an historic period in psychology. In Chapters 2–6, Vol. II, of the Four Forces of Psychology (psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic-existential, transpersonal), the natural and hermeneutic influences highlight not only the differences, but the similarities in the major schools of thought in psychology. Consider Applying the Emancipatory Opportunities

After each key section in a chapter, there is a brief list of ways to “live history” to apply psychology and the incredible lessons of history to daily life. As Habermas stated, the social science interest in psychology is critical-emancipatory, meaning social action that, in the tradition of the Axial Age, first starts with how one lives and how one incorporates the universal wisdom of history.

History of Psychology through Symbols  15 Answer Key Course Questions

To stimulate thought, each chapter highlights key course questions. Review the Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols

After the Course Questions is a brief description of the deeper meaning and universal significance of each of the symbols and their revelatory nature, and their ability to reveal deeper insight and learning beyond rational understanding. This review should occur after a personal reaction to each of the symbols because the meaning of the symbols may be different from the descriptions of the author in Universal Meanings of Chapter Symbols. Engaging symbols creates the opportunity to connect to the universal experience of being human. Also, the review may imply that the universal meaning is still to be discovered. Review References

The text is rich with many references for further study, research, and enjoyment. Review the Impact of Symbols on Learning

Before starting the next chapter, again view the symbols and reflect on how a symbol impacted your learning. Sometimes deeper meanings occur after assimilation of new learning. How to Engage the Two Volumes The text is divided into two volumes to provide a clear distinction between the modern roots of psychology in Volume One and the development of modern psychology in Volume Two. It is important to understand that the study of psychology is an historic project, that psychology is rooted in centuries of development prior to modern history. Volume One – The Historic Roots of Modern Psychology Chapter 2 – The Axial Age

Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the Axial Age and its importance to the history of psychology and the understanding of the human psyche. An unprecedented period in history, rich in symbolism, the chapter explores the psychological implications of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. Zoroastrianism emphasizes the psychological fight between good and evil. Hinduism teaches of a world beyond ego strivings to attain higher consciousness. Buddhism offers a Middle Way, the psychological ability to balance the human need to attach, but to also accept the impermanence of attachments. Confucianism is concerned about interpersonal and familial relationships because human relations provide the foundation for a civil and harmonious society. Daoism speaks to the limitations of intellectual knowing, “the way” being a connection to one’s nature and the natural order. Judaism teaches the importance of a day each week for physical, mental, and spiritual reflection and renewal. Chapter 3 – The Greeks in the Axial Age

In Chapter 3, the Greeks, as part of the Axial Age, provide the foundation for the development of modern Western psychology particularly through the natural philosophies of the

16  History of Psychology through Symbols pre-Socratics and the classical Greek philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Besides philosophy, the importance of myth is highlighted because it provides a more complete understanding of the Greek influence on the development of psychology. The Greek meaning of psyche is “soul,” which had various meanings for the Greeks, but the modern ambivalence toward soul provides psychology an opportunity to return to its roots for the benefit of humanity. The chapter highlights how Greek thought continues to permeate many areas of psychology, including empiricism, psychoanalysis, Jungian analytical, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal, psychology. Chapter 4 – Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Periods

Chapter 4 explores the end of the Axial Age as followers of the great visionaries became more dogmatic, creating the post-Aristotelian Western world. A frustrated Western world turned to the therapeutic philosophies of cynicism, skepticism, stoicism, and epicureanism. Integrating many of the most powerful symbols and rituals in human history, Christianity emerged as both a religious and political force. The shadow of the Crusades and Inquisition shows how the Roman Catholic Church attempted to destroy Greek thought, saved only by Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, and other great Islamic visionaries. Chapter 5 – The Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment

Chapter 5 highlights psychological renewal after a period of extreme dogmatism. The School of Athens fresco provides a symbolic understanding of the reemergence of Greek thought during the Renaissance. As humanity became emancipated from the tyranny of dogmatism, a scientific revolution emerged through the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Newton, and others. Descartes, Kant, and Hegel created Enlightenment thought that would inspire the American and French Revolutions. Rousseau, skeptical of modern progress, led the counter-revolution of Romanticism. Chapter 6 – The History of Mental Illness

Chapter 6 questions the real purpose of psychology if it cannot actively improve the status and lives of individuals with serious mental illness. In this context, it is understanding the history of mental illness, much of which is horrific, but also filled with hope and inspiration. St. Dymphna, the patron saint of individuals with mental illness, has inspired Family Care, one of the most successful community mental programs in the world. For over 600 years, family members have been “adopting” and integrating individuals with mental illness into the Geel, Belgium, community. The chapter explores the moral treatment of the Quakers, the Dark period of eugenics, the psychopharmacological revolution, reformers, family and consumer advocacy groups, and the ongoing controversies of relegating serious mental illness to a brain disease. The chapter also includes personal reflections by the author, who for 50 years, has been involved in the community mental health movement including exposure to state mental hospitals as well as serving as mental health director in two counties in California: Shasta and Santa Barbara. Personal reflections include a visit to view Family Care in Geel, Belgium. For discussion and debate, the chapter ends with recommendations to improve the lives of individuals with mental illness as well as ways to improve community mental health at the federal, state, and local levels.

History of Psychology through Symbols 17 Volume Two – The Development of Modern Psychology Chapter 1 – The Birth of Modern Psychology

Chapter 1 lays the foundation for the birth of modern psychology with the developments of voluntarism, structuralism, pragmatism, and the Darwinian revolution. The shadow of eugenics permeates the early days of modern psychology that would leave a harmful legacy for individuals with mental illness and people with disabilities. In order to assist in psychological survival in the modern age, psychologists developed intelligence and projective psychological testing. To survive beyond the borders of academia, G. Stavley Hall created the American Psychological Association and Lightner Witner birthed clinical psychology, not in a medical, but university setting. The debate remains whether the intelligence quotient (IQ) accurately measures intelligence and whether intelligence is inherited or is impacted by environmental forces. The controversial Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure research by Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray found that although the environment plays a role in intelligence, a cognitive elite controls the power structure in American society. The Dodo Bird Verdict confronts the efficacy of psychological research. The Four Forces of Modern Psychology

The text highlights the Four Forces of Modern Psychology. Although unique in their differences, the text also highlights that all the forces have both natural and hermeneutic influences, and all seek emancipatory outcomes. The First Force – Psychodynamic Psychology Chapter 2 – Freudian and Relational Psychoanalysis

Every psychologist stands on the shoulders of Sigmund Freud because Freud began the psychological revolution in modern history. He laid the foundation for the theoretical and applied concepts that continue to permeate psychology. Chapter 2 explains the impact of the conflicts within psychoanalysis, which led to the historic split between Freud and Carl Jung. Freud was influenced by the natural science concepts of animal magnetism developed by Franz Mesmer, the thermodynamic theory of Herman Helmhotz, the experimental psychology of Gustav Fechner, as well as the neurologists and physiologists of his day. The hermeneutic influence included the rationalism of Gottfried Leibniz and Johann Harbart, the romanticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, the phenomenology of Franz Bretano, the neuro-hypnology of JeanMartin Charot, and the alternative conscious paradigm of Pierre Janet. Freudian psychology provided a framework for psychological healing through the concepts of catharsis, the talking cure, the universal unconscious, transference and countertransference. interpretation of dreams, defense mechanisms, and seduction theory. Through his psychosexual stages of development and personality theories, Freud provided the foundation for developmental and other specialized fields in psychology. As a visionary, he warned about the dangers of not dealing more effectively with destructive drives of the unconscious. Influenced by the attachment theories of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, relational psychoanalysis views the real human need as relational, not the control of aggressive and destructive unconscious drives. Melanie Klein reevaluated the Oedipal complex as relational psychoanalysis became influenced by feminism and social constructionism. Wilfred Bion and Ronald Fairbairn expanded the concept of transference and countertransference while other theorists and practitioners developed new psychoanalytic concepts such as projective identification, the true and false self of Donald Winnicott, the interpersonal psychoanalysis of Heinz Kohut, the phenomenological contextualism of George Atwood and Robert Stolorow, and the symbolic self of Jacques Lacan.

18  History of Psychology through Symbols Chapter 3 – Jungian Analytical Psychology – The World of Symbols

Chapter 3 argues that a true understanding of the psychoanalytic movement needs to view Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung on equal terms because of their different views of the nature of the unconscious. Also, unlike Freud, Jung, although a prisoner to his Eurocentric culture, explored a multicultural and transpersonal psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung (1964) articulates not only the importance, but the necessity for symbol in modern life. His concepts of the self, archetypes, collective unconscious, shadow, anima/animus continue to permeate many areas of psychological study. His theory of the wounded healer archetype has influenced clinical work and the Meyers-Briggs Indicator Test continues to be utilized by organizations throughout the world. Inspired by Jung, Dora Kalff created Jungian-inspired sandplay therapy for children and adults. The Red Book, an international bestseller, reaquainted the world with the power of symbol and the importance of Jungian psychology in meeting the psychological challenges of the modern world. Jung is an iconic figure in American and Western culture. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Juliet of the Spirits, among many other movies, utilize Jungian concepts. An example of his iconic cultural impact, the Beatles featured Jung on the front cover of their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The Second Force – Behavioral Psychology Chapter 4 – Behaviorism, Neobehaviorism, and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology

Chapter 4 explores the natural and hermeneutic scientific influences in the development of the three generations of behaviorism, neobehaviorism, and cognitive behavioral psychology. The behaviorism of John Watson transformed psychology, leading to the neobehaviorism of B. F. Skinner. However, neither could escape philosophy, especially the philosophies of logical positivism, operationalism, and physicalism. The experiments by Watson of Little Albert and Peter and the Rabbit showed how human behavior could be significantly changed by behaviorism. Skinner rejected the Watsonian behaviorism because behavioral conditioning necessitated a stimulus, while the neobehaviorism of Skinner was based on operant conditioning, which occurred continuously without a stimulus. Skinner, in his controversial Beyond Freedom and Dignity, argued for a world based on societal engineering. Cognitive behavioral therapy developed in three waves, the first wave being influenced by behavioral therapy and operant conditioning. The second wave arrived at an acceptance of internal cognitive processes. Rooted in psychoanalytic thought, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck initially based cognitive behavioral therapy on changing dysfunctional thoughts. The third wave of the dialectical behavioral therapy, developed by Marsha Linehan, influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, focused more on mindfulness mediation, living in the moment, and the avoidance of an overemphasis on changing dysfunctional thoughts. The chapter also discusses the influence of cognitive psychology on the development of artificial intelligence and information processing, particularly through the works of Noam Chomsky, George Miller, Alan Turing, and John Searle. The Third Force – Humanistic-Existential Psychology Chapter 5 – Humanistic-Existential Psychology

In Chapter 5, the natural scientific influence on the development of humanistic-existential psychology is discussed through Gestalt psychology and the works of Max Wertheimer, Wolgang Kohler, Kurt Lewin, and Maurice Merleoau-Ponty. The hermeneutic influence is explained by

History of Psychology through Symbols 19 the works of Soren Kieregaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, JeanPaul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Rollo May, and Abraham Maslow. The clinical practice of humanistic-existential psychology is explored through the person-centered psychology of Carl Rogers, the Dasein analysis of Ludwig Binswanger, the logotherapy of Viktor Frankl, the Gestalt therapy of Fitz and Laura Perls, and the existential psychotherapy of Irvin Yalom. The musical Hair, the Peace movement, and the Human Potential Movement provide examples of the cultural inspiration for the development of the humanistic-existential movement. Gun violence offers an example of an existential crisis facing American society. The Fourth Force – Transpersonal Psychology Chapter 6 – Transpersonal Psychology

In Volume II, Chapter 6, the text comes full circle with transpersonal psychology links to the Axial Age (Vol. I, Chs. 2 and 3). The radical empiricism of William James, the American empiricism of Harris Friedman, and the discovery of the default mode network, provide the natural science influence on the development of transpersonal psychology. The hermeneutic influence is examined through the works of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Sri Aurobindo, and the integral psychology and perennial philosophy of Ken Wilber. The psychosynthesis of Roberto Assagioli and the astrological psychology of Dane Rudhyar are linked respectively to Greek and Zoroastrianism thought. Modern yoga and transcendental meditation are linked to practices of Hinduism. Foundational to dialectical behavioral therapy is the influence of Buddhist meditation practices. The chapter argues the psychedelic renaissance offers a rapprochement between the natural, hermeneutic, and social sciences. Patrick Lundborg, Rick Doblin, Stanislav and Cristina Groff, and other psychedelic visionaries provide a theoretical and practical foundation for the role of psychedelics in transpersonal psychology. The chapter explains the major classical psychedelics (Psilocybin, LSD, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, Ayahuasca, mescaline and MDMA) by street name, history, form, effects, and clinical research. There is an examination of the most recent research findings highlighting the leading role of psychotherapy in psychedelic-assisted treatment. A discussion occurs of the possible impact of transdiagnostic and the clinical efficacy of the psychedelics on the practice of psychiatry as well as the financial implications for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.

QUESTIONS 

1

1.1  Define symbol. Describe how symbols can enhance the learning experience. 1.2 Explain why it is important to understand the cultural, socioeconomic, and political issues that influence the history of psychology. 1.3  Describe the meaning of the phrase “shadow is always present”. 1.4  Explain Habermas’ three scientific interests in psychology. 1.5  Describe the Four Forces of Psychology 1.6 Explain how a critical-emancipatory perspective can enhance your understanding of the history of psychology. 1.7 Describe how you will engage the symbols and the emancipatory opportunities throughout the text.

20  History of Psychology through Symbols Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 1.0. B. F. Skinner.-image source- (2022, October 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/B._F._Skinner Figure 1.1. Natural science symbol for the beginning of the universe. Figure 1.2. The mythological gift to humanistic psychology. Figure 1.3. Emancipatory freedom comes with responsibility. Figure 1.4. The need to integrate the always present shadow. I Had a Dream I had a dream of a compelling story About the history of psychology That touched the heart, mind, and soul That transformed the inner world Whose symbols spoke beyond words. To a universal desire to connect to all humanity, An engaging, disturbing, challenging, but always hopeful book. But it was in the first Chapter That awoke a yearning for more, The faces of readers totally engaged Absorbed until the last Chapter Upset it had to end. That left a dramatic impact on what science really means hat history is not only about the past But comes alive in the daily experience of being human. - Jim Broderick (2022) References American Psychological Association (2002). Guidelines on multicultural education, training, research, practice and organizational change for psychologists. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Appiah, K.A. (1993). In my father’s house: Africa in the philosophy of culture. New York: Oxford University Press. Armstrong, K. (2008). The great transformation. New York: Anchor Press. Bohler, E. (1970). Conscience in economic life. In James Hillman (Ed.). Conscience: Studies in Jungian thought. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Britannica, T. (2022, June 22). Editors of Encyclopedia. Adolf Bastian. Encyclopedia Britannica. https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Bastian Campbell, J. (1960). The masks of God: Primitive mythology. London: Secker & Warburg. Carrithers, M. (1996). Buddha: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chan, W.-T. (1969). A source book in Chinese philosophy. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. Dean, C.E. (2017). Social inequality, scientific inequality, and the future of mental illness. Philosophy and Ethics Humanities in Medicine. 12, 1–13. Friedman, M. & Friedman, R. (1990). Free to choose: A personal statement. New York: Mariner Books. Gluckstein, D. (2006). The Paris commune: A revolution in democracy. London: Bookmarks. Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and human interests. (J. Shapiro, Trans.). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. (Original work published 1968). Houghton, D.P. (2015). Political psychology: Situations, individuals, and cases (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

History of Psychology through Symbols 21 Jaspers, K. (1959). Truth and symbol. (J.T. Wilde, W. Kluback, & W. Kimmel, Trans.). Albany NY: Communications Marketing Services, Inc. Jaspers, K. (2010/1953). The origin and goal of history. (M. Bullock, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD. Johnson, R. (1994). Owning your own shadow: Understanding the dark side of the psyche. San Francisco, CA: HarperSan Francisco. Jung, C.G. (1954). Archetypes and the collective unconscious. Collected Works of C.G. Jung (Vol. 9) (Part 1). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original Work published 1934). Jung, C.G. (1945). After the catastrophe. The collected works of C.G. Jung (Vol. 10). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Jung, C.G. (1963). Memories, dreams, and reflections. New York: Vintage Books. Jung, C.G. (1964). Man and his symbols. London: Aldus Books Ltd. Kelly, W. (1987). Pogo: We have met the enemy and he is us. New York: Simon & Schuster. Keyes, J.M. (1995). The economic consequences of peace. New York: Penguin Books. Konadu, K. & Campbell, C.C. (Eds.). (2016). The Ghana reader: History, culture, politics. London: Duke University Press. Korankye, C. (2021). Adinkra alphabet: The Adinkra symbols as alphabets & their hidden meanings. USA: Adinkra Alphabet LLC. Lasswell, H.D. (2016). Psychopathology and politics. Mansfield Centre, Ct: Martino Publishing. (Original work published 1930). Nietzsche, F. (2010). On the use and abuse of history for life. Sioux Falls, SD: DSEZ Reads Publications. (Original work published 1873). Pederson, P. (1991). Introduction to the special issue on multiculturalism as a fourth force in counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development. 70, 4. Rauchway, E. (2015). The money makers: How Roosevelt and Keyes ended the depression, defeated fascism, and secured a prosperous future. New York: Basic Books. Sandwell, B. (1995). Presocratic reflexivity: The construction of philosophical discourse c. 600–450 BCE (Vol. 3). London: Routledge. Smith, A. (2003). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. New York: Bantam Classic. (Original work published 1776). Stevens, A. (1991). On Jung. New York: Penguin Books. Stevenson, R.L. (2022). The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Sheridan, WY: Pierian Spring Press. (Original work published 1886). Tarkhnishvili, A. & Tarkhnishvili L. (2013). Middle class: Definition, role and development. Global Journal of Human Social Science, Sociology & Culture. 13(2), 1–15. Wilmer, H.A. (1987). Practical Jung: Nuts and bolts of Jungian psychotherapy. Wilmette, Ill: Chiron Publications. Wundt, W. (2016). The elements of folk psychology: Outline of a psychological history of the development of mankind. (E.L. Schaub, Trans.). London: Macmillan Company. (Original work published in 1916)

Figure 2.0

2

Symbols of the Axial Age The Age of Psychological Transformation

Introduction What is new about this age … is that man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitations. He experiences the terror of the world and his own powerlessness. He asks radical questions. Face to face with the void he strives for liberation and redemption. By consciously recognizing his limits he sets himself the highest goals. - Karl Jaspers

Psychology beyond the Greeks

The history of modern psychology typically begins with the Greeks. What was happening during the same period in the rest of the world is most often neglected, or even seen as irrelevant to the development of psychology. Mid-twentieth-century scholar and German-Swiss psychiatrist, Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) discovered a period in history called the Axial Age which he argued dramatically changed human consciousness. It is during this period in history that humanity as it is known today came into being. The pre–Axial Age consciousnesses was collective, tribal, mythic, and ritualistic. In the Axial Age, a new psychology was born. This psychology was personal, reflective, and inner directed (Dalferth, 2012). For the future survival of civilization, Jaspers argued for a universal approach to history that transcended any exclusive possession of truth. A psychology based on the universal experience of being human, a transformative experience for all people, rather than through dogmatic philosophies and scientific ideologies. Jaspers believed the Axial Age provided the best model against the erroneous claim to exclusive truth by one system of thought (Jaspers, 1953/2010). Between 800–200 BC extraordinary events occurred throughout the known world. During this period in Iran, Zoroastrianism taught the world the difference between good and evil, a belief that would influence the later development of Judaism and Christianity. In China, Confucius taught the need for strong interpersonal relationships for harmony and order in Chinese society. Daoism taught that nature provided “the way” to lead a healthy life. In India, Hinduism and Buddhism warned of a psychology based on ego and taught ways to transcend thought. The new Axial Age consciousness provided wise teachers called sages, models for the modern scholars. Jewish sages became prophets in Palestine and taught the importance of being in good relationship with a monotheistic God. In Greece, the sages taught philosophy and laid the foundation for modern psychology and science.

DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-2

24  Symbols of the Axial Age The Origin and Goal of History

The sages of the Axial Age had reverence for knowledge that precluded final answers. In The Origin and Goal of History, Jaspers (1953/2010) argued there was one single origin and goal of civilization that unites all humanity, but it is still unknown and remains a mystery to be discovered. The goal of the Axial Age was not to find a dogma that explained the world; rather the goal was to find oneself in relation to the universal human experience that transcended dogmas of any kind because true knowledge was never “second hand” occurs from asking the right questions. In fact, the Axial Age ends when the dogmatic followers of the sages imposed rigid belief systems. The Axial Age sages were more concerned about how you lived rather than what you believed. First and foremost, it was most important that sages live and model a life of humility, morality, ethics, and compassion. Axial Age sages believed their knowledge was at best flawed, and at worst, useless and dangerous. Modern history will show that when scientists do not exhibit the Axial Age qualities of the sages, the dark side of shadow emerges, resulting in unimaginable consequences. For example, many scientists in Germany supported the Nazi extermination of Jewish, gay, and disabled as well as other people they viewed as “eugenic misfits.” Psychologists in recent history supported torture and the waterboarding of prison inmates in Guantanamo Bay in the post-9/11 era.

Scientific Method

The Axial Age taught the basic principles of a scientific method: first the principle, then the method. To apply a method before principle is putting the “cart before the horse.” First one must commit to ethical and moral principles before applying scientific methods. In modern psychological terms, this means becoming aware of the shadow elements of any research or clinical practice that might interfere with moral commitments. The concept of starting first with principle can feel foreign to the modern scientist because modern science has lost touch with history. The modern scientific value system of seeking objectivity has separated the subject and the object. Study of the Axial Age situates knowledge in history and becomes a way to avoid ethnocentrism and a false objectivity. Quantum physics has shown that a researcher changes a phenomenon by its very study of the phenomenon, making the concept of objective facts complex because it is difficult to avoid subjective bias. Jaspers (1953/2010) believed the answer to this problem was to distinguish what is studied, the phenomenon, from the way it is studied, the method, and situating the results in history, especially the universal implications.

Symbols of the Axial Age 25

Figure 2.1 

26  Symbols of the Axial Age Controversies

There were significant developments in human history prior and after the Axial Age. The Egyptians created an advanced civilization before the Axial Age. Although Christianity and Islam emerged after the Axial Age, Jaspers argued that the monotheism in the Axial Age set the groundwork for the emergence of Jesus and Mohammed. There has been criticism of Jaspers and many academic debates as to whether an Axial Age even existed. Lain Provan (2019) considered two myths about the Axial Age, one myth was the actual existence of an Axial Age in history, the other myth was the Axial Age laid the foundation for organized religion, which led to destroying the human connection to nature. Provan warned that these myths left an indelible impact on the human psyche and warned of the potential dangers of building a civilization based on these myths. Black (2008) believed that Jaspers ignored the political and social dimensions of the Axial world with his tendency to embrace a universalistic approach to history which assumed that different cultures had more in common than was the case. Most scholars of history agree that a period in history called the Axial Age existed and although there are disagreements to its value to the modern world, there is agreement that there was a dramatic expansion of human consciousness, which has implications for further study and research (Armstrong, 2008; Augustson, 2016; Bellah & Joas, 2012; Eisenstadt, 1986; Muesse, 2013). The psychological implications of the Axial Age have typically been ignored by psychologists because most of the scholarship on the Axial Age has focused on the development of religious traditions. This chapter will explore the psychological implications beyond Greece of the cooccurring developments in Asia and the northeastern Mediterranean. Important to understand that Greek thought, often viewed as the foundation of modern psychology, developed in concert, not in total isolation, from this unprecedented expansion of consciousness in human history. In the process, model how psychology can develop beyond its ethnocentrism, which limits its engagement with the greater world and limits its ability to solve the psychological problems facing humankind. Symbol and the Universalistic Vision

For Jaspers, the Axial Age provided a model for a universalistic vision of civilization, belief there is something common to all humankind, that the claim to exclusive truth and correct ideologies causes fanaticism and international divisions and war. Being an existentialist Jaspers argued humanity was bound together by the experience of existence, not by dogmas that defined existence. Where there once was religion, ideology, and scientific hegemony, there would now be the universality of human experience discovered through the truths of the Axial Age. This universal experience would be experienced through symbol because symbols communicate a universal truth. Symbols transcend race, religion, and national boundaries they point toward one singular human consciousness. In his book Truth and Symbol, Jaspers (1959) turned to symbols as the mediator between an objective and subject experience of the world. Symbols create the fullness of reality. In the encounter with symbols, there is a sense of feeling whole, some part that was missing has returned. Carl Jung believed symbols were the language of the unconscious because what is revealed through symbols is unavailable and unknown to the conscious mind. Symbols allow the psyche to experience the unification of opposite energies that appear on the surface of consciousness as conflictual. Jung believed a collective unconscious bound all humanity together. Symbols will be utilized in this chapter to enhance and enliven the written, linear understanding of psychological history. Jaspers believed it was important to suspend the cognitive process and engage the symbol without

Symbols of the Axial Age 27 rational judgment. Let the symbols speak for themselves; suspend judgment; let the symbol expand and enliven the message. Shadow

The Axial Age was all about change. The sages were not interested in a psychology that gave temporary relief so that people could return to their regular egotistic lives. Rather, the goal was to create systems of thought that affected all aspects of one’s life and could provide a way to overcome the shadow of violence, greed, and lack of compassion that permeated that period in history. During the Axial Age, it wasn’t enough to develop people that did not hate and murder, emancipation of human suffering began but did not end with self-knowledge. Whether in Greece, Iran, India, China, or Palestine, the sages of the Axial Age believed that self-knowledge would transform the psychological state of the entire world. In other words, if psychology is to develop into a more complete and relevant science it needs to view the history of psychology beyond current Western psychological biases. The Axial Age was far from perfect. In the pursuit of knowledge and science, one of its major shadow elements was the role and place of women in society (Armstrong, 2008). Men were the focus because men were the cause of much of what the Axial Age was trying to change: greed, violence, and emotional destructiveness. This shadow element should not deter from the study of this period because men and women issues continue to be a problem in modernity. Beyond Western Ethnocentrism

The goal of this chapter is not a comprehensive study of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. Rather, the purpose is to expand the history of psychology beyond the Greeks because during that same historic period other significant movements were occurring in other parts of the world that can provide a more complete understanding of the foundation of modern psychology. Like the Greeks, these Axial Age movements attempted to raise human consciousness to emancipate humanity from the suffering of violence, greed, and exploitation to improve society. Often conceived through a Western ethnocentric perspective as only “religions” with no direct relationship to psychology, the Axial Age movements discussed in this chapter created unified systems of thought that viewed humanity in its totality, offering psychology much more than religious doctrines. Zoroastrianism – Iran Historical Analysis of Zoroastrianism Political Systems

Before the Axial Age, the warrior class held political power and dominated all aspects of Iranian society, even religious practices. In the pre–Axial Age world there was no formal governance, there was anarchy and widespread lawlessness. Even though the followers of Zoroaster were initially persecuted and murdered this only strengthened their resolve to transform their society. By the sixth century BCE. Zoroastrianism became the state religion of the Persian Empire. During the Achaemenid Empire, the first great Indo-European empire of the Axial Age, Darius the Great supported and utilized Zoroastrianism to bring social and political stability to the Persian world. When the Assyrians and Babylonians conquered the world, they

28  Symbols of the Axial Age were barbaric and tyrannical. The Achaemenid kings (Boyce, 2001) brought harmony and openness to the societies they conquered. Darius is called Great not because of his conquests but because of his ability to develop beneficial alliances and tolerance without compromising his Zoroastrian beliefs. Darius gave monetary support for rebuilding and repairing the sacred sanctuaries of other cultures, most notably the temples in Egypt and Jerusalem. Darius came to symbolize a leader that could be faithful to his own beliefs while at the same time support and integrate the beliefs of other cultures. Darius and his successors modeled political pluralism, the ability to create a heterogeneous society where various political philosophies are protected and supported. In the seventh century, Zoroastrianism was replaced in Iran by the Islam. Currently there are only small remnants of Zoroastrianism in Iran and around the world. Many scholars believe that Zoroastrianism continues to thrive in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some examples include the Zoroastrian influence in Jewish thought after the Jewish Exile when the Jews traveled to Iran. Socioeconomic Systems

Initially, Indo-Iranian men showed disdain for the weak and powerless. The Iranian society became psychologically obsessed with financial wealth and personal fame. Many attained their wealth by stealing livestock and raiding and pillaging the homes of the vulnerable. A class nomenclature developed to distinguish the two major classes; the peaceful ashavans were blessed and provided order and stability. The wicked drujvants were dedicated to disorder and power. During this period in history, Zoroastrianism emerged as a power to rebuke the lawlessness and chaos and provide a belief system that would change the corrupt socioeconomic conditions (Foltz, 2004). Cultural Systems

Knowledge of the Iranian culture comes from two major sources, the Rig Veda and the Avesta (Boyce, 2001). The Rig Veda became a foundational sacred text of Hinduism in India, and the Avesta became the liturgical text of Zoroastrianism. The Gathas, meaning verses, are the oldest part of the Avesta and may have been composed by Zoroaster himself. The Gathas indicate that Zoroaster was a priest who was authorized to do religious rituals. The Avesta speaks of nomadic people known as the Indo-Iranians in the pre–Axial Age who immigrated to India and Iran. As nomadic people, they were animal herders who hunted animals to survive. They called themselves the “Noble Ones” and as they arrived at their destinations, they called their new home the “Land of the Noble” (Foltz, 2004). As the stable Indo-Iranians migrated south from central Asia and met the Mesopotamians, their culture changed dramatically. From their contact with the Mesopotamians, a new culture was born, a culture of survival and instability. The Mesopotamians taught the Iranians how to domesticate horses, build war chariots, and develop weapons, which led to a culture of anarchy and lawlessness. Zoroastrian Psychology Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism emancipated the Iranian people from total anarchy and lawlessness by providing a new way to live in the Axial world. The Zoroastrian belief system continues to influence

Symbols of the Axial Age 29 the psychological development of western civilization. The belief that humans have free will and struggle between good and evil continues to be a focus of modern psychology. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is often associated with Zoroastrianism because of their belief in one uncreated god, a universal savior, an afterlife, the power of prayer and ritual, the existence of the devil and guardian angels, and a final Day of Judgment. Research indicates there was more contact between the Axial people than originally acknowledged (Jaspers, 1953/2010). It is now believed that the Jews had contact with Persia after the Jewish Exile, which influenced Judaism. The Zoroastrian concept of monotheism was later adopted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims (Boyce, 2001). Zoroaster

Zoroaster is one of the most mysterious sages of the Axial Age. There is considerable debate about when he lived. Some scholars believe he lived a few centuries before the Axial Age, but whenever he lived, his beliefs had a dramatic impact on Iran during the Axial Age. It is believed that he came from a modest nomadic family who survived amongst the cattle rustlers and warlords in a very violent and morally degenerate time (Boyce, 2001). Troubled by the violence and moral corruption, Zoroaster sought deeper truth, which came to him at age 30 when he had a visionary experience in which he experienced the presence of Ahura Mazda and six other radiant beings, known as the heptad, the seven, from whom he was directed to teach men a more righteous path. These revelations transformed Zoroaster from a priest to a prophet, a critic of polytheism, and a mouthpiece for a monotheistic god. Zoroaster believed that Mazda was the only uncreated god. He preached that all the other representations of god were merely part of Mazda. Monotheism – Ahura Mazda

Before Zoroastrian, the Indo-Iranians believed in many gods. Beyond religion, the belief in one God changed Iranian psychology. The revelations Zoroaster received from Mazda and the heptad transformed the way Iranians viewed themselves in relation to the world (Foltz, 2004). Zoroastrianism fulfilled a psychological need for a story, a myth, that explained how the world came into being, which became a religion. The Indo-Iranians believed that the world was created in seven stages. In the first stage, the sky was created as an inverted bowl made of beautiful stone. In the second and third stages, the earth was created floating on water. During the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages, life was created with one plant; one animal, which was a bull; and one man, Yima. During the seventh stage, fire, the symbol that would signify Zoroastrianism throughout history, was added, which would transform the world. Afterward, the gods, in their final act of creation, performed the first major ritual by dismembering the plant, the animal, and Yima. Their remains were distributed, which created life throughout the world. This began the life cycle of reproduction and death. Although the gods eventually became obsolete, Dyaol, the “king of the gods,” later became the Greek god Zeus and the Roman god Jupiter. Faravahar – Symbol of Zoroastrianism

Initially, Mazda was viewed as the one transcendent god without an image. However, the need for symbol resulted in Faravahar, the major symbol associated with Zoroastrianism. It is believed that the Faravahar, a visual inspiration for believers, originated from the Iranian

30  Symbols of the Axial Age experience with the Egyptians because the pharaoh was viewed as divine (Foltz, 2004). The symbol of Mazda, a bearded man on a winged disc, became one of the most powerful symbols to represent Persian culture. Persian kings had portions of this symbol placed on their Sun Throne to represent the power and the glories of Persia. The Faravahar became a visual symbol for Mazda as the one uncreated god who guided the Iranian people in their pursuit of high moral virtue and good conduct. The symbol also represented fravashi, a feminine energy and the concept of a personal spirit; a soul which exists in death, life, and even in the unborn. The soul goes into the material world to fight the battle of good versus evil. After death, the soul returns to fravashi and collects the experiences to help the next generation in their fight between good and evil. After the Islamic Iranian revolution of 1979, any symbol related to the old Sun Throne was banned because it represented ancient times and the newly overthrown monarchy. However, Faravahar-related symbols were not banned or removed and continue to be powerful cultural symbols for the Iranian people. Mazda and Ahriman – Good and Evil

In Zoroastrianism, the battle was between Mazda, the good god, and Ahriman, the devil and evil god (Boyce, 2001). These superior beings were always in mortal combat, each trying to dominate. Ahriman is the embodiment of destruction and seeks to destroy all of existence through his divine servants. He represents the shadow, the importance of bringing the destructive aspects of the mind to consciousness. Ahriman is in the black circle with a thin sliver of light overtaken by black forces of darkness. His Persian name is written upside down in the four quadrants. By living a good life and overcoming evil, Zoroastrianism provided redemption for those that suffered because they would to be rewarded with an afterlife in heaven although many Zoroastrians viewed heaven and hell as a state of mind about right and wrong than physical places (Boyce, 2001). This psychological battle between good and evil is complex. Zarathustra in Greek means “Zoroaster,” the central figure in the major work by the modern existentialist, Friedrich Nietzsche (2019), who portrayed the fight In Thus Spoke Zarathustra as a fight between Mazda and the forces of religion and dogma against the Ahriman forces of freedom and acceptance of natural animal instincts. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra Zoroaster, as the originator of the Western doctrine of morality, renounces the current Judeo-Christian belief system because it is the cause of psychological sickness and suffering in modern society. At the top of the symbol, the Good Ahura Mazda is fighting the evil Ahriman (Angra Mainyu, “Destructive Spirit”). At the bottom, the evil spirit Ahriman is in the center of the circle; the Middle Persian word Ahriman written in all four quadrants, traditionally was always written upside down. The word “evil” is placed at the four watch towers in the circle. The watch towers were established as a locking mechanism to keep the devil in his abyss and in an attempt to stop the influence of hell. The Zoroastrian concepts continue to be used by the Church of Ahriman.

Symbols of the Axial Age 31

Figure 2.2 

32  Symbols of the Axial Age Prayer and Ritual

Feel the Atar, the holy fire symbolizing the presence of the monotheistic god, Ahura Mazda, worshipped in a temple, guarded by the winged oxen, and providing a sacred place for prayer and ritual. In the Zoroastrian Gathas, hymn verses were sung in ritual, emphasizing the importance of prayer. Prayer was an essential support in leading a good and virtuous life and being victorious in the fight against the forces of evil. Ritual before an Atar occurred five times a day when celebrants prayed to honor Mazda by praying in front of a fire. The Atar was constantly lit to represent the psychological need for constant purification of the human soul in its fight to conquer evil (Foltz, 2004). Final Judgment and the Universal Savior

After human death, there would be a final judgment to determine an eternal life in heaven or hell. Those who lived a life aligned with the good god Mazda would have everlasting eternal happiness and those who served the devil Ahriman would be destroyed and fall into hell (Boyce, 2001). This reckoning was symbolized by a maiden or a hag. If one led a good life on earth, they appeared in the afterlife as a maiden and went to heaven. If they led an evil life, they returned as a hag, destroyed, and went to hell. The fravashi, their guardian angel, which is divine and unpolluted, always returned to heaven. Earth, fire, air, and water needed to be kept pure. To keep the earth pure, the dead, being impure, were not buried but instead laid in “towers of silence” to be purified of any demons by birds picking their bodies clean. The vision of history of Zoroaster was linear: history ends with a grand triumph of good over evil. At the end of the world, there would be a great battle. This was called a frashokereti, “making glorious,” when evil was totally defeated. At the final judgment a saoshyant, a universal savior, would appear from the heavens, save humanity, and decide the final destiny of all human souls. It is thought that possibly the magi that appeared at Jesus’s birth were Zoroastrians searching for the saoshyant, the universal savior, who was coming to redeem the world. Emancipatory Opportunities in Zoroastrianism Integrate Shadow

Fighting evil can only increase its power. Rather, understand “evil” psychologically, the need to make conscious what the ego has denied which is the hidden, repressed, and the rejected parts of the human personality. Time for Daily Prayer

As the Zoroastrians celebrated prayer five times a day, prayer time was planned throughout the day because prayer provided essential support toward leading a good and virtuous life and being psychologically strong in the fight against the forces of evil. Participate in Ritual

Rituals are not only for religious practices, but include rites of passage, cultural traditions, marriages, funerals, graduations, and whatever acknowledges the psychological need to celebrate important moments in the human experience.

Symbols of the Axial Age 33

Figure 2.3 

Hinduism – India Historical Analysis of Hinduism Political System

The caste system is rooted in the Vedic society of India, especially with the emergence of the Brahman class (Mines, 2009; Omvedt, 2014). In modern times, it was solidified by the collapse of the Mughal era and the colonization of India by the British in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Bayly, 2001). The caste system stratified Indian society into distinct political classes and created political inequality and extreme poverty. The lower castes, a large portion of Indian society, had no input into the political process. The higher caste system suppressed the Shudras, the lower classes, and the untouchables, not allowing them into public places and even viewing their shadow as profane. The entire caste system was based on political exploitation of the lower castes. The Shudras and untouchables were fully cognizant of their oppression in Hindu society and often cooperated with invaders against their own people. For the lower caste system, Hinduism became associated with political exploitation, which led after the Axial Age to the popularity of Islam and Christianity in India. After liberation in 1947, many political reforms occurred, including quotas for the lower castes in education and government (Mines, 2009). However, quotas and other reforms have paradoxically created incentives to maintain the stratification of Indian society (Shah, 2014). Remnants of political discrimination based on the caste class system remain a serious political problem in India (Shah, 2014).

34  Symbols of the Axial Age Socioeconomic Systems

The foundation for a caste system developed during the Axial Age and would permeate Indian social life, especially during the later colonialization of India by the British. A caste system is a rigid social group characterized by the hereditary transmission of socioeconomic status. In a caste system, social status is defined by race, lineage, and breed. There is no exact translation in the Indian language of caste but the concepts of varna and jati best describe the socioeconomic system that would evolve in Indian culture (Mines, 2009). The varna system was the framework to group people into rigid social classes and was first used in Vedic society to define the four classes: the Brahmins, the priestly people; the Kshatriyas, the rulers, administrators, and warriors; the Vaishyas, the artisans, merchants, tradesmen, and farmers; and the Shudras, the laboring classes. The varna system specifically left out those people not deserving of a social class, specifically the tribal people and the untouchables, seen as the fifth and lowest social caste, who, out of social and economic survival, created their own social groups to survive outside the Indian caste system (Mines, 2009). The caste system determined economic status. Those lower on the caste hierarchy, especially the untouchables, often lived in poverty or in extreme economic distress. Though not as often mentioned in ancient texts, the thousands of jati, which were complex social groups that transcended the caste system, became distinguished from the four varna social classes because of the needed social flexibility for economic, political, and cultural development. The legacy of jati, which means birth, continued the socioeconomic remnants of varna because of the social and psychological pressure to marry and be born into the caste of birth. As the old Vedic system came under scrutiny during the Axial Age, spiritual and psychological development became more important than the attainment of material and economic riches. As people became more prosperous, sages taught there must be more to this life than the search for fame and fortune (Sharma, 2000). The answer was to transcend the acquisition of material wealth and seek a totally new way of existence. The growing concerns about death and the fate of the individual became a departure from the Vedic focus on enjoyment and seeking pleasure in earthly life. The search for economic wealth polluted the mind and soul and provided a psychological diversion from the view that the material world was illusionary and all the riches in the world could not overcome the samsara cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Cultural Systems

By the time the Indo-Aryans arrived in the Indus River Valley around 1500 BCE, the Indus culture was in decline but still strong enough to influence the evolution of Hinduism, which resulted from a confluence of ancient Indo-Aryan and Indus cultures. Knowledge of the Aryan culture comes from the Vedas. The Vedas are the oldest and most sacred scriptures of divine knowledge of ancient Hindu culture. Nothing is known about the authors of the Vedas, only that they are a collection of hymns to the ancient pantheon of Indian gods. The Vedas have four sections. The oldest is the Rig Veda, which is the most famous and contains 1,000 songs to various gods and goddesses. The Vedas had little to say about human existence, death, and the afterlife (Sharma, 2000). Rather, the Vedas were more interested in praising and doing rituals and sacrifices to please the gods rather than explaining what it meant to be human. Vedic rituals were led by the Brahmin caste and the priests, who were the only ones permitted to perform the often-elaborate rituals. Following the Vedic period (1500–800 BCE), the Indo-Aryans immigrated into the Gangetic plain in northeastern India abandoning their nomadic lives and settling in towns and becoming farmers. People began to question the importance of ritual because the Brahmin caste monopolized the process. The people did not see any real benefit of the ritual practices to their daily lives. A collection

Symbols of the Axial Age 35 of writings, the Upanishads began to reassess the Vedic practices (Sharma, 2000). Upanishad means “to sit close to”; to sit close to a teacher, a guru, and learn about a new worldview, especially about death. The Upanishads gave the first indication of reincarnation. Where the Vedas had focused on rituals and sacrifice to the gods, the Upanishads were more contemplative, dealing with the concept of rebirth through metaphor rather than a clear description of reincarnation (Sharma, 2000). As the Axial Age progressed, the Upanishads concept of reincarnation became further defined. The Upanishads began to provide answers to the emerging Axial Age questions about life, death, and the afterlife. One of the most important discoveries was the concept of karma, the belief that reincarnation depended on the behavior of an individual throughout their life (see below). The Upanishads defined the soul as invisible and immortal, never created and never to be destroyed and separate from the mind and body. The soul was identical to Brahman, the transcendent reality, unknowable, who existed beyond reason, words, and any other aspect of the human mind. The Vedic Atman and Upanishad Brahman became words for the same description of soul (Hopkins, 1971). The soul now transcended the body, survived death, and became immortal. The human soul and Brahman were inseparable. Although ultimate reality was unknowable through ordinary consciousness, another view of consciousness emerged during the later stages of the Axial Age because people desired symbols to feel closer to the divine. Many Indians found living by the message of the Upanishads too demanding and culturally unappealing (Sharma, 2000). To integrate the large number of gods and goddesses Hinduism provided a way for the followers to venerate both the god and goddesses and Brahman. Later, Hindu thinkers offered the concept of a partially known Brahman, Saguna Brahman, “one with qualities.” which could be symbolized. The Hindu pantheon includes 330 million gods and goddesses, which makes it impossible for the worship of all the gods and goddesses (Sharma, 2000). To answer this problem, each devotee needed an ista-devata, a personal deity of their choice. The concept of Saguna Brahman met the human need for an individual to have their own unique symbol to guide their devotion and prayer (Zimmer, 1972). Incorporating so many gods and goddesses made Hinduism one of the most tolerant and open religious practices in the world; the most widely practiced modern religion able to incorporate the characteristics of monotheism and polytheism (Klostermaier, 2000). A major source of the Hindu gods was the Bhagavad-Gita, the most important Hindu scripture written toward the end of the Axial Age (Prabhavanada & Sherwood, 1951). The BhagavadGita is primarily a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and the god Krishna, which described the many Hindu practices and beliefs and included the Vedic rituals, karma and morality, meditation and yoga, and ways to honor the gods. For his salvation, Krishna implored Ajuna to focus his mind and heart on God, not worldly things, in order to be emancipated from the cycle of samsara. Krishna tells Ajuna what matters is not the god one worships, what matters is not the object of faith, but the quality and sincerity of faith. The way the Bhagavad Gita integrated provocative ideas with just enough mystery was embraced by the Indian people and created a culture that would allow for the continual reinterpretation of Hinduism for future generations. Hindu Psychology Hinduism

Hinduism provided a way to emancipate humanity from the fear of death by leading a moral and enlightened life and by discovering the true self, which would eliminate human suffering. In this way one could overcome death and the unending reincarnation cycle by overcoming

36  Symbols of the Axial Age human cravings and passions. Unlike Greek philosophy, Hinduism remains at the core of daily life in India. Compared to any other cultures India became a place where seven major religions have flourished, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Although there are elements of shadow and historic violent clashes among religions, especially between the Hindus and Muslims, this type of a tolerant psychology remains unparalleled in human history. The fact that Hinduism has been able to integrate monotheistic and polytheistic elements speaks to a psychological openness unavailable in most modern cultures. Brahman – The Unifying Universal Force

Brahman is consciousness that existed before anything else and who, in the first act of creation, willed himself into being. Brahman is the essence of all things. The entire universe exists through him. He is present both at the creation and destruction of the universe, which is destroyed and re-created in a never-ending cycle. Brahman experiences time differently than humanity. Each day in his life is equivalent to 4,320 million years (Sharma, 2000). When Brahman sleeps, the universe dissolves into watery chaos. When he awakes, Brahman re-creates the universe. Through the true self, one connects to Brahman, the unifying universal spiritual force, and becomes emancipated from the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

Figure 2.4 

Symbols of the Axial Age 37 Shiva – The Protector and Destroyer

Shiva has many attributes that frequently seem contradictory (Zimmer, 1972). In the “Dance of Creation,” Shiva dances after the destruction of the world. The dance symbolizes the cycles of creation and destruction as well as the daily rhythm of death and rebirth. The dance symbolizes the five principal manifestations of energy, which are creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion. Shiva symbolizes dynamic energy, his hair swirling in the dance, dancing over the “demon of ignorance,” which personifies the triumph of Shiva over illusion and ignorance. The third eye symbolizes the emergence of enlightenment and creation of a new consciousness. The hand with the flame symbolizes destruction of evil, the arms and legs the duality of human nature and the “mudra” hand gestures used in Hindu ceremonies. The lotus flower symbolizes salvation, the purity of mind needed for enlightenment and rebirth. Shiva continues to dance for humanity, symbolic of the destructive and creative human energies necessary for the survival of a weary universe. Vishnu – The Preserver

Figure 2.5 

Avata in Sanskrit means downcoming, the descent of the divine into the realm of material existence to restore order and the dharma. Matsya, the fish; Kurma, the tortoise; Varaha, the boar; Narasimha, half man/half lion; Vamana, the dwarf; Parashurama, Rama, the prince; and King Ayodhya. Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki are the final incarnation of Vishnu. Vishnu represents polytheism, a supreme being with multiple avatar incarnations.

38  Symbols of the Axial Age Vishnu is the preserver in the trimurti, the triple deity of Hinduism. Whenever the world is threatened by chaos and destruction, Vishnu restores order and the dharma in the form of an avatar, the incarnation of a deity on earth (Sharma, 2000). Dharma originally meant “cosmic law,” the rules of the universe. Dharma came to mean the right behaviors, duty, morality, law, and justice, all behaviors that were considered appropriate and morally correct for the caste class system. In the symbol Vishnu, surrounded by avatars, is shown as a well-dressed jeweled man with four arms holding a conch shell, the sacred emblem of Vishnu which symbolizes the preservation of order in a chaotic world, a chakra, a focus of Hindu meditative exercises, a war discus symbolizing the restoration of dharma even during war, and a club which symbolizes his authority and power over knowledge. He sits in a lotus flower to symbolize purity and transcendence (Zimmer, 1972). The shadow elements of dharma have resulted as a tool to keep the lower classes in their place because a servant needed to be a good a servant for reincarnation to change their status in the next life (Embree, 1988). On the other hand, it did engender some compassion for those not servants because their behavior on earth might result in becoming a servant in the next reincarnated life. AUM – The Universal Hindu Symbol

The phonetic compounds of Aum represent the three states of consciousness: Brahma (A), the creator; Vishnu (U), the preserver; and Shiva (M), the destroyer; (A) Aum also symbolizes the three realms of the world, earth, heaven, and the underworld (Zimmer, 1972). The upper part of the symbol that symbolizes the four states of consciousness, the waking mind that turns to the outer world and the five senses, the sleeping mind is shut down, the dreaming mind where it turns inwards toward the experience of a different world, and the fourth unknown mind faces neither inward nor outward but is in a blissful transcendental state. Maya is the obstacle that interferes in reaching enlightenment.

Figure 2.6 

Symbols of the Axial Age 39 Samsara, Karma, and Reincarnation

Figure 2.7 

Samsara is the belief that humanity is in an endless series of births, deaths, and rebirths, governed by the principle of karma (Hopkins, 1971). The importance of karma is essential to Hindu psychology because karma determines the state of an individual in the reincarnation process. Reincarnation occurs after death and starts a new existence in a different physical form. Karma develops not only through actions, but also in thoughts and words, a deeply introspective psychological process that creates moral character. Karma determines the state of needed rebirth in the samsara cycle. Positive karma results from leading a just and moral life and negative karma results from unjust and amoral behavior. Ultimately, karma is about justice and goodness for its own purpose, not for pleasing a god or goddess. Even the gods and goddesses were subjected to karma (Sharma, 2000). Virtually every school of thought in the history of India, including Buddhism, embraced samsara as the fundamental predicament of existence.

40  Symbols of the Axial Age Maya – Human Ignorance

Maya is the Hindu belief that the world perceived through ego is an illusion. Although the world may appear unconnected it is one form. Maya accounts for human ignorance because it causes individuals to believe that the world is composed of many different forms rather than one integrated whole. Maya also deceives humans into believing individuals are separate from other people. Maya makes individuals forget their true nature and identify with their lower selves which leads to being entrapped in the samsara cycle. The lower self is comprised of the body, the senses, and the mind, which are transitory and mortal. The samsara cycle can only change when there is a psychological recognition of the connection of the True Self to Brahman and atman (Klostermaier, 2000). The samsara cycle is governed by maya because human desires perpetuate the illusion of individualism which only continues the samsara cycle in a series of births, deaths, and rebirths (Sharma, 2000). Moksha – Psychological Emancipation

Moksha and the Four Major Goals of Hinduism 1 2 3 4

Dharma – living an ethical and moral life. Artha – achieving economic success and security. Karma – finding love and psychological health. Moksha – attaining spiritual emancipation from samsara.

Moksha refers to the emancipation from samsara, the release from the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth and reuniting with Brahmin (Sharma, 2000). This occurs through knowledge of the True Self, and the release from craving and clinging to the passions of the physical world. Moksha is part of Purusartha, the four major goals of Hindu life: dharma, leading a moral life; Artha, having economic security; karma, finding love and pleasure and being psychologically healthy; and moksha, the attainment of spiritual emancipation from reincarnation. Mosksha is the primary goal because the aim of all Hindu life is to transcend the physical and ego-driven world so the soul can be finally enlightened and reunified in cosmic unity with Brahman-atman. Vidya and Avidya – Universal Knowledge

Vidya figures prominently in all texts that define Indian philosophy, science, and scholarship (Sharma, 2000). Vidya means correct knowledge, clarity, or higher learning. The term is used to define both intellectual knowledge obtained through study, apara vidya, and spiritual and higher knowledge, para vidya, obtained through knowledge of the six schools of Hindu philosophy: Nyaya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Purvamimamsa, and Uttaramimamsa (Sharma, 2000). Avidya is misunderstanding and ignorance that occurs by separating intellectual and spiritual knowledge. This misunderstanding results from denial that the soul and self are connected to Brahmin. The key for scientists is to develop a deep internal introspection that connects intellectual pursuits to the universal goals of human existence. Otherwise, intellectual knowledge becomes illusionary because it lacks the fundamental goal of all knowledge, which is the attainment of enlightenment.

Symbols of the Axial Age 41 Emancipatory Opportunities in Hinduism Use a Mantra to Connect to the Divine

Mantras allow the mind to stop processing endless thinking to connect to a transcendental state and a higher state of consciousness. Say AUM slowly three times and notice what happens. Om (or Aum) is the most universal Hindu symbol, the trimurti, or triad, the Hindu “holy trinity is the sound used in meditation and the first syllable in any prayer (Zimmer, 1972). Aum symbolizes the universe and the ultimate unity with Brahman and the one world-soul. Discover the True Self

The higher, true Self is experienced the moment the Self and universe are experienced as one and unified. This recognition occurs when the ego becomes conscious of the illusion of separateness; the Lower Self is still connected to the illusions of the physical world. Develop Good Karma

Good Karma is developed through even the smallest positive thoughts and actions. Good Karma results from leading a just and moral life and daily concern for justice and goodness for its own sake, not for pleasing gods or goddesses. View Science as a Spiritual Practice

In Hinduism, there is intellectual and spiritual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge is obtained through academic study and spiritual knowledge through deep psychological introspection. Both are necessary for enlightenment and the scientific emancipation of humanity. Embrace the Mystery of Death

Hinduism provides the opportunity to examine the mystery of death and the possibility of reincarnation, if embraced, requires living a life oriented to ending samsara, release from the endless cycle of craving and clinging to the passions of the physical world. Buddhism – India Historical Analysis of Buddhism Political Systems

Around 321 BCE, the Mauryan Empire was the first empire to unite most of the Indian subcontinent. One of the greatest leaders in both Indian and human history, King Ashoka, reigned over the empire for more than a century after the death of Buddha, which occurred around 410 BCE. At first, he was a ruthless monarch, but, after a battle, he toured the battlefield and viewed the corpses of 150,000 of the enemy Kalinga soldiers and 100,000 his own soldiers and was shocked and repulsed by what he observed and embraced the dharma, the teachings of Buddhism (Augustson, 2016). Afterward, Ashoka outlawed animal sacrifices

42  Symbols of the Axial Age and sent missionaries to spread Buddhism throughout India, Southeast Asia, and the Greek kingdoms in Afghanistan and Central Asia. He built hospitals and schools and reopened the original stupas, the burial sites of Buddhists, to retrieve the relics of Buddha, sending his relics to 84,000 new stupas (Carrithers, 1996). Political infighting caused Ashoka to call a council in 250 BCE to resolve doctrinal issues that were troubling the Buddhist community. After the council, with his political support, Buddhism, once an obscure Hindu sect, became recognized as an international religion and the dominant religion in India until the fourteenth century (Harvey, 2000). The Poli Canon is considered the most reliable source describing the life of Buddha (Nanamoli, 2003). The most important part of the text, called the Suttas, is considered the direct words of Buddha. As with the Christian Bible, many debates arose about the correct interpretation of the Poli Canon after the death of Buddha. These debates resulted in at least 18 different Buddhist sects (Harvey, 2000). Because these debates influenced the daily practice of Buddhism, they reverberated throughout Buddhist culture. Of the 18 sects, only three sects remain today (Harvey, 2000). Theravada, “the way of the elders” represents the practice closest to the way Buddhism was practiced during the time of Buddha. Around the first century, the Mahayana form of Buddhism emerged in northwestern India, which created a new cultural practice of Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism gave the Buddha a divine, god-like status and created the concept of the bodhisattva, an enlightened being who remained in the samara cycle to help others achieve enlightenment (Carrithers, 1996). Mahayana Buddhism was exported to China and became the most practiced form of Buddhism, although it also divided over time into different sects. Most notably, Vajrayana Buddhism, practiced for centuries in Tibet and Mongolia, and the practice of the Dalai Lama. Socioeconomic Systems

Buddhism developed in the Axial Age from the socioeconomic realities of northeastern India. Siddhartha was born as a prince to a family of financial wealth. His father wanted him to become a monarch like himself. An astrologer advised his father that his existence would change the lives of others, but was unclear if he would become a monarch or forsake his socioeconomic status and follow a spiritual path (Nanamoli, 2003). In response, his father tried to shield Siddhartha from the extreme poverty and suffering of the Indian people. When he journeyed outside the palace, his father would have his route cleared of the potentially unsettling sites of beggars, the impoverished, the elderly, and the sick. Determined that Siddhartha would not forsake his life of privilege, he provided a life of opulence with the best clothes, best entertainment, and best food. At 16 he married his beautiful cousin, Yashodhara, and had a son. In the first 20 years of life, he already had a life that others pursued. He had wealth, power, celebrity, and every socioeconomic privilege that could be imagined. At 29, his world shattered with an encounter with a person suffering a severe illness, another dying of old age, and a corpse on route to the charnel ground (Nanamoli, 2003). Until this time, he was unaware that these realities existed in the world. The reality that illness, old age, and death existed led to a psychological crisis. During his crisis, he met a samana, an ascetic who performed acts of austerity, “pacificatory therapy,” to overcome

Symbols of the Axial Age 43 samsara, and appeared happy even though he had renounced every life privilege. Distraught, he decided to abandon his life of privilege and become a samana and end the pretense of his social and psychological uniqueness and embrace the oneness of all humanity. Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince, left his privileged life forever to seek the ultimate wisdom. Out of the experience of socioeconomic inequalities, Buddhism was born. Cultural Systems

For half a century, the Buddha traveled the Gangetic basin, teaching his Dharma and building a sangha, a monastic community of believers. During the time of cultural upheaval and change, his message of the impermanence of life was well received. People also responded to the message of spiritual self-sufficiency because the Buddha believed spiritual awakening was not dependent on priests or a dogma. The Buddha also rejected the idea that spiritual enlightenment was limited to certain cultural castes. As his teachings spread, so did the sangha. Five Precepts brought order to the daily life of the sangha members: not eating after midday, not watching secular entertainment such as dancing, singing, or theatre; not using perfume or jewelry; not using a luxurious couch or sleeping on a soft bed; and not handling money (Carrithers, 1996). Being relieved of the difficulties of everyday life gave more time for spiritual work. Beyond the five precepts, a sangha daily schedule included meditation, study, and begging for food. The tradition of monks begging for food became, and remains, a cultural phenomenon in Buddhist countries. Women became ordained Buddhist members five years after the founding of the sangha (Carrithers, 1996). This changed the bias in Buddhist culture, at least in the sangha, of viewing women as second-class citizens. The stepmother of the Buddha, Queen Prajepati, became the first Buddhist nun, a radical statement for its time in history. The wife of the Buddha, Yoshihara, his son, Rahula, became members of the sangha. During his eightieth year, around 410 BCE, the Buddha passed into history. It is believed that in his final thoughts he spoke of the impermanence of life, all things being subject to decay. His actual final words encouraged his followers “to diligently work out your salvation” (Harvey, 2000). He was cremated and his remains were interred in burial sites called stupas. His ashes were distributed as relics to the eight city-states connected to his life. Initially only for royalty, the stupas with their parasol-shaped structure symbolized the Bodhi tree and enlightenment. Stupas became pilgrimage sites, where walking around the stupas helped ensure a rebirth. It was not until the end of the Axial Age, around 200–100 BCE that symbols of the Buddha appeared in human form. Before that time, the Buddha was symbolized by an empty throne, footprints, the Bodhi tree, the wheel of the dharma, and the parasol. Because the stupas contained the relics of the Buddha, many saw the stupas as symbolic of the Buddha himself. The stupa became a physical symbol of the path to enlightenment: the three foundational necessities (refugees), the four immeasurable motivations, the seven elements of enlightenment, the eight-point path of right, the 10–12 levels of enlightenment, karma, wisdom, the heart, and the final jewel of enlightenment.

44  Symbols of the Axial Age

Figure 2.8 

Symbols of the Axial Age 45 Buddhist Psychology Buddhism

The Buddha is one of the most powerful human symbols. His image inspires Buddhists and non-Buddhists throughout the world. Starting as a minor Hindu sect, Buddhism emerged as a major international religion. Buddha taught that the world was impermanent, that psychological attachment caused human suffering. To end suffering, Buddhism offered specific methods to enlightenment. The Four Noble Truths provided a path to end human suffering and the Noble Eightfold Pathways were ways to discipline the mind. The Buddhist approach of mindfulness meditation has been adopted by many psychotherapeutic approaches, most notably, dialectical behavioral therapy. Buddhism challenged the search for a separate independent self because the search led to psychological suffering. Nirvana could occur during this lifetime by the extinction of desire, craving, and attachment. Ultimately the Buddha warned against reliance on any external authority because everyone had to find their own unique spiritual and psychological path, their own Buddhahood. Buddha (Estimate – 563–483 BCE)

Although modern histography places doubt on his family lineage, there is common agreement that Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince during the Axial Age to the king and queen of the Sakyan people near the current border between India and Nepal (Nanamoli, 2003); it is believed that his mother was impregnated during a dream by the god-like King Elephant, a divinely ordained and supernaturally accomplished birth (Nanamoli, 2003). Immediately upon his birth, he took seven steps and proclaimed that he was born to transform the world, claiming this was his last birth in the samsara cycle. After his psychological epiphany, he traveled throughout the cities of the Ganges basin learning the ways to end samsara. One of his first teachers was a master of yogic mediation, where he mastered a state of “nothingness,” which he found did not provide freedom (Nanamoli, 2003). He also discovered that self-mortification, the deprivation of food until he was emaciated, caused even more suffering which left him searching for another spiritual path. After renouncing his privileged life, he practiced the contemplative and ascetic arts for six years and found that the feeling of the pleasure of mindless contemplation and the suffering of self-denial were not the answer. In response, he set a spiritual path between the two extremes that became the Middle Way. The Middle Way meant caring for the physical body and physical well-being were both essential for spiritual liberation, the need for balance between the tears of sadness, and smiling happiness. The Buddha believed that mindful meditation did not empty the mind but made the mind more present to the true nature of the world and the Self (Ruhula, 2007).

46  Symbols of the Axial Age

Figure 2.9 

Figure 2.10 

Symbols of the Axial Age 47 According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha sat at night peacefully meditating under a Bodhi tree near the village of Gaya in the middle of an Indian forest. The leaves of the Bodhi tree were heart-shaped, which symbolized that the heart and not the mind, was the key to enlightenment. Without judgment, he was careful not to rush to any conclusions. His meditative practice brought him to a place he had never experienced before. Through the focus on his breathing and his third eye, an awareness came of an internal life that included the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Memories arose of the difficulties, challenges, and fears of his life, which might prolong his rebirth cycle. By remaining vigilant and by staying present to his internal meditative state, he experienced the importance of karma and how actions of the past affect the future. Even the smallest act of meanness could cause serious harm. But as the night progressed, he saw beyond the world of karma to a connection to something greater. He discovered that he was not a separate being but interconnected to all aspects of the natural world. When the enlightenment occurred, certain myths describe how an apple from the Bodhi tree fell on his head; and the Bodhi tree burst into bloom with all living things, becoming exuberant and celebratory. The apple, like in the Garden of Eden, a symbol of knowledge equal to God, to a higher consciousness. When he greeted the next morning, he was awakened, becoming the Buddha, meaning the Awakened One. He envisioned a world where there would be no ignorance and fear. After enlightenment, the Buddha was overwhelmed and walked aimlessly, unaware of the consequences of being awakened. A great internal battle ensued with Mara, the Lord of Death, which symbolizes the permeance of shadow that often arrives during a vulnerable state. Mara, whose name means “destruction,” represented the evil forces of life and the passions that delude and destroy psychologically. Mara sent visions to tempt the Buddha back to his old unenlightened state. Mara provided mages of the Buddha possessing all the power, riches, and the most beautiful women in the world. When this did not work, Mara tried fear and anxiety and sent armies threatening his destruction. The Buddha wept for his danger and for the danger of evil in the world. An overwhelmed Buddha knelt and touched the earth. It was the earth and nature that saved him, not his brilliance or social status. Tracy Cochran (2020), in A Night at the Forest, described this process through the Latin word humus, “the rich living soil.” The concept of humility is rooted in humus, the experience of being humbled when ego defenses are under attack. By touching the earth for help, the Buddha was humbled and was finally able to overcome the world of his egotistic needs and passions. The Banner of Victory came to symbolize the victory of the Buddha over Mara, a reminder that enlightenment occurs when the delusion ends that power, wealth, and human passions are the path to happiness. After the Buddha finished his walking, he began to teach with newfound humility. He believed the path to enlightenment should not become a dogma but based not on what one knew, but how one lived. In If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him, Sheldon Kopp (1976) argued that psychological enlightenment does not occur from the external world because Buddhahood already exists within everyone; the struggle is to recognize it. As Buddhism prospered after the death of Buddha, divine worship of gods flourished. For the Buddhist, the gods were for special favors, not for resolving the samsara cycle of rebirth. The Buddha became a manifestation of the Hindu god, Vishnu, resulting in an ironical twist that many Hindus worshipped the Buddha as a god, while many Buddhists worshipped the Hindu gods.

48  Symbols of the Axial Age

Figure 2.11 

Four Noble Truths

• • • •

Dukkha – Awareness that Life is suffering. Samudaya – Awareness that the root of suffering is desire. Niroda – Awareness that suffering can end by combatting desire. Nirvana – Awareness that the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to renounce desire and end suffering.

The Four Noble Truths are usually identified as one of the first teachings of the Buddha and considered one of the most important teachings of Buddhism (Harvey, 2000).The first Noble Truth, dukkha is awareness that life is suffering. Dukkha is beyond the suffering of daily life; it is dissatisfaction with existence, the ongoing angst of birth, aging, illness, and pending death. The true depth of suffering can only be experienced from a conscious mind because understanding dukkha, the dissatisfaction with life, is often unconscious. The second Noble Truth is samudaya, awareness that the root of all suffering is desire; understanding that suffering occurs when expectations conform or do not conform to reality. In both cases, desire and fulfillment cause

Symbols of the Axial Age 49 suffering. The third Noble Truth is nirodha, awareness that suffering can end by consciously combatting the root of desire and learning about nirvana. The fourth Noble Truth is nirvana, the experience of the end of suffering, a radical acceptance of the “way things are”; the end to craving for a reality that does not exist. Nirvana is the end of the illusion of a separate, individual Self. Emancipation from suffering is not a gift from god because the suffering is caused by human ego and only the human ego can end suffering. Noble Eightfold Path

• • • • • • • •

Right View or Right Understanding leads to the true nature of reality. Right Intention comes from an unselfish desire for enlightenment. Right Speech uses speech compassionately. Right Action results from ethical and compassionate behavior. Right Livelihood results from making a living that is ethical. Right Effort results from cultivating healthy qualities and discarding unhealthy qualities. Right Mindedness occurs when there is whole body-and- mind awareness. Right Concentration occurs through meditation or a similar concentrated practice.

Figure 2.12 

50  Symbols of the Axial Age The Noble Eightfold Path to nirvana is part of the fourth Noble Truth, which involves psychologically disciplining the mind by right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. It is symbolic of conquering death, the end of samsara and dukkha. The Five Aggregates of Clinging 1 2 3 4 5

Material images, Impressions Sensations, feelings, received from Material Images Perceptions Ego Driven Psychological Formulations Consciousness

Anatta is one of the most complex concepts of Buddhism. Anatta, means “no- self” because Buddhism rejects permanence in any form. The search for a true Self, consciousness or a permanent soul, leads to human suffering. Hinduism tried to solve the problem of permanence by creating a permanent god, and a soul that lives after death. Buddhism rejects the Hindu belief in a soul, atman, that lives after death. In the Five Aggregates of Clinging, Buddha defined “being” as consisting of matter, sensations and feelings, perceptions and apperception, ego-driven psychological formulations, and consciousness. None of these aspects of being can be understood from a permanence standpoint because the Five Aggregates are constantly changing. Searching for a true Self is an illusion because the Five Aggregates can only be experienced in the impermanent and ever-changing “here and now.” Accepting impermanence reduces desire, cravings, and attachments and leads to freedom and emancipation from the samsara cycle.

Figure 2.13 

Symbols of the Axial Age 51 The Buddhist Middle Way

Attachments are essential to human survival. The problem arises when one seeks permanent attachments because all attachments are subject to ongoing change. The problem is not solved by negative feelings about attachment. The answer lies in avoiding the extremes by developing a Middle Way between overattachment and negativity toward attachment. The Middle Way is symbolized by the lotus flower, the purity of body, speech, and mind, floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. Nirvana – Overcoming Death

Figure 2.14 

The Reclining Buddha symbolized the dissolution of the ego and a state beyond description and an experience of the true Self. It originated as a symbol of the Buddha reclining during his last illness, before Parinirvana, which refers to nirvana attained before death, the release from samsara, karma, and rebirth (Zimmer, 1972). Nirvana literally means extinction or extinguishing because when in a state of nirvana there is an extinction of desire and the illusion of a separate independent self. One who achieves nirvana in life is called an arahant, someone who has fully embraced the dharma and the vision of the Buddha of a life without craving, negativity, and misknowing (Rahula, 2007). Like the moksha in Hinduism, nirvana can be realized in this lifetime with the realization of the illusion of a separate individual self. The Reclining Buddha symbolizes nirvana before death, someone who attained nirvana during this lifetime.

52  Symbols of the Axial Age Emancipatory Opportunities in Buddhism End Needless Suffering

The Four Noble Truths provide a path to end suffering and are the foundation of all Buddhist thought (Rahula, 2007). Experience a higher state of consciousness by living the Four Noble Truths to escape psychological suffering. Trust the unique internal human experience over an external authority. Practice Mindfulness Meditation

The Buddhist emphasis on mindfulness, is different from the Hindu meditation emphasis on emptying the mind. Buddhist mindfulness meditation attends to the body, mind, and the environment without psychological judgment. It awakens, not empties the mind. Buddhist meditation practice leads to stronger moral character and the cultivation of wisdom, and the ability to discipline and control the mind and body (Rahula, 2007). Wisdom Requires Study, Discussion, and Reflection

The cultivation of wisdom requires learning and regular times of study, discussion, and reflection. This is achieved through ongoing activities that expand human consciousness and avoid dogmatism and the lack of intellectual and emotional curiosity. Seek a Middle Way

Avoid the psychological attitude that attachment is always negative. Rather, find a “middle way” by understanding that clinging to permanent attachments is what causes human suffering. Overcome the Illusion of a Separate Ego

Nirvana can be realized by understanding that a separate individual self is an illusion. Buddhism offers the opportunity to psychologically “live in an ever-changing moment” and avoid the search for the illusive permanent ego. Confucianism – China Historical Analysis of Confucianism Political Systems

The Axial Age in China coincides with the Zhou Dynasty, which conquered the Shang Dynasty and maintained most of their religious beliefs and psychological practices. The Zhou family believed a mandate from heaven made them victorious over the Shang Dynasty (Chin, 2007). It was believed that a mandate from heaven was divinely bestowed on leaders who were virtuous and just and withdrawn when the leaders became corrupt. The mandate of heaven embodied the natural order and will of the universe. For centuries, emperors, clad in yellow robes, symbolic of the colors of the ripening crops, raised their arms to the skies for a “positive mandate” from heaven. The emperor, seen as the Son of Heaven, was the only one who could address the celestial forefathers on behalf of the Chinese nation (Chin, 2007). If serious problems arose, the only path to political change was the loss of the mandate from heaven, the only real check of political power in ancient China. If the emperor failed to repeat the time-honored rituals, the heavens would avenge this slight by sending disaster on his people. For three millennia, rulers of the most populous nation on earth offered prayers and sacrifices to the gods and ploughed the first furrow of each new agricultural year.

Symbols of the Axial Age 53 Lasting 800 years, the Zhou Dynasty was the longest dynasty in Chinese history. Despite its longevity, serious problems arose, especially after the Zhou king was assassinated in 771 BCE by invading nomads leaving China divided into the Western and Eastern Zhou periods (Poo, 1998). The eastern Zhou was named the Spring and Autumn period, the title from The Spring and Autumn Annals of Confucius. The Warring States Period followed the Spring and Autumn period and as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began to fall around the fifth century BCE, hundreds of feudal wars broke out across China, which led to many states developing their own armies and bureaucratic systems. For three centuries from 535–286 BCE, brutality, political division, and violence reigned over China. During this period, over a hundred smaller states battled for supremacy, eventually consolidating into seven major states. These political upheavals produced Confucius, one of the most influential figures in Chinese history. The Qin Wars of Conquest would lead in 221 BCE to the first Chinese empire to unite China, the Qin Dynasty, now forever called China to honor its conquering emperor (Chin, 2007). Socioeconomic Systems

Confucius never sought financial wealth and discouraged the social attachment to possessions. His view was that wealth, fame, and human comforts had nothing to do with happiness or the attainment of virtue and morality. His focus was on doing right over wealth, even if it meant living in poverty. Confucianism focused on the male elites, those who controlled the political and economic forces of China. The rulers and ruling social classes were responsible not only for the physical welfare of the poorer classes, but also had to provide moral self-cultivation and lead by good example. When moral leadership permeated society, there was a reduction in the need of legislating good conduct.

Figure 2.15 

54  Symbols of the Axial Age Chinese women painfully bound their feet to be small like Western women. Confucius did not solve the problem of the social and economic status of women in Chinese society, how paternalism can “bind” and oppress women throughout human history. Paternalism that emerged in Confucianism has continued to undermine the social and economic development of women even in modern China. Confucius believed it was important to focus on the psychological development of the powerful upper classes because the workers and peasants were too busy caring for society to be involved in philosophy and politics. Many peasants questioned the Confucian system and the mandate from heaven because how could a just god allow an emperor and the elites to live a privileged economic life while a peasant struggled for daily subsistence to avoid poverty. The rituals reflected social class; the peasant rituals focused on individual and village welfare, while the elites focused on support of the dynasty (Poo, 1998). In response, a shadow emerged in the dynasties of China of those who did not heed the Confucian view that it was the primary responsibility of government to care for the poor. The Confucian deference to authority created an economic and socially oppressive landlord class that in the twentieth century led to rebellion by peasants and the Maoist revolution. Cultural Systems

Although The Warring States Period was chaotic and violent, it was also a great period of cultural creativity (Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, 2006). This period in China has been called the Hundred Schools of Thought and the Golden Age of Chinese Philosophy because intellectual thought developed freely throughout China. The chaos and disorder challenged intellectuals to address the major challenge of the day, which was how people could live peacefully together. States became competitive for philosophic ideas, often employing intellectuals to advise on political and cultural governance and diplomacy. The philosophic ideas developed during the Axial Age continue to impact the cultural life, the ways people live and think, in China, east Asian countries, and east Asian diaspora throughout the world. This period ended with the rise of the imperial Qin Dynasty and the subsequent suppression of thought and dissent. The gods created a very different culture in China. The gods worked through one chosen human being, the emperor. He, and only he, served as a living link to the heavens (Szczepanski, 2019). The gods were “divine bureaucrats,” concerned with the daily management of social relations in the imperial rule on earth. The heavenly Ministry of Thunder, with a staff of emissaries who, like the emperor’s own officials, carried out the edicts of the bird-headed Thunder God (Chin, 2007). The way the Chinese sought to understand their relationship to the gods was in sharp contrast to the rest of the Axial world. A proper relationship to the gods developed by honoring deceased relatives. This has been described as “ancestor worship,” which does not give the concept justice because worship can connote distant family members when the Chinese honored their deceased family members to gain support with current psychological problems in the family. Rituals were performed before altars in the family home to honor ancestors and to seek divine intervention to preserve the immediate and family of lineage (Ivanhoe, 2000). The rituals created a daily connection between the heavenly and earthly world and continued the connection to deceased relatives that served to reduce the psychological anxiety of death.

Symbols of the Axial Age 55 Confucian Psychology Confucianism

The Axial Age in China produced Confucius, whose civic-minded doctrine of morality and social responsibility was ideal for the governance of a large and populous nation. The Five Classics formed the basis of Confucianism which influenced all aspects of Chinese life for centuries. Unlike in the Western world, Asians typically have not distinguished between philosophy and religion. For Asians, philosophy must be practical and practiced, not theoretical and abstract (Yu-Lan, 1948/1997). Confucius had a basic disinterest in gods and the transcendent world. The goal of Confucianism was to create a harmonious society built on strong psychological relationships between people. For a peaceful and harmonious society, the individual had to live for the common good over individual needs and desires. Confucianism was focused on the development of a virtuous and moral character for its own sake, not for a religious or spiritual reward. Confucius (551–479 BCE)

Born around 551 BCE, Confucius became one of the greatest thinkers in human history. Although known in the West as Confucius, throughout Chinese history he was called Kongzi or Master Kong. It was the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century that named him Confucius (Poo, 1998). Confucius was born to a lower impoverished aristocratic family and was raised by his mother after his father died when he was three years old. With limited familial financial means, he was able to procure an education and served mostly in various lower-level administrative positions throughout his life (Chin, 2007). At 30, he became a teacher and began a life of unemployment. At 51, he lost his job, a minister of justice, after a political disagreement with a Lu provincial leader. At 55, he left his native Lu, looking without success for someone to employ him. He wandered from state to state with his students looking for work. At 68, he returned to Lu, where he would die at 70 years of age, never able to find a higher-level governmental position (Chin, 2007). Confucius lived during a time of great political upheaval, social chaos, and widespread human suffering. The best information about Confucius comes from the Analects of Confucius. Like Socrates and Jesus, Confucius never put his ideas in writing. After his death, his followers compiled his thoughts in analects, which are loosely assembled stories, sayings, and answers, often without the questions (Chan, 1969). In the Analects, Confucius is portrayed as a man of great humility, concerned with psychological development and being nonjudgmental of others. He was passionate about the arts and music. He believed that music could help make one a moral and virtuous person (Chan, 1969). Confucius had a great respect for authority, believing that all human relationships by nature were unequal. Ruler and subject, parent and child, and husband and wife were unequal. This reality made obedience and respect for authority a cornerstone of his philosophy. Although this might appear oppressive to liberal Western thought, Confucius argued there are no autonomous individuals; everyone is in a complex web of interpersonal relationships. The value of interpersonal relationships was learned in the family. The family symbolized the Confucian view of government since it was in the family where one learned ethics, morality, and good behaviors. For social harmony, duty to station and community became a primary moral value of Confucianism. Confucius considered himself a failure because he never held a significant government position, although several of his students achieved that goal (Chin, 2007). A few centuries after his death, most of the Chinese people accepted his view of what was wrong with the world and lived their daily lives in the Confucian society he envisioned.

56  Symbols of the Axial Age Filial Piety – Hierarchical Relationships

Filial piety is an excellent example of the Confucian attitude toward human relationships. Filial piety is the virtue of respect for parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian Classic of Filial Piety is the source of the Confucian concept. In the Classic, Confucius tells his student, Zengzi, besides goodness toward his parents, filial piety shows how to love and respect people outside of the home, even the ancestors (Ivanhoe, 2000). During his time, Confucius articulated the five great interpersonal relationships needed for a harmonious society: ruler/subject, father/son, husband/wife, elder/younger brother, and friend/friend (Chan, 1969). In the Confucian hierarchical system of interpersonal relationships, it is a given that someone is always superior, and someone is always inferior. Facing this reality helps build a harmonious society because the superior person provides something that is missing in the inferior person. Being inferior does not mean someone is less of a person; rather, being inferior provides the opportunity for new learning and a respectful relationship with someone of greater knowledge and status. Li and Interpersonal Rituals

Initially, li meant ritual sacrifices to the gods, But Confucius transformed the meaning to daily, practical living; rituals performed not to honor the gods but to develop a strong sense of psychological propriety to be performed dutifully from the assigned station in life. Li came to mean not only formal rituals but the outward expression of Confucian ideals such as manners, etiquette, and customs. Li consisted of 300 major and 3,000 minor rules (Weiming & Tucker, 2003).

Figure 2.16 

Symbols of the Axial Age 57 Confucius encouraged attention to the most minute rituals in daily life which included clothes, food, and even posture. Daily rituals included simple acts of bowing out of mutual respect and for social harmony, sending thank-you notes, or taking off shoes before entering a home. Three main Chinese characters and the yin and yang symbolize the philosophy of Confucianism: over his head is acknowledgement of “Confucius” as the sage; on the left, water, is symbolic in Confucianism for sustaining social harmony in a chaotic and violent world; on the right, scholar, symbolizes the importance of knowledge, self-awareness, and education. The yin and yang symbolize the need to seek balance and harmony in a world of constant oppositional tensions. Ren

Ren has been translated to mean humanness or humanity, kindness, benevolence, and goodness (Dawson, 2008). Ren is empathy, love of others, “treating others as you want to be treated,” the inward and outward expression of Confucian ideals. Confucius believed that it was the moral duty to protect the integrity of others, to share in the feelings of others, and to support their success, even though it was difficult because humanity was conditioned against caring for others. Quiet Sitting Meditation

The Confucian Dao, the way, is self-awareness that requires discipline in thought and action. It entails discipline to regularly perform a meditation called quiet sitting, which creates space for critical examination of thought and behavior. Confucius evaluated himself in a ruthless manner (Ivanhoe, 2000). The Confucian way required psychological honesty and the ability to be humble and accept criticism and teaching from others. Humility resulted from self-awareness not by being humbled by others. The Confucian Dao taught restraint in all aspects of life, including eating too much and seeking human comforts. Overeating dulled the senses and created psychological fatigue. Most importantly self-constraint prevented the lapse into ego-centered, rather than being social-centered, thought. As the Buddha focused on ending samsara at death, Confucius focused on a way to social and political harmony in this lifetime. Ancestor Worship

Ancestor worship is part of the ritual of li in which there is an inner psychological veneration of family lineage, often on altars in Chinese family homes. Even in death, the family lives because Confucius believed the family was the foundation of civilization (Chin, 2007). The family cultivates morality, ethics, virtue, and filial piety and, like good parents, political leaders should lead by parental example. Political leaders should practice daily psychological self-cultivation because highly conscious leaders produce a highly conscious people. Confucius advised leaders to refrain from violence and punishment because when leaders modeled morality and goodness, the people found those characteristics in themselves. Confucius predicted that 100 years of moral leadership would end killing and violence (Ivanhoe, 2000). Because of his belief in social harmony, rituals were performed for the welfare of the state. Rituals were meant to improve interpersonal relationships to reform the political world and provide a process to fulfill hierarchical roles Confucius also understood that human beings needed rituals to respond psychologically to major events in life. This included rituals for birth, marriage, and death to honor developmental changes in the life cycle. After the death of a family member, people were often heartbroken and did know how to respond. Confucian rituals provided a way to process highly emotional human experiences and honor family ancestors. Rituals enlivened one psychologically and often had a magical quality. To receive the full emotional impact of a ritual required the correct attitude, the conscious effort to psychologically engage the true meaning of the ritual (Dawson, 2008).

58  Symbols of the Axial Age

Figure 2.17  The Four Arts

Confucius is one of the few scholars in history to value music and poetry as a vital part of their philosophy (Chan, 1969). For Confucius, poetry and music were essential for the development of a higher consciousness and becoming a virtuous and moral human being. To be a scholar

Symbols of the Axial Age 59 meant developing “the four arts,” which included learning a string instrument, playing the strategy game of Go, doing Chinese calligraphy, and Chinese painting. Confucius continued a major theme of the Axial Age, which was that scholarship started first with how a scholar lived their life. Confucius believed that unless a scholar attended to their own moral and ethical development, their teaching was not only flawed but dangerous. Junzi – Superior Person

In the paternalistic world of Confucius, junzi has been translated as “gentleman,” or “superior man,” but can be applied beyond gender. Confucius believed the moral transformation of the individual and society would end societal chaos and violence. Confucius spoke of a superior person who attained a noble and virtuous character through hard work and psychological selfawareness. To become a junzi, one possessed equanimity, able to know and do what was right, unaffected by external social and political pressures. Junzi was nonjudgmental seeking to learn from others, supporting others’ success, and expressing a deep compassion for themselves and other people. History showed that the followers of Confucius found his philosophy a hard path to follow because Confucius never sought a destination, an end to samsara or Buddhahood; rather, Confucius believed that cultivating junzi was essential for a harmonious society and only valuable for the experience of being a complete human being in this lifetime. Human Development Ritualized

Long before developmental psychology, Confucius believed humans were transformed through developmental stages, each having its own purpose and rituals. There are five major Confucian developmental stages acknowledged through ritual and symbol that are practiced at birth, marriage, coming of age, attaining maturity, and at death. All of these stages include the active involvement of the family. Birth is symbolized by continuing the family tree; it is frowned upon for Chinese parents not to have children. A Confucian marriage requires an engagement dowry and the bride’s family gift of moon-shaped cookies. During the wedding ceremony, the new couple is required to pay their respects to heaven, earth, their ancestors, and most importantly, to their parents. A young person reaches maturity at 15 and symbolically dresses differently and assumes more responsibility to practice li rituals and ethical code. One comes of age at 30, after developing a strong sense of self symbolized by having an active role in contributing to the life of the community. A spiritual maturity begins at 50, when “real life begins.” By this time a person is expected to answer those Axial Age questions: “Where did I come from?” “What is the purpose of my life?” and ultimately “Who am I?” Out of great respect for age in the Chinese culture, at 60, one is expected to share their wisdom with the family and community. Seventy is a time for needed peace and a purification of the mind from negative thoughts because one now has a sense of the “real self.” Death is a reconnection to ancestors. After death, friends and family provide financial and ritual support to the family of the deceased. At the funeral, symbols are important. A willow branch symbolizing the soul is placed in the coffin with food for the upcoming journey of the deceased to their ancestors. During the funeral ritual, the name of the deceased is added to the family altar to be remembered and honored forever. Rujia – Well-Educated Governmental Leaders

Confucius did not directly develop a school of philosophy. He belonged to a scholarly movement called Ru. Today, the term for Confucianism in China is rujia. Confucius believed humanity needed to return to the past and become immersed in history, especially the literature of the Five Confucian Classics adopted by the Ru school: Venerated Documents, Classic of Poetry,

60  Symbols of the Axial Age Spring and Autumn Annals, Record of Ritual, and Classic of Chang (Weiming & Tucker, 2003). In future dynasties, beginning with the Han Dynasty, these classics became part of the statesponsored curriculum for Chinese education and part of the imperial examination system for selecting candidates on merit, not by birth, for the state bureaucracy. The Chinese believed that being inculcated in history and the Confucian classics was the best way to prepare leaders to administer such a large nation. Emancipatory Opportunities in Confucianism Develop Compassion for Oneself

One of the most important but most difficult goals of Confucian thought. Confucius believed self-compassion laid the foundation for becoming a junzi, a moral and virtuous person dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of education, self-awareness, and higher consciousness. Live by the Golden Rule

“With the ability for self-compassion, it becomes easier to “treat others as you want to be treated.” Practice Respect in All Human Interactions

Although Westerners do not outwardly bow to show respect, it is possible in interpersonal relationships to “bow internally” to acknowledge the necessity of respect for all people, especially those with different viewpoints. Participate in the Arts

Participation in the arts is essential for moral character and a higher consciousness. For Confucianists, it was playing a musical instrument, creative writing, painting, and playing a strategic game. Value Natural and Extended Family

Confucius viewed family as the foundation of social, political, and psychological stability. Although challenging to the realities of modern life, prioritize strong psychological connections to your natural and extended family. Consider exploring and honoring your ancestry through your family tree, family history records, and the various ancestry websites. Human Development Requires Age-Related Rituals

Our ancestors understood the importance of ritual to acknowledge the psychological changes that occur throughout a lifetime. Modernity requires conscious efforts to participate in traditional rituals of marriage, funerals, graduations and to also create rituals that recognize and celebrate transitional developmental changes often missing in modern society. Ritual is not performed for its own sake but is symbolic of relationships that bind people and society together For Confucianists, it is the inner psychological experience, not outer ritual, that is most important. Assure Political Leaders Are of the Highest Moral Character

Evaluate the family history of political leaders because of the Confucian belief that moral character, commitment to self-awareness, and a higher consciousness was formed in the family.

Symbols of the Axial Age 61 Daoism – China Historical Analysis of Daoism Political Systems

Daoism, like Confucianism, was a response to the same political conditions of the Zhou Dynasty (Welch, 1970).Scholars have distinguished between two schools of Daoist thought. Philosophical Daoism, daojia, meaning “School of the Way,” associated with the literate and intellectual classes primarily influenced by two Daoist classics: Daodejing (Laozi, 1955) and the Zhuangzi. The religious Daoism, daojiao, “Teaching the Way,” existed for the common classes, the “Daoist church” developed later during the Han Dynasty, establishing a religious tradition with priests, temples, rituals, and hierarchical structures (Ivanhoe, 2003). Although the Daodejing s often seen as a prescription for spiritual development it was initially written to give political advice to governmental officials (Ebrey, Walthall, & Palais, 2006). The Daodejing addressed solutions to the social and political disorder during the Warring States Period. Laozi directed his comments to the ruling classes, advising the elites to avoid excessive wealth and narcissistic attitudes of self-aggrandizement. Unlike Confucius, Laozi did not advocate for return to the wisdom of the past sages; rather he argued for the Dao, “the way” (Graham, 2003). The Daoist political view was that the suffering in China resulted from governments administering contrary to the Dao, being politically self-serving and interfering in the natural flow of the daily lives of the people. Laozi believed political leaders should lead passively, avoid interference, study the Dao, and learn from nature. In his 1998 State of the Union Address, President Ronald Reagan quoted Laozi when he said, “Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish; do not overdo it.” Laozi warned that assertive action often caused opposite reactions, a backlash which was another example of the Daoist rejection of Confucian ideas of assertive governmental activism (Ivanhoe, 2003). However, Daoists were very vague about how Daoism could be practiced in governmental settings. Unfortunately, they could not refer to any contemporary political role models to support their approach. In the final analysis Laozi viewed political leadership as a continuum. On the worst side of the continuum were rulers despised by their people, the next level on the continuum were leaders feared by their people, followed by rulers who were loved by their people. Laozi argued that the best of all rulers were political leaders hardly known to the people (Ebrey, Walthall, & Palais, 2006). In China, Daoism developed in reaction to Confucianism and concerns about the Chinese losing their connection to nature and the knowledge of the earth. Daoism challenged the wisdom of the drive for intellectual understanding because of the Daoist belief that the search for intellectual knowledge interfered in living in the natural world (Moeller, 2006). The Dao, “the way of nature,” meant “being with the flow of the moment” in harmony with the universal mother, which is the source of all life. Daoism is a way to live, not for finding a god or goddess to worship. The Daodejing and the Zhuangzi (1974) are mysterious and difficult Daoist texts to understand. This appears to be intentional because Daoists are skeptical because they believe words and language distort reality. Having lived in a period of history of warfare, violence, chaos, and division, Daoism and Confucianism both disdained coercion, conflict, and direct confrontation. In response, they both claimed they had found the answer to the social and political problems of their day. As Daoism developed throughout China, it blended many Confucian practices, especially ancestor reverence. In the post–Axial Age, during the Han Dynasty, Daoism became religious, with priests, rituals, and scriptures, even worshipping Laozi as a god (Ivanhoe, 2003). The belief arose of two souls, a yang soul, hun, arises at death to an unknown world and a yin soul, po,

62  Symbols of the Axial Age remains around the grave and appreciates family offerings, similar to Confucian ancestor worship (Ivanhoe, 2003). The Chinese have historically been able to integrate profound ideas when new concepts enter their culture. When the Buddhists arrived in China after the Axial Age, the Buddhists became Zen Buddhists and found common ground with Confucianism and Daoism, especially regarding meditative practices (Ivanhoe & Van Orden, 2001). Chinese Buddhists even mistakenly conjectured that when Laozi left China, he became the Buddha in India (Ivanhoe & Van Orden, 2001). In the twentieth century, when Marxism arrived in China, it became Maoism. The focus of all these Chinese developments was how human beings could take responsibility, without one dominant religious philosophy or gods and goddesses, to live in social and political harmony with one another. Socioeconomic Systems

To make a living during the Axial Age in China, sages developed philosophies for rulers to retain their power. In the competitive Warring States Period, rulers competed for the best philosophic ideas which would bring social and economic harmony to their unstable social states. In rejecting the Confucian belief that social harmony necessitated everyone knowing their hierarchical place in society, Daoist thought focused on the individual in nature rather than on social roles and social harmony. Laozi argued that social harmony came from following the Dao, not from human-made hierarchies. Laozi found words and concepts socially harmful because once something was named virtuous there must be vice. Beauty begot ugliness, love begot hate, justice begot injustice. Knowledge was at best partial and did not necessarily make the world socially and economically just. In fact, seeking economic and social reform often made the world even less just. True “wealth” came from nature, mystical and spiritual experiences. “The way” was to avoid the focus on financial wealth and through an active meditation practice connect to something greater and away from the search for worldly possessions. Laozi gave attention to women, but in a sexist manner. Laozi celebrated the stereotypical views of women as gentle, passive, and humble (Ivanhoe & Van Orden, 2001). He did not advocate for social equality among the sexes because he viewed women as the yin to the male yang. He did suggest that men would be more conscious if they developed feminine qualities; “know the masculine but keep to the feminine” (Ivanhoe, 2003). Under paternalistic Daoism and Confucianism, male elites prospered, while women, the common people, and the peasants, struggled socially and economically for centuries, leading to the Chinese peasant-led Maoist revolution of the twentieth century. Cultural Systems

For those Chinese that struggled with the perceived rigid hierarchical system of Confucianism, Daoism provided cultural relief. The Daodejing in its mysterious and poetic style pointed to a different and ambiguous cultural existence; a life of ease, free from strict cultural roles, philosophical debates, and ego-driven concerns. For the Daoist, the neglect of the ways of nature was at the root of human suffering. Early Daoism viewed Confucianism as the cause of the problems in Chinese culture because of the focus on the regulation of human relationships (Ivanhoe and Van Orden, 2001). Confucianism had destroyed human spontaneity and connection to the natural world. Daoists believed that before Confucianism there was no concept of virtue, benevolence, compassion, ethics, and no rituals to cultivate morality. By developing these concepts, problems arose that previously did not exist. The solution was to turn away from these concepts and return to the ways of nature and the universe.

Symbols of the Axial Age 63 The message of the Daodejing was purposively meant to be obscure because for Laozi, words only distorted reality. To be a Daoist, one needed to learn from nature and live in symbols and metaphors. Laozi is especially attracted to the symbolism of water because water symbolized many Daoist beliefs, especially learning from nature, which provided “the way” to live. Combining the symbolism and metaphor of water, he says: “Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water, but when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail” (Ivanhoe, 2003). Water is pliable; water takes the shape of the container in which it is placed. On the other hand, nothing can compare to the power of water when it comes to wearing down the mountains or creating the valleys. Unlike modern Western art that typically puts people at the center of paintings, Daoist art places nature, not people, as the focus of paintings, which symbolizes the importance in Chinese culture that people view themselves as part of, not separate, from the forces of nature. Daoist Psychology No one can hope to understand Chinese philosophy, religion, government art, medicine – or even cooking – without a real appreciation of the profound philosophy taught…in the Daodejing - Wing-tsit Chan (1969). Laozi (Estimate – 604–531 BCE)

Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius and it is believed that Confucius went to Laozi for advice about rituals (Chan, 1969). However, their vision for Chinese society was significantly different. Because one is necessary to understand the other, Daoism is the dialectic antithesis of Confucianism because Laozi offered a completely different response to the idealistic, political, and family- centered morality of Confucianism (Chin, 2007). Laozi was not a philosopher in the traditional sense and Daoism is not exactly a philosophical school. There is even doubt whether Laozi existed because early Chinese books were often named after their authors. Although associated with Laozi, it appears that Daoism was not developed by one person because Laozi means “old master” and since Chinese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, Laozi could mean the old wise ones or old masters (Ivanhoe, 2003). Today, many scholars believe that early Daoists created Laozi as an author for the Daodejing and to provide an alternative to Confucianism (Ivanhoe, 2003). Legend has it that Laozi as the curator of the Zhou Dynasty archives became disenchanted with the government and politics of China and wanted to pursue a life of contemplation in the West. When he arrived at the frontier gate to leave China, the guardian implored Laozi not to leave without sharing his wisdom. Laozi set down and wrote the Daodejing, the most translated book in English besides the Bible (Ivanhoe & Van Orden, 2001). Zhuangzi (369–286 BCE)

The Daodejing and Zhuangzi were written around the third and fourth centuries BCE. The philosopher Zhuangzi usurped the political philosophy of Laozi and created a mystical philosophy that took the Daoist perspective to its spiritual heights (Mair, 2000). Unlike Laozi, Zhuangzi is believed to have been an actual person. Although he lived during the Warring States Period, he is one of the few philosophers during the Axial Age that had little to say about political and social reforms (Jaspers, 1953/2010). Legend has it that he rejected a political position in the court of King Wei because he compared the position to the condition of an ox that might be well kept, then dressed in fancy clothes before being led to slaughter (Mair, 2000). Although he did

64  Symbols of the Axial Age not accept the political views of Laozi, Zhuangzi was inspired by the Daodejing, but shifted the emphasis of Daoism to mystical and spiritual experiences. Zhuangzi produced a book in his own name that is considered, like the Daodejing, a basic Daoist text. Zhuangzi has 33 chapters; it is believed that the first 7 chapters, the inner chapters, were the work of Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi is considered one of the greatest literary works in Chinese history, a masterpiece of philosophic and psychological skill (Mair, 2000). He does not attempt to present logical, intellectual arguments; rather, he illustrates his ideas with humor, in mystical language, mythical dialogues between historical figures or imaginary figures and in anecdotes and stories from his interactions with a good friend, Huizi, the Logician (Chan, 1969). His critique of Confucian society was humorous and at times contradictory. Zhuangzi is written in exhilarating language and prose and while other philosophers of the age wrote of duty to society, Zhuangzi preferred to wander the world and write of a carefree lifestyle by following the Dao and being close to nature. For 2,0000 years, the Chinese have considered the Warring States Period and The Hundred Schools of Thought as the golden age of philosophy before the unification of China. Even during the rise of communism in China, Mao Zedong, in 1956, proclaimed, “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom and Hundred Schools Contend!” However, those that stood up were called rightists and persecuted for thinking beyond Maoist philosophy. The influence of Zhuangzi extended beyond China. Martin Buber, the Hasidic Jewish philosopher, translated his texts and Martin Heidegger used the translation of A Sea for Fish and Dry Land of Buber to influence his own phenomenological psychology (Herbjomsrud, 2017). The Daodejing defines Dao as the mother of the universe because the Dao sustains and nurtures all life (Ivanhoe, 2003). Dao is not a god or goddess; rather, the Dao has two aspects, one that is attainable and can be named and one that is beyond any intellectual understanding and cannot be named. This limits how one can speak of the Dao because the Dao transcends intellectual distinctions (Ivanhoe, 2003). Concepts of right and wrong, weak and strong, and just and unjust are human distinctions and distractions from the natural world. The Dao does not make those distinctions because everything is natural and nature, not the mind, is the greatest teacher.

Figure 2.18 

Symbols of the Axial Age 65 Wuji–Ultimate Emptiness

Wuji first appeared in the Daodejing, symbolizing the emptiness of words and the limitations of Intellectual knowing (Chan, 1969). For Laozi, psychological identity occurred through connection to the infinite, returning to one’s nature and the primordial universe before taiji, the oneness before duality. The ancient Chinese meaning of the ultimate emptiness is space beyond the senses, invisible, the “One” that is nameless between matter and spirit. The empty circle symbolizes wuji and one’s true nature. The symbol reminds us that to seek one’s nature one needs to be like an empty circle, connected to the infinite and the “One,” an experience beyond words but part of the natural order. Words can never define the true nature of an individual (Chan, 1969).

Figure 2.19 

66  Symbols of the Axial Age Taiji is the “supreme ultimate” both in its monist, wuji, and in its contradictory “without ultimate,” yin and yang representation (Ivanhoe, 2003). To the Daoist, the universe is in a constant state of dualistic tension between positive action and negative yielding energies because the universe created itself from those contradictory forces. This reality creates feelings of ambiguity and contradiction because yin and yang energies are always present and can never be completely understood through a cognitive process (Ivanhoe, 2003). Traditionally, the black swirl of yin is dark, passive, yielding, and female and the white swirl of yang is light, assertive, active, and male. Although not necessarily intended to be gender-based, the symbol has often been used throughout history to support rigid and paternalistic gender stereotypes. Ultimately, change occurs from the interplay between yin and yang energies. In Jungian terms, the white light, yang, needs the dark shadow, yin, for psychological individuation, which means the ability to live with ambiguity and contradiction by integrating the shadow, the dark repressed side, because shadow is always present and necessary for psychological transformation. Chi–The Importance of Breath

Chi is the internal vital force that exists in all things and the foundation of Daoist practices (Liao, 1977). The unimpeded circulation of chi creates a balance between the destructive yin and the constructive yang. Chi is learned through Daoist meditation exercises and in the martial art, Tai Chi Chuan. Wu-Wei–Active Noninvolvement

Wu-wei means actionless action or acting by not acting (Mair, 2000). The need to control behavior is one of the greatest obstacles to living according to the Dao (Mair, 2000). The Daoist believes that heaven, earth, and humanity have their own rhythms and that it is important “to go with the flow” (Mair, 2000). Since forceful action brings a forceful backlash, it is best to practice non-action. Wu-wei is a psychology of noninterference: leaving things alone, a process in which everyone benefits. Zuowang–Sitting and Forgetting Mediation

For Zhuangzi, it was important to practice the Daoist meditation of sitting and forgetting, which was a trancelike state during which there was no trace of ego identity and where the Dao was perceived as real. During meditation, one becomes oblivious of oneself and their surroundings and free from worldly concerns. In daily life, this led to the suspension of ego judgment because judgment led to misery and human suffering. Even death exhilarated Zhuangzi because death signified impermanence, which was vital to happiness on earth. Embracing all points of view created the experience of impermanence and the relativity of human knowledge, which decreased resistance to death. Zhuangzi (1974) tells the famous Butterfly Dream story, which asks how one can know with certainty when one is dreaming or awake or know anything for certain. Zhuangzi questioned whether he was dreaming of a butterfly or whether a butterfly was dreaming of him. The story illustrates the distinction between waking, and dreaming is a false dichotomy because reality is relative because no one can prove if one is dreaming or awake. The Butterfly Dream symbolizes impermanence and death because in death one may be as happy as a butterfly, unaware of having been a human being. The Butterfly Dream also raises the question of whether one can trust

Symbols of the Axial Age 67 the senses for knowledge and a higher state of consciousness. A question that would continue to plague psychology throughout its history.

Figure 2.20  Emancipatory Opportunities in Daoism Practice Tai Chi Chuan

Let the symbol speak of the necessity to physically balance the two great forces of yin and yang. One of the best ways to understand Daoism is to practice the martial art of Tai Chi Chuan, which is the physical connection to the “supreme ultimate” and the way to balance the destructive and constructive yin and yang, Tai Chi also teaches the correct way to breathe the chi, the driving force of psychological, physiological, and spiritual balance and health (Liao, 1977). Because the positive and negative energies need natural ways to balance, the mediative and physical practices of Tai Chi highlight the Daoist belief in the limitation of words, judgments, and mental concepts.

68  Symbols of the Axial Age

Figure 2.21  Be Actively Noninvolved

To practice wu-wei is to learn to relinquish control and avoid obsessive and compulsive behaviors. The practice of active, noninvolvement controls doing and grasping and calms the mind and reduces anxiety. In Daoist terms, wu-wei emphasizes nonaction over action, a return to the natural order that should not be immediately disturbed. In psychoanalytic terms, it has similarity with the observing ego, the ability to internally stand back and observe before acting. View Nature as the Greatest Teacher

Schedule time to be in natural settings to learn about the world. The Dao lives in nature, not in the mind or in intellectual pursuits. To listen, observe, and engage nature nonjudgmentally is a way to learn the power of Dao. In Daoism, understand that caring for nature and humanity are synonymous.

Symbols of the Axial Age 69 Judaism – Palestine Historical Analysis of Judaism Political Systems

To understand Judaism, it is important to understand its rich history mired in internal and external political struggle. Around 13th century BCE, Moses freed the Hebrews from their Egyptian slavery after people accepted the Covenant and the Ten Commandments from God. After liberation, Moses and the Hebrews wondered in the dessert for 40 years. During this period, Moses and a whole generation died. Around 1100 BCE, a confederation was formed, a form of federalism, of the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel, which mobilized together to protect themselves from political external threats. Around 1020 BCE, the Israelites demanded a king. Although Saul became the first king of Israel, his first 20 years were problematic, leading to David, who became the second king of Israel who formed the first monarchy. Every legitimate king of Israel afterward had to be connected to David. In the four gospels of the New Testament, the genealogy of Jesus is traced back to David. Solomon, the son of David, the wise and wealthy king of the United Kingdom of Israel, ruled for 40 years of peace and prosperity. Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem in 957 BCE. After the death of Solomon in 922 BCE, the kingdom of Israel was split into two kingdoms. The 10 northern tribes were called Israel and 2 southern tribes were called Judah, the location of Jerusalem. During the Axial Age, the Assyrians conquered the north around 720 BCE, leading to the destruction of the northern tribes, who have since become known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The Babylonians conquered Judah in 587 BCE and destroyed the temple of Solomon, leading to the Babylonian captivity, which lasted until 538 BCE. Zoroastrian King Cyrus the Great founded the first Persian Empire and liberated the Jews and let them return to Jerusalem, where in 516 BCE they built the second temple. Influenced by Zoroastrianism, upon their return to Jerusalem, the great prophet Ezra led political reforms that would forever solidify Judaism as a world religion (Augustson, 2016). He reconstituted the Jewish faith based on an updated Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, with an emphasis on ethnic purity, morality, and a relationship with God (Augustson, 2016). Ethnic purity meant that Jews should not marry outside their Jewish race. Socioeconomic Systems

Prophets and prophecy were integral to the social development of Judaism. Prophets set social standards for the Jewish community, including governance. Although most known prophets were men, there were women prophets. Some scholars question its historical accuracy, but Patriarchs and Matriarchs laid the social foundation for Judaism. Patriarchs were the three generations of foundational Jewish leaders listed in the Book of Genesis: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Matriarchs were the four foundational women in the Torah: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Women were not routinely mentioned in the Old Testament and, when mentioned, they usually played a pivotal role in subverting man-made power structures. One of the most powerful symbols of the social role of women is the role of Eve, who seduced Adam to eat the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Book of Genesis), which resulted in the loss of paradise. It is women, the feminine, symbolized as problematic and deceitful, not to be trusted. On the other hand, from a psychological perspective, the Garden of Eden story symbolizes the price humanity pays when

70  Symbols of the Axial Age developing consciousness, the loss of a “psychological paradise” once one questions what has been taught as truth. Jewish life in Palestine was rural, agricultural, centered on village life, and the agricultural calendar. Most people in Palestine produced their own food and clothing but could not afford many luxury items. Most Palestinian Jews were farmers and herdsmen that earned enough to feed their families, pay their taxes, offer sacrifices during annual festivals, and not plough their crops during sabbatical years. A sabbatical year is the seventh year of a seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah and observed in modern Judaism. During the Axial Age, Galilee was relatively prosperous because the land and the climate produced abundant crops and prosperous sheepherding. There were landless people and poverty, but socioeconomic problems never reached a revolutionary level. The developing upper classes included successful merchants and Jewish aristocrats who owned large estates and mansions. Merchants who provided supplies to the Temple became economically prosperous. The gap between the rich and poor classes was apparent and distressing, but compared to the rest of the Axial world, the gap was not as wide. There was a famine and economic hardship in Canaan when Abraham and Sarah traveled to Egypt that began the Jewish eternal search for a homeland with socioeconomic security. Axial Age Palestine was one of the most male-dominated cultures in the world. Early rabbinic literature is filled with disdain for women, which created a deep shadow in early Judaism and a lack of socioeconomic power (Scholz, 2017). Early Rabbinic literature taught that women were not to be spoken to on the street, not to be instructed in in Jewish law, and even their court testimony was considered suspect. A woman was to walk behind her husband and if she uncovered her hair in a public place, she was considered a harlot (Scholz, 2017). During the menstrual cycle, women were considered “unclean” and not allowed into the synagogue, which limited their power in Jewish social affairs (Scholz, 2017). Women could not recite daily Jewish prayers or read the Torah in the synagogue. They were not even counted as members in the synagogue count. Family life was dominated by the father because it was the father, not the mother, who was considered the authority on Jewish values and religious practices. It was the father who approved all the social activities and social relationships of his wife and daughters. Jewish women suffered economic hardship during the Axial Age because they could not divorce or receive an inheritance (Scholz, 2017). Even today, men and women are separated at the most sacred place in Judaism, the Western Wall in Jerusalem of the Second Temple, destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Men have access at the Wall to a library with religious and historic documents that are unavailable to women. In the final analysis, social and economic status in modern Judaism is largely based on which form of Judaism men and women practice. Although there have been some efforts for social change, Orthodox Judaism continues to view the role of women as primarily homemakers. This idea is based largely on a covenant formed between Israelites and the God of Abraham at Mount Sinai that designated men to assure that women, children, and slaves followed the Jewish law. Conservative Judaism is in alignment with many of the beliefs of Orthodox Judaism, but open to adapting social roles to modern times. Symbolic of the difference, in the Silverman siddur, the official prayer book for the United Synagogue of America of the Conservative Movement, removed the words Shelo Asani Eisha, “thank you God for not making me a woman” and replaced those sexist words with “thank you God for making me a free person” (Kamin & Pomerantz, 2018). Reform Judaism believes in equality between men and women. The Reform movement rejected the idea that halakha, Jewish Law, was the sole legitimate form of determining the

Symbols of the Axial Age 71 relationship between men and women (Kaplan, 1967/1934). They believe that people should follow their conscience and traditional roles of men and women were antithetical to the ethical standards of Judaism. The Reform movement allows women to serve as Rabbis. Social equality between men and women is a hallmark of Reconstructionist Judaism since from its beginning Rabbi Morecal Kaplan (1967/1934) called for the full equality of men and women and allowed men and women to worship together. The Reconstructionist movement always ordained women as rabbis. Cultural Systems

Rabbis are the spiritual and cultural leaders of Judaism throughout the world. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi and following a course of study of Jewish texts like the Talmud. The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism that developed in the belief that Moses was “our Rabbi” who received two messages from God, the written and oral Torah. Rabbinic Judaism developed after the destruction of the First Temple and Babylonian Captivity when there was no temple for worship and central place to explain the meaning of the Torah. As rabbis faced a Judaism without a temple, the rabbinic oral tradition became recorded in writing. The Rabbinic Jewish literature is based on the belief that the Torah cannot be understood without recourse to the Oral Torah. The Rabbinic literature was also predicated on the belief that the Ten Commandments were too difficult to follow in daily cultural life. The Rabbinic literature clarified issues regarding what constitutes rest on the sabbath or what it means not to steal. However, unlike Catholicism with a Pope as the final word on Church doctrine, no final authority gives the final word on the daily practice of Judaism. While there is an emphasis on adherence to biblical and Talmudic doctrine, rabbinic authorities always incorporate local culture into their doctrinal decisions (Jacobs, 1984; Kolatch, 1988). Since there is no final authority in Judaism, an individual creates their own Judaic culture by prescribing to one of four types of practices: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. In the Orthodox culture, one adheres to strict Jewish law, or halakha, the collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from both the written and Oral Torah. Orthodox Jews view the halakhic system as based on immutable revelation and beyond modern external interpretation. Conservative Judaism views Jewish law and tradition from the perspective of what has been learned by the people and the community through generations, not from divine law. Conservative Jews practice historical criticism that investigates the origin of religious texts to understand the “world behind the text.” Jewish law, or halakha, is viewed as both binding and subject to historic development. Conservative and Orthodox Jews believe that a future Messiah will restore the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and bring all Jews back to Jerusalem. There will also be a final resurrection of the dead at the end of the world (Jacobs, 1984). The key cultural Axial Age practices of observing the sabbath, eating kosher, refraining from intermarriage, and regular Torah study provided the Jews a cultural identity that has continued for over a thousand years. Reform Judaism developed in the nineteenth century in Germany offered a very different religious and cultural perspective (Jacobs, 1984). Reform Judaism did not center its theology on strict adherence to the halakhic system. Rather, Reform Judaism viewed faith as evolving and aligned with human reason and intellect, not a final revelation from God (Jacobs, 1984). Reform Jews became associated with religious humanism, which integrated humanist philosophy and nontheistic religion. Nontheistic religion is faith in a

72  Symbols of the Axial Age religious context, but not necessarily aligned with a theistic belief system. Reform Jews are less concerned with ritual and traditional cultural Jewish practices, especially eating kosher, refraining from intermarriage, and regular Torah study. Reconstruction Judaism was developed by Mordeal Kaplan (1883–1983), who believed that Judaism should stress cultural and historical character of Judaism as well as its theological doctrine. In Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life, Kaplan (1967/1934) held that advances in philosophy, science, and history made it impossible for Jews to adhere completely to its cultural traditions. He believed Jews needed to combine religious and nonreligious aspects of Jewish cultural life. Reconstruction Judaism does not have a large following but provides an avenue, especially for Jewish intellectuals who seek a more modern cultural experience of Judaism. Psychology of Judaism Moses (1400 BCE Estimate)

Although Moses lived before the Axial Age, Moses was the most important prophet of Judaism. A prophet is defined as an individual who is regarded as having direct contact and spoke on behalf of God. A prophet serves as an intermediary between the divine and humanity; the message conveyed is called a prophecy. Through the Bible, Jewish people learned their history and the ways to lead a faithful life committed to one God. Moses as the leader of the Israelites was the one who freed the Jews from Egyptian slavery and created a monotheistic religion for the ages. His life is filled with rich symbolism because as a Jewish baby he was rescued by a bush in the Nile by his oppressor who had ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed to oppress a hostile Israeli population. After being raised in a royal Egyptian family, he fled after killing an Egyptian slave-master who was beating a Hebrew. Across the Red Sea to Midian, he encountered the Angel of the Lord who spoke to him from a burning bush at Mount Horeb where God told Moses to return to Egypt and demand the release of Israelites from slavery. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, where again Moses encountered God and received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses never reached the Promised Land, dying within its site on Mount Nebo. Moses symbolizes the keeper of the spiritual fire that emancipates humanity from its evil and destructive psychological ways. Moses wandered in the desert as all humans wander throughout a lifetime, searching but never reaching the Promised Land. Before his death, his wandering led to a glimpse of the Promised Land, which symbolizes that in a human lifetime there will be no heaven on earth, but a moral and ethical life provides a glimpse of a heavenly world of spiritual and psychological emancipation. Biblical Tradition, the Temple, a Nation

Moses at the burning bush, the importance of the Temple, and the Star of David are symbolic of Israel as a nation. The prophets of Judaism told their history through the Bible, creating a biblical tradition connected intimately to the Temple. During the Axial Age, the Jews suffered many conquests, often losing their homeland, conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, which led to exile and the destruction of the First Jewish Temple in 586 BCE.

Symbols of the Axial Age 73

Figure 2.22 

The Jews were emancipated by King Cyrus of Persia, one the greatest leaders in human history. King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and in 516 BCE begin the process of rebuilding the Second Jewish Temple. During the Axial Age of the Second Temple Period, the foundation was laid for Judaism to become a major international monotheistic religion and inspire the future monotheistic religions of Christianity and Islam. Jewish monotheism has no symbolic representation of God. Yahweh was a national god who was a nondescript guardian deity concerned with the safety and well-being of the Jewish people. Yahweh was perceived as the creator of the universe and the one true God of the world. Jews would later replace Yahweh with the word adonai or Elohim, meaning “My Lords,” again a nondescript deity who has authority, control, and power over the Jewish people. However, the Holy Temple for Judaism was, and remains, more than a place of worship. It symbolizes the historic search for a homeland and a sacred place for pilgrimages to affirm the Jewish faith. The Romans would destroy the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, leading the biblical prophets to call for the construction of a Third Jewish Temple that would usher in the Messianic Age, a future period in which a Messiah would bring universal peace and brotherhood without any evil. The notion of building a third temple at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem remains a subject of political tension between Muslims and Jews and is a significant issue in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict since both view Jerusalem as their spiritual capital. The Star of David is symbolic of the relationship between God and the people of Israel (Scholem, 1949). It is the most recognized symbol of Judaism (Ouaknin, 2000). It is in the

74  Symbols of the Axial Age shape of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles. One triangle pointing down to represent humanity and one triangle pointing up to represent God There is no mention of the Star of David in the Bible, but there is speculation that it could have been the shape of the shield of King David or a symbol on the signet ring of King Solomon (Scholem, 1971). It seemed to have first emerged as a modern symbol of Judaism in Prague in the seventeenth century. The Star of David became the worldwide symbol of Zionism at the First Zionist Conference in 1897 (Scholem, 1971). It was adopted as the state flag in 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel. The Star of David, often yellow, was used by the Nazis during the Holocaust to identify, subjugate, and murder Jews in Nazi-occupied countries. The Star of David has also been used in modern history as a symbol of defiance against ant-Semitism. Jewish Holy Days: Sabbath–A Holy Day of Rest

The Hebrew word for Sabbath means a “day set aside for rest.” It is a holy day of rest commanded by God in the Book of Genesis (Ouaknin, 2000). The observance of the Sabbath symbolizes the commitment to develop a world of love and peace, a real-life experience of the Messianic Age to come. It is a reminder that even God needed to rest on the seventh day after creating the world in six days. The Sabbath is rooted in the Talmud, which declared that all labor connected to building the temple was forbidden on the Sabbath. There are 38 specific labors that are forbidden, including using a hammer, starting a fire, baking, and cooking (Ouaknin, 1995). Attending worship in the synagogue on Saturday symbolizes being part of the larger Jewish community. Spiritual and cultural traditions are celebrated through prayer, song, and readings from the Torah. Rest includes a seudah, a communal meal served three times during the Sabbath with friends and family. Yearly High Holy Days – Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

Rosh Hashanah begins the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur is the sacred Day of Atonement that occurs during a period of 10 days in late summer or early autumn, known as the Ten Days of Penitence. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of Adam and Eve and is symbolized by the playing of the shofar, a cleaned-out ram’s horn, prescribed in the Torah to “raise noise” in celebration of the Jewish faith. Yom Kippur is time to examine sins from a psychological, social, and spiritual perspective. Sin is a transgression against God and divine law. Not all sins are equal. During Yom Kippur, atonement can occur between a person and God, but not between people because those sins are considered more serious; atonement for those sins must occur in person. Atonement has played a significant role in mental health. Karl Menninger (1973), psychiatrist and founder of the prestigious Psychiatric Menninger Clinic and Foundation, shook the mental health world in Whatever Became of Sin when he wrote that modern society needed to distinguish between mental illness and evil. He argued that sin in modern society was being replaced by psychological rationalization. Not every evil act is a mental illness because evil and sin exist in the world and people who perpetrate evil need to be held accountable and atone for their behavior. Atonement is also a major part of The Twelve Steps of Alcohol Anonymous. For example, the eighth step directs an alcoholic to make a list of all the people they have harmed and, when possible, and not injurious, make efforts to atone for all of them (Anonymous, 1951/2004). In Axial Age times, the Day of Atonement was the only time that the high priest entered the Holy of Holies and symbolically released a goat, a scapegoat, that would carry the sins of the Jewish people out and away from the community (Unterman, 1991).

Symbols of the Axial Age 75

Figure 2.23  G’Milut Chasadim–Loving Kindness

G’milut Chasadim, means “the giving of loving kindness” and is an essential social value in the daily lives of Jews. It is part of the Jewish Mitzvah, the 613 Jewish commandments. The sages and prophets of the Talmud taught that it is more important than tzedakah, which means “charity,” which can only be done by giving money (Unterman, 1991). Tzedakah is mainly directed toward loving kindness toward the poor, whereas G’milut Chasedim is loving kindness toward everyone, rich or poor, healthy, or unhealthy. G’milit Chasadim is about loving your neighbor as yourself and giving without the anticipation of receiving anything in return. Since love is a stronger emotion than other feelings like dignity or respect, it is a harder emotion to express. Because of this and the vagueness of the Mitzvah, Rabbis encourage its daily practice (Unterman, 1991). Tikkun Olam – Repair the World First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I am not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no left to speak for me. - Martin Niemöller (1946/2012)

Figure 2.24 

76  Symbols of the Axial Age Tikkun Olam means “to repair the world.” Although not formally developed until the third century CE, the phrase “for the sake of repairing the world” first appeared in the Oral Torah, the oral tradition documented during the Second Temple Period (536 BCE–70 CE). Jewish tradition and history offer rich troves of examples of the importance of social responsibility, ethics, and social justice (Mirsky, 2008). Tikkun Olam impacts Judaism across the world, a reminder that social justice and activism needs to be viewed as an international effort. Tikkun Olam is especially popular with young Jewish people, Reform Jews, and those who lean toward a progressive political agenda. In modern Judaism, the concept of Tikkun Olam has expanded beyond Judaism. Yehudah Mirsky (2008), in Tikkun Olam: Basic Questions and Policy Directions argued that Tikkun Olam should influence public policy inside and outside of Judaism because social media and the internet have dramatically changed the world, creating the possibility of a more unified world beyond traditional national and ethic boundaries. Minsky advocates for a balance between the unique contribution of Judaism to globalization while at the same time working with the international community to seek social justice throughout the world. Emancipatory Opportunities in Judaism

Consider the Ten Commandments as a Guide to a Moral and Spiritual Life: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall make no idols. You shall not take the name of the Lord in Vain. You shall keep the Sabbath day holy. Honor thy father and mother. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. You shall not covet anything of thy neighbor.

Schedule Weekly Rest

Set aside a day of rest each week for internal psychological and spiritual reflection. The Jewish sabbath allows time for study, communication with family, to visit friends, and have walks for reflection. Schedule an Annual Retreat

Schedule an annual retreat to release the “psychological goats” that inhibit physical, psychological, social, and spiritual development. The Jews begin the new year with the Ten Days of Penitence, as a time to pray, fast, self-reflect, confess sins, pray for deceased relatives, and request divine forgiveness. In modern life, where the human psyche is bombarded by social media and social pressures, it is difficult for sustained psychological and spiritual reflection. Be Kind and Loving

Change the world through kind and loving interpersonal relationships. The lack of loving and kind discourse toward one another erodes the social and democratic fabric of American culture.

Symbols of the Axial Age 77 Repair the Political, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Systems

It is only appropriate in this chapter on the Axial Age to end with “repairing the world.” The Axial Age sages, prophets, and scholars yearned for a more just, loving, and peaceful world that would emancipate humanity from human suffering. For individual emancipation, they believed that the repair had to include reform of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems. The Axial Age laid the foundation for modern psychology because the issues that emerged during this period in history remain current and unresolved in the modern age.

QUESTIONS 

2

2.1 Describe the cultural, socioeconomic, and political influences that led to the development of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. 2.2 Explain how Zoroastrianism influenced the development of Judaism and later Christianity and Islam. 2.3 Explain how Hinduism embraces death. 2.4 Describe what Buddhism teaches about Enlightenment and the Middle Way. 2.5 Explain the key differences between Confucianism and Daoism. 2.6 Describe the psychological implications of the Jewish holy days. 2.7 Explain how the Axial Age contributed to the development of modern psychology. Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 2.1. Symbol of the visionaries of the Axial Age. Figure 2.2. The psychological battle between good and evil. Figure 2.3. Fire symbolizes the presence of God and the purification of the mind and soul. Figure 2.4. A symbol of the dance of creation and destruction. Figure 2.5. The phonetic compounds that symbolize the three states of consciousness. Figure 2.6. Symbolic of the transcendental state and the enlightened self. Figure 2.7. The endless series of births, deaths, and rebirths during the reincarnation process. Figure 2.8. The physical symbol of the path to enlightenment. Figure 2.9. A reflection on the state of the modern world. Figure 2.10. A symbol of the path to enlightenment. Figure 2.11. The victory over the delusion that power, wealth, and human passions are the path to happiness. Figure 2.12. Symbolic of disciplining the mind with the right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. Figure 2.13. A symbol of avoiding overattachment and the negativity toward attachment. Figure 2.14. A symbol of attaining enlightenment before death. Figure 2.15. A symbol of the psychological impact of paternalism. Figure 2.16. A symbol of compassion for oneself and others. Figure 2.17. The inner psychological veneration of family lineage. Figure 2.18. Symbolic of nature as the greatest teacher Figure 2.19. A symbol of the constant state of dualistic tension between positive action and negative yielding energies.

78  Symbols of the Axial Age Figure 2.20. A reflection on the trustworthiness of the senses. Figure 2.21. Symbolic of the physical act of balancing the yin and yang energies in the body. Figure 2.22. The psychological need for a cultural home and a place of worship. Figure 2.23. Symbolic of the psychological release of community sins. Figure 2.24. A damaged world in need of repair. References Anonymous (1951/2004). Twelve steps and twelve traditions. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Armstrong, K. (2008). The great transformation. New York: Anchor Press. Augustson, K. (2016). Our axial age: Putting our world in perspective. South Carolina: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Bayly, S. (2001). Caste, society and politics in India from the eighteenth century to the modern age. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. Bellah, R.N. & Joas, H. (Eds.). (2012). The axial age and its consequences. Cambridge MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Black, A. (2008). The ‘axial period’: What was it and what does it signify. The Review of Politics. 70, 23–39. Boyce, M. (2001). Zoroastrians: Their religion their beliefs and practices. (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Carrithers, M. (1996). Buddha: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chan, W.-T. (1969). A source book in Chinese philosophy. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. Chin, A.-P. (2007). The authentic Confucius: A life of thought and politics. New York: Scribner. Cochran, T. (2020). A night in the forest. Parabola. 45(1), 35–41. Dalferth, I.U. (2012). The idea of the axial age: A phenomenological reconsideration. Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionphilosophie. 54(2), 127–146. Dawson, R. (2008). Confucius: The Analects. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ebrey, P.B., Walthall, A. & Palais, J.B. (2006). Pre-modern East Asia: A cultural, social and political history. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company. Eisenstadt, S.N. (1986). The origins and diversity of axial age civilizations. Albany NY: State University of New York Press. Embree, A.T. (ed.) (1988). Sources of Indian tradition: From the beginning to 1800. New York: Columbia University Press. Foltz, R.C. (2004). Spirituality in the land of the noble: How Iran shaped the world’s religions. Oxford: One World Publications. Graham, A.C. (2003). Disputes of the Tao: Philosophical argument in ancient China. Chicago: Open Court. Harvey, P. (2000). An introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, history and practices. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. Herbjomsrud, D. (2017). Global history of ideas; A sea for fish on dry land. JHI blog. Retrieved 2019-06-20. Hopkins, T.J. (1971). The Hindu religious traditions. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. Ivanhoe, P.J. (2000). Confucian moral self-cultivation. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Ivanhoe, P.J. (2003). The Daodejing of Laozi. Indianapolis IN: Hackett Publishing Company. Ivanhoe, P.J. & Van Orden, B.W. (2001). Readings in Chinese classical philosophy. Indianapolis IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Jacobs, L. (1984). The book of Jewish beliefs. Springfield NJ: Behrman House, Inc. Jaspers, K. (1953/2010). The origin and goal of history. (M. Bullock, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD. Jaspers, K. (1959). Truth and symbol. (J.T. Wilde, W. Kluback, W. Kimmel, Trans.). Albany NY: Communications Marketing Services, Inc. Kamin, D.N. & Pomerantz-Boro, A. Conservative movement is closing its gender gap, bit more work needs to be done. STL Jewish Light. Retrieved 2018-07-02. Kaplan, M.M. (1967). Judaism as civilization: Toward a reconstruction of American-Jewish life. New York: Shocken Books. (Original work published 1934).

Symbols of the Axial Age 79 Klostermaier, K.K. (2000). Hinduism: A short history. Oxford: One World Publications. Kolatch, A.J. (1988). The Jewish book of why. Middle Village NY: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc. Kopp, S. (1976). If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him: The pilgrimage of psychotherapy patients. New York: Bantam Books. Laozi. (1955). Tao Te Ching. Book of changes (R.B. Blakney, Trans.). New York: New American Library. Liao, M. (1977). Taichi classics. United States: Taichi Temple Incorporated Mair, W.H. (2000). Wandering on the way: Early Taoist tales and parables of Chuang Tzu. Honolulu: HI: University of Hawaii Press. Menninger, K. (1973). Whatever became of sin? New York: Hawthorne Books. Mines, D.P. (2009). Caste in India. New York: Association of Asian Studies. Mirsky, Y. (2008). Tikkun Olam: Basic questions and policy directions. Stanford Berman Jewish Policy Archive, 213–219, Retrieved from https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/tkk/tikkunolam.pdf Moeller, H.-G. (2006). The philosophy of the Daodejing. New York: Columbia University Press. Muesse, M.W. (2013). The sages of the sages: The axial age in Asia and the near East. Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press. Nanamoli, B. (2003). The life of the Buddha: According to the pail canon. Onalaska, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions. Niemöller, P.M. (1946/2012). “First they came for the socialists…”. Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved, 2018-07-25, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/ en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists (Original work published in 1946). Nietzsche, F. (2019). Thus spoke Zarathustra. (T. Commons, Trans.). Ottawa, Canada: East India Publishing Company. Omvedt, G. (2014). Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and caste. New York: Sage Classics. Ouaknin, M.A. (2000). Symbols of Judaism. New York: Assouline Publishing. Poo, M.-C. (1998). In search of personal welfare: A view of ancient Chinese religion. Albany NY: State University of New York Press. Prabhavanada, S. & Sherwood, C. (Trans.). (1951). Bhagavad Gita: The song of God. New York: New American Library. Provan, I. (2019). Convenient myths: The axial age, dark green religions and the world that never was. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press. Rahula, W. (2007). What the Buddha taught. New York: Grove Atlantic Inc. Scholem, G. (1949). The curious history of the six-pointed star: How “Magen David” became the Jewish symbol. Commentary. 8, 243–251. Scholem, G. (1971). The messianic idea in Judaism and other essays on Jewish spirituality. New York: Schocken Books. Scholz, S. (2017). Introducing the women’s Hebrew bible: Feminism, gender justice, and the study of the old Testament. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Shah, A.M. (2014). The writings of A.M. Shah: The household and family in India. Hyderabad India: Orient Blackswan Publishers. Sharma, A. (2000). Classical Hindu thought: An introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Szczepanski, K. (2019). What is China’s mandate of heaven? About education. Retrieved 2021-09-19. The Upanishads (J. Mascaro, Trans.). (1965). Baltimore: Penguin Books. Unterman, A. (1991). Dictionary of Jewish lore and legend. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. Weiming, T., & Tucker, M.E. (Eds.). (2003). Confucian spirituality: Volume one. Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA: Herder and Herder. Welch, H. (1970). Taoism: The parting of the way. Boston: Beacon Press. Yu-Lan, F. (1948/1997). A short history of Chinese philosophy: A systematic account of Chinese thought from its origins to present day. (D. Bodde, Ed.). New York: Free Press. Zhuangzi (Gia-Fu, Feng & J. English trans. 1974). Inner chapters. Toronto, Canada: Vintage Books. Zimmer, H.R. (1972). Myths and symbols in Indian art and civilization. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Figure 3.0

3

Symbols of the Greek Era The Foundation of Western Psychology

Introduction Greeks in the Axial Age

Besides the developments in Iran, India, China, and Judea, the Greeks, during the Axial Age, 800 BCE–200 BCE, developed a view of the human experience that transcends time, laying the foundation for Western psychology and modern science (Tarnas, 1991). What is often ignored is that many of the great Greek philosophers traveled, and were influenced, by developments in other Axial Age countries. After the death of Socrates, Plato traveled beyond Greece. His view of reincarnation has much in common with the Hindu concept of moksha. Aristotle also traveled outside Greece, especially to Asia. Aristotle was a tutor for Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military leaders in history whose kingdom ranged from Asia Minor to India. As his tutor, Aristotle became exposed to a world beyond Greece, as Alexander, upon his return to Greece, often brought Aristotle natural specimens for his research. Although this book is not intended to provide a complete analysis of the interactions and mutual influences of Axial Age scholars, the goal is to view Greece as a part, not the only place in human history, where an unprecedented expansion of consciousness occurred. German-Swiss psychiatrist, Karl Jaspers, reminds us that it was throughout all the Axial Age world that humanity as it known today came into being (Jaspers, 1953/2010). The Axial Age was about a psychology that was more personal, reflective and inner directed. It is a psychology based on the universal experience of being human, emancipatory, that transcends national boundaries, and questions dogmatic philosophies and scientific ideologies. Jaspers argued the Axial Age provided the best model against the erroneous claim to exclusive truth by one system of thought. With its limitations, the study of the Axial Age opens the door for a psychological view of the world beyond ethnocentric Western psychology and may be the universal psychology that Jaspers hoped would save and unite all of humanity.

DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-3

82  Symbols of the Greek Era

Figure 3.1  An Encounter with Myth All science is mythology.

- Sigmund Freud

What emerged during the Axial Age in Greece were stories and myths to provide meaning and purpose, to make Greek life more tolerable and understandable. Like the rest of the Axial world, the Greeks sought answers to the emerging cultural, socioeconomic, and political challenges. As the Zoroastrians and Jews offered monotheism, the Hindus and Buddhists offered the transcendent, the Chinese offered social and ecological solutions, and the Greeks offered myths and symbols before laying the philosophic foundation of Western science and psychology. The importance of exploring the psychological meaning of myth has captivated modern psychology, especially the psychoanalytic, Jungian, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal movements (Hubert & Husserl (1999). The best way to begin a chapter on Greek thought is to engage in myth, to understand that Western science and psychology are rooted in myth. Understandably, modern science adheres to the belief that science is not mythology, in fact it has rejected myth as having any value to

Symbols of the Greek Era 83 modern science. This stems from the modern misunderstanding that a myth means something untrue or not objectively proven. The term mythos first appeared in the works of Homer and Hesiod, in which the term had several meanings: meaning a “story” and a “conversation.” In a conversation of myths, like symbols, there are revelations that cannot be comprehended completely through the rational, conscious mind (Anderson, Hicks & Witkowski, 2004). Before Greek philosophy, there was poetry and myth (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). For the Greeks, it was originally poetry and myths that were the language of wisdom, not rational thought (Hunt, 2007). It is believed that Homer and Hesiod were two of the greatest prephilosophical poets of the Greek period, living around 750–700 BCE. Homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of the greatest poems in Western literature. These poems described how the gods and goddesses directly and unpredictably controlled human affairs. Homer described how important it was for the Greeks to live a life of psychological harmony with the many gods and goddesses that controlled their lives. It was the relationship to the gods, not personal concerns, that mattered most because human behavior was determined by external, not internal, forces. This began the belief that “madness,” or mental illness was caused by external forces, a belief that has plagued individuals with mental illness throughout history. In Greek thought, there was an early warning of the limitations of logos, rational understanding. On Mount Helicon, Hesiod, a shepherd, was inspired by the Muses, the goddesses of wisdom and inspiration who spoke through poetry and myths. The Theogony was a poem, a Homeric hymn, by Hesiod to the goddesses that recounted the beginning of the world, the creation of the Olympian gods, and the natural world. He implored the Muses: Tell me these things, Olympian Muses From the beginning and tell me what came first. In the beginning there was only Chaos, the Abyss, But then Gaia, the Earth, came into being, Her broad bosom the ever-foundation of all, And Tartaros, the dim underground depths, And Eros, the loveliest of all the Immortals. (Hesiod, Theogony) Hesiod may have been the first psychoanalyst because he believed that the rational human mind was too weak to completely understand the world (Zaretsky, 2005). In fact, Hesiod associated myth with telling the truth and logos with telling lies. Logos, working alone, could never comprehend the mysteries of existence that might provide an important warning to modern science. To “understand” the meaning of a myth requires listening carefully and seeking the message beyond a literal explanation. This chapter provides examples of an encounter, a conversation, with myths. For example, the psychological implications of creation myth of Gaia, the birthplace of Western psychology in the Athena myth, and the namesake of psychology, the Eros and Psyche myth. Each myth will be enhanced by a symbol and a narrative for an interpretation. However, the myth and symbol may tell the reader a different story, which illustrates the power of myth, and the reason mythology remains an important way to understand the wonders of the human condition. From Mythology to Philosophy

This chapter describes how the pre-Socratics left a rich philosophical and psychological legacy that influenced the development of modern science (Kirk, Raven & Schofield, 2015). The

84  Symbols of the Greek Era pre-Socratics studied the structure of nature and debated the relationship between being and becoming. This began the process of replacing Greek mythology with a naturalistic philosophy that evolved into empiricism, the dominate approach in modern science and psychology. The pre-Socratic Greeks were most concerned with what the world was made of, not why the world was created, which laid the foundation for the separation of religious and scientific beliefs The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living.

- Socrates

Beyond the pre-Socratic philosophers, the Classical Greek philosophers created a philosophy beyond the structure of nature that included universal truths to guide the lives of the Athenian people, which has inspired modern psychological movements. Whether in mythology or philosophy, Greek philosophers emphasized the importance of soul. Psychology, psyche, meaning “soul” in Greek, carries the sacred responsibility of exploring the deeper meaning of mental processes and existence. Because of the wisdom of the Greek philosophers, great thinkers throughout history in all fields have turned to Greek philosophy for understanding and guidance. The Greeks offered psychology as a broad foundation to explore the true meaning of psyche because “soul” had many meanings for the Greeks. Psyche, the soul, was often believed to exist in the heart, not the brain, which led R. D. Laing to define schizophrenia as a broken heart, not a broken brain. For Plato, the soul is immortal; it lives before and after death and has a transcendent function. Socrates believed that by asking the right questions the immortal soul emerged and provided guidance toward a virtuous and ethical life. For Aristotle, the soul is an active agent, motivating and moving the natural world toward its purpose for existence. Aristotle believed the soul created the totality of the human personality. For other Greek philosophers, the soul was the very breath of life that could leave the body when there was a sneeze, after death, or during dreaming. No matter the definition, this chapter will explore how Greek philosophy laid the foundation for modern psychology Greek Era Historical Analysis Political Systems

The Greeks taught that it was important to use philosophy to serve society, the polis, which in Greek means “a city in Greece.” Polis is the root of the word “politics,” the interest of all the great Greek thinkers, especially Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who taught that political activism was essential for the preservation of democracy (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). Polis was also derived from the word acropolis, which was the center of a city that included temples and governmental buildings. City-states were a dynamic experiment in democracy because they were autonomous self-governing and independent cities. For many Greek philosophers, political involvement led to their demise and death, but that reality did not deter from the belief that philosophy should emancipate humanity from the ills of the world. The philosopher Protagoras influenced the political leaders of his day, especially Pericles, who, during the Golden Age of Athens, between 460-430 BCE, became a great statesman and orator and a role model for the type of leadership needed in a developing democracy. Although the Greeks fended off the Persians in the early part of the fifth century BCE, after the death of their great leader, Pericles, in 429 BCE, the Greeks began to weaken. After

Symbols of the Greek Era  85 Sparta won the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE, democracy was replaced in Athens by the prooligarchical 30 tyrants, who, because of their tyrannical measures, were overthrown with aid from the Spartans. Once the Spartans left Greece, democrats again seized power and it was in this politically charged environment in 399 BCE that Socrates was charged with corrupting the minds of the youth, worshipping false gods, and not worshipping the state religion. Socrates was ambivalent about democracy, especially empowering a citizenry uninterested in philosophic thought. Ironically, it was the Sophists that wealthy Athenians believed could best prosecute the case for the political removal of Socrates from Athenian society. There has been much speculation over why Socrates chose death over exile. One reason was his aversion to how the Sophists had cheapened philosophical thought by selling their philosophy “to the highest bidder.” In one of the most famous trials in human history, Socrates defended himself not by claiming innocence, but by the sarcastic proposal of being honored by Athenians for his enlightenment and asking for payment for his services (Ahrensdorf, 1995; Stone, 1988). Before 500 jurists in a trial that lasted only one day, the jury was not amused and sentenced him to death by drinking the poisoned hemlock.

Figure 3.2 

86  Symbols of the Greek Era The death of Socrates symbolized what can happen when there is a challenge to a political system supported by the wealthy and the intellectual and scientific elites; in his case, the wealthy Athenians and the Sophists who benefited from the status quo. The image of the death of Socrates is imprinted on the Western psyche, with Socrates proudly holding the poisoned cup as he died for his philosophical beliefs. It is said that Socrates wanted to show his pupils not to fear death, especially if it meant losing their principles and succumbing to a politically corrupt society. He reassured his followers that although his body would die, his soul would live forever. After watching the trial of Socrates, Plato grew skeptical of politics, especially by how the masses had betrayed Socrates (Plato, 1992). Later, he embraced the importance of politics but remained skeptical about democracy and the Athenian state. Plato came to view intellectual power in political terms, and saw politics, like medicine, as a noble profession, a noble enterprise. He believed it was the most educated who should assume responsibility for the state. In the Republic, political justice meant advocating for three major reforms to sustain and strengthen society (Annas, 1982). The family and private property must be abolished and philosophers should rule the republic. Since philosopher kings would be more interested in truth than in their own selfish interests, they were best situated to govern. They would be trained in reason, mathematics, geometry, ethics, astronomy, and the Platonic method. Plato acknowledged that if humanity was good and virtuous that there would be no need for government. He wanted to develop a utopian city called Kallipolis, were philosophers would rule from the perspective of truth and justice (Annas, 1982; Hall, 1977). This was currently impossible in Greece because three different classes of people existed and each had different and conflictual motivations. In this rigid class system, philosophers ruled over the courageous soldiers, who were motivated by the love of Athens and ruled over workers and farmers, who were motivated by their emotions, physical desires and the need for possessions. A negative, evil shadow emerged as Plato believed no one could move between these classes. He recommended that education not be wasted on children of low aptitude or children from the lower classes. Political power was determined by genetics and inheritance, which laid the foundation later in the twentieth century for eugenic science and Nazism. With beliefs similar to Plato, the Nazis believed that that the Aryan race was genetically superior, and that Nazis should be the modern “philosopher kings.” Aristotle believed that an apolitical life was the inferior life (Barnes, 1982). After Athens fell under Macedonian rule, Aristotle, at age 50, returned to Greece, where he tutored and influenced Alexander the Great. Near the end of his life, Aristotle became estranged from Alexander the Great, due his relationship with the Persians. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, there was an anti-Macedonian backlash in Athens and Aristotle was denounced for impiety and the lack of reverence for the Greek gods. With his life in jeopardy, he escaped to the estate of his mother in the Macedonian stronghold of Chalcis. A few years after the death of Alexander, unfounded rumors spread that Aristotle was an accomplice in his death. The retreat of Aristotle from Athens rekindled his traumatic political memories of the death of Socrates. Unlike Socrates, Aristotle believed his exile saved the Athenians from making another major political mistake by sinning against philosophy twice (Barnes, 1982). Socioeconomic Systems

For the privileged, Greece became a dynamic democracy, with great wealth and military power. Homeric Greece was a class-based, male-dominated society where few were free and where a third of the population were slaves. To be a citizen required that one have two Athenian parents, which limited widespread access to the benefits of Athenian society. Only a few could attain a

Symbols of the Greek Era 87 virtuous and good life because the Homeric view of virtue could only be achieved in the glory of battle, being an aristocrat, or being wealthy. The poor were not viewed with any concern or empathy. Women had no socioeconomic or political rights and were often victims of incredible violence; after a military victory, to gain vengeance, soldiers often raped and enslaved the wives of the conquered. Women and slaves fared no better under Aristotle, who viewed women as a defective form of humanity and found a way to justify slavery because slaves by nature were unintelligent and needed direction on how to live (Armstrong, 2006; Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). Axial Age Greeks did not believe sexual orientation was an important part of psychological identity. Sexual desire was not determined by gender, but rather by the participants in the sexual act; and by the active dominant penetrator, or by the passive participant who was penetrated (Cohen, 1994). This perspective resulted in a male-dominated society because the male penetrator had dominance over the passive receptive female and, in Athenian adulthood, a higher socioeconomic status than women or youth. Cultural Systems

The Homeric Greeks were imperialistic and viewed other nations as culturally inferior (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). This led to wars and, later, colonialism. Warfare was cruel and justice depended on the good will of the conquerors. Plato would later lament that the Homeric view of hero worship set a bad example for how Greeks were to live their lives. By the fifth century BCE, humanism emerged for the privileged Greeks with the development of Sophism (Guthrie, 1971). By selling their services as roving teachers, sophists made philosophic knowledge available to the citizens of Athens. In this cultural environment, humanism thrived as sophists taught Greek citizens that they were the measure of all things. Sophists taught rhetoric, the art of speaking that celebrated free speech and protected rights of Greek citizens. The shadow of Sophism emerged as Greece started to lose wars and suffer from plagues. The sophist belief in relativism seemed to spread uncertainty about cultural values and morals (Guthrie, 1971). Traditionalists began to believe that the Olympian gods were angry with the Athenian people because the sophists rejected the Olympian gods and any universal principles or ethics. The Athenian people began to question the very essence of their culture and were ready to embrace the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, which provided universal principles and values by which to live a virtuous and ethical life, principles that have influenced Western cultures for centuries. Platonic ambivalence toward the human body had a dramatic and lasting impact on the Western cultural view of sexuality. In his writings, Plato saw sexuality as an “irrational frenzy” (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). For Plato, sexuality opposed logic and reason, and in his ideal society, all premarital sex would be illegal. On the other hand, Plato believed that sexual pleasure was acceptable as long as the sexual act was performed for the purpose of procreation, a position later embraced by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek gods modeled a very different form of sexuality, a mythology filled with incest, murder, rape, polygamy, intermarriage, and pederasty (Hamilton, 1969). In Greek mythology, female sexuality and fertility were essential for the development of the human race. But the description of Hera, the wife of Zeus, as a manipulating, deceitful, and duplicitous woman, led to centuries of male insecurity and cultural misogyny in regards to healthy relationships between men and women. Zeus, the supreme god, who modeled male sexual dominance over both the gods and goddesses, was not the best role model. He turned himself into a swan and seduced and raped the daughter, Leda, of the Aetolian king, Thestius. In regards to men, practicing pederasty, the love of young boys, he raped the male mortal Ganymede.

88  Symbols of the Greek Era

Figure 3.3 

In the Symposium, Plato (2003) described the origin of heterosexual and homosexual love: Zeus created and split human beings at the beginning of the world. Some humans were originally half male and half female. When Zeus made them whole again, men and women sought heterosexual relationships. Other humans were created all male or all female and, to feel whole again, sought same-sex homosexual relationships. Plato struggled with the role of sexuality because of his skepticism about the physical world, believing in the purity of the non-physical, immortal soul. During the Axial Age in Greece, homosexual love was seen as one of the highest forms of love; homoerotic love between soldiers was essential for success on the battlefield. Like all the Axial Age civilizations, death became a cultural preoccupation for the people and philosophers of Greece. In the Homeric vision of death, the soul exhaled at the last breath and scattered throughout the world by the wind. In contrast, Socrates and Plato believed in the immortality of the soul. Death was more difficult for Aristotle because he believed that the soul was not separate from the body and when the body died, the soul also died. To resolve the issue, Aristotle distinguished between active reason, the intellect, which separated and lived for eternity with the unmovable mover as pure and passive reason, which died with the body. Aristotle left a cultural message for the Athenians to live by the Golden Mean, the motto over the Temple of Apollo, a daily reminder of nothing in excess (Barnes, 1982). Happiness was the result of living a life of self-control and using the intellect and reason to control physical desires, hubris, and emotional excesses.

Symbols of the Greek Era 89 Greek Psychology in the Axial Age Psychology in Greek Myth

Note: Mythology can have many versions and interpretations. The myths for this chapter have been inspired, adapted, and condensed from The Book of Greeks Myths (I. & E. (D’Aulaires, 1962), Mythology (Hamilton, 1969), and She (Johnson, 1976). The Greek Creation Myth – Gaia

To the Greeks, the Olympian gods were worshiped not as myths but as a religion, religion being a belief system that requires faith beyond reason (Evans, 2018). The Greeks saw their relationship to the Olympian gods as essential to their daily lives. Even as Greek thought expanded beyond religion, many Greek thinkers continued to practice their faith in the Olympian gods (Dreyfus & Kelly, 2011). Gaia was the mother of Uranus, from whose sexual union gave birth to the Titans. When the Titans were unable to live peacefully together, she rejected the idea of creating another universe and turned to Zeus and the Olympian gods to bring order to the world. There are 12 Olympian gods and goddesses in the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus. The Greek gods and goddesses were called Olympians because they existed on Mount Olympus. As most of the Greek population was illiterate, their history and religious practices were communicated by symbols on their temple walls, in their homes, and on their public buildings. The Olympian gods came alive for worship, prayer, and ritual through the symbols and myths that dominated their daily lives. A myth takes place in a primordial, not specified, time. There is no date when Gaia was born or a place where she lived. Mythology transcends time and, when engaged, is available to provide important insights and knowledge about the world not available to the literal rational mind. Because of the limitations of the rational mind, myths, like symbols, speak to the unknown, a greater universal truth. Note: First, read the myth, engage the symbol and reflect on their non-literal underlying meaning, then read the narrative, understanding myth can speak of truth in many ways. The Birth of the Olympian Gods – The Gaia Myth The world was created by a massive explosion caused by very beautiful woman, Gaia, the Great Mother. Gaia gave birth to the Titans, who were taller than the mountains. But there was immediate unhappiness among the gods and soon Zeus was born to bring order to this new world and to create a human race. After internal wars within the god kingdom, Mother Earth gave up her struggle to birth another new universe, because under Zeus there would be no more upheavals; the wounds of the internal wars would be healed. Satisfied, Gaia left her creation as the mountains stood firmly anchored, the seas had their shores, the rivers had their riverbeds, and ox horned river gods watched over the creation. Each tree and each spring had its nymph. The earth was again green and fruitful so that Zeus could rule in peace. After Gaia left, the Olympian gods sat on 12 thrones and reigned over heaven and earth. Zeus shared power with both his brothers and sisters, his children, and the goddess of love. The gods could not die, for divine ichor flowed in their veins instead of blood. Most of the time they lived happily together, but when their wills clashed, there were violent quarrels. Then

90  Symbols of the Greek Era Zeus would reach for a thunderbolt and the Olympians would tremble and fall to order, for Zeus alone was stronger than all the other gods. Often, the gods wondered where their true mother had gone; had they upset her and will she ever return?

The symbol of Gaia has relevance to a modern struggling world because of the physical deterioration of the planet. There is a psychological impact of not attending to Mother Earth, to climate change, and clinging to the belief that the natural world exists to serve humanity, not humanity in service to the natural world for its own preservation. The modern Gaia represents the symbol of power as she holds a whole world consumed by the COVID virus, symbolizing the interconnection of all of humanity. Why did Gaia abandon humanity and, with the natural world in crisis, what will it take for her return and guidance? Since Gaia created not only a beautiful, natural world she also left the Olympian gods in charge, which proved problematic. Because modern science struggles to protect the beautiful world Gaia created, what is the role that “gods” and spirituality might play in Gaia’s return?

Figure 3.4 

Symbols of the Greek Era 91 The Myth of the Birthplace of Western Psychology – Athena

The myth of Athena is another indication of the influence of the world beyond Greece. Plato associated Athena with the Egyptian goddess, Neith, a complex goddess like Athena, often associated with war and hunting (Deacy, 2008). Athena is not a traditional goddess; she was born as a full-functioning adult. She never had a consort and she never married or had children. For Greek society where women were second-class citizens, Athena was an unattainable role model. However, her responsibilities were significant, which included the avoidance of war and the pursuit of wisdom and justice. Note: First read the myth, engage the symbol, and reflect on their non-literal underlying meaning, then read the narrative, understanding myth can speak of truth in many ways.

Birthplace of Western Psychology – Athena Myth After her birth, Athena became the constant companion of Nike, the spirit of victory for great causes. With Nike at her side, Athena used her knowledge to lead great armies, but only those that fought for justice. She believed that true knowledge depended on divine inspiration. Athena was very fond of a certain city in Greece. So was her uncle, Poseidon. Both claimed the city and, after a long quarrel, they decided that the one who could give this city the finest gift should possess it. Leading a procession of citizens, the two gods mounted the Acropolis, the flat-topped rock that crowned the city. Poseidon struck the cliff with his trident and a spring welled up. The people marveled, but the water was as salty as the sea that Poseidon ruled, and not very useful. Then, Athena gave the city her gift. She used her great knowledge of science to plant an olive tree in a crevice on the rock. People wondered how anything could grow there. Out sprang an olive tree. It was the first olive tree the people had ever seen. The olive tree was the first major gift from the gods in which the people of Greece were to judge; they judged Athena’s gift the best for the people. It gave food, oil, and wood to the people. But more importantly, it showed how knowledge led to wisdom, which allowed her to create divine magic to improve their lives. The olive branch also became a symbol of peace because Athena believed with true knowledge and wisdom that war would end forever. The city was Athena’s forever. From her beautiful temple on top of the Acropolis, Athena watched over Athens, her city, with the wise owl, her bird, on her shoulder. Under her inspiration, Athens became the birthplace of Western civilization.

92  Symbols of the Greek Era

Figure 3.5 

Athena, the favorite child of Zeus, was the goddess born to bring wisdom into the world. It is easy to understand why the Western mind might find it difficult to understand the depiction of Athena in a helmet and a spear. Her militaristic look symbolized a warning to be strong and brave like a soldier because for science to progress, a scientist needs to seek a world beyond what is currently known. It is an awareness that science cannot be politically neutral because throughout history, when scientists challenged scientific convention, there were often threats of persecution and even death. Her myth distinguishes between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is based in rational thinking, which does not always lead to wisdom. Poseidon had knowledge; Athena had wisdom because of a connection to something greater, something divine, that allowed her to create a science that had never been seen in history. Like Athena, scientists can be inspired to seek inner wisdom, their symbolic inner owl, beyond the knowledgeable of their inner Poseidon, to make “divine magic” and provide humanity a gift never discovered. The victory of Athena over Poseidon was more than winning the right for the name of Athens because it became the birthplace of modern Western psychology, a science rooted in the importance of divine wisdom over traditional knowledge. Myths have inspired much of modern psychology that includes the psychoanalytic, Jungian, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal movements. From a psychoanalytic perspective, Sigmund Freud proposed that myths reflect the psychological forces within an individual. According to Freud, myths are the collective dreams of humanity because myths use the same kind of imagery, condensation, and displacement found in the dreams of individuals (Eckstein, 1975).

Symbols of the Greek Era 93 From a Jungian view, Carl Jung viewed myths as important because they reflect the archetypal energies in the collective unconscious that exist across all cultures. In humanistic-existential psychology, Rollo May embraced the importance of mythology for living a free and satisfying life. He agreed with Jung that a myth could consume the psychology of an entire culture, like the myth of rugged individualism, which he believed was imprisoning the American psyche. Myth is an important aspect of transpersonal psychology because the movement integrates aspects of human consciousness which transcends the rational, ego-driven psyche. As mentioned, psychology is rooted in the Greek word psuche, or psyche, which means soul. The Greek symbol psi is the 23rd letter in the Greek alphabet and the symbol of psychology. In contrast to the Greek meaning of philosophy, love (philia) of wisdom (sophia), psychology is rooted in the study (logia) of the soul (psyche). After a focus on the Gaian myth related to the creation of the natural world, and the Athenian myth related to the birthplace of modern psychology, the final myth relates to understanding psychology through its mythological namesake, Psyche. The myth of Eros and Psyche can be viewed from many perspectives, like the relationship between men and women (Johnson, 1976); for the purpose of this chapter, it is an opportunity to view the myth from a historical perspective. Note: First read the myth, engage the symbol, and reflect on their non-literal underlying meaning, then read the narrative, understanding myth can speak of truth in many ways. From a psychological perspective, the Eros and Psyche myth provides a powerful story of how the search for psychological truth often means loss of our beloved beliefs. Eros, the god of love, often called Amor or Cupid, was the bane of the Olympian gods, including Zeus, because his arrows carried such power for love, especially for Psyche. After an agreement that Psyche not pursue his identity, Psyche could not accept his request because of her deep love of Eros and began a difficult, even dangerous, search that was complicated because her jealous sisters portrayed Eros as an ugly serpent, which illustrates how blind adherence to professional “sisters” can limit knowledge. The knife symbolizes that old ways, particularly harmful beliefs and practices, that often need to be “stabbed” or even “killed.” When the oil of the lamp awakened Eros and showed he was actually very beautiful, like Eros, the tendency for traditionalists is a return to the professional safety and security of Aphrodite, symbolic of “running back” to our “mother professions.” The myth of Eros and Psyche is a story of the love of true knowledge, which can be an inspiration for psychologists to take risks, to carry both a lamp and a knife, and create a science that ends human ignorance and suffering. Psyche reminds that the search for true knowledge arose out of the love from her soul and her willingness to act courageously. In the final analysis, Psyche discovered the greatest truth and suffered the greatest loss, the fate of many of the greatest scientists in history. Myth of Eros and Psyche Aphrodite, Eros’s mother, is jealous of Psyche because Psyche is seen as the most beautiful woman in the world. Eros is under the spell of his mother, and she instructs her son to inflame Psyche’s love with a very ugly beast. In the process of doing what his mother wanted, Eros pricks his own finger from his arrow and, upon seeing Psyche, falls in love. He asks his friend, the West Wind, to lift her up and take her to the Valley of Paradise. In the Valley of Paradise, Psyche finds herself in total bliss. To maintain this bliss, Eros asks only that she never look at him directly or inquire about his duties.

94  Symbols of the Greek Era Psyche’s sisters are jealous because they miss seeing her on a regular basis. They set up a scheme to tell Psyche that Eros is an ugly serpent and when she has a baby, he will devour them both. The sisters provide a lamp and a knife and instruct her to carefully enter Eros’s bedchamber at night and have a look at him herself. When she arrives at his bedchamber with her lamp and knife, she is bewildered, amazed, and full of guilt when she sees his incredible beauty. He is by far the most beautiful god. She is so upset with herself that she thinks of killing herself. She then drops the knife and accidentally pricks herself on one of Eros’s arrows and falls madly in love with him. Psych loses her grip on the lamp and some of the oil falls on the shoulder of Eros. As he awakes from the hot oil, he feels betrayed. Being a winged god, he starts to fly away. As he flies away, Psyche holds on to him until she falls to earth, feeling exhausted and demoralized. Eros, seeing her back on earth, tells her she has broken their covenant and will punish her by his absence and by flying home to his mother Aphrodite.

Figure 3.6 

Symbols of the Greek Era  95 The Pre-Socratic Revolution

The pre-Socratics lived in Miletus, which is now the west coast of Turkey and a cosmopolitan city that became a melting pot of Eastern and Western thought. This is where natural philosophy began when philosophers in the sixth century BCE attempted to synthesize the thesis of Heraclitus with the antithesis of Parmenides: understanding that being and becoming were both important. They wanted to preserve the Parmenidean concept of an unchanging, unifying force of being without denying the concept of an ever-changing Heraclitan world of becoming (Evans, 2018). Understanding the foundation of the debate necessitates understanding the concepts of arche, apeiron, enantiodromia, doxa, logic, atoms, evolution, the four elements, and nous that follow (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). Thales and Natural Philosophy

In this extraordinary period in Western scientific history, Thales (626–548) emerged as the first great pre-Socratic philosopher and the creator of natural philosophy (Kirk, Raven & Schofield, 2015). In his search for the origins of the natural world, he believed the origin of all things, arche, was water because nature begins with water and returns to water. The Greek word arche, means the original, the prima materia, the beginning, the source of all things. Later, Carl Jung would develop the concept of archetypes, which are the core universal forces of the human psyche. Natural philosophy gained notoriety when Thales predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BCE (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000) When day turned to night, the eclipse halted fighting between the Lydians and the Cyaxres and a peace treaty was negotiated. In line with the idea that there was

Figure 3.7 

96  Symbols of the Greek Era contact between civilizations during the Axial Age, it appears Thales had contact with the Egyptians, who viewed water as the first principle of creation. Many Greek philosophers viewed his argument as logically powerful, which provided the historic foundation for an empirical view of the natural world. Anaximander and Rationalism

If Thales was an empiricist, Anaximander (610–540) was a rationalist. He disagreed with Thales about the nature of arche and believed that there was something much greater that existed before the creation of a natural substance: it was apeiron, the infinite, boundless, the foundation of nature, nether subject to old age or decay. Anaximander reasoned that arche had to be beyond the ordinary natural world because in the beginning of creation, apeiron was whole, boundless, unlimited, not in physical pieces but possessed motion, which later allowed the whole to break up into pieces that created opposites, like hot and cold, necessary for human existence. This led to the belief in rational thought, since many Greek philosophers viewed his description of arche as rationally powerful and a better way to understand the origin of all things. Anaximenes – Empirical and Rational Synthesis

Anaximenes (586–526 BCE) attempted an early empirical and rational synthesis. He disagreed with Thales about water and disagreed with Anaximander about the infinite being the origin of the world. He believed that it was easier to conceive of air as the nature of all things; thus, combining the natural world of Thales’s arche, with the infinite apeiron of Anaximenes. Anaximenes believed the Earth was flat like a disc and rode on air like a frisbee. The Anaximenes Crater on the Moon is named to honor Anaximenes in modern times. Xenophanes – Monotheistic Rationalism

Xenophanes (570–500 BCE) joined the Milesian debate for the quest for arche, the true origin of the natural world. Xenophanes was a religious thinker who offered one of the first critiques of Greek polytheism. He believed there was only one God who could move the world but only by his mind. Xenophanes was critical of the polytheistic nature of the Greek gods and believed they modeled more human-like, rather than god-like qualities. For Xenophanes, the arche was a divine force functioning above mortals and their invented gods, a supreme force controlling the world.

Symbols of the Greek Era 97

Figure 3.8 

98  Symbols of the Greek Era Pythagoras – Religious and Scientific Synthesis

Pythagoras (570–495 BCE), born close to Miletus on Samos Island, developed a religious cult that required strict obedience to rules and regulations that included belief in reincarnation and living a strict dietary life, without meat and beans (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). Pythagoras worshipped numbers because they were stable and permanent, the perfect arche, the divine origin and the determinant of all things. Numbers cannot be touched or sensed, but numbers can be understood through reason. For example, three can never be two, and vice versa. This is symbolized by musical intervals that explained the nature of the world in mathematical terms. Music represented an ordered and harmonious world. Musical numbers created beauty by utilizing musical intervals based on a 3:2 ratio known as the “pure fifth.” This was considered the musical interval most beautiful to the ear, an example of combining his religious and scientific beliefs.

Figure 3.9 

After he discovered his famous Pythagorean Theorem (the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sums of the squares of the other two sides), he offered a sacrifice to the Olympian gods (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000).He believed in an immortal soul and reincarnation because after death, the soul went to Hades to be purified to later transmigrate from one body to another throughout time.

Symbols of the Greek Era 99 Heraclitus and Relativity of Knowledge

Heraclitus of Ephesus (540–480 BCE) was the most radical of the pre-Socratics. He offered a very different and controversial view of the struggle between rational thought and the senses. Heraclitus believed that nothing in the natural world was stable and permanent, that humans live in a constantly changing world (Kirk, Raven & Schofield, 2015). There is no unifying arche to order the world, especially by the explanations of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, or Pythagoras. Since the world is in constant flux, truth and knowledge are always in a state of relativity. Heraclitus rejected the idea of the existence of an arche to explain the natural world. For Heraclitus, it led to a naïve empiricism that relegated nature simply to the senses. He believed truth was discovered through a logos, a formula, an underlying set of principles and relationships that organized the world. However, humans were incapable of completely attaining logos because the natural world is constantly changing, with reality flowing like a beautiful river, symbolically expressed by never being able to step into the same river twice. Although not arche, he saw symbols as the best way to grasp logos, with fire being the ultimate symbol of change. Fire, under logos control, symbolized the illuminating power of enantiodromia, meaning things change into their opposite. Fire has the power to provide light and warmth but can also be dark and can destroy, a symbol of the changing and paradoxical nature of the natural world. It is through the unity of diversity where truth can be found. Heraclitus influenced Carl Jung, who integrated enantiodromia into analytic psychology (Ellenberger, 1970). Jung argued that everything can turn psychologically into its opposite; the rational conscious psyche can turn into the irrational unconscious mind. Therefore, humans should not rely solely on reason, but must also embrace the irrational unconscious, where “the gods will not die.”

Figure 3.10 

100  Symbols of the Greek Era Parmenides and Logic

Parmenides of Elea (515–440 BCE), the ultimate rationalist and biggest critic of Heraclitus, viewed the senses as deceptive. He believed that the only way to understand the natural world was through logic. Logic is the analysis of arguments that may, or may not, support a conclusive truth. When arguments do not support truthful conclusions, it is important to characterize the findings as a fallacy. Parmenides denigrated the Greek concept of doxa, or “appearance,” which means the world known through the senses. He believed that doxa could not be understood because it was filled with unreliability and distortion. He distinguished true knowledge from the “appearance” of true knowledge. In one of the major philosophical debates that would permeate Greek thought throughout the Axial Age and beyond, Parmenides emphasized the importance of understanding the difference between being and becoming (Nietzsche, 1962). Parmenides became one of the first philosophers to argue that empirical knowledge was useless, that truth could only be attained through reason. Even though it may “appear” so, what is observed through the senses is an illusion. Things don’t change or move; they are not separate things; everything is being – one substance. The concept of change, of becoming, is an illusion. Because becoming is dependent on the unreliable senses. Reason is more reliable because becoming presupposes non-being, which is inconceivable. Leucippus, Democritus, and Atomism

Atomism became the synthesis between being and becoming. Leucippus of Miletus (unknown), and his student, Democritus (480–370 BCE), often considered the father of modern science, believed that the world was made up of atoms. They believed that the psyche, the soul, was made up of the purest, spherical, atoms. These atoms were scattered throughout the body, producing movement and after death were scattered throughout the universe because they could not die.

Figure 3.11 

Symbols of the Greek Era 101 The Greek word for atom, atomos, means “uncuttable.” The atom symbolizes the synthesis of Parmenidean thought of the indivisible and eternal with Heraclitan theory of constant change. Atoms were seen as indivisible and unchanging: being, the essential arche of nature. Atoms are also in constant movement, becoming, as they move into empty space. Atoms then separate to create the particles that cause everything in nature, whether it is fire or thought. Empedocles and Evolution

Empedocles (490–430 BCE) had another idea about synthesizing being and becoming. He developed an early concept of evolution. He believed there are four kinds of particles or elements in the world: earth, air, water, and fire. These particles are in a constant state of combining and separating into physical objects. The particles imbed universal copies into the objects, creating being and, through ongoing separation, create the motion of becoming. This process created the chance for objects to evolve into something new. Love and strife are the two cosmic forces that guide the particles. When there is love, the particles connect and when there is strife, the particles repel and disperse. Love and strife are both necessary for the natural world to grow and evolve. Anaxagoras and the Transcendent

The synthesis of being and becoming for Anaxagoras of Clazomanae (500–430 BCE), was a transcendent mind, a nous, reason, a “higher mind” that was the property of the cosmos. Nous gives order to the four elements and creates cosmic motion that is the animating principle for all living things. The concept of nous became an important concept in modern transpersonal psychology. Protagoras, the Sophists, and Relativism

Humanism emerged with the development of the sophists in the fifth century BCE. The Greek word for sophist is sophizo, meaning “I am wise” (Guthrie, 1971). The sophists in many ways were the first Western professors and taught that wisdom existed uniquely in every person. They were not interested in arche, apeiron, enantiodromia, doxa, nous, or any philosophy that did not have a practical application. The sophists focused on how to live a fulfilling life rather than pleasing the Greek gods or being consumed with endless philosophizing. Protagoras of Abdera (485–415) was the most famous sophist who claimed that human beings were the measure of all things (Guthrie, 1971). The sophists were less interested in the nature of the world and more interested in what it meant to be a human being. The sophists were skeptical that human beings could ever discover ultimate truths. In fact, they taught how to view any issue from two different viewpoints. The sophists did not see stealing as intrinsically good or bad and could argue both sides of the issue even stealing depended on the social, cultural, and economic realities of the decision maker. Controversy and shadow emerged when sophists sold their skills as roving teachers and when they taught relativism, the denial of any absolute truths, facts, or values. A form of sophism influenced postmodernism, the rejection of universal principles by which to live and skepticism about the basic assumptions of modernity in Western philosophy. Classical Greek Philosophy

Classical Greek philosophy emerged from the pre-Socrates and the lack of attention in sophism to universal values for a more just society. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle considered the sophists and their relativism as a philosophic cancer on Greek society (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000).

102  Symbols of the Greek Era In response, they sought to develop a philosophy that would provide universal truths to guide the daily lives of the Athenian people. One of the most important beliefs was that human beings could determine their own purpose and destiny. Beyond the pre-Socratics, the Greek philosophers created methods by which to understand the world. The dialogic method of Socrates and the dialectic methods of Plato and Aristotle inspired followers to engage in practical ways not only to find an individual truth but truths to create a more dynamic and uncorrupted democracy. The Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle laid the foundation for the modern university and the value of higher education. They were places to learn and explore the nature of the world because answers were still to be discovered. They were also places to study politics because Greek philosophers understood the importance of politics and of being actively involved in political affairs. Socrates – Humanistic Psychology

Inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Socrates (469–399 BCE), the founder of Western philosophy, believed that the main goal of life was to know thyself. Since Socrates believed that writing was open to misinterpretation, knowledge about Socrates comes from other Athenians, like Xenophon (Memorabilia), Aristophanes (Clouds, a satire), and Aristotle (in various works) (Versenyi, 1971). It was Plato (2002) who immortalized Socrates by speaking in his voice in many of his Dialogues. For Socrates, the soul is mind and innate and contains all the knowledge necessary for leading a good and virtuous life. Since knowledge is innate, knowledge is attained through the inductive method of asking the right questions. It is from the inner world of the soul where the answers emerge because the soul is always waiting to speak. With the concept of daimon, Socrates recognized the early existence of shadow, which led to either good or evil behavior. Daimon is symbolized by an intermediary spirit between humanity and the gods that could protect and offer good advice or, when evil, give bad advice. Socrates believed he had a lifelong daimon, shadow, that was an essential part of his psychological life. Socrates was skeptical of the reliability of the physical world because the material world was constantly changing, and eternal truths were not susceptible to change. Unlike the Sophists, Socrates believed that a harmonious world needed universal truths like justice, virtue, courage, and love. In community with his followers, to find these truths, he engaged in a Socratic Method of endless dialogical questioning, a discourse between people holding different viewpoints but willing to establish truth through reasoned argument (Versenyi, 1971). This approach influenced humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers and person-centered psychotherapy, because Rogers believed, like Socrates, by asking the right questions clients discovered that they, not the therapist, possessed the already present answers to their clinical problems.

Symbols of the Greek Era 103

Figure 3.12 

104  Symbols of the Greek Era Plato – Metaphysical and Transpersonal Psychology

Platonic theory is based in metaphysics, the study of what is known beyond the physical world. The Greek root of metaphysics, ta meta and ta phusika, means after physics or behind the natural world. Plato believed transcendental experiences existed beyond the physical world. Like Socrates, Plato was also a critic of the Sophists’ relativism and the Heraclitan concept of ongoing change. He believed there were absolute Forms or eidos, ideas. These ideas existed beyond a shifting physical changing world. The Forms always existed, and were perfect, deathless, and unchanging. Plato defined a Form as an object that points to something beyond itself, to something unknowable; a precursor to the Jungian concept of archetype and the need for symbol to point to something greater beyond the consciously knowable. The metaphysics of Plato also inspired the transpersonal psychology movement in the twentieth century. Although Plato was a student of Socrates for approximately 10 years, Plato went beyond the teachings of Socrates to develop his own unique philosophy. His argument for the immortality of the soul was based on the concept of anamnesis, the belief that individuals with immortal souls came into the world with knowledge of the eternal forms, but had forgotten that knowledge when the soul entered the physical body. It was through metaphysical education that the soul could again remember the knowledge of their immortal soul. Plato distinguished between the soul of the world, the Demiurge, and the individual soul, the Timaeus. The Demiurge, the creator of the world, was responsible for everything from motion to mind, to beauty and order. The Demiurge also created individual souls, the Timaeus. When the Timaeus entered the body, the immortal soul became imprisoned, losing touch with the perfectly created world. The immortal soul functioned from the heart as intellect, which was the highest form of truth and knowledge. The mortal soul operated from the stomach and struggled between the world of intellect and the world of the senses. The body and the senses were unreliable forms of knowledge because they distracted from the true knowledge of the immortal soul. In Phaedrus, Plato (2005) describes a tripartite psychological personality through the symbol of the charioteer and its two-winged horses (Gallop, 1980). One white horse is the spirited soul

Figure 3.13 

Symbols of the Greek Era  105 that is immortal and doesn’t need a whip or direction. This horse is “…a lover of honor and modesty and temperance, and the follower of true glory, he needs no touch of whip, but is guided by word and admonition only.” The dark horse cannot be contained by a whip because it is overwhelmed by physical needs and human desire. This horse is deformed and very obstinate and is described as a “…crooked lumbering animal…put together…of a dark color, with grey eyes and blood and complexion, the mate of insolence and pride, shag-eared and deaf, hardly yielding to whip and spur.” In the driver’s seat is the charioteer, which symbolizes the rational soul trying to rein in the two horses with psychological strength and fortitude. In a lifelong journey, the chariot flies toward the ridge of heaven where the charioteer beholds the pure Forms of truth and knowledge, which are beauty, justice, goodness, courage, and wisdom. This journey, although difficult, is inspiring, motivating the charioteer to continue its flight toward the heavenly world of pure Forms. During the flight. the charioteer flies with Zeus to the heavens because the wings of the gods are immortal and make for an easier flight. The flight of the human charioteer is an ongoing struggle between two mortal horses. The white horse pulls toward the heavens and the dark horse tries to return to earth. If the charioteer is unsuccessful in nourishing the wings of truth and knowledge, the wings will fall off and the charioteer, the immortal soul, will descend back to earth and become enslaved in the human body. Since the charioteer once lived in the heavenly stars with the pure Forms, the individual soul being immortal, the goal after death was to return to the stars, like the Hindu concept of moksha, released from the cycle of rebirth. However, if the soul did not free itself from the physical world, and did not nourish the rational mind, the charioteer would continue to be reincarnated from one body to another in an endless cycle of rebirth. Sigmund Freud, influenced by the Platonic view of tripartite structure of the human personality, developed the psychoanalytic concepts of ego, superego, and id (Watson, 1963). The charioteer symbolizes the ego, the white horse the superego, and the dark horse the id. The ego tries like the white horse to attain the highest values of the superego, which is under constant attack from the dark forces of the id. Freud agreed with Plato that through dreams the wild horse can safely express itself without moral judgment. Dreams provide a psychological release for a human psyche constantly overwhelmed by the instinctively driven “wild horse” of the id After the death of Socrates, Plato traveled widely throughout the Axial Age countries. In 387 BCE, he returned to Athens and developed the Academy, which became the intellectual center of Greece. With his writings, Plato became the first great scholar of Western philosophy. At the Academy, Plato taught many of the areas of study that were important to Socrates, leading a good and virtuous life, ethics, and the value of political involvement. He believed, unlike the Sophists, that learning for its own sake would lead to a virtuous and satisfying life. Plato combined the Socratic Method with the philosophy of Pythagoras, who believed that mathematics exists independent of our thinking (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). Plato used the Pythagorean triangle as his example of the debate in the Axial Age between being and becoming. The ideal, real, triangle represented the permanence of being, while a chalk triangle represented the impermanence of becoming. The movement up the triangle started with appearances, doxa, and then rose through a mathematical analysis, resulting in the experience of something greater. Allegory of the Cave – Plato

Plato argued that before philosophy, the soul could only experience the world through the body; philosophy emancipated humanity from the senses and provided ideas and Forms to better understand the highest levels of consciousness. The Allegory of the Cave provides an example of

106  Symbols of the Greek Era the historic challenges of metaphysical philosophy to liberate the world from the shortcomings of philosophy and the darkness of “the cave.” Note: First read the allegory, engage the symbol, reflect on their non-literal underlying meaning, then read the narrative understanding an allegory, like mythology, can speak of truth in many ways. Allegory of the Cave – Plato There are prisoners living in an underground cave that was opened to light. They have been chained since childhood and could only face a blank wall. Behind them is a roaring fire that reflected the shadows of people carrying things. They believe the shadows on the cave walls are the real people. After a while, some of the prisoners escaped and had a number of reactions. Some of the prisoners were initially blinded by the light and returned to the cave while others adjusted to the sun, aware that they were only seeing shadows and not the real world. Others returned to liberate the prisoners, but were often killed because the other prisoners could not see any real purpose in leaving the safety of the cave. Plato (2007)

The Allegory of the Cave provides a dramatic example of the Platonic philosophy of Forms because Plato believed humanity was chained to their physical body, the senses, like prisoners in an unenlightened cave where the prisoners mistakenly believed the shadows from the cave fire were the real world. Plato imagined when the prisoners escaped, they would feel emancipated by “the sunlight of reason” and understand the deception of the senses. Upon returning to the cave to report what had been seen, the eyes of the freed prisoners initially blinded by the sunlight of the real world, made the prisoners in the cave assume a harmful journey. Plato was not convinced that humanity would ever be able to handle the true realities of the outer world because the discovery would be too much, most would retreat safely back to unenlightened prisoners and, if able, the prisoners who remained in the cave might try to kill anyone who attempted their emancipation. The existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote that the Allegory of the Cave suggested an uncovering, a symbolic leaving of the cave that was a necessary precondition for truth (Heidegger, 1988). He believed that an important goal of philosophy was to help humanity defeat the illusionary representations of the world. The existential perspective views a higher state of consciousness as a journey from the darkness of the cave toward “the sunlight” of mental, physical, and spiritual possibilities. The allegory is also warning of the existential threat that many prisoners who are unwilling to go “beyond the shadows” will often persecute, even threaten death, to those who do not desire an escape from the darkness. The symbol of the modern Allegory of the Cave questions whether the electronic and technological age has created the new Platonic cave. Are the shadows from the internet, social media, and other forms of modern technology mistakenly experienced as truth, an addiction to the senses, and a distraction from higher states of consciousness? With all the modern advances, has the modern world escaped the illusion Plato warned against, the avoidance of being totally dependent for truth on the senses and the physical world?

Symbols of the Greek Era 107

Figure 3.14  Aristotle – Empiricism and Scientific Research

As the last great classical Greek philosopher, the influence of Aristotle (382–322 BCE), on Western thought has been monumental. He was able to integrate much of Greek philosophy and is often called “the last man to know everything” (Miller, 2011). It is believed that Western science begins with Aristotle because Aristotelian thought will dominate the Middle Ages, strongly influence Christianity, and inspire the Arab world during the Middle Ages. Ironically, it was the Islamic world that preserved his writings against Christian fanaticism. Like Plato, Aristotle traveled for many years throughout many of the Axial Age countries, especially Asia. After Athens fell under Macedonian rule, Aristotle, at age 50, returned and created the Lyceum, where he taught his philosophy. The Lyceum became a model for a university because for the first time the disciplines of biology, mathematics, politics, physics, logic, and metaphysics were taught separately. The Lyceum also had the first Western library, where his works were stored until 86 BCE, when the Romans destroyed Lyceum on an assault on Athens. Aristotle believed in “student empowerment” by having student administrators involved in the daily management of the Lyceum. Every 10 days, a new student administrator took responsibility to work with school leaders to plan the curriculum (Lindberg, 2007). Aristotle was a theoretical philosopher with an emphasis that theoretic suppositions should be based on research. Theory comes from the Greek root, theoria, meaning looking at, viewing, and beholding. Aristotle believed that sight was the most important sense, the symbol of

108  Symbols of the Greek Era the foundation of all knowledge. For Aristotle, science was the result of a scientist reaching conclusions from what they see. Unlike Parmenides, Aristotle had great faith in doxa, appearances, because perception matched what was being seen. The denial by Parmenides of motion and change was easily refuted by Aristotle because he believed motion and change were seen through the visual observation of the natural world. Aristotle inherited his love of biology from his father, who was a court physician in Macedonia. Around 343 BCE, Phillip of Macedonia invited him to tutor his son Alexander, who would become Alexander the Great. As Alexander conquered vast portions of the Axial Age world, he collected plant and animal specimens for Aristotle. This led to the establishment of the first known zoo and botanical gardens. By collecting specimens from his conquests, Alexander assisted Aristotle in developing his theories based on research. As a teacher, it allowed him to require his students to complete research projects as part of their studies. The importance of research in Aristotelian thought laid the foundation for centuries for research methodologies to prove or disprove scientific theories. After lecturing at the Lyceum, Aristotle would frequently lecture on its grounds to engage the citizens of Greece and scholars who became his followers. Because of his tendency to walk and lecture, they became known as Peripatetics, the Greek root, peripatetikos, meaning given to walking about. During his walks, Aristotle combined his lectures with research and emphasized that research was necessary for theoretical understanding.

Figure 3.15 

Symbols of the Greek Era 109 Aristotle made great strides in scientific methods that have lasted until modern times. In De Anima, Theory of the Soul, considered the first text in psychology (Watson, 1963), Aristotle developed the systematic methods for the direct study of nature. He believed that the intuitive methods of Socrates and Plato were inadequate and resulted in unexamined opinions rather than true knowledge. He replaced Socratic and Platonic methods with a dialectic method, which examined two given premises, valid or not valid. Each of these premises shared a commonality at the conclusion, and each shared a concept not present in the middle and not present at the conclusion. For example: all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore, all dogs have four legs, but all animals do not have four legs. The dialectic method necessitated active engagement between two people who possessed an understanding of the logical method of reasoning. True engagement meant the two people have a sincere interest in validating their arguments from deductive and inductive reasoning. The inductive method drew its conclusions after studying elements from the specific to the general. The deductive method draws its conclusions from a general truth and then studying its elements from the general to the specific. In studying psychological phenomenon, the deductive method is often associated with quantitative research in the natural science traditions, while the inductive method is often associated with qualitative methods in the humanistic traditions. Aristotle studied under Plato for approximately 20 years and was greatly influenced by his philosophy, especially by his theory of Forms. However, Aristotle took a different approach to the Platonic Forms by integrating the rational and empirical, and being and becoming, controversies that dominated Greek philosophy throughout the Axial Age. Aristotle insisted that Form was in the constitution of all living things, but, unlike the Platonic Forms, thought could not be separated from the natural world. The natural world was both ordered being and in the constant state of motion and change of becoming. Form and matter are always one, only the rational mind separated them. Plato separated Forms from the things of the natural world, while Aristotle integrated Form into all things, believing in the reliability of the senses. Aristotle believed that matter was organized in a hierarchy, a Scala Naturae, which meant a “Natural Ladder.” He believed that the entire natural world was ordered into a single continuum composed, at the lowest level, of neutral matter to the highest level ordered into pure matter, the unmovable mover. In Metaphysics, Aristotle (1999) described the unmovable mover not as a deity but as pure thought. During the Middle Ages, Scala Naturae became The Great Chain of Being, and was believed in medieval Christianity to have been a hierarchy decreed by God; later it influenced the development of perennial philosophy and the transpersonal Integral Psychology of Ken Wilber. In this ordered world, matter is always trying to reach its true Form, but Aristotle, in contrast to Plato, believed that Forms expressed themselves not only through matter but changed the potential of matter into its actual purpose for existence. This transformation of matter is called entelechy, from the Greek root entelechia, which means that which realizes or makes actual what is otherwise merely potential (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). For example, an acorn strives through its many physical changes to reach its full potential by becoming an oak tree.

110  Symbols of the Greek Era

Figure 3.16 

Aristotle viewed change differently from other Greek philosophers. For Heraclitus, change was constant; there was no permanence. Parmenides viewed change as illusionary; everything was part of a permanent whole. To Plato, the problem with change proved how inferior the natural world was to the ideal Forms. Aristotle conceived of change in terms of purpose, which led to his theory of teleology, from the Greek root telos, meaning the purpose, the end, and logos, to reason, to explain. Aristotle believed when reason and nature worked collaboratively together the real cause and purpose was transformed from a material object into something useful (Cohen, Curd & Reeve, 2000). This transformation highlights the integration of being and becoming. Every material object originates from being, but without becoming, being cannot be transformed into something useful. Aristotle explained change in terms of causality; why things change. He believed without the why, the cause, there could never be a true understanding of the natural world. When a carpenter thinks of a table, he first must have an idea in mind, a Form. This is the formal cause. The carpenter then needs wood. This is the material cause. Afterward, the carpenter needs to use tools to build the table. This is the efficient cause. Finally, there is a purpose and reason to create a table, often for dining and socialization. This is the final cause, the ultimate reason for being a table. Modern science deals only with the efficient causes of the oak tree or the wood table, which limits understanding of the natural and metaphysical world. In modern science, the reason the oak tree becomes a tree is because of its seeds. The fact that wood becomes a table is not that important since wood could become many things. In embracing the natural sciences as the

Symbols of the Greek Era 111 dominant scientific model, psychology has lost interest in final causes, the search for purpose and meaning viewed as the purview of metaphysics, religion, or pseudoscience. Although soul was the Form, the essence and the capacities of every living being, unlike Plato and Socrates, Aristotle viewed the soul in physical terms. Soul was not separate from the body; the soul lived in and activated the body (Watson, 1963). Every living being possessed a soul, a purpose. What distinguished living beings from other living beings were different capacities to live in the natural world. The vegetative soul existed in plants which had the capacity for nourishment and reproduction, necessary for all living beings. The sensitive soul existed in animals who had the capacity to respond to the environment, experience pain and pleasure, and have memory are also important for survival in the natural world. Humans had a rational soul with the capacities of plants and animals but uniquely possessed with the intellectual capacity to think and reason. The original meaning of common sense was the ability of the rational soul, symbolically located in the heart, to coordinate all the common senses. Aristotle viewed the heart as the intellectual and emotional center of the body. The heart controlled active and passive reason. The brain cooled the blood while emotions amplified behavior and provided motivation to embrace the world. Throughout history, the view of the brain cooling the blood would have historic implications for the medical treatment of mental illness. For Aristotle, the soul was the final cause because the soul guides all aspects of the psychological personality. He rejected Platonic dualism and believed the soul and body could not be nonmaterial and separate from the body. The rational soul reasoned in two basic ways: actively and passively. Passive reason operated in daily life from the perspective of survival. Passive reason

Figure 3.17 

112  Symbols of the Greek Era had no interest in understanding the true essence of life. Active reason activated entelechy, which led to self-awareness and to the highest purpose of the immortal soul. Humans and animals share similar motivations that are mostly hedonistic, the desire to experience pleasure over pain. Active reason also resulted in living a life by the Golden Mean, which meant avoiding excess and everything in moderation. It is also an ability to use reason to control excessive desires and emotions. Aristotle died in 322 BCE in exile in Euboea from digestive causes. His death ended the Golden Age of Greece, but it did not end the impact of Aristotelian thought throughout history. His philosophy would influence the Islamic Golden Age and the Scholasticism of the Roman Catholic Church (Rubenstein, 2003). Aristotelian laws of memory and recall were embraced by psychologists 2,000 years later as learning theory. The concepts of entelechy and teleology influenced the development of Jungian psychology (Horne, 2001). His belief in objective observation and research influenced empirical psychology. Of all the great classical Greek philosophers, Aristotle stands alone. Emancipatory Opportunities in Greek Philosophy Embrace Soul as the Root of Psychology

Difficult in modern times, but as discussed throughout the chapter, there are various descriptions of what defines soul from the metaphysical perspective of Plato to the natural science view of Aristotle. Whatever the bias, psychology is rooted in the “study of the soul,” the discovery of what it means to be human. It was the love coming from her soul, not advice of others or her rational mind, that inspired Psyche to be courageous, to challenge the status quo and discover the greatest truth. Read Mythology

Myths are an essential part of psychological understanding. For Greek mythology, an excellent overview is Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, (75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition), by Edith Hamilton (2017). For the universality of myth, Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers ((Flowers, 1988) provides additional mythological material from the six-hour PBS special in the 1980s that explored myths from Greece through the traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. Since every culture is rooted in mythology, explore the myths of your ancestors. Myths and Legends: An Illustrated Guide to their Meanings (Wilkinson, 2009) can offer a place to start. Discover Your Personal Myth

In Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell (1993) describes the expansion of human consciousness when there is a discovery of a personal myth. In the lecture course, Life Lessons from the Great Myths, Rufus Fears (2011) explains how mythological figures from Greece to America create role models for daily living. Experience a World “Beyond the Cave”

Experience life without the constant distractions of modernity that purport to be reality. Leave your iPhone, computer, social media contacts, and various other modern technologies behind and view the world beyond the shadows of the modern cave.

Symbols of the Greek Era 113 Create a Socrates Café

Christopher Phillips (2001), in Socrates Café, described how to start a Socrates Café, a place to give philosophy back to the people. In the spirit of Socrates, create space in a coffeehouse for questions without clear answers, dialogue rather than monologue, and a sense of community rather than tribalism. Critical theorist Jorgen Habermas (1989) described this as a public sphere essential for the survival of democracy, a place where individuals come together to freely discuss matters of mutual interest and, when possible, find common ground for action. Live by the Golden Mean

Aristotle believed that without moderation, the world had a tendency for hubris, social unrest, violence, and interpersonal discord. Living by the Golden Mean means enjoying the best life has to offer, which is beauty, truth, and wisdom.

QUESTIONS 

3

3.1 Describe how the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems influenced the development of Greek philosophy. 3.2 Explain how the myths of Gaia, Athena, and Eros and Psyche apply to the history of psychology. 3.3 Describe the difference between being and becoming. 3.4 Explain how Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle defined soul. 3.5 Explain the similarities and differences between Socratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian philosophy. 3.6 Describe how Aristotle explained change. 3.7 Explain the similarities between the Socratic method and person-centered therapy. 3.8 Describe how Greek philosophers influenced psychoanalytic, Jungian, empirical, and transpersonal psychology.

Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 3.1. Axial Age Symbol – Greek Philosophy integrated with Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Judaism. Figure 3.2. Symbolic of the dangers of challenging political power. Figure 3.3. Understanding sexuality through Greek mythology. Figure 3.4. The neglect and abuse of mother earth. Figure 3.5. The importance of wisdom over knowledge. Figure 3.6. Psychology rooted in Greek mythology. Figure 3.7. Water symbolizing the origin of all living things. Figure 3.8. The rational and empirical synthesis as symbolized by the earth as a disc riding on air like a frisbee. Figure 3.9. Numbers symbolizing a religious and scientific synthesis.

114  Symbols of the Greek Era Figure 3.10. An ever-changing world symbolized by never being able to step in same river twice. Figure 3.11. Atoms symbolizing the synthesis between being and becoming. Figure 3.12. The essence of psychology which is first “to know thyself.” Figure 3.13. Symbolic of human personality being divided into three different parts. Figure 3.14. Symbolic of the illusionary nature of the material world. Figure 3.15. Sight, observation, symbolizing the foundation of all the sciences. Figure 3.16. Every living being exists to reach its highest purpose for existence. Figure 3.17. Soul guides all aspects of the human personality. References Ahrensdorf, P. (1995). The death of Socrates and the life of philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press. Anderson, A., Hicks, S.V. & Witkowski, L. (Eds.). (2004). Mythos and logos: How to regain the love of wisdom. New York: Rodopi B.V. Amsterdam. Annas, J. (1982). An introduction to Plato’s republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Aristotle. (1999). The metaphysics. (H. Lawson-Tancred, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. Armstrong, K. (2006). The great transformation. New York: Anchor Books. Barnes, J. (1982). Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Campbell, J. (1993). Myths to live by. New York: Penguin Books. Cohen, D. (1994). Law, sexuality, and society: The enforcement of morals in classical Athens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, S., Curd, P. & Reeve, C. (2000). Readings in ancient Greek philosophy. Indianapolis: Hackett Press. Cornford, F. (1957). From religion to philosophy. New York: Harper Press. D’Aulaires, I. (1962). Book of Greek myths. New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. Deacy, S. (2008). Athena. London: Routledge. Dreyfus, H. & Kelly, S.D. (2011). All things shining: Reading western classics to find meaning in a secular age. New York: Free Press. Ekstein, R. (1975). Psychoanalytic precursors in Greek antiquity. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. 36(1), 246–267. Ellenberger, H. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. New York: Basic Books. Evans, C.S. (2018). A history of western philosophy: From the pre-Socratics to postmodernism. Downers Grove, Ill: IVPO Academic. Fears, J.R. (2011). Life lessons from the great myths. Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company. Flowers, S.B. (Ed.). (1988). Joseph Campbell: The power of myth with Bill Moyers. New York: Doubleday. Gallop, D. (1980). Plato’s Phaedo. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Guthrie, W. (1971). The sophists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge, MA: Thomas Burger Hall, D. (1977). The Republic and the limits of politics. Political Theory. 5(3), 293–313. Hamilton, E. (1969). Mythology: Timeless tales of gods and heroes. New York: New American Library. Hamilton, E. (2017). Mythology (75th anniversary illustrated edition): Timeless tales of gods and heroes. New York: Hackett Book Group Heidegger, M. (1988). The essence of truth: On Plato’s cave allegory and Theaetetus. (T. Sadler, Trans.). New York: Continuum Hesiod (1988). Theogony and Works and days. (M.L. West, Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press. Horne, M. (2001). Aristotle’s ontogenesis: A theory of individuation which integrates the classical and developmental (Jungian) perspectives. Journal of Analytical Psychology. 47, 613–628. Hubert, D. & Husserl, E. (1999). The crisis of European science and transcendental phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Hunt, M. (2007). The story of psychology. New York: Anchor Books.

Symbols of the Greek Era  115 Jaspers, K. (2010). The origin and goal of history. (M. Bullock, Trans.). New York: Routledge Revivals. (Original work published 1953). Johnson, R. (1976). She. King of Prussia. Meadville, PA: Religious Publishing Company. Kirk, G.S., Raven, J.E. & Schofield, M. (2015). The presocratic philosophers. (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lindberg, C. (2007). The beginnings of Western science. (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press Miller, J. (2011). Examined lives from Socrates to Nietzsche. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Nietzsche, F. (1962). Philosophy in the tragic age of the Greeks. Chicago: Regency. Phillips, C. (2001). Socrates café. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Plato. (2003). The symposium. (C. Gill, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. Plato. (2005). Phaedrus. (C. Gill, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books Plato. (2002). Five dialogues. (2nd ed.). (G.M. Grube, Trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company. Plato. (1992). The trial and death of Socrates: Four dialogues. (B. Jowett, Trans.). New York: Dover Publications, Inc. Plato. (2007). The republic. (D. Lee, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books Rubenstein, R. (2003). Aristotle’s children. New York: Harcourt, Inc. Stone, I.F. (1988). The trial of Socrates. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Tarnas, T. (1991). The passion of the Western mind: Understanding the ideas that shaped our world. New York: Crown Publishers. Versenyi, L.G. (1971), Plato and his liberal opponents. Cambridge University Press, 46, 177–190. Watson, R. (1963). The great psychologists: From Aristotle to Freud. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. Wilkinson, P. (2009). Myths and legends: An illustrated guide to their meanings. New York: DK Publishing. Zaretsky, E. (2005). Secrets of the soul: A social and cultural history of psychoanalysis. New York: Vintage Books.

Figure 4.0

4

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras

Introduction The End of the Axial Age The (great thinkers) of the Axial Age were so advanced and their vision was so radical that later generations tended to dilute (their thought). In the process, they often produced exactly the kind of (orthodoxy) that the Axial Age reformers wanted to (abandon)…Axial Age philosophers had no interest in doctrine…all the traditions… pushed forward the frontier of human consciousness…each generation should try to adapt the original insights…that must be our task today. - Karen Armstrong (2007)

The death of Aristotle led to a chaotic transition from the enlightened classical Greek period toward a new human order with the development of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islam. Nike of Samothrace, Winged Victory is an example of a great Greek sculpture discovered as the Axial Age ended around 200 BCE. Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Hellenistic art and one of the most revered pieces in the Louvre in Paris symbolizing how the transition after Aristotle was unsteady, how humanity struggled to regain a sense of balance and equilibrium. Nike originally stood on a ship prow that had just landed, but the wind blew the goddess and she had difficulty staying steady and not falling overboard. Like the headless Nike, during this era, humanity often “lost its head,” falling overboard into dark and bloody military conquests, violent religious fanatical crusades, and a murderous inquisition. During a time of social unrest, change, and the collapse of the old order, therapeutic philosophies emerged in reaction to the classic Greek philosophies leading to the Hellenistic period. Cynics, Skeptics, Epicureans, and Stoics emphasized that true freedom resulted from an internal individual psychological orientation and away from the external chaotic and corrupt social and political order. Classical Greek thought from the Axial Age would continue to inspire Christians and Muslims even as the early Roman Catholic Church attempted to violently remove any remnants of Greek thought. Ironically, the scholasticism of Augustine and Aquinas, which incorporated Aristotelian thought, would emerge for centuries as the major Church philosophy. As the Western world plunged into decline during the Middle Ages, Muslims would preserve and integrate classical Greek philosophy to advance Islamic culture. Although Axial Age philosophers haddifferent views of the nature of the soul, the psyche, there was now general agreement it existed and provided an essential role in being fully human. Like the Greeks, Augustine modeled the importance of “knowing thyself” through both a spiritual and psychological process of self-analysis and autobiographical reflection. DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-4

118  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras The Axial Age ended when followers were unable to further develop the rich Axial Age legacy into the realities of the new world order. After the Axial Age, humanity continued the search for universal truths to end human suffering and improve the social conditions, often turning to Christianity and Islam. The symbolic search for the lost head of Nike continued because Christian and Islamic dogmatic orthodoxy left many psychologically and spiritually unsatisfied

Figure 4.1 

Hellenistic Age – Greece Historical Analysis of Hellenistic Age Political Systems

Hellenistic, from the Greek Hellas, meaning Greece, is an important period in history that lasted between the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) and the emergence of the Roman Empire (31 BCE). By 338 BCE, Athens had been defeated in the generation-long Peloponnesian War by Sparta, its former ally against the Persian Empire and by Phillip II, the king of Macedonia. The son of Phillip II, Alexander the Great established an empire in southeastern Europe, western Asia, and northeastern Africa, but after his death in 323 BCE, the great Greek empire was divided into three large polyglot empires and the democratic city-state form of government faded into history. Belief in political activism during the Hellenistic period was mixed. The Epicureans cultivated lives for intellectual and sensual happiness by withdrawing from political engagement

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 119 because the political world was at best unpredictable and at worst violent and corrupt. For the founder of skepticism, Pyrrho, the answer was also to withdraw from the political world to experience epoch, a psychological state where all judgments and expectations were suspended, which led to a state of ataraxia, “mental tranquility,” free from fear and anxiety. The Stoics insisted on political activism. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, recognized in his Republic the divine spark in all of humanity, that reason would lead to the formation of a worldwide government, a cosmopolis, a place where everyone was related with respect and fairness, regardless of their country, race, or religion (Miller, 2019). He believed in a “worldcity,” where all humans would be brothers and sisters, free from the divisions that were falsely introduced to humanity by family, religion, government, educators, and military leaders. Diogenes, the archetypal Cynic, was known for mocking Alexander the Great in public. After meeting him in 323 BCE when he visited Cornith, while Diogenes was relaxing in the marketplace sunlight, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous Cynic philosopher, asked if there was any favor he might do for him. Diogenes replied that he could move out of his sunlight (Dobbin, 2012). Alexander, still wanting to impress Diogenes, exclaimed that if he was not Alexander, he would want to be Diogenes. Cynical about political power and authority, Diogenes replied that if he wasn’t Diogenes, he would still want to be Diogenes (Dobbin, 2012). The Cynics viewed themselves as the “conscience” of political leaders, rebels against political corruption. Socioeconomic Systems

During the fourth century BCE, Epicureanism and Stoicism emerged in Athens in response to the socioeconomic reality of the demise of the once invincible Greek city-states. When the Romans integrated much of Greek thought, Stoicism remained extremely popular among the wealthy aristocratic Romans. A strong socioeconomic elitism, first developed in the Greek philosophic tradition, would continue as expressed by the treatment of Antisthenes, the founder of Cynicism and an inspiration for the Hellenistic philosophies of skepticism, epicureanism, and stoicism. His acceptance by Socrates caused other disciples like Plato discomfort because Antisthenes came from a lower-class underprivileged family. His mother was a domestic worker and slave. Because of his background, Plato, and other disciples of Socrates, treated him with disdain and as a lesser human being because he did not come from a wealthy upper-class aristocratic Athenian family (Dobbin, 2012). Antisthenes was present at the trial and execution of Socrates and had no illusion that he would be the successor to Socrates because he believed that Plato and his followers would continue to support Athenian mores of ethnic, class, and socioeconomic discrimination. He decided to leave the Academy and founded the Cynosarges Gymnasium to further the philosophy of cynicism. Cultural Systems

During the Hellenistic period, Greek influence in philosophy and culture peaked across the far reaches of the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Often seen as a limited period of transition in history, great strides were made in the arts, literature, theater, architecture, music, philosophy, mathematics, and science. Science advanced by the works of mathematician Euclid, the father of geometry. As travel between Axial Age nations increased, the religious sphere included new Greco-Egyptian gods and a syncretism between the Hellenistic culture and Buddhism in northwest India. The focus of the New Comedy on everyday life, rather than public affairs, indicated an ongoing cultural shift from the external, to the internal, psychological world. Less worried to please the external Greek gods, the Hellenistic world turned inward to please themselves. The therapeutic philosophies were self-centered; the philosophies of cynicism,

120  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras skepticism, epicureanism, and stoicism offered the Hellenistic culture happiness, tranquility, and the hope of a good life in a chaotic and rapidly changing world. The good life meant striving for excellence in all aspects of life from parenting to physical exercise, to attention to mental discipline (Long, 1986). As the world expanded, questions arose about whether knowledge was bound by the limitations of culture and language. The therapeutic philosophies led to cynicism and skepticism about a search for universal truths in such a culturally diverse world. Hellenistic Psychology The “Therapeutic Philosophies”: Antisthenes, Diogenes, Cynicism

Although the therapeutic philosophies were rooted in the classical Greek period, the philosophies of cynicism, skepticism, epicureanism, and stoicism flourished during the Hellenistic age (Long, 1986). The philosophy of cynicism filled an important psychological void for an Athenian society after the humiliating defeat in the Peloponnesian War, which resulted in the despotic rule of the Thirty Tyrants, Athens was often plagued by anarchy and violence because nihilism and despair occurred in a grieving Athens because of the loss of so many young lives in countless battles against arch enemies Sparta and Persia. Also, the traditional social mores and gross materialism were no longer providing the kind of intellectual, social, and spiritual nurturance necessary for survival in the chaotic times, leaving cynicism as a refreshing alternative to the many orthodox Athenian beliefs. The word cynic comes from the Greek root kynikos, meaning dog-like. Antisthenes (445–365 BCE), considered the founder of cynicism and the Cynosarges Gymnasium, was a pupil and ardent disciple of Socrates. One explanation for the cynic connection to dogs was the Cynosarges Gymnasium, which meant the “place of the white dog.” According to myth, on one occasion, Didymos, an Athenian, was performing a sacrifice when a white, swift, dog appeared and snatched his offering. Didymos wondered what this could mean and sought an oracle which told him to build a temple at Cynosarges to honor Heracles right where the dog dropped the offering (Dobbin, 2012). The Cynics adopted Heracles as their hero because Heracles had captured Cerberus; the three-headed hound dog that prevented the dead from leaving the underworld of Hades. Like Heracles capturing the powerful Cerberus, the Cynics became the “watchdogs” of society; they believed it was their responsibility to “hound” society of the error of their ways. Like a dog, they believed they should bite with their satire and “dig up” and expose the social pretensions that were buried in everyday life. To the Cynics, some dogs bit their enemies to end their life; the Cynics believed their bite saved society. Since dogs are also protectors, the dog symbolized protection of Cynic philosophy by distinguishing friends from enemies. At the Gymnasium, Antisthenes and his followers lectured Athenians about a new way of life, anaideia, which meant shameless behavior to protest societal hypocrisy and convention (Dobbin, 2012). To the amazement of many Athenians, the Cynics had no interest in material possessions or striving for societal success, living in poverty, making love in public, going barefoot, sleeping in tubs, and violating every social norm perceived as representative of a hypocritical and corrupt society. The old cloak and staff apparel came to be a lasting symbol of Cynic philosophy. The cloak was an illusion to Socrates and his manner of dress. The staff represented Heracles. The lamp symbolized his frequent behavior of carrying a lamp during the day: Diogenes looking for an honest man. This apparel became so symbolic that others were demeaned and often accosted if the cloak and staff were worn without adhering to Cynic philosophy. One of the most controversial and famous Cynics was Diogenes the Cynic (404–323 BCE). He was a follower off Antisthenes, and was often acknowledged as one the cofounders of cynicism. There are many stories that he “dogged” Antisthenes’ footsteps and became a “faithful

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 121 hound.” Diogenes symbolizes the archetypal cynic and societal rebel that appears throughout history, most recently in the streets of San Francisco as a hippie during the American cultural revolution of the 1960s. Early in his life, Diogenes, the son of a banker, was banished from Sinope, his home on the Black Sea after the debasement of Ionian currency. Diogenes believed that he was a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world, and not a citizen of some corrupt government. He rejected the need for family, the Athenian sexual mores, formal education, and patriotism. After being exiled to Athens, he criticized most of the conventional behavior of its citizens. He believed that virtue and justice were best expressed in action and not in philosophical theory. He valued poverty and an ascetic lifestyle and lived by begging for food on the streets of Athens. Being in harmony with nature was experienced directly in the streets of Athens; a lifestyle that meant sleeping in a large ceramic jar in the open-air public marketplace. Diogenes exhibited disdain for traditional philosophy by criticizing Plato for misinterpreting Socrates. He was also known for disrupting his lectures by eating and drinking during the discussions. This disdain was symbolized by his frequent behavior of carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for an honest man. Despite the overt disdain for Athenian traditions, the Cynics possessed a profound altruistic sentiment for the people of Athenian society. They understood their need of emancipation from materialism and social convention. Cynic teaching left a profound psychological legacy of learning self-discipline; having a purpose in life; being virtuous; rejecting the desire for material possessions and power; living in harmony with nature;

Figure 4.2 

122  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras and possessing the ability to express compassion and benevolence toward others. Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, spending the rest of his life in Corinth. Pyrrho of Elis – Skepticism

In 338 BCE, Athens had to accept defeat by Phillip II and the expanding kingdom of Macedonia. Afterward, his son, Alexander the Great, would establish a vast empire that collapsed in 323 BCE after his death. Later in response to these events, Pyrrho of Elis (360–270 BCE) developed the philosophic school of skepticism, the suspension of belief in any final or universal truth or dogma. The foundation for this Greek belief system existed as early as Xenophanes in the sixth century and was expressed throughout the classic Greek era by others, such as Democritus, the Sophists, and even by Socrates who often claimed he knew nothing worthwhile (Moser, 2001). Pyrrho was skeptical of the written word and wrote nothing and taught that both the physical and mental world were uncertain and provided insufficient knowledge. The concept of ataraxia, developed by Pyrrho, permeated most of the early philosophies in the post-Aristotelian and Hellenistic period (Moser, 2001). Ataraxia in Greek means the negation of psychological disturbance. Pyrrho was a soldier of Alexander the Great and fought with him in Persia and India, where he was influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism (Moser, 2001). Pyrrho noticed the desire for inner peace had a commonality across all Axial Age cultures and could be achieved through self-discipline, meditative practices, and by an acceptance of individual fate. For Pyrrho psychological health was determined by eudaimonia, in Greek, meaning “good spirit,” often translated as happiness; in the Axial Age, it meant “good soul” or “good mind,” the goal of every human being. Eudaimonia meant attaining a state of tranquility and inner peace in response to feelings of anger, fear, stress, and sadness (Moser, 2001). In transpersonal psychology, eudaemon is often defined as “the higher self” and being in a “buddha state,” creating higher-ordered thoughts and feelings beyond ego consciousness. Ataraxia is an important aspect of eudaimonia, as it provided the ways and the methods for achieving a state of inner peace beyond the pursuit of personal happiness. It was a focus on self-discipline, character development, and a life dedicated to ethics, virtue, and justice. The followers of Pyrrho spread his teachings even to the Academy of Plato in Athens. Skepticism lasted at the Academy for over 200 years through various Skeptic philosophers, including Arcesilaus (314–241 BCE) and Carneades (213–128 BCE). Arcesilaus was believed to have said that he was not even certain that he was certain. Carneades believed that although suspending judgment was impossible, some probability could exist. Even though certainty is illusive, the effort to gain reliable knowledge to improve the world should not be a barrier for continuing the effort. Zeno of Citium – Stoicism

As Diogenes was held as a captured slave in Corinth, he taught philosophy of Cynicism to Zeno of Citium (320–250 BCE), who developed stoicism, one of the most influential and lasting schools of thought in Greek philosophy. Stoicism is rooted in Stoa Poikile, which means “painted porch” in Greek because Zeno of Citium held his lectures on a porch and created another therapeutic philosophy informed by a system of logic and reason (Long, 1986). For the stoics, the path to eudaimonia was to feel less and think more; to put the mind in control and accept fate with indifference; to live in the moment and not be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 123

Figure 4.3 

Joy for the Stoics came from accepting the reality that all humans are part of a divine plan symbolized by people in a fast-moving train living in the moment, calmly accepting the world as it goes by because everyone has a predetermined place to reach, a divine plan. The Stoics believed in a god, a divine force, a pneuma, that created and organized both the human soul, psyche, and the fragments of the soul of god, Zeus (Miller, 2019). The Stoics believed that soul and body were one and had free will only in terms of the response of the soul to fate. The awareness that all people had a divine purpose would lead to respect among all the people of the world and the boundaries between nations would disappear, resulting in a worldwide government. Epicurus – Epicureanism

Epicurus (341–270 BCE), the father of Epicureanism, was a materialist who believed that pleasure, and the avoidance of pain, was the major goal in life. Epicureanism is often incorrectly associated with hedonism but, like many therapeutic philosophers, he was interested in ataraxia, meaning inner peace and tranquility. Epicurus believed that the art of living well and dying well were the same dynamic (Long, 1986). Influenced by the atomic theory of fifth-century philosopher Democritus, Epicurus believed that atoms created everything in the world, which even included the gods who lived in the far distance and had no current interest in humanity. The atoms, not the

124  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras gods, were what kept the world developing and changing. After death, the human body dissolved into nothing; the human atoms dispersed throughout the physical world with no specific purpose. To achieve this happiness, there had to be a withdrawal from public life, as well as from sexual activity and the desire for fame and fortune (Long, 1986). This type of life selfdiscipline would maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Mental pleasure would provide the most joy which led Epicurean philosophy to have great appeal to the idealistic and cultured upper classes, especially in a world that was increasingly dominated by warring tyrants and dictators. In this tumultuous world, Epicurus became a type of savior, his followers giving advise on how to lead a pleasurable life through the Epicurean societies formed throughout the Hellenistic world. Emancipatory Opportunities in Hellenistic Psychology Create Happiness in This Lifetime

The Epicureans left a legacy that during social and political upheaval, it was possible to create happiness and a pleasurable lifestyle. A certain freedom resulted from the Epicurean disbelief in an afterlife because Epicurus wanted to emancipate humanity not only from the fear of death, but also from the fear of life. The Epicureans left an urgency to live life fully because of their belief that death was the end of existence so finding happiness and pleasure needed to be the priority in this lifetime. Be a Conscious Cynic

Amidst the development of the Internet and various forms of social media, a healthy dose of “Diogenes’s cynicism” can help to consciously seek real information from “fake news.” Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Behavior

Epictetus (55–135 CE), a late Stoic, provided an early philosophical rationale for cognitive behavioral therapy. He taught the importance of self-knowledge and regarded logic as only useful when it is applied to practical needs and is distinguished between internal and external worlds (Stockdale, 1993). Epictetus believed in inner power to control thoughts, opinions, impulses, and desires. Any delusion of external control led to psychological distress and to the “slavery of the soul.” He believed that mental disturbance came not from external events in life, but the inner thoughts that resulted from those events. The way to change dysfunctional thoughts was to first examine the thoughts and, through inner logic, change the thoughts, which led to changed behavior Christian Era Historic Analysis of Christian Era Political Systems

In the Battle of Actium, Caesar Augustus defeated the fleets of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE which led to the end of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire (Baker, 2007). The following year, the Romans conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, ending the Hellenistic period. Polybius (200–120 BCE), wrote in his book History (Polybius, 2010) that the rise of Roman dominance throughout the Mediterranean world during the Roman Republic (509 BCE– 27 CE) included a synthesized blend of monarchy in the consulate, the aristocracy in the Senate, and democracy through election of representatives by Roman citizens to the legislative

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 125 tribunals. In his dialogue On the Republic, Cicero would claim that the constitution of the Roman Republic was the best government ever developed in human history (Baker, 2007). The first two centuries of the empire saw an unprecedented stability and prosperity known as “Roman Peace.” Around 200 CE, the empire declined after the reign of many ineffectual emperors and many invasions, peasant uprisings, migrations to Roman territories, and political instability. In 300 CE, Constantine the Great (272–337 CE) brought stability to Rome through his reformist activities, which included the restructuring of Roman government, separating civic and military authorities, reorganizing military units, curtailing civil unrest, and countering barbarian invasions. Initially, the Christian church was persecuted by Constantine. At the Coliseum in Rome, Christians were often part of public executions, due to their belief in a personal, not a political, God because the Romans believed that religion existed to strengthen and unify the state. Constantine changed the course of Western history by his conversion to Christianity. Preparing for battle in 312 CE to save the Roman Empire, Constantine and his soldiers had a vision that they believed was sent by the Christian God because, in the vision, the symbol of Chi-Rho, the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek, was painted on the shields of the soldiers. Constantine had a dream where Christ appeared and told him to make the Chi-Rho a symbol of the Roman army, which became a symbol of Christ and Christianity for centuries. The Romans prevailed at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and, in 313 CE, the Edict of Milan ended the persecution of Christians and to Roman citizenship. The Platonic view of an ideal republic was replaced by the Christian view of political governance, The earthly city of Plato was emplaced by the Christian city of God administered, not by philosopher kings, but by popes and the Church hierarchy (Augustine, 2012) During the Middle Ages, St. Augustine and other Catholic scholars believed the need for government was a result of original sin. St. Thomas Aquinas disagreed and thought that humans were political beings in need of a competent government. Aquinas advocated for a mixed government of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy (Pegis, 1945). Because of his belief in a strong papal theocracy, he favored monarchy over democracy. Socioeconomic Systems

The first two centuries of the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) resulted in unprecedented economic prosperity and Pax Roma: Roman Peace. The Roman Republic modeled a progressive republican system, which led to socioeconomic and political instability because of the expansion of citizenship and civil rights to slaves and the poor, who often turned to violence for justice, freedom, and socioeconomic equality. The post–Roman Republic world was filled with war, plagues and poverty which made Christianity very appealing. The Christian belief that all humans were born in the image of God was comforting and most could seek eternal salvation. Criminals could be forgiven; the poor were equal to the rich in the eyes of God and materialism was an addiction that kept humanity from its highest purpose of developing a relationship with God. If you could not find socioeconomic justice in this life, by living a good Christian life you would find justice in heaven in the next life. Cultural Systems

After the conversion of Constantine, the cultural influence of Christianity spread worldwide. In a very unstable Western world, the Roman Catholic Church provided order, which led to dominance and control of all aspects of Western culture. The Church created a paternalistic

126  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras and male dominated culture which has lasted throughout the centuries. In the early Church, St. Augustine believed that before Eve, Adam was without sin and Eve brought temptation and the sins of the body. Although Jesus had women followers, St. Paul viewed women as a problem and believed they should be homemakers and subservient to their husbands (Sanders, 1983). During the Christian period, all aspects of daily life were controlled by the Church, including marriage, education, and the arts and literature. Intellectual discourse outside Church culture was not only discouraged but dangerous in that it could lead to being ostracized, or worse, murdered as a heretic. During cultural oppression, the Church built many cathedrals for worship, hospitals for the sick, and the first universities for higher education. Ironically, Catholic monks would rediscover the beauty of Greek culture and integrate Aristotelian and Platonic thought into Church culture. Christian Psychology Cicero – Syncretic Philosophy

Cicero (106–43 BCE), a Stoic in the tradition of the Greek Academy, is considered one of the greatest orators and prose writers in Roman history. The Romans blended various elements of Greek philosophy with traditional Roman thought and developed Roman syncretic philosophy because the Romans preferred an eclectic synthesis rather than a revival of a single philosophic tradition. Cicero was a novous homo, the “new man,” whose wealthy parents sent him to Rome and Athens. Upon his return to Rome, Cicero was influenced by the aristocratic Scipionic Circle, which favored Stoicism within the Roman political traditions. His eclectic synthesis integrated the Epicurean and Stoic schools because he agreed with the Stoics that virtue is sufficient for ataraxia, and even necessary, when dealing with the atrocities that were occurring throughout the world. He rejected the Epicurean idea that there was a contradiction between disciplined pleasure and the pursuit of ataraxia. In fact, he thought excessive rejection of pleasure was unhealthy and noted that even the Epicureans saw asceticism as unnatural. As the Axial Age came to an end, the eclectic philosophy of Cicero assimilated the postAristotelian philosophies of empiricism and rationalism that would impact Western civilization for many centuries. From the eighth to the twelfth century, Cicero was regarded as one of the most important thinkers in Western Europe. During the Renaissance, his philosophy returned and lasted throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The term eclectic would emerge in the modern age for clinical psychologists as representative of the integration of many psychotherapeutic approaches. With the rise of Christianity, Stoicism went into decline. The idea of searching for inner peace faded because Christians believed original sin was the cause of human suffering (Weithman, 1992). The Stoic Pyrrho, who was influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism, believed that suffering could be solved through ataraxia. Christians believed that suffering should be embraced as it was punishment for original sin so it was blasphemy to believe, like the Stoics and Buddhists, that one should try to overcome suffering. The death of Cicero is another reminder of the price and risk one takes when espousing new scientific ideas that challenge the political status quo. Despite Cicero’s various political relationships with Mark Anthony, in 43 BCE, Marc Anthony took revenge for his oppositional speeches and philosophical writings. He had Cicero killed and his tongue and hands nailed to the speaker’s rostrum at the Roman Forum.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 127 Philo of Alexandria – Symbolic Allegory

Philo attempted to synthesize Greek rationalism with Jewish mysticism. Known as the “Jewish Plato,” Philo used the philosophical symbolism of allegory to integrate Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy. His method combined allegorical exegesis, interpreting religious texts from a historical context, with the concept of eudaimonia, the concept of happiness and personal fulfillment of Stoicism. Philo opposed literalism as too dependent on the limitations of the written word and the material world. He believed that allegory, the development of a symbolic consciousness, would lead to a deeper meaning of the Bible and Greek philosophy since God was the inspiration for the works of both the Jews and the Greeks. Symbolic allegory has been used throughout history in many forms because it can convey complex concepts and ideas in more understandable ways that are unavailable through the written word. An example of one of Philo’s allegorical exegeses was the symbolism of the Garden of Eden, a deeper meaning beyond the literal interpretation of the biblical Adam and Eve. The garden and the apple symbolized how the material world interferes in developing a spiritual relationship with God. The serpent is a symbol of how the human body, when in a state of lust, can be distracted from the mystical and transpersonal desire to be in union with God, an ability achieved through the Platonic ideal forms.

Figure 4.4 

128  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras Jesus – Christianity

In the Greatest Psychologist that Ever Lived, Mark Baker (2001) argues that since psychology has reassessed many aspects of Freudian theory, it was time to reassess Jesus (4–33 CE) and the important role of religion in psychology because religion is much more than the Freudian view that God was an illusion and was created from an infantile need for a strong father figure (Freud, 1950). Baker argues that God was important in early civilization for containing primitive violent impulses but should now be replaced by science and psychoanalysis. Baker believes that the wisdom of Jesus can contribute to a deeper understanding of the unconscious, psychopathology, feelings, personal power, the Self, and addiction. To understand Jesus, Baker thought it was important to start with the reassessment of the historic Jesus. In his critically acclaimed book, Zealot, Reza Aslan (2013) provides an extraordinary picture of Jesus as both an historic and religious figure. Being a Muslim with no Christian agenda, Aslan provides extensive research into the history of Jesus and early Christianity. He describes Jesus first as a political revolutionary interested in overthrowing the Romans, who in 6 CE had conquered Judea. Jesus was also interested in disposing a corrupt Jewish hierarchy that was obsessed with maintaining “Jewish Law” and their political power. The historic Jesus was a Jewish Zealot, who adhered to a movement in first century CE to overthrow Roman rule (Aslan, 2013). Aslan argued that Jesus was crucified by the Romans because he was viewed more as a political than a religious threat. The first century in Judea was filled with Zealots and messiahs who brought messages from God, and who made Jewish nationalism and the opposition to Roman rule a sacred, religious mission. What made Jesus unique was his charisma and his fervent followers who became a threat to the Romans and their allies in the Jewish hierarchy. Initially, the Romans viewed Jesus as just one of the Zealots, who were often called bandits, until his teachings began to resonate and pose a political threat (Aslan, 2013). Most organized Christian religions have tried to whitewash the revolutionary zeal of Jesus, and his zeal for a new religious and political order, a psychology based on love; Love They Neighbor as Thyself, which, considering the disparate inequities of the time of Jesus, was certainly revolutionary. Since Jesus did not leave any known written guidance, much of what is typically known about the historic Jesus is in the Synoptic, in Greek, meaning “viewed together.” The Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John were finalized almost a hundred years after his death and after the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66 CE (Wright, 1996). To survive and build an organizational church, it became essential for Christians to discard the historic Jesus (Wright, 1996). He began to be portrayed as having less interest in earthly matters, above political concerns, and focused solely on spiritual matters. It was the spiritual, less historical, Jesus that Constantine embraced. This fit perfectly into the long-standing Roman belief that religion was to be in service to the state. Nowhere is this more exemplified than in the scriptural writing of the apostle Paul. Paul had a dramatic impact on the development of the early church. He viewed Jesus as a Messiah, which, in Greek, means Christ, a savior beyond the emancipator of the Jews (Sanders, 1983). Paul believed that Jesus transcended history. Jesus was linked scripturally to Adam, who symbolized the physical and historical world of original sin. Jesus, through his physical death and resurrection, overcame original sin and transcended the physical and historic world becoming only spirit, the Son of God.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 129

Figure 4.5  Christian Symbolism

In early Christianity, creeds settled doctrinal disputes through an expression of faith. The word creed came from the Greek symbolon, meaning “a half-broken object” or symbol making “whole, what is broken.” There are a few examples in history of how important symbols and rituals became for the integration of so many diverse belief systems. The Christian church satisfied the psychological need for symbols and rituals for centuries. The Mithraic Cult influenced the development of the early Church. This included liturgical dress, the initiation of believers, Church hierarchy, liturgy, ritualistic practices, and the importance of community of strong believers (Clauss, 2001). As the Roman Catholic church flourished and became a state religion, Mithraism faded, but to draw converts, the church realized it would have to incorporate much of Mithraism and other cult religious practices.

130  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras The bishop mitre, meaning “headband” in Greek, was the headdress of the priest of Hercules and was also worn by the Mithraic priests (Clauss, 2001). This became a symbol of church authority and continues to be worn for major Christian celebrations. The Mithraic “pope” wore a red cap, a ring, and a shepherd’s staff. Later, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and the Pontifex Maximus adopted these symbols as representative of their authority over the Roman Catholic Church. The zucchetto, the skullcap of priests, in Greek pilos, meaning a beret, was used to keep cleric heads warm, remarkably like the Jewish yarmulke cap, a symbol of the Jewish heritage of Jesus. The stole, a religious garment worn by the Mithraic priests, was originally worn by the Imperial officials in the Roman Empire. It symbolized their elite class status and is now worn by clerics throughout the Christian world.

Figure 4.6 

There were seven initiatory tests connected to the planets that were required by the initiate for admittance into the Mithraic cult (Clauss, 2001). A successful completion of these tests resulted in a symbolic handshake, which symbolized, in Iranian history, a solemn commitment between two people. The Roman Catholic Church has seven initiatory activities called sacraments: baptism, confirmation, penance (confession), Holy Communion, marriage, holy orders (clerical), and anointing the sick.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 131 Incorporating the Zoroastrian belief in the symbolic power of fire, the Mithraic clergy had to maintain the perpetual holy fire on an altar as the priests were known as Patres Sacrorum, Fathers of the Sacred Mysteries. Today, Catholic priests are called “fathers” and the hierarchy is often referred to as the “fathers of the church.” Catholic churches maintain a vigil flame by a tabernacle, which symbolizes the presence of Jesus. After “ordination,” the Mithraic initiate was brought to a table with bread and a cup of water for incantations and prayers that symbolized the mystic connection to the spirit of Mithras. After slaughtering a bull, Mithras held a banquet with the gods, symbolizing the importance of a ritual ceremony to commune with God and fellow believers (Clauss, 2001). For centuries, the act of Communion and the ritual of the Mass have symbolized the actual presence of Jesus through the commemoration of the last supper. One of the most recent findings regarding symbols and rituals is the Didache, meaning “teaching” in Greek, discovered in 1873 and written outside of the New Testament in Syria in 60 CE (O’Loughlin, 2011). It describes the earliest record of the Mass and Eucharistic celebration. The Didache, known as The Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, contains the first catechism, ethics, church organization, and rituals (O’Loughlin, 2011). Rituals were done only with a community of baptized believers who prayed the Apostles Creed three times a day. The Didache special meal occurred when the early Christians gathered to “break bread together,” symbolizing the last meal Jesus had with his followers before his betrayal. The prelude to the meal was the confession of individual, as well as social sins, such as sins against neighbors. A meal followed Jewish Orthodox forms of prayer before and after meals over a cup and loaf. The worship leader would first give thanks to the Messianic community of King David. Then the leader would give thanks over the broken bread for the redemptive knowledge revealed through Jesus. This was followed by a prayer that the broken bread, which had been scattered from all over the earth, symbolized the unified kingdom of God. After the special meal, there was a meal of Thanksgiving to acknowledge the importance of participation in a dedicated community of believers. Carl Jung believed that the Catholic mass was one of the most psychologically transformative rituals in human history (Spiegelman, 1994). Whenever the church could not abolish pagan customs, they would often incorporate them. Christian saints replaced pagan deities and were celebrated each day of the week. Imitating pagan practices, churches became adorned with flowers, candles, and incense. Former processions honoring pagan gods became Christian religious processions to “propagate” the faith to pagan communities. To symbolically reconcile Judeo-Christian and Greek and Roman understanding of god, the Church Fathers incorporated the one God of the Hebrews with the many Gods of the Greek and Romans, the idea of the Holy Trinity: one God in three divine persons, the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Also, it was influenced by the trinity of Hinduism (Armstrong, 1993). Plotinus – Neoplatonism

Plotinus (204/5–270) was a Hellenistic philosopher raised in Roman Egypt and regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism. The Neoplatonism of Plotinus entails three fundamental principles, the One, the intellect, and the soul (Hadot & Chase, 1998). The One is totally transcendent and existed prior to all existence and is beyond all categories of being and nonbeing. Happiness, eudaimonia, was dependent on reason in the intellect and was beyond anything physical or material. The soul must be freed from images of the external world through

132  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras meditation by turning inward, becoming “blank” to forget “even yourself” to experience “the One” (Gerson, 2018). Plotinus may have been the first to discover self-hypnosis, due to his description of “being in the immediate moment” a trance-like state, with focused attention between the waking conscious and the sleeping unconscious mind. This is where he believed the soul reconnected to the intellect; a transpersonal psychological experience; the sense of self connected to something greater, a “universal mind.” Searching for a philosophy, Neoplatonism of Plotinus would provide Christianity with a philosophy, the Christianization of Platonic thought (Hadot & Chase, 1998). St. Augustine – Autobiography and Grace

The age of Constantine marked a distinct period in the history of the Roman Empire and a pivotal moment from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages (400–1400). At the beginning of the Middle Ages, philosophy of St. Augustine (354 CE–430 CE) combined the dominate threads of Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and Judaism into Augustinian philosophy, which would dominate Christian life until the thirteenth century (Cary, 2000). St. Augustine was born in northern Africa in 354 CE during one of the most dynamic periods in Christian history when the Roman Empire was split, became Mediterranean-centered, not European-centered after Constantine made the city of Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, capital of the eastern Roman empire. In Confessions, one of the most important works in Western literature, Augustine (2005) described his conversion to Roman Catholicism, providing the first known autobiography. In Confessions, Augustine argued for the importance of self-analysis by analyzing his history through an introspective and self-reflective psychological journey written directly to God. Symbolized by stepping back and looking at oneself, Augustine was one of the first Western scholars to describe and conceive of a sperate internal psychological self by changing the psychological locus of control from the outside to the inside (Cary, 2000). By confessing sin, one was forgiven by God and could again pursue the pure Christian life. In Confessions, Augustine explored many other human psychological problems: the importance of parents and teachers for childhood development; the need for moral guidance and love in adolescence; learning the philosophical lessons of Athens and Jerusalem; the fallacy of dualism; the problems of friendship and sexual addiction; and the guidance of scripture for daily living. The Augustinian doctrine of grace was influenced by the Neoplatonist Plotinus symbol of the soul as turning inward and discovering the divine, “the divine intellect.” Augustine modified Plotinus by incorporating the biblical belief that the inner self is created by a monotheistic God and needs grace and faith to be saved (Smith, 2019). In the symbol, the outer circle represents the beginning of the spiritual world. The square represents the boundary separating the spiritual world from the inner circle that represents the limitations of the physical world. The center symbolizes God, the creator who radiates grace and faith over the world and its chosen people. The star always shines, giving hope that the light of grace and faith will never be extinguished and will carry the believer to the eternal life of heaven. Grace involves will and love and takes many forms, including wayward love. But divine grace only comes from loving God like a lover, like a first love, or like a long-lost lover. Grace is predetermined because of the sin of Adam, no one can save themselves. It is only through a merciful God that some will be saved (Augustine, 1995).

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 133

Figure 4.7 

The Augustine doctrine of predestination and the role of grace and faith would cast a controversial shadow on Western Christianity. This would raise fundamental questions about whether faith is an individual choice or whether faith has already been bestowed by a merciful God. Like Plato, Augustine believed the goal of life was happiness. However, he disagreed that happiness of the soul resulted from remembering knowledge the soul possessed before physical birth. Unlike Plato, Augustine believed that each soul was new and had no previous existence. Happiness on earth resulted from developing a loving relationship with God, and “seeing” God in heaven after physical death (Cary, 2000). After the death of Augustine, Rome was constantly attacked and fell to the Visigoths in 410 CE. The last Roman Emperor was deposed in 476 CE. The Western world continued to be in socio-political disarray and was a frightening place to live, with a total breakdown of the social order that would lead to some of the darkest days in Western history.

134  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras

Figure 4.8  Feudal Psychology – Dark Ages (400–1000)

The concept of the “dark ages” originated in the fourteenth century with the Italian scholar Petrarch, who described the post-Roman centuries as “dark” as compared to the “light” of classical antiquity (Wickman, 2009). Although there is historic disagreement about whether the Dark Ages were as dark as traditionally viewed, shadow dominated this period because behavior was often dark, violent, and irrational. During the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Church became the powerful symbol of social order and stability. The church owned property, the priests controlled their flocks, and the Papacy filled the political vacuum. The Pope made as many political as religious decisions. Feudalism created a psychology in which human value was based not only on wealth but property ownership. As is often the case when a shadow dominates a society, the irrational was portrayed as rational and the rational portrayed as irrational. As an example, in 529 CE, the Byzantine emperor Justinian produced the Corpus Juris Civilis, which integrated centuries of Greek and Roman law that became the basis of all the legal systems in Western civilization (Wickman, 2009). The Corpus Juris Civilis influenced the Canon Law of the Catholic Church and remains the system of laws and legal principles enforced by the church hierarchy, the Pope, the cardinals, the bishops, and the priests. Justinian also closed the philosophic and classical

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 135 academies, which ended one of the great scholarly traditions. His actions played a key role in the destruction of classical thought during the Dark Ages (Wickman, 2009). The Byzantine Empire, once a link between the classical world and the modern world, was now the key to the destruction of classical thought. In The Darkening Age, Catherine Nixey (2018), provides a graphic picture of the fanatical Christian destruction of the classical world in answer to the Augustinian call “…that all superstition of pagans and heathens be annihilated because that is what God wants, God commands and God proclaims.” During the fourth and fifth centuries Christian fanatics attempted to destroy all remnants of the classical world, even the Academy of Plato and his followers (Nixey, 2018). The Christian hordes modeled the Roman approach to not only conquer an enemy but annihilate perceived heresy or paganism. Those that did not convert were often dismembered and their remains hung in the town square. Classical temples were attacked and destroyed. World-famous statues and artifacts were ritualistically smashed to pieces. Books were burned and the Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed. What made the violence even more abhorrent was that the destruction was often at the hands of Christian monks (Nixey, 2018).

Figure 4.9 

136  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras The Dark Ages was a period of significant migration as people left the cities, making Europe more rural. Becoming more rural led to fiefdoms; a fiefdom was an inheritable property granted by the nobility to a vassal who held it for a fee in return for total feudal allegiance (Bloch, 1965). Fiefdoms fought each other rather than the invaders as feudalism became the dominant social and psychological system based on relationships that were derived from holding land in exchange for service or labor. The feudal structure led to a class-based society based on private property with a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations developed between the nobility, vassals, peasants, and fiefs. The nobility held land in exchange for providing the monarch with military protection; vassals were tenants of the nobility; and the peasants were powerless, forced to provide labor, food, and homage in exchange for their military protection. A fief was the central element of feudalism because it consisted of heritable property granted by overlords in return for feudal allegiance, symbolized through a ritual of homage (Bloch, 1965). Homage, from the Latin “pertaining to a man,” was a symbolic ceremony in which the vassal or feudal tenant pledged reverence and submission to one noble lord in exchange for a title and tenancy. In the homage ceremony, there was an investiture, Latin, meaning “dress” or “robe,” which was a visual symbol signifying loyalty and allegiance The ceremonial investiture continued in many countries, particularly in the installation of judges. In the United States, a new Supreme Court justice ceremony is called an investiture, symbolic of fealty to the constitution. The castle became a powerful symbol in the Middle Ages of political power, military protection, and administrative governance. For nearly 900 years, the nobility and royalty built castles and fortified structures; not only for military purposes, but also as their residences. In urban areas, castles controlled travel routes and the local people. In rural areas, castles controlled the peasants and their farms, as well as the distribution of food and goods. Feudal society was about the obligations of the emerging three estates of the realm: the nobility, clergy, and peasants (Bloch, 1965). The three estates defined European political structure until the Renaissance. Desperate for psychological stability, the people tried to mediate the commands of Christianity with the demands of their sovereign nobles and Kings. This was an unsustainable task; civilization declined in the West but flourished in the eastern Byzantine, Greek for Constantinople, because Constantine had transferred the capital of Rome to Constantinople, forever separating the Latin-speaking West from the Greek-speaking East. The Greek-influenced Byzantine Empire (330–1453) survived for over 1,000 years, developing a rich tradition in art, literature, and learning. The empire served as a key military outpost between Europe and Asia and at its peak included the present-day countries of Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and the Balkan Peninsula. The Hagia Sophia, built in 537 CE, meaning “Holy Wisdom” in Greek, is a symbol of the grandeur of Byzantine culture and architecture, an engineering marvel for its time (Wickman, 2009). The first large building to support a dome changed the history of architecture and engineering. After Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, the dome became the design for the Islamic Mosques. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Hagia Sophia was the cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and the Ottoman Imperial Mosque. The peasants were economically and psychologically exploited in a system called manorialism, often referred to as “feudal society.” The noble castle was now called a manor and the manorial courts had total control over peasant life that included their taxation and the price of the goods produced in their farms. The groundwork for “class struggle” was laid for the revolutions that would occur in the later centuries (Bloch, 1965). Psychological Escapism and Fantasy

Feudalism is a reminder of the human need for psychological escapism and fantasy amidst violence and political and social upheaval. Feudal literature provided psychological relief by romanticizing

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 137 the castles and their knights. The hope was that chivalry and love, especially romantic love, would bring more excitement and stability to the monotony of feudal existence (Gillman, 2017). One of the most famous romantic stories is the Arthurian myth and the quest for the Holy Grail. King Arthur was a legendary leader who led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the fifth and sixth centuries. Because Arthur believed that nobles and knights had a great responsibility to create a more equal, “round table” society, his Round Table was equalitarian; everyone was an equal leader. During medieval times, the Holy Grail symbolized the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. It was the cup with the blood of Christ from his crucifixion that was received by Joseph of Arimathea. It was believed that anyone finding the cup would acquire miraculous powers, happiness, eternal youth, and infinite abundance (Gillman, 2017). Finding the Holy Grail symbolized the power of the brotherhood of knights. Their swords were not only symbols of violence and protection, but symbols of an enlightened vision of knightly equality and justice. Arthur wanted this most important search to be led by his most trusted friend and confidant, Lancelot, considered the greatest swordsman, and jouster of his age. The adulterous love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, often seen in parallel to the failed romantic love of Tristan and Iseult, ended the Arthurian myth and romantic belief in the brotherhood of knights and the “round table world of equality” (Gillman, 2017). The affair and the betrayal by his best and most trusted friend and confidant, Lancelot, delivered a profound

Figure 4.10 

138  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras psychological wound from which Arthur could not recover and ended the Arthurian hope for a new world order. As feudal society often disintegrated into darkness, the Arthurian myth symbolized how humanity escaped into psychological fantasy to find the “holy grail” amidst the degradation of feudalism and religious fanaticism. Crusades – 1100–1300

The Arab world intellectually and psychological prospered under Muslim rule after the discovery of Greek and Aristotelian thought. The Western world, under the Catholic Church, viewed these classics as heretical and led crusades to save the world from the Muslim and pagan heretics. Popes, from the Christian nations of Germany, France, and Italy, would proclaim political and military crusades, or “holy wars,” against heretics and the Arab world (Madden, 2013). The Pope often had an army larger than the armies of many countries and since the Pope was the most powerful political leader and the Catholic Church the most powerful institution in Western Europe, the church could control all theological, political, and intellectual thought and activity. Knowledge was censored and regulated under the guise of fighting heresy and paganism. The goal was to recapture and return the Holy Land to the rightful Christian heirs. The crucesignatus, meaning, in Latin, “one signed with the cross,” became a symbol for the Crusaders who arrived in Jerusalem to be forgiven of their sins, the sins that required Jesus to die on a cross (Madden, 2013). The Roman Catholic Church adopted the brutal Roman psychology of war, the massive bloodshed of the Crusades rationalized as required to fight and annihilate the heretics and the Islamic enemies. The carnage of the nine Crusades lasted over 200 years and resulted in estimates of over 1 million deaths, although only 1 in 20 crusaders ever reached Jerusalem (Madden, 2013). The Inquisition – 1200–1500

The psychological irony about gaining power is that it often leads to tremendous insecurity. The more power the Catholic Church attained, the more insecure it became. During war with the external Muslim enemy, the Church became aware of the necessity to also eradicate internal enemies. The term Inquisition comes from the Latin “inquisition,” which refers to Roman court processes that became the model for the inquisition courts (Bettencourt, 1995). Starting in the twelfth century and until the early Renaissance in the fifteenth century, the Catholic Church led, by the agreement of the Pope, a campaign to eradicate opposition and schism within the church. In early Christian history, monks were often at the forefront of the terror. The Dominican Fathers, “the Order of Preachers,” governed by the rule of St. Augustine, were founded to preach the Gospel and oppose heresy. They became leaders of the Inquisition and utilized their intellectual abilities to scrutinize everything written or spoken for heresy or possible schism. In 1487, the Dominican Father Inquisitor, Heinrich Krammer, wrote the Malleus Maleficarum, meaning “The Hammer of Witches.” It was endorsed by the Pope and was the horrifying process for the extermination of witches. Women and individuals with mental illness were especially suspect and appeared more susceptible to “the sin of witchcraft” (Bettencourt, 1995). References in the Bible were often used to link witchcraft to evil and the devil. Biblical verses were used to justify the burning of heretics and witches on a stake that was “a burning cross,” symbolizing how Jesus died on the cross to overcome sin and evil.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 139

Figure 4.11  Scholasticism – 1100–1700

Living in the oppressive, Inquisitional-threatening world, scholars went underground to avoid fanatical Church scrutiny, even death. Estimates of the number of individuals murdered during the Inquisition range from a few thousand to a few million (Bettencourt, 1995). One of the benefits of the Crusades was the rediscovery of Greek philosophy because, as Christians traveled to Jerusalem throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, they became reacquainted and inspired by Platonic, Aristotelian, Neoplatonist, and Greek philosophic thought. This led to scholasticism, the integration of Aristotelian and Greek philosophy into Christian theology (Rickaby & Boer, 2012). During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had a strong theology, based on faith. What the Church lacked was a system of thought, an underlying philosophy that could rationally prove the existence of God. Aristotle provided the missing link to the natural, empirical world, but this was problematic because Aristotle was a polytheist, believing in many gods, not one all-powerful god. The early development of scholasticism began during the tenth century when scholars in Spain started translating Greek texts and in the twelfth century after the expansion of Catholic Spain (Rickaby & Boer, 2012). After Europeans were exposed to Islamic and Greek philosophy, they were amazed at the intellectual inferiority and lack of societal progress of the Western world. St. Anselm (1033–1109) is often referred to as the father of scholasticism. He was

140  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras considered the most important intellect between St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas because he believed that reason could strengthen faith (Southern, 1990). The ontological argument of St. Anselm was that God existed not by observation of the empirical world, but through reason and a rational process alone. Once faith was strong, faith sought understanding. St. Augustine counseled a mantra for the scholastics: “Do not seek to understand in order to believe but believe that you may understand” (Cary, 2000). Abelard of Bath (1079–1144), a follower of St. Anselm, traveled to Spain and Sicily and translated Arab documents into Latin, including the Euclid Elements. He developed the dialectic method, modeling one of the first examples of peer review of research. Scholastics would choose a renowned scholar, called an auctor, meaning “author,” who would publish a book that would be thoroughly and critically evaluated by other scholars. Arguments and counterarguments were encouraged even if they led to questioning the authority of the Catholic Church (Gilson, 2019). The term scholasticism, derived from Latin, meaning “pertaining to schools” led to the development of schoolman, a term in the twelfth century that would develop into scholars, those that seek knowledge in educational institutions. Schoolman was in two camps: the Platonic Franciscan Order and the Aristotelian Dominicans (Rickaby & Boer, 2012). During the

Figure 4.12 

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 141 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the complexity of translating the Arabic language into Greek and Latin and the recovery of Greek philosophy necessitated the creation of the schools of translation. Universities began to develop in large cities throughout Europe because of the rivalry between Franciscan and Dominican religious orders. Each group battled for political and intellectual control and power. Since books were not available to the public in the Middle Ages, monasteries became places of higher learning, with monks serving as professors. Scholastic teaching became a model for biblical study, and later for academic lectures in higher education. In his controversial book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill (1996) described how the monks, especially in Ireland, translated and preserved classical Greek and Roman thought. Franciscans, founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209, defended the traditional theology of St. Augustine and the philosophy of Plato (Cheserton, 2019). By contrast, the Dominicans took a more aggressive stance to propagate and defend Catholic doctrine, which placed more focus on reason than faith, integrating newfound Aristotelian sources from Arabia and Spain. St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) founded an alternative religious order that became a symbol of a more loving and gentle Catholic Church; his emphasis was on a sacred connection to the natural, Daoist-like world. His focus on peace helped end the Crusades, especially after his trip to Egypt to convert Muslims and the Sultan (Cheserton, 2019). His love for animals and the natural environment remains inspirational in modern times, especially for those concerned about climate change. In 2013, Pope Francis, the first pope outside of Europe since the eighth century, took the name and the spirit of St. Francis and, in his 2015 Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality (Francis, 2015), called global warming a sin, imploring humanity to reaffirm its responsibility to be good stewards of creation. Thomism – Thirteenth Century and Beyond

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) became the great synthesizer of Aristotelian thought and Church theology. His philosophical approach was originally condemned by the Catholic Church and criticized by other theologians, but became the dominant philosophy in the later part of the Middle Ages and was required in most Catholic universities (McInnery, 1990). Aquinas was a product of the new university system emerging in Paris and Oxford. This system produced an elite order of monks dedicated to strengthening Church orthodoxy. Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that the universe was a closed system, with the earth as the center. Everything within the system had a purpose and individual physical properties had a final cause. Aquinas added the Christian view that the final cause was a one true God who created humans as part of a plan as well as everything in the universe. The Christian view was that the earth was the lowest place because it is a place of original sin (Weithman, 1992). Being the first theologian to emphasize the term original sin, in Summa Theologiae, Aquinas (1997) aimed his message at non-believers whose rationalism he believed prevented their belief in God. St. Thomas “proved” the existence of God through the Aristotelian belief that change and motion were constant; the unmovable mover, God, was the mover. Like Aristotle, Aquinas believed in teleology, meaning that everyone has an ultimate purpose for their existence. For Aquinas entelechy meant that everyone strives to reach their full spiritual potential. Humanity is the first cause; God the final cause. Humanity is the needed designer that proves the existence of a divine creator. In Thomism, there are two kinds of intellect: possible and agent intellect. Possible intellect uses judgment, perception, and reason to understand the material world. Agent intellect functions at a higher level because it can think in abstraction and symbol beyond reasoning and

142  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras conceives of a spiritual world. This allowed Thomas to explain concepts like the Holy Trinity, which he believed could not be explained through reason. He integrated the Aristotelian epistemology that knowledge only comes from the senses, data, and observation with the soul being part of the body. St. Thomas believed that true knowledge was both material and spiritual because the agent intellect was immortal and lived after death.

Figure 4.13 

St. Thomas was the last true Aristotelian. It would be an understatement to say that St. Thomas was controversial because his approach caused deep divisions in Catholicism. This led to charges of heresy, especially from the Dominican rival Franciscans, who led a failed movement to condemn Thomism. Primarily because of his interest in Aristotle, Thomism has had a lasting impact of understanding the connection between reason and spirituality. Thomism attempted to understand the impact of the nonphysical world on human life, often called the unconscious by some and the spiritual world by others. There have been periods in history when neo-Thomism reemerged, most recently at the end of the twentieth century with such thinkers as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. The unintended consequences of Thomism were that reason and faith, philosophy, and theology could be studied separately, which meant the pursuit of knowledge could occur without faith. This would symbolically open a door that could never be closed again, leading to the Renaissance and the demise of total Church control and authority over knowledge and science. Emancipatory Opportunities in Christianity Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

In times of political, cultural, and economic tribalism, love “for other” remains challenging and often illusive. This message of Jesus remains key to the future of humanity.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 143 Attend a Christian Mass

For centuries, Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, has shown the importance of symbol and ritual for an active, daily, spiritual life. Write an Autobiography

St. Augustine modeled the importance of self-analysis for both psychological and spiritual development. In the process of writing an autobiography, the meaning, purpose, and trajectory of life can become conscious, leading to psychological understanding and change. Islam Historical Analysis of Islam

While the Western world lived in its dark shadow, learning thrived in Asia and the Arab world, especially with the birth of Muhammad in 570 CE, and the establishment of the Islam religion in the seventh century. Political Systems

In 622 CE, Muhammad migrated to Medina and established the first Islamic State. He developed a system of rights and obligations known as the Constitution of Medina, which unified factional tribes. This led to many social reforms that had significant psychological implications: taxation to help the poor, a stronger psychological commitment to the family, a social security system, a focus on protecting women and children, and ending some forms of slavery. The shadow began to emerge as Muslims, like Christians, saw any other religious viewpoint as threatening, calling them pagan. This often-incited fanaticism, and a belief that the destruction of “the other,” was necessary for their survival. In 630 CE, as he took control of the rebellious and rival Meccans and ordered the immediate destruction of pagan temples and symbols. His inability to plan and select a legitimate successor upon his death led to many years of violence and rebellion, now referred to as the Wars of Apostasy (Bryn, 2011). Socioeconomic Systems

Around 100 years after the death of Muhammad, Muslims dominated the Middle East, northern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. The Muslim conquest baffles Western historians because the expansion was not only a result of the appeal of the Islam faith, but a mixture of conquest and socioeconomic equality. During this period in history Muslims often ruled without conquering, as Muhammad believed that all mankind was equal under God and because the Jews and Christians worshipped the same God. Muslim invaders showed tolerance to the conquered when there was an acknowledgment that Judaism and Christianity were a continuation, not a rejection, of the Muslim faith. Although practiced mostly among the wealthy elite of the conquered countries, the egalitarianism of Muhammad and the Muslim settlers was often an attractive alternative to the rigid and oppressive socioeconomic aristocratic rule of the feudal European societies. Cultural Systems

Islam is the second-largest religion in the world, with nearly 2 billion followers and nearly 25 percent of the world population and is the majority religion in 49 countries (Bryn, 2011) The Quran, being viewed as the literal word of God, has caused historic misunderstanding within and outside

144  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras the Muslim faith and allowed political and religious leaders to exploit this confusion. Within the Muslim faith, there are two major cultural movements. To simplify, Muslim Fundamentalism seeks to return to earlier times for guidance and to live under sharia law based on the Quran and the classical Muslim texts. In answer to Muslim fundamentalism, Islamic Modernism attempts to reconcile Islamic faith with modern values such as democracy, progress, civil rights, the rights of women, rationalism, and “the renovation of Islamic thought.” In both movements, the Quran provides religious, political, psychological, and cultural tenets by which Muslims are to live their lives. The role of women in Islam is complex and controversial. Western cultural biases often impede the study of Muslim women beyond unenlightened stereotypes. Like in the Christian traditions, the role of women has been primarily culturally determined and not always in concert with the teachings or beliefs of Muhammad or Jesus. The Quran and Muhammad advocated for the rights of men and women to equally seek knowledge (Bryn, 2011) Muhammad himself taught women along with men with no restrictions on the type of knowledge allowed. In the fundamentalist Muslim nation of Saudi Arabia, women have less psychological freedom. In Egypt, a secular Muslim nation, women are much freer to live their lives beyond being dutiful wives and mothers. Muslim women observe hijab, meaning in Arabic “to hide from view or conceal.” This is done by covering their head, hair, neck, and most often their bosom with a scarf. Although it is not universally accepted, the major religious reason for observing hijab is that it is required in the Quran. The jilbab, meaning “outer garment,” is another controversial interpretation from

Figure 4.14 

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 145 the Quran for appropriate female dress. The jilbab covers the entire body. Some women add the niqab, a garment of clothing that completely covers the face. The jilbab is most popular in fundamentalist Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia. It is seen as extreme and unnecessary in most Muslim countries (Bryn, 2011). Covering the female body is a powerful symbol of the strict Muslim adherence to modesty for both men and women. On the positive side, it is a sacred garment for a woman to demonstrate their Muslim faith and to be valued beyond their looks and sexual attractiveness. On the negative, shadow side, it requires that Muslim women bear the majority of the burden of male sexual exploitation and sexism. Psychology of Islam Muhammad and the Quran

Muslims believe that the Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad (570–632) through the archangel Gabriel. This revelation occurred over a period of 23 years, from 609 until his death in 632. Muslims consider Muhammad the final prophet, restoring Islam to its place as the original monotheistic faith in the religious traditions of the prophet Adam, the Torah, the “Psalms,” and the Gospel of Jesus (Bryn, 2011) Muslims consider Jesus as the final prophet of the Judeo-Christian religion traditions. The Quran text provides the divine revelations of Allah to Muhammad. The Quran, meaning “recitation” in Arabic, is viewed as one of the finest works in classical Arabic literature. One who can recite the entire Quran is called a hafiz, in Arabic a “memorizer” or “guardian.” The hafiz recites the Quran with a special elocution, which is especially important during Ramadan, when there is recitation of the entire Quran. Ramadan, observed worldwide during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, symbolizes one of the Five Pillars of Islam: fasting from sunrise to sunset for one month in prayer, psychological reflection, and community. Muslims Integrate and Save Western Philosophy – 900–1400 CE

The Islamic Golden Age, from the ninth to the fourteenth century, occurred when philosophers integrated Islamic faith with Greek and Aristotelian philosophy (Bryn, 2011). The Persian Avicenna (980–1037) was regarded as one of the most significant thinkers of the Islamic Golden Age and considered the father of early modern medicine. He was the first to discover the retina as part of the eye responsible for perception and sensing light. He was the first to discover Parkinson’s disease and suggested inoculation to prevent disease and proposed new theories about stroke. His medical textbook, Colliget, was used by physicians in European universities for five centuries. After reading Metaphysics by Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, Avicenna reconciled his Muslim faith with Greek philosophy. He considered the Muslim prophets as “inspired philosophers” because the rational mind was the only way to distinguish prophesy from illusion. Averroes (1126–1198) rejected Neoplatonist tendencies in Muslim thought and restored the original teachings of Aristotle. He became known in the Western world as the Commentator and Father of Rationalism. Averroes defended the pursuit of philosophy against orthodox and dogmatic Muslim theologians. He argued that the study of philosophy should be compulsory and when the scriptural texts could not be understood philosophically, scripture should be interpreted through the allegorical method. Averroes rejected the “individual maker-intellect” of Aristotle and the “divine intellect” of Plotinus. He argued for a unity of intellect theory, a universal “material-intellect” that was the same for all human beings. The universal material-intellect means when an individual brain thinks, it connects to the universal intellect. This unity of the intellect theory fit perfectly with the Platonic belief in a universal soul that lives after death because, for Muslims, death is

146  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras the end of physical life and the beginning of an afterlife. The Angel of Death, Azrael, appears with a scroll concerning the fate of the dying, and physically removes the soul. Sinner souls are removed painfully while the souls of the “righteous” are treated tenderly. Maimonides (1135–1204), also known in Arabic as Moses, became the most influential Torah scholar of the Middle Ages. In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides sought reconciliation between Aristotelian thought and Judaism. In Egypt, he became a revered Arab in the Jewish community. Influenced by Avicenna and Averroes, Maimonides became a prominent philosopher and polymath, a term attributed to the great thinkers of the Great Islamic Age and later became known in the Western world as a “Renaissance Man,” a scholar whose knowledge covers a complex number of subjects. Maimonides connected ethical and moral living with character development. He predated the modern psychological concept of personality theory. He believed personality was influenced by social factors and if one could not operate ethically in their environment, they needed to change locales. In a supportive environment, individuals would be able to distinguish healthy from unhealthy behaviors. The Five Pillars

Muslims do not allow for pictorial representations of Mohammad or Islamic prophets. For Muslims, human images are a sacrilegious distraction. However, the name of Mohammad is often symbolized in calligraphy with the letters meaning “prophet” and “messenger.” The calligraphy symbolizes the “Messengers and Prophets” sent by God to model ideal psychological behavior and spread the message of Allah on earth (Cherel, 2003). The Dome of the Rock is where Muslims experience the place where Mohmmad ascended into heaven. Although it is not an active mosque, the Dome of the Rock is an important symbol

Figure 4.15 

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 147 of the Muslim faith, completed in 692 CE, located at the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is the site of the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple during the Roman Siege of 70 CE. It is a sacred place for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. For Muslims, it is where Mohammad, pulled by winged horses and accompanied by the archangel Gabriel, ascended into heaven. The rock from where Mohammed ascended remains in the Dome. Although not universally accepted because many Muslims prefer to use calligraphy writing or a simple mosque as symbols of their faith, after the victorious Ottoman Empire came to power in the nineteenth century, the crescent and star became recognized throughout the world as the symbol of the Islamic religion. The meaning of the symbol is open to speculation. The golden color represents the green dome over the tomb of Muhammad in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The crescent moon is often seen as symbolic of a mosque. By others, it is seen as a symbol of the power and influence of the Islamic faith from one end of the earth to the other. The five points on the star are believed to symbolize the Five Pillars of Islam: fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, testimony, and prayer: Five Pillars of Islam Fasting during Ramadan Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime Generosity toward the poor Testimony that Allah is the one and only God Pray the Five Canonical prayers in the daily Call to Prayer

The Mosque and Call to Prayer

The mosque, a masjid, meaning “a place of prostration” is a place to pray to God (Bryn, 2011) A mosque is different from a church in that a mosque is not a place for ceremonies because there are no chairs or seats. The believers are barefoot, and prayer occurs by bowing and prostration. Men and women are separated and there are no hymns; music is prohibited. There are no statues, ritual objects, or pictures allowed. The only symbols permitted on the mosque walls are written Quranic verses and the names of Mohammad and his companions. A special niche symbolizes the direction of Mecca. From a minaret, a tower within the mosque, a muezzin, “a crier,” calls Muslims, often through loudspeakers located throughout a city, to prayer five times a day. There are basically two types of mosques: a jami is a “collective mosque,” a state-controlled mosque that is in a central place of community worship for a large Muslim population, and the site of special Friday prayer services that typically includes a sermon; and smaller mosques that are privately operated by various Muslim groups. A mosque does not have to have a dome. Muslims originally adopted a dome for the practical purpose of converting the conquered Byzantine Orthodox Churches into mosques. The structure of the dome, with its acoustic sound, enhances the deeply spiritual experience. Its circular structure amplifies the words of the muezzin without the distraction and possible technological difficulties of a modern sound system. The Call to Prayer gives spiritual and psychological meaning to each part of the day symbolized by stopping during important times of the day to acknowledge a connection to the spiritual world. The word Muslim in Arabic means “to submit.” A Muslim makes a commitment to a life of submission to the will of God through a Call to Prayer five times a day (Bryn, 2011). This experience is communal whether the prayer occurs on an individual prayer rug or in a mosque, The experience creates a feeling of deep connection to others and a feeling of being part of something greater beyond individual ego strivings. The Morning Prayer recognizes that

148  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras connection to the spiritual world begins by cleansing the body before the day begins. The Noon Prayer provides a break from the day to seek spiritual guidance about work and daily living. The Afternoon Prayer seeks to find the broader meaning of life. The Evening Prayer is a reminder of the ongoing presence of God as the day comes to an end. The Night Prayer is a time to “let go of the day,” to psychologically prepare for sleep, and to remember that the presence of a God always provides guidance, mercy, and forgiveness.

Figure 4.16 

Pilgrimage to Mecca

In the June 632 Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad set precedent for future pilgrimages (Bryn, 2011). The annual Great Pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest Muslim city, commemorates the last sermon of Muhammad. He spoke about equality between the races that white people were not superior over black people. During the sermon, Muhammad spoke of the vulnerability of women in society. Although women were entitled to husband discipline, men should be good to women because “they are powerless captives in your households.” As the sermon concluded, he says Islam has become a perfected religion and the chosen religion for humanity. During the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad felt ill and died at the age of 62, praising Allah

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 149 as his “highest friend.” Throughout the centuries, his tomb has been a source of controversy because of the Muslim belief that there should be no Muhammad adoration or devotion to any Muslim prophets. Currently, his tomb remains under a green mosque dome in Medina, Saudi Arabia. One of the Five Pillars of Islam is that a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca occurs during their lifetime. Emancipatory Opportunities in Islam Read the Quran

Since there is so much misinformation about the Muslim faith, it is important to understand that Muslims believe Muhammad restored monotheistic faith in the religious traditions of the prophet Adam, the Torah, the “Psalms,” and the Gospel of Jesus, whom Muslims consider the final prophet of the Judeo-Christian religious traditions. Create Psychological and Spiritual Renewal throughout the Day

Create time throughout the day for psychological renewal by attending to the importance of morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and nighttime. Go on a Pilgrimage

Throughout history, a pilgrimage has been a journey to a sacred or special place where, upon arrival, one becomes psychologically and spiritually transformed. This can take many forms in that it can be uniquely planned or places of religious, political, or cultural significance.

QUESTIONS 

4

4.1 Explain the reasons the Axial Age ended. 4.2 Describe how the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems influenced the development of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islam. 4.3 Explain the similarities and differences between the therapeutic philosophies of Cynicism, Skepticism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. 4.4 Describe the importance of symbols and rituals to Christianity. 4.5 Explain how scholasticism changed Christianity. 4.6 Describe the psychology of the Crusades and Inquisition. 4.7 Explain the psychological significance of the Muslim Call to Prayer. 4.8 Explain how Thomism led to the Renaissance.

Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 4.1. A symbol of the search for social and political order. Figure 4.2. A symbol of “the watchdogs” of history. Figure 4.3. Accepting the world as it is, “going with the flow.”

150  Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras Figure 4.4. Understanding complex concepts through symbolic allegory. Figure 4.5. A symbol of religion as a political force. Figure 4.6. A modern religious ritual that has shown the power of symbol throughout history. Figure 4.7. A symbol of psychological self-analysis. Figure 4.8. The creation by God of an inner self that needs grace and faith to be saved. Figure 4.9. A ritual in which a person symbolically pledges submission in exchange for title and land. Figure 4.10. A symbol of the search for miraculous powers, happiness, eternal youth, and abundance. Image source: Arthur statue_ included in the image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Estatua_del_rey_Arturo_en_los_acantilados_de_Tintagel.jpg CC Licence. Figure 4.11. A symbol of the horrifying process to exterminate witches, women, and individuals with mental illness. Figure 4.12. Symbolic of the reunification of nature and spirit. Figure 4.13. Symbolic of the separation of faith and reason. Figure 4.14. Sexual morality symbolized through clothing. Image source: https://www.hippopx. com/en/mosque-abu-dhabi-travel-white-architecture-orient-dome-38546 CC Licence. Figure 4.15. Calligraphy, the written word, the place of worship as the most appropriate religious symbols. Figure 4.16. The importance of psychological and spiritual renewal throughout the day. References Aquinas, T. (1997). Summa theologian: A concise translation. (T. McDermott, Ed.). Indiana: Christian Classics. Armstrong, K. (1993). A history of God: The 4,00-year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York: Random House Inc. Armstrong, K. (2007). The great transformation. New York: First Anchor Books. Aslan, R. (2013). Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. New York: Random House Inc. Augustine (1995). Teaching Christianity. New York: New City Press. Augustine (2005). The confessions of St. Augustine. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. Augustine (2012). The city of God. New York: New City Press. Baker, M.W. (2001). The greatest psychologist who ever lived: Jesus and the wisdom of the soul. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. Baker, S. (2007). Ancient Rome: The rise and fall of an empire. London: BBC Press. Bettencourt, F. (1995). The inquisition: A global history (1478–1834). New York: Cambridge University Press. Bloch, M. (1965). Feudal society. (L.A. Manyon, Trans.). New York: Routledge. Bryn, B. (2011). The genius of Islam: How the Muslims made the modern world. New York: Random House, Inc. Cahill, T. (1996). How the Irish saved civilization: The untold story of Ireland’s heroic role from the fall of Rome to the rise of Medieval Europe. New York: Anchor Books. Cary, P. (2000). Augustine’s invention of the inner self: The legacy of a Christian Platonist. New York: Oxford University Press. Cherel, M. (2003). Symbols of Islam. New York: Barnes and Noble. Cheserton, G.K. (2019). The life of St. Francis of Assisi. New York: Musaicum Books. Clauss, M. (2001). The Roman cult of Mithras: The God and his mysteries. (R. Gordon, Trans.). New York: Routledge. Dobbin, R. (Ed.). (2012). The cynic philosophers from Diogenes to Julian. New York: Penguin Books. Francis, P. (2015). Encyclical on climate change and inequality: On care for our common home. New York: Melville House Publishing Freud, S. (1950). Totem and taboo: Some points of agreement between the mental lives of savages and neurotics. New York: Norton and Company. Gerson, L.P. (Ed.). (2018). Plotinus: The Enneads. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Symbols of the Hellenistic, Christian, and Islamic Eras 151 Gillman, B. (2017). The first-round table: The legends of King Arthur Book One. By author. Gilson, E. (2019). History of Christian philosophy in the middle ages. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press. Hadot, P. & Chase, M. (1998). Plotinus, or the simplicity of vision. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Long, A.A. (1986). Hellenistic philosophy: Stoics, epicureans, and sceptics. Berkeley: University of California Press. Madden, M. (2013). The concise history of the crusades. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. McInnery, R.M. (1990). A first glance at St. Thomas Aquinas: A handbook for the peeping Thomists. Indiana: Norte Dame Press. Miller, C. (2019). Stoicism: How to integrate this powerful philosophy to become more balanced, productive and reach your full potential. By author. Moser, P.K. (Ed.). (2001). Skepticism and the veil of perception. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Nixey, C. (2018). The darkening age: The Christian destruction of the classical world. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press. O’Loughlin, T. (2011). The Didache: A window on the earliest Christians. England: SPCK. Pegis, A. (1945). The basic writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. New York: Random House. Polybius (2010). The histories. (R. Waterfield, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Rickaby, J. & Boer, P. (2012). Scholasticism. New York: Dodge Publishing. Sanders, E.P. (1983). Paul, the law, and the Jewish people. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Smith, J.K. (2019). On the road with St. Augustine: A real-world spirituality for restless hearts. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press. Southern, R.W. (1990). St. Anslem: A portrait in a landscape. New York: Cambridge University Press. Spiegelman, J.M. (Ed.). (1994). Catholicism and Jungian psychology. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Publications. Stockdale, J.B. (1993). Courage under fire: Testing Epictetus’s doctrine in a laboratory of human behavior. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Weithman, P.J. (1992). Augustine and Aquinas on original sin and the function of authority. Journal of the History of Philosophy. 30(3), 353–376. Wickman, C. (2009). The inheritance of Rome: A history of Europe from 400 to 1000. New York: Viking Penguin Books. Wright, N.T. (1996). Jesus and the victory of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Figure 5.0

5

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment

Introduction The modern world view was the outcome of an extraordinary convergence of events, ideas, and figures…a profoundly compelling vision of the universe and of the human being’s place in it…a vision radically novel in character and paradoxical in its consequences…a fundamental change in the Western character… (caused by) the cultural epochs known as the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution (and Enlightenment) …. - Richard Tarnas (1991)

Renaissance

The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ended centuries of European stability as the crises led to changes in all aspects of social and psychological life because of war, plagues, schism, and religious upheavals in Christianity. The Reformation would challenge Papal authority and forever change the practice of Christianity. During this time, the Arabic world flourished scientifically and, in China, the Tang Dynasty developed into one of the greatest dynasties in Chinese history. Although the foundation developed during the late Middle Ages, Renaissance thought peaked during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, providing the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. The Renaissance would be characterized by the effort to revive and surpass the achievements of the Axial Age Greeks as symbolized dramatically in the School of Athens completed by Raphael around 1509. Inspiration for the Renaissance often came from the arts; human beings now replaced or became humanized religious figures (Paoletti & Radke, 2005). After centuries of Christian efforts to destroy any remnants of Greek philosophy, The School of Athens fresco by the great Renaissance painter Raphael (1483–1520) provided a symbolic representation of the return of Greek thought in Western civilization During the Renaissance, The School of Athens came to symbolize the explosion of intellectual exploration in all fields of thought; a time for Western civilization to “go back to school” and recapture the lost Greek humanistic values. The School of Athens provides a “symbolic summary” of the narrative in Chapters 3 and 4 (volume I) and is an important symbol of humanism.

DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-5

154  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs

Figure 5.1 

The School of Athens is based in a temple-like structure in the shape of a cross, symbolizing the harmony of “pagan” classical Greek philosophy with Christian theology (Hall, 1997). Reigning above the school are two statues of the Greek gods Apollo and Athena. Apollo holds a Greek lyre and implores “Renaissance students” to integrate knowledge with the arts. Athena calls upon students to learn psychology, the internal wisdom that leads to justice, especially in warfare. In the center of the picture is Plato, holding a copy of Timaeus and looking upward to the heavens. He explains his ideas of space, time, and change, which would influence mathematical science for centuries. Aristotle holding Ethics looks downward to the earth, which explains that change is guided by the motion of the heavens and cannot be reduced to mathematics. Plato, the Elder, looks away from the younger Aristotle, which symbolizes the divergence of their philosophical schools. Plato argues for a world beyond the senses, while Aristotle argues for a deeper understanding of the physical world. Socrates reaches out to the diplomat Aeschines, whose fate is unlike that of Socrates, cleared of treason, reminding students that scientific inquiry can be dangerous, and even lead to death. The original painting includes many of the philosophers and thinkers who laid the foundation of classical Greek philosophy: Epicurus, Anaximander, Empedocles, Alexander the Great, Zeno of Citium, Diogenes, Xenophon, Antisthenes, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Plotinus, Euclid, Hypatia, and Photogenes. All pictured where concerned with the four causes of change of Aristotle: especially the Material Cause, a focus on a person, or a society, as the primary originator of change (Hall, 1997). Raphael, linked to neo-Platonic ideas, exhorted students to embrace metaphysics for renewal beyond the senses and toward a higher purpose, a psychology rooted in love. The painting acknowledged non-classical Axial Age sage Zoroaster, who symbolizes that good and evil can exist in all humanity, even within the Church. The Muslim Averroes

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 155 symbolized the Arab preservation of Greek thought without which this painting would not have existed. Averroes, condemned by the Church as another advocate for Scholasticism, was an Aristotelian who believed that all humans possessed the same intellect as espoused in the controversial Averroism movement of the late Middle Ages. The School of Athens included Michelangelo (1475–1564), who provided some of the most powerful symbols of humanism during the Renaissance (Liebert, 1983), Michelangelo, the Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet exerted unparalleled influence in reawaking the beauty and potential of the human spirit. The art of Michelangelo symbolized many of the major themes of the Renaissance: humanism, individualism, personal religion, celebration of the Greek classics, and the intellectual oppression of Church orthodoxy (Liebert, 1983). Scientific Revolution

Although the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mark the emergence of modern empirical science, clearly dates alone cannot mark how the revival of a focus on the physical world changed not only scientific inquiry but how human beings viewed themselves in the modern world. The Scientific Revolution established empirical science as the dominant philosophy of science at the expense of other scientific approaches, most notably the metaphysical, hermeneutic, and social. Now “real” science meant the ability to objectively measure and quantify the human experience. It was the belief that qualitative, phenomenological, and subjective experiences could not be empirically measured and therefore not under the purview of “real” science. Most importantly, the Scientific Revolution liberated science from religion and the unending complexity of the social, political, socioeconomic, and cultural influences on knowledge. Yet many of the scientific revolutionaries envisioned societal and political reforms based on empirical science principles. The Scientific Revolution was dramatic in that the heliocentric view of the world of Copernicus centered the sun, not the earth as the center of the universe. This would place nature, not human beings, as the center of the cosmos. Recognizing the danger of this revolutionary thought to Church authority, the Church initiated Inquisition measures, especially to Galileo, and threatened death unless he renounced his “heresy.” Ironically, it was the revolutionaries of the Scientific Revolution who modeled the way for Darwin, Freud, and others to challenge the status quo of what Isaac Newton called the new religion, science. Isaac Newton, a mathematical genius, discovered gravity and its impact on planetary motion. John Locke became one of the founders of the British empiricist tradition and a future inspiration for modern behaviorism and American conservatism. Thomas Hobbes envisioned a new world order, a Leviathan, based in empirical science. Francis Bacon warned how science, like religion, could become enamored by idols and forget that science exists to improve society. In the New Atlantis, he envisioned a state-sponsored scientific institution, Solomon House, on an island where a future university would specialize in both the applied and the pure natural sciences. The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was the culmination in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolutions (Gay, 1995). Often called the Age of Reason, Enlightenment concepts centered on Renaissance humanism and the empiricism of the Scientific Revolution, based on the values of reason, happiness, equality, liberty, freedom, and the separation of church and state.

156  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs The beginning of Enlightenment is attributed to Rene Descartes, who unsuccessfully laid the foundation to construct a science based in metaphysical principles, particularly the dualistic separation of mind and body. Spinoza challenged his assertion of dualism of material substance and consciousness by the assertion the body and mind were “on the same coin,” a double aspectism, meaning physiology and psychology inseparable. For Immanuel Kant, Enlightenment expressed the need for intellectual freedom and awakening from a deep “dogmatic slumber.” Enlightenment was not a result of a lack of understanding, but from a lack of courage to use reason and intellect without the direction of external authority figures. The radical empiricism of John Locke that nonphysical exploration of the mind had no place in science would influence the development of behavioral psychology in the twentieth century, and was a rejection of any metaphysical understanding of human consciousness. For Fredrich Hegel (1770–1831), history was the story of God coming to consciousness and believed the scientific method and empirical sciences left no place to situate humanity in history. The natural science focus on cause neglected the why, or the reason, for ongoing conflicts in human society. The resolution of discord occurred throughout history and the development of the modern state. History is an ongoing dialectic process of thesis and antithesis, resulting in a new synthesis. The Hegelian approach explains the counterrevolution against Enlightenment of the Romantic movement, the antithesis of the Enlightenment, and was led by Jean Jacques Rousseau. For Rousseau, the Enlightenment not only rejected feelings, but the new sciences had the erroneous idea that emotions were dangerous. It is through nature where one feels a connection to God; it is where the natural order is uncorrupted. The socialization process causes the repression of feelings and natural desires that leads to evil and anti-social behavior. As Enlightenment leaders looked to create modern versions of classical Greek thought, Rousseau searched for answers in ancestral societies, finding that some still existed; he idealized what he called “noble savages.” The Renaissance Historical Analysis of Renaissance Political Systems

After the death of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1274, light began to emerge from the darkness of the Middle Ages. It began with the darkness of The Condemnations of 1277 when the Church tried to suppress the “Aquinas Revolution” of separating philosophy and theology, and faith and reason (Rubenstein, 2003). The desperate effort led to Church condemnation of Siger of Brabant (1240–1284), the leading Aristotelian scholar at the University of Paris. He was condemned and murdered for teaching “double truth” in his effort to synthesize reason and faith. As an avid Averroist, Siger believed in Aristotelian naturalism rather than Church doctrine. With enemies in the Church and philosophic circles, after his suspicious murder in 1284, no investigation was initiated to discover the actual cause of his death. However, the “genie was out of the bottle” because Church political authority was now questioned at all levels of society (Rubenstein, 2003). When the French King Edward died in 1328 with no heir, the English King, Edward III, because of the belief of his mother, declared that he was the rightful heir to become the king of France. This resulted in the British invasion of France and a war that would last over 100 years. The Hundred Years War created a new nationalist psychology in England and France (Green, 2014). Knights, chivalry, and feudalism gave way to the development of nationalism. The search for political power and control expanded beyond feudal boundaries. Because of the development of more deadly military weapons, there was a fight for control beyond the English Channel and for trade routes.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 157 During the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc became an inspirational symbol for French resistance to England. Growing up in France, Joan believed that God chose her to lead France to victory against the English. Joan, a peasant girl, had no military training. However, she persuaded the Crown Prince, Charles of Valois, to lead the French army against the English in the besieged city of Orleans. She believed she achieved an improbable victory because of divine intervention (North, 2010). Later, after her capture, the English employed Inquisition punishment, a stark symbol of horrific inquisitional psychology. In 1431, 19-year-old Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for witchcraft, heresy, and dressing like a man.

Figure 5.2 

Her martyrdom became a universal symbol of injustice, dying for religious faith, and the diabolical claim of witchcraft as a pretext to perpetuate violence against women. In 1456, the Pope responded to her popularity and ordered an Inquisitional court to examine her English trial. The court declared her innocent of witchcraft and heresy. She was officially designated a martyr because she never, even under the threat of death, renounced her faith. She became a powerful Catholic symbol and was declared the patron saint of France. She inspired numerous works of art and literature and in 1920 was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church. The Hundred Years War changed the psychology of warfare forever. Instead of a small troop of feudal knights, larger and more professional armies were needed. Autocratic dominance was replaced by more democratization of manpower and weapons. The Hundred Years War created the first standing armies since the Roman Empire. Standing armies were permanent, paid,

158  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs private armies whose soldiers chose the military as a career choice. Standing armies were better equipped and replaced knight swords with archers. “Honorable combat” behavior was infantrydriven and symbolized by face-to-face combat. After years of instability in Europe due to endless wars between the two countries, the Hundred Years War would eventually end in 1453. England permanently lost most of its continental possessions, even though British monarchs would claim the French throne until 1801. Socioeconomic Systems

The socioeconomic situation during the Middle Ages was that the elites could live a rich and prosperous life while the poor were told “not to worry” because their reward by following the orthodoxy of the Church would come in the next life. The Christian mantra, “the poor will always be with us” became a political tool of the power structure to rationalize severe poverty and class-based injustice in the name of religion. Much of the social and economic progress during this time in history occurred outside Western civilization. During the fourteenth century, Europe was faced with a series of calamities. Because of the Great Famine of 1315–1317, the Black Plague of Death (1346–1353), the ongoing peasant uprisings, and the Hundred Years’ War, the European population was reduced in half. The printing press was one of the most significant of the Chinese inventions that advanced the socioeconomic development in the Western world. The Arabs brought the press to Europe 400 years after they acquired the skill during military battles along the Silk Road during the

Figure 5.3 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 159 eighth century. When Johannes Gutenberg (1400–1468) introduced movable type to Europe around 1439, it ushered in the Printing Revolution, which would eventually change the socioeconomic framework in the Western world because knowledge and economic power could now expand beyond the Church and the elites to the common people (Klooster, 2009). The printing press became a powerful symbol and played an important role in the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. It could be argued that without the printing press, Church dominance could have lasted beyond the fifteenth century. During the late Middle Ages, Europe struggled with socioeconomic oppression, plague, and war. In China, the Four Great Inventions were transforming the world with the invention of the printing techniques, compass, papermaking, and gunpowder (Andrade, 2016). These inventions not only changed China but were exported to the rest of the world. These Chinese inventions first began during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), considered the Golden Age of China. The Han Dynasty is considered one the greatest Chinese dynasties because during this period the Chinese developed the Silk Road, which led to socioeconomic prosperity beyond China to Korea, Japan, and the Indian subcontinent to Iran, Arabia, the Horn of Africa, and eventually to Europe. Besides trading silk and consumer goods, the socioeconomic importance of the Silk Road dramatically expanded world travel, opening the known world to new political and socioeconomic relationships. It introduced new developments in syncretic philosophies, science, psychology, technology, the arts, and religion, particularly the widespread growth of Buddhism. It was also the road that spread disease, most notably plagues, and provided a road for military conflict. The inventions that occurred during and after the Han Dynasty would continue the transformation of the socioeconomic world (Andrade, 2016). The magnetic compass allowed for ocean exploration. The paper-making loom would lead to paper and the printing press and the dissemination of written knowledge beyond the elites. The seismograph would assist in the study of earthquakes. The wheelbarrow would reduce the back-breaking aspects of manual labor. Cast iron would advance cooking. The hot air balloon would be the first step toward human air travel. During the late Middle Ages, the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279) furthered developed the Han Dynasty inventions. This led to guns, bombs, rockets, and cannons. All of these inventions occurred well before their development in Europe. The development of standing armies and the invention of gunpowder would change the psychology of war forever. The Silk Road carried these inventions to India, the Middle East, and arrived in Europe around 1280. As part of the Four Great Inventions, gunpowder was first developed in ninth-century China by the Daoist monks for medicinal purposes. Only later it was discovered to be useful in warfare. From the Daoist philosophy from the Axial Age, gunpowder was viewed as the reflection of interaction between positive and negative energies symbolized in the yin/yang symbol (see Chapter 2). Gunpowder is the easiest known chemical explosive consisting of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels while the potassium nitrate acts as an oxidizer, generating a high level of heat and gas volume, an explosion. The first use of gunpowder and primitive cannons occurred with the Mongols, during their conquest of Europe. It was first used in Europe during the Christian wars against the Muslims in the thirteenth century and was more widely developed during The Hundred Years War. The word cannon was derived from the Tuscan cannone, meaning “a large tube,” used to fire heavy objects over a long distance. As the deadliest weapon during the late Middle Ages, the cannon symbolized psychological power and dominance of nations over other nations, laying the foundation for socioeconomic and political imperialism. In 2013, President Xi Jinping of China announced a Silk Road Economic Belt that would replicate the original trade, cultural, and socioeconomic ties that connected China to the

160  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Mediterranean. The “modern road,” called the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, would expand “the road” over many major waterways of the world. This would allow for the travel of large container ships carrying products from modern China to Europe, Africa, and beyond to the United States. When completed, the One Belt, One Road initiative will be a massive network of roads, rail lines, and industrial facilities. This network will stretch from the South China Sea, across the Indian Ocean to Africa and the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. It will also stretch to the southern coast of the European Union and to Greece and the adjacent Black Sea. In 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the Silk Road a World Heritage Site. Cultural Systems

During the Renaissance, people in Western culture were dying from the Black Plague (1347–1351), the Hundred Years War (1337–1453), famines, religious persecution, and a syphilis epidemic. At the same time, there was unparalleled creativity and cultural renewal because of courageous resistance against a corrupt and oppressive Roman Catholic Church. Like the Greeks, most medieval scholars believed that reason would lead to absolute truth and philosophy would be able to prove the existence of God. There were skeptics who rejected Scholasticism, especially the Franciscans, who denied that philosophy, that reason, could ever lead to a greater knowledge of God. Because of the failure of Scholasticism, or, more importantly, the lack of support in the Church for intellectual openness and curiosity, led to the demise of its cultural authority. The decline of Scholasticism created a void that the reemergence of the Greek classics from the Axial Age began to fill. Internal debates in the elites had little relevance to the real European cultural world, which led to intellectual and spiritual stagnation and a hunger for a cultural rebirth. Before the Scientific Revolution, people did not understand the science or the biological factors that led to the spread of disease. Only later was it understood that a germ called bacillus was the cause. One of three types of plague, the bubonic type, was the culprit. The bubonic plague traveled through the air as well as through the bite of infected fleas and rats (Cantor, 2001). The disease was frightening because of its easy transmission and by extremely healthy people dying in their sleep. Not understanding the cause of the disease, many believed that it was divine punishment for human greed, fornication, secularism, and heresy. This led to the cultural purging of Christian heretics and to the massacre of thousands of Jews throughout Western Europe (Cantor, 2001). Many scholars believe that the cultural nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy” was written about the symptoms of the Black Plague (Cantor, 2001). Because the human psyche needs to ritualize shadows and the darker aspects of being human, there is the human desire to find a conscious way to make sense of unspeakable pain and suffering. The symptoms of the plague, as described in “Ring Around the Rosy” were symbolized by the rosy being the red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (ring around the rosy). Sweet smelling herbs, or posies, were carried in pockets (a pocket full of posies) to deter the disease believed to be transmitted by bad smells. Ashes (ashes! ashes!) referred to the cremation of the dead bodies (Delamar, 2001). The English version replaced ashes with A-tishoo, (a-tishoo), a violent sneeze because sneezing was a symptom of the disease. Both ended symbolically with death (we all fall down). The Renaissance would usher in a complete cultural revolution. Humanistic values of freedom, liberty, and equality would lead to the development of democratic revolutionary movements led by individuals steeped in the values of humanism. The hope was that cultural values would be based on reason and science, not on religion or Church doctrine. The hope was that the Renaissance would usher in a culture of intellectual and emotional freedom unfettered by external authority, whether it be Church or state. People would be inspired by the cultural heritage

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 161 of the Greeks, who believed that psychological development of the individual was key to the creation of an ethical, virtuous, and harmonious world.

Figure 5.4 

Common American Version:

English Version:

Ring-a-round the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down. Ring a ring o’ roses A pocketful of posies Atishoo, a-tishoo We all fall down

Renaissance Psychology Christian Empiricism

William of Ockham (1285–1349), a Franciscan monk and a nominalist, was a key figure in leading philosophy out of the Middle Ages (Sober, 2015). Ockham, an early empiricist, believed that mental understanding came only from direct engagement with the physical world. While medieval philosophers’ psychology was limited to a focus on ontology, the study of existence, Ockham expanded the concept of psychology beyond issues of existence toward a theory of

162  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs intuitive cognition (Sober, 2015). This connected psychology to the direct experience of the physical world and, although cognitions could be abstract, they had no existence outside of the physical mind. The term “universal” was simply a name created by the physical mind. As a Christian empiricist, Ockham believed that knowledge came from direct experiences of the senses. He was Christian because he argued there could be introspective knowledge of the soul because the soul was not separate from physical mental faculties. The soul was driven by the psychological concept of will, which Ockham believed was the soul thinking and acting, a concept that will be a precursor to later theories of the unconscious. Ockham thought that scholars were too concerned with complexity, categories, theories, and classifications. He believed in simplicity and the avoidance of utilizing too many concepts and theories. True knowledge results from the simplest arguments. This principle became known in science as the Ockham Razor. When there are competing hypotheses, a scientist should select the one with the fewest assumptions, “cut to the chase,” get to the point, and leave out unnecessary details (Sober, 2015). The empirical views of Ockham challenged the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and the medieval philosophers. He did not believe that the existence of God could be proven through the senses. Through empiricism, and later the natural sciences, the existence of God could

Figure 5.5 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 163 only be understood through faith. The church threatened and tried unsuccessfully to suppress the thought of Ockham because the Church strongly opposed the synthesis of faith and reason. It was only during the Protestant Reformation that the Church finally capitulated to the synthesis. Humanism There can be no doubt…that Michelangelo was sent into the world by God as an example for those who practice the arts so they might learn from his behavior how to live and from his works how to perform as true and excellent craftsmen. - Giorgio Vasari-Designer of Michelangelo Tomb

Figure 5.6 

Renaissance in Greek, Αναγέννηση, means “rebirth.” A symbolic death, a loss, often predates a psychological rebirth. With the psychological paralysis that resulted from the inability in the Church to find alternates to Scholasticism, a force was developing that would “set the church on fire” and lead to the rebirth of Western civilization.

164  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs The rebirth was led by Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), the father of the Renaissance, who answered the question as to why the Greek thought of Athens was important to the Christians of Jerusalem. The philosophy of the Greeks and theology of St. Augustine provided a psychological path to a personal religion devoid of the strict dogmatism of the Church. Petrarch argued that the Church was missing the true message of Jesus, which was to live a life that maximized human potential. The Renaissance, not known for producing great thinkers, provided humanity with something much more valuable: tangible examples of the incredible potential of human beings when unbridled from fear and free to explore and imagine a world beyond any orthodoxy, especially the Church.

Figure 5.7 

Since Eve seduced Adam and was responsible for lust and original sin, the Church viewed any bodily pleasure outside of marriage as sinful. The statue David by Michelangelo (1475–1564) is one of the greatest symbols of the spirit of the Renaissance and the reawakened appreciation for the beauty of the human body. The statue also symbolized boundless human potential; defense of civil liberties against the Goliath of the Church and political order; and the importance of the arts, particularly Greek and Roman mythology. All were symbolic of

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 165 the power of the individual to create their own personal existence outside the confines of the Catholic Church.

Figure 5.8 

Raphael also immortalized Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) in the School of Athens. Like Michelangelo, his contributions revitalized human thought and psychological understanding (Cremante, 2013). His impact ranged from science to paleontology and to music, but it was his paintings that made him most famous. As the most valuable painting in the world, estimated to be worth $650 million in 2018 by the Guinness Book of World Records (Guinness World Records, 2018), the Mona Lisa is considered the archetypal masterpiece of the Renaissance. It bore a strong resemblance to depictions of the Virgin Mary, but humanized, providing a new psychological perspective on womanhood and an emerging archetypal feminine consciousness. Unlike many paintings of women before the Renaissance, the Mona Lisa was not an extraordinary beauty. In the painting, she sits upright, looking directly at the observer, both confident and relaxed. She appears alive and radiant, yet often seen as enigmatic, ambiguous, and mysterious. The look on her face does not send a clear message, the very point of the Renaissance, because the question remained as to the role women would play in the psychological rebirth of humanity after centuries of patriarchal Church dominance

166  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs

Figure 5.9 

How does the appearance of Mary change the scene? The great painting of Leonardo da Vinci highlighted the role of Judas and the momentous moment when Jesus says, “one of you will betray me.” In previous paintings of the Last Supper, artists typically removed Judas from the table. Da Vinci makes Judas a central, “shadowy” character, portrayed as nervously clutching a

Figure 5.10 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 167 small bag of silver, aware that Jesus knows of his betrayal (Cremante, 2013). This painting was seen as a warning to a Church consumed with power and money, who, like Judas, had betrayed the true message of Jesus by not dealing with their own shadow and misuse of power, destined during the Renaissance to suffer their own crucifixion. The Vitruvian Man (1485) by Leonardo De Vinci was another symbol of the rediscovery of classical Greek thought during the Renaissance. The invention of the polygraph by which the Vitruvian Man was drawn renewed interest in the function and beauty of the body. The proportions of the body were based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius, who believed that the perfect body would fit into a circle and a square. The pairing of circles and squares represented a Renaissance vision of a new humanistic approach toward heaven and earth, the spiritual and the material, and the feminine and the masculine energies. The circle is a universal symbol for wholeness and spirituality. The square is the symbol of the four seasons and the physical elements of the four directions of the world. “Psychological perfection” is the ability to integrate the spiritual and natural worlds as symbolized in the Vitruvius Man drawing. Christian Humanism

In his work Utopia, Thomas More (1478–1535), made the last great Christian effort during the Renaissance to integrate Platonic thought with the concern of Jesus for caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden, combining the best of the classical Greek and Christian traditions (Wegemer, 2012). In Utopia (1516), the creation of a new Christian-Platonic world was a work of fiction and sociopolitical satire, and depicted a fictional island society where all property was owned by the community (Wegemer, 2012). The household was the locus of all production and leisure activities and hobbies were seen as necessary for psychological selfimprovement. Marriage was for love and not by arrangement. On this island, there was universal training for war, even for women. It was a place of religious tolerance. Moral theory was again eudaemonic and focused on the pursuit of highest forms of happiness and pleasure in the Greek tradition of Epicurus. Thomas More, the Christian Renaissance Man, became a saint because of his ability to model religious piety and devotion with secular political integrity and power. In his lifetime, he was a lawyer, social philosopher, diplomat, member of Parliament, an ambassador, and Lord Chancellor of England. More opposed and failed to recognize the separation from the Catholic Church by King Henry the VIII of England. Because he opposed the annulment of the king’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he was convicted of treason and, in 1535, was beheaded in London. In 1935, More was canonized as a martyr by the Catholic Church. In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared More to be the patron saint for all statesmen and politicians. His philosophical and political beliefs continued to have an impact even into the twentieth century when the Soviet Union honored him for Utopia and his communist attitude toward private property (Wegemer, 2012). Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469–1536) wrote a famous satire, The Praise of Folly, which became popular during the Renaissance. Erasmus became one of the first scholars to make a good living from his writing. He dedicated The Praise of Folly (1511) to his good friend Thomas More, who also enjoyed humor and satire. In The Praise of Folly, Moria, the main character, rhetorically attacks all human enthusiasm. Death on a cross was God’s punishment for Jesus’ folly of having too much enthusiasm for creating a new religion. The psychological message of the Praise of Folly was to listen to the internal archetypal fool because it speaks true wisdom.

168  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Erasmus attacked superstition that had betrayed the true message of the Gospels. He advocated for a philosophia Christi, a philosophy of Christ that transcended formal doctrines. Erasmus believed that Christians needed to end fanatical pilgrimages and superstitious indulgences that financed a corrupt papacy. Christians needed to return to the classical Greek philosophers who advocated for living the Golden Mean, the desirable and ideal middle ground between two extremes, and the Golden Rule: Do unto Others as You would have them Do unto You. The Reformation

Erasmus provided a bridge from the Renaissance to the Reformation with his initial support of Martin Luther (1483–1546). Luther attacked the Catholic Church for the indulgence trade and papacy corruption, advocating for Christian return to the actual meaning of Bible. Luther rejected Scholasticism for the interpretation of scripture. By 1524, Erasmus broke with Martin Luther over the doctrine of predestination and his denial of free will. Erasmus rejected the fanaticism of Lutheranism theology, which was in direct conflict with the belief in a more theologically tolerant and ecumenically oriented Christian humanism. Erasmus’s belief in Christian humanism and religious tolerance inspired religious reforms in the eighteenth century in the Dutch and Anglican Protestant and Polish Catholic Churches long after his death in 1536. These reforms reemerged in the Christian humanistic movement that led to ecumenism in the Catholic Church in the twentieth century. Erasmus’s condemnation of enthusiasm and fanaticism, even in terms of good and idealistic causes, inspired the defense of conservatism by Edmund Burke in his critique of the French Revolution. Martin Luther was clearly driven by emotional as well as theological problems (Hendrix, 2015). Luther was terrified that he would not receive divine grace due to his strict conscience and a psychologically punitive superego. He rejected the Augustinian viewpoint that slavish obedience to good works and the sacraments was the road to salvation. As an Augustinian monk, he did agree with St. Augustine that religion was a deeply individual and psychologically personal experience. Luther also rejected the overemphasis in Catholicism with ritual and the authority of church hierarchy. For Luther, the only road to salvation was a personal relationship with scripture and the Bible. Martin Luther believed grace was predestined. Although good works were fine, they could not take the place of faith and the Gospels. In confession, the priest was a mouthpiece of God and forgave sin through absolution, which removed psychological anxiety. Luther felt by giving absolution of sin to penitents that God already given him grace, which reduced his own psychological anxiety about whether God had bestowed him with grace. In 1516, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican monk and an indulgence seller, gave sermons to reduce the time in purgatory by selling indulgences. Selling indulgences paid to help build St. Peter’s Basilica, but this appalled Luther, who believed that people had lost connection to the Bible and scripture, which necessitated that someone speak out against the corruption that permeated the Catholic Church. On All Hollow’s Eve in 1517, Martin Luther changed the world when he posted 95 Theses: A Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, on the door of a university church (Hendrix, 2015). This was a critique of Tetzel sermons and, at that time, was not intended to be defiant, but to start a dialogue within the Church and to first make reforms in Germany. His unsuccessful efforts for dialogue within the Church resulted in the Reformation and in 1521 to his excommunication from the Catholic Church.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 169 In 95 Theses, Luther expressed concern that Christians would avoid repentance and the avoidance of sin in exchange for simply paying for indulgences. True repentance required a deeply inner psychological atonement rather than an external sacramental confession, or some corrupt paying for indulgences. In the final analysis, his reforms did not resolve the ongoing issues of the time regarding the role of faith and reason, the importance of good acts, or predestination. Emancipatory Opportunities of the Renaissance Read the Greek Classics

Greek philosophy saved Western civilization and continues to inspire and have relevance in modern psychology. Recommend: The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer (foundational for understanding Greek philosophy), Histories by Herodotus (greatest classical Greek historian), The Republic by Plato (Socratic dialogues about government and the allegory of the cave), Politics by Aristotle (political philosophy and democracy), Frogs by Aristophanes (comedy about Dionysus), Discourses by Epictetus (the early Cognitive Behaviorist), and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (inspiration for Freud). Visit an Art Museum and Purchase a Book on Renaissance Art

Be inspired by the incredible art of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo de Vinci, and others when visiting an art museum. The options are vast. Museums typically have a Renaissance section to enjoy and there you can find a book for purchase. Visit Florence, Italy

Nothing brings the Renaissance alive like a visit to Florence. Recommend: Academia (Michelangelo’s David), Uffizi (greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere in the world), Bargello (sculpture treasures of Michelangelo, Donatello, and Medici family), and the Duomo Cathedral and Museum (Gothic cathedral and first dome built since Roman Empire). The museum contains Michelangelo’s Pieta and Donatello’s Mary Magdalene. Use Ockham’s Razor to Solve a Difficult Problem

Ockham believed in simplicity and the avoidance of utilizing too many complex concepts and theories. Analyze a problem and break it down to its simplest possible solution, “cut to the chase,” find a small solution, and act. The Scientific Revolution Historical Analysis of the Scientific Revolution Political Systems

Martin Luther may have been one of the most reluctant political revolutionaries in human history. The Reformation began to transform politics throughout the Western world, decreasing the power of the Church in political affairs. During this time, besides his attack on the Pope and

170  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs indulgence, was the translation of the Bible into German vernacular. This not only furthered the development of the German language, but allowed the non-elites their own opportunity to interpret and have a psychologically personal relationship to God outside of Church control and politics. Luther revolutionized Christianity from top to bottom. He rejected the authority of the Pope and the importance of celibacy in priesthood by his marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun. Clerics began to marry and have a family, resulting in a more balanced and healthier psychological life. Later in his life, his shadow emerged when he expressed violent views toward Jews. He called for their deaths and the burning of their synagogues (Hendrix, 2015). His violence was not only directed at Jews, but also toward the Pope because of his belief that he was the anti-Christ. His rage also turned to Catholics and the Anabaptists, due to their belief that baptism should be reserved to those that profess their faith in adulthood rather than in childhood. With Augustine, Aquinas, and other theologians, a political theology had emerged In Europe and provided theological and philosophical justification for the Catholic Church to be involved in politics, even if this meant taking responsibility for political strife and war and even for the fall of Rome. As Europeans immigrated to the New World, especially to escape the papacy and other oppressive Christian religions, the philosophy of Deism had a profound effect on the American Revolution. A Deist believes that God created the world but does not intervene. Most American founders were influenced by Deist philosophy. One of the most notable Deist was Thomas Paine. In his Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (Paine, 2010), he argued against political theology. He advocated for a clear separation between Church and state because institutional religion typically turns corrupt. This argument resulted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. Paine, a true revolutionary, wanted to overthrow any vestiges of political theology. He went as far as challenging the very legitimacy of the Bible itself as a book inspired by revelation from God. He claimed that the Bible was simply an ordinary piece of literature created by man. The Scientific Revolution would create a dominant empirical science model for understanding the world and it would inspire scientists to advocate for political change by utilizing scientific principles. Francis Bacon created the political utopia of the New Atlantis and in the Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes supported the creation of political monarchies. Bacon believed that any science that did not improve society should be considered worthless. Socioeconomic Systems

The word economics comes from the Greek okionomia, meaning “management of a household,” which first appeared in the writings of Aristotle in the fourth century BCE. In the late eighteenth century, the study of economics began by a group of professors who adopted the Greek term at the University of Paris. Called physiocrats, they believed all wealth came from land ownership (Buchan, 2006). Economist Robert Heilbroner (1995) noted three ways to organize an economy. The most prevalent in human history was children doing the jobs of their parents. The other two include government commanding economic activity and a laissez-faire approach with no organizer. In the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Smith, 1776/1977), published in 1776, the date of the American Revolution by Adam Smith (1723–1790) would incorporate the principles of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, especially freedom, by creating the economic principles for capitalism.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 171 As the first great economist, Smith wrote about the nature of wealth, the necessity of free markets, and the benefits of specialization. Before the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, people believed that national wealth depended on treasury of the king, a big army, or impressive governmental buildings. Smith believed wealth was the production of goods and services that made the lives of ordinary people better. During his time in history, an individual job depended on the socioeconomic status of the family. His viewpoint was that everyone should have the inalienable right to choose their own occupations and professions. Smith based his opinions on the humanistic beliefs that people could be motivated by empathy for other people, but he argued the stronger socioeconomic motivation was self-love, selfinterest, and immediate concern for family and friends (Buchan, 2006). Smith recognized that by their very nature, people loved to shop and trade, which created a commercial society based on market institutions, which he believed was the best economic system humans could create. In the final analysis, Smith articulated his famous idea that has guided capitalism throughout the centuries: an economy guided by an invisible hand (Smith, 1776/1977). Smith was concerned about the shadow of inequality and had a basic mistrust of business people and recognized that government should set economic living standards. However, inequality was a necessary evil of a market-driven economy that could only be resolved through competition within and between national economic systems (Buchan, 1776/1977). Smith never used the term capitalism. The use began with Karl Marx (1818–1883) in the nineteenth century. While Smith saw the market economy as a way to bring people together, Marx viewed the actual practice as a few becoming rich and taking control of all the economic institutions and factories, leaving everyone else to sell their labor for only basic economic subsistence, creating psychological alienation from self and society (Marx, 1867/1992). In effect, the invisible hand was no longer invisible; the reality was that for capitalism to succeed, the working class had to become powerless and exploited for economic development. In many ways the socioeconomic failures of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment led to the socioeconomic-oriented communist revolutions in the twentieth century. Cultural Systems

The leaders of the Copernican revolution were interested in the laws of planetary motion, a world “culturally on the move,” constantly changing, not fixed, and not ordered, as Aristotelian Scholastics believed. These scientists believed that the new heliocentric world would be a world that maximized human, not religious, potentiality to better serve the needs of humanity; a psychology of discovery through a better understanding of the laws of nature. Although the classical Greek philosophers did not perceive the world as flat, the concept seemed to fit linear, top-down Scholastic thought since the Eurocentric Catholic Church worldview dominated scientific inquiry. Sea voyages became further evidence that the world was not flat, and that creation was not ordered and complete. As the Silk Road became more dangerous for European trade, there was a need to find a different way to Asia. Sea voyage began to change cultural perspectives. Between 1492 and 1503, Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) completed four round-trips between Spain and the Americas, even though he believed that he had reached part of the Asian continent (Wilford, 1991). Because of his readings of the conquests of Marco Polo, Columbus always believed that he had found a new way to Asia. He never accepted the fact that he discovered the American continents. The continents were named America after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, rather than Columbus. This was because Amerigo believed that the new land was not part of Asia but a totally new continent.

172  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs

Figure 5.11 

The ships were rich in symbolism. Named the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, they became symbols of discovery and of something totally new. During this time, ships took the name of women saints, hoping their feminine and spiritual energy would provide protection for safe journeys. Nina, “the little one,” was originally named to honor Saint Clare, a follower of St. Francis and founder of the Poor Clares. But it was renamed as a pun, referring to the slight height of the owner, Juan Nino. Pinta, the “painted one,” was the saint unknown, and the fastest and probably the first ship to view the New World. The Santa Maria, the largest and the flagship carrying Columbus, was named in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the most powerful feminine symbol of that time. The voyages of Columbus and others marked the beginning of European exploration, colonization, and exploitation of the American continents, leading to dramatic cultural change in the “new world.” Although he was a courageous sailor, Columbus left a legacy of disease and racism due to his abuse of indigenous peoples. This was especially true of the Taino Island people of Hispaniola, whose large population was almost annihilated after Columbus brought the Black plague, smallpox, influenza, and malaria to the small island. The Taino people were also victims of forced labor, economic exploitation, and slavery. Columbus began the process of re-creating Eurocentric culture in the New World by treating indigenous cultures as inferior and the people less than human.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 173 Psychology and the Scientific Revolution The Copernican and Galilean Revolution

As the pre-Socratic Thales broke with the Greek religious view of the world, so did the astronomers. The early natural scientists broke with the Christian view of the world. As the Catholic Church lost its grip on knowledge and with Scholasticism under attack, the natural science perspective emerged as another threat to church orthodoxy. Aristotle believed in a very ordered and contained universe. This view was adopted by the Aristotelian Claudius Ptolemy in the second century. The Ptolemy model held that the earth was the center of the universe. This fit nicely with the belief of the Catholic Church that God made “man the divine center of the universe.” This was challenged as neo-Pythagorean philosophy reemerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Mathematics and geometry provided a new vision of the universe. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), wrote The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Copernicus, 1543/1995), published posthumously, and dedicated to Pope Paul III (Burke, 1985). He proposed a Heliocentric world, not with man at the center, but with nature and the sun at the center of the universe. This “new world” represented the true divinity of God. The Copernicus Revolution created a “psychological shock” because the natural science authorities would begin

Figure 5.12 

174  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs to replace the Church hierarchy (Burke, 1985). It was now science not the Church that would create the “new world.” The reality was that Western civilization would never view itself the same again in human history. This discovery started a violent backlash not only in the Catholic Church, but throughout the Christian world. Martin Luther called Copernicus a fool. The Catholic Church, already under attack with the reforms of Protestantism, recognized the Copernicus Revolution as a more serious threat to its authority; it was a revolution that might prove the superiority of reason over faith. In 1616, the Catholic Church would place The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres on the Index of Forbidden Books. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) continued the revolution by providing even more technical and mathematical explanations of the universe. He has been called the father of observational astronomy because he invented the telescope. He gazed at the heavens and stars as Thales had thousands of years previously in search for knowledge and understanding of the natural world. Galileo is often called the father of modern science and the scientific method because he used deductive method to understand the physical world (Hilliam, 2005). He deduced that the Church was wrong in believing that heavenly bodies were different from the earthly bodies. The Church had mistakenly believed the sun symbolized perfection, even though through his telescope Galileo discovered there were sunspots on the sun that changed day to day. He reasoned that the sun was not perfect, which provided a powerful symbol of freedom from theological interference in the pursuit of science. The invention of the telescope had significant psychological implications. Human behavior could now be subject to mathematical laws and observed through technical instruments. The telescope, as an extension of the human eye, symbolized humanity inseparability from the natural world and, like the sun, imperfect.

Figure 5.13 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 175 The telescope also became a symbol for the opponents of the Copernicus Revolution and Galileo. Many in the Church had never seen a telescope and were skeptical, not believing what they could see with their own eyes. However in 1610 Galileo discovered Venus beyond the seven best known planets at the time. This challenged the sacred symbol in Christianity of the number seven: seven planets, seven days of creation, the seven sacraments, and seven days of the week. This knowledge provided another rejection of Ptolemaic astronomy and another example that scientific methods were gaining superiority over theology and philosophy (Hilliam, 2005). Galileo concluded that psychology could never become a science because of two qualities of knowledge. Primary qualities are rooted in the physical and mathematical world. They were the natural creation of God and are qualities that are measurable and quantifiable. Secondary qualities are rooted in human perception and psychological reality. Like scriptures, they have no true correlation to the physical world. This results in the illusion that consciousness could be studied objectively. His approach to the conceptualization of science as empirical observation, induction from observation, development of a hypothesis, experimentation, and ongoing testing of findings would provide the foundation for scientific analysis into the modern age. Galileo continued to defend his views against growing Church opposition. In 1632, he wrote the Dialogue Concerning Two Chief World Systems (Hellman, 1988). This document appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII and continued to compare the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems. This led to his trial and conviction by the Inquisition Court for heresy. During the trial, he was threatened with torture if he would not recant his scientific findings and admit to the superiority of scripture. He was instructed to deny that he believed the sun set motionless at the center of the universe, that the earth was not the center of the universe. He was to express his commitment that in the future any so-called scientific findings should always be held as “probable” if they conflicted with scripture. According to legend, as his recantations were concluded, he is said to have spoken under his breath these famous words: “And yet it moves.” He was restating his commitment to science and the belief that the earth moves around the sun (Hellman, 1988). Seen as a major threat to the Catholic Church, Galileo would spend the rest of his life under house arrest. Controversy followed the death of Galileo in 1642 as to where his body would be interred. Because of “suspicion of heresy,” he was initially buried in a small room in Santa Croce in Florence. He was reburied in 1737 in a magnificent monument in the main body of the basilica. During the move, three fingers and a tooth were removed from his remains. Symbolizing the feeling of Galileo toward the Catholic Church and his intellectual opponents, the middle finger is periodically on exhibition at the Galileo Museum in Florence. In 1992, Pope John Paul II absolved Galileo of heresy and finally admitted after 300 years that the Church had erred in not recognizing that the earth revolves around the sun. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) integrated neo-Pythagorean number theory and natural philosophy with empirical science. Using the work of astronomer Tyco Brahe, he mathematically proved that the planets, including earth, orbited in an elliptical, not circular way, around the sun. In On the Harmony of the World, he argued that the “mind of God” could be discovered through science and that God wrote not only the Bible, but the Book of Nature (Tiner, 1999). God was now a mathematician and an empiricist, using mathematical principles to create the world. Everything in nature can now be measured in terms of mathematics. This includes the human mind, since through mathematical principles, humanity could finally enter the mind of God. If the mind of God could be measured, so could the human mind, a precursor to psychological measurement and testing. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) acknowledged the power of navigation and creation by science of a new world order based on scientific principles. In the New Organon (Bacon, 1620/1994), a challenge to the Organon of Aristotle, he reversed the reverence for the classical philosophers. He

176  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs referred to them as children, who, like children, needed additional learning. He believed that European thought had been intellectually stymied by “five or six Greeks,” especially by Aristotelian thought and the Scholastics (Vickers, 2008). As the father of radical empiricism, Bacon, in the New Organon, articulated the major elements of empiricism and the new “philosophy” of science (Vickers, 2008). He believed that true knowledge comes from humans, not from God, as shown in their ability to navigate the seas, grow crops, and avoid starvation. This awareness allows science to separate natural philosophy from theology and allows each to avoid interference with the development of the other. Bacon argued that the method of induction, of the particular to the general, must be the foundation of scientific experimentation, which meant only direct observation and accurate recording and no theories, hypotheses, mathematics, deductions, or preconceptions. Science must be a dynamic process, carefully observing constant changes and always self-correcting. A scientist needs to avoid the Symbols of the Idols of Grave Errors that can creep into science and lead science astray from its goals of objective observation and progress. There are four major idols that contaminate and distort scientific inquiry.

Figure 5.14 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 177 Idols of the Cave result from being unaware of individual biases, receiving poor education and an overemphasis on meeting their psychological needs. The Idols of the Tribe results from allegiance to current scientific biases and to the negative aspects of human nature like impatience and the need for quick solutions. The Idols of Marketplace occur when scientists are more interested in financial rewards and status than true knowledge, and utilize ambiguous words, abstract concepts, and unscientific theories. Idols of the Theater results from a blind belief in any theory or philosophy, e.g., the philosophies of Aristotle, Plato, or Galen. Bacon believed in Christian charity, that science should ultimately improve society. Any science that does not is considered worthless. In the novel New Atlantis, Bacon articulated a utopia. Like Walden Two by neo-behaviorist B. F. Skinner, this utopia envisioned a world based on scientific principles. In the novel, there is a discovery of a mythical island, Bensalem, somewhere in the New World, in the Pacific Ocean. A European ship lands somewhere close to Peru and finds a state-sponsored scientific institution, Solomon House. This is a modern research institution that was a future university specializing in both the applied and the pure sciences. Since the Jewish King Solomon built the First Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, Bacon envisioned the first temple in Bensalem to worship science. Bacon could not live up to his own high standards. In 1621, he was convicted of taking bribes by Edward Coke, the famous British jurist whose decision justifying the Stamp Act of 1765 and Writs of Assistance led to the American Revolutionary War and influenced the Third, Fourth, and Sixteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. It is also believed that Francis Bacon might have written some of the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Newtonian Science – Isaac Newton

For Isaac Newton (1642–1727), science was the new religion. He would become the scientific saint, the icon, for a new age. This age would reform science, lead to revolution, and create a Newtonian psychological dependency on the natural sciences to resolve the future problems of humanity. He created a view of the universe based on the phenomenon of motion that lasted two centuries, until the concept of motion was revised by Einstein. Newton was a mathematical genius who invented calculus, studied optics, and discovered gravitation (Westfall, 1994). As legend has it, he was literally hit on the head while sitting under an apple tree. An apple hitting Newton on the head became an iconic symbol of his discovery of gravity as well as a symbol of the awakening of humanity to the Scientific Revolution. In the Bible, the apple in the Garden of Eden was located on “the tree of knowledge.” Adam ate the apple and challenged God, which Christians believed created original sin. Now, through scientific knowledge, humanity could be redeemed through science because science revealed the true mind of God, not the biblical mind. This time, the apple was not a religious symbol but a symbol that science could now discover the mysteries of the natural world that God had created. Newton wondered why the apple didn’t go sideways or upwards, but constantly went to the center. The reason was because the earth draws the apple to the center, the apple draws the earth, and the earth draws the apple. Every object in the universe is attracted to every other object directly proportional to the object. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The universe operates in a machine-like fashion, with God as the great machine maker.

178  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Newton believed that the senses were deceptive. One does not “feel” gravitation; one does not “feel” the earth move. It is mathematics that provides objectivity and true knowledge, linking the mechanics of Galileo with the planetary motion of Kepler. Newton continued the Ockham Razor principle “to keep it simple” in scientific inquiry. He believed that space, time, matter, and force were at the root of all knowledge. Natural laws are absolute, even though scientific understanding is always imperfect and evolving. It is only mathematical principles that can unlock the secrets of nature. Seeing humanity in such a mechanical, machine-like manner did not sit well with religious leaders. However, Newton believed that God had authored a Book of Nature and it was science that was learning how to read the book that God created. Newton was a Deist, who believed that God, a supreme being, created the world but does not intervene. God leaves humanity alone, meaning religion was unnecessary and fruitless because theological explanations lack connections to the physical world. Newton rejected Aristotelian thought that everything in nature has a purpose. For Newton, the philosophy of Deism resolves the ongoing tension in Christianity between two major theological arguments about the existence of God: revelation theology and natural theology.

Figure 5.15 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 179 Revelation theology proves the existence of God through scripture and spiritual experiences, and natural theology proves the existence of God through reason and the observation of the natural world (Westfall, 1994). The Social Machine – Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was the founder of British empiricism. The word “empiricism” derives from the Greek root, empeira, meaning “nothing beyond experience.” British empiricism attempted to resolve the differences between the empiricist philosophy of Francis Bacon and the rationalist philosophy of Rene Descartes. Hobbes provided a link between the seventeenth century and modern empiricism. In psychology, empiricism inspired the development of behaviorism. The empiricist believes that humans are born with a “blank slate,” symbolized by a tabula rasa. Thoughts and behavior develop through direct experience. Because experiences are so varied, an empirical science is needed to validate experience through a scientific method. This method includes rigorous measurement and ongoing experimentation. Empiricists believe that on the “blank psychological state,” the most beautiful picture can be painted because the empirical world is unencumbered by internal reasoning. Hobbes was influenced by the Scientific Revolution occurring around him after being a personal secretary to Francis Bacon for five years. Hobbes argued that all knowledge is gained from the senses, which contain two vital elements: matter and motion. Sensations provide ideas that have associations to each other, meaning we know white because of black. Because matter and motion are the foundation of the universe and are not the abstract nonphysical universals espoused by the Platonists and others, human behavior can now be explained in mathematical, Euclidian geometric ways. Human beings could now be studied like machines. Hobbes reasoned that if science could be reduced to mechanistic and mathematical systems, why not study society in the same way. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes uses the Ockham Razor principle to simplify complex concepts toward the understanding of the psychological relationship of the individual to society. Leviathan (Hobbes, 1661/1996) starts with the concept that the senses are the foundation for all human behavior. Behavior is based on the desire for survival. Abstract religious and philosophical principles like good and evil are replaced by the sensations of pleasure and pain. A psychological examination of the senses is needed for humans to understand their external world. It is through this awareness that the internal world is awakened through imagination, the process which separates humans from animals. Imagination is needed for discovery, invention, and societal change. It is finally the fear of a violent death that leads humans to engage in society. Men gather in groups to prevent violence from other groups. Homo homini lupus means “man is wolf to man.” Hobbes believed that humans were not naturally social, a concept that would influence Freud and the development of psychoanalysis. Government emerges to protect individuals from themselves. The Leviathan is the monarch necessary for suppressing the violent impulses of humanity, and the needed leader for a civil and stable society (Parkin, 2007). Monarchy is seen to be the best form of government because the major role of government is to provide order and security. This is seen to be true even if a monarchy becomes an oppressive violent force and suppresses human rights and personal freedoms.

180  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs

Figure 5.16 

Hobbes described a societal behavioral psychology. The powerful monarch, the ultimate reinforcer, rewards positive and punishes bad behavior. He rules from self-preservation, “whatever works,” to keep political power, rather than from an ethical code or Christian morality. The monarch views sedition and revolution as the result of dysfunctional thinking. For Hobbes, the only thing that really matters psychologically is the expression of power. Power can be exerted by an individual, by scientists motivated for their personal glorification, or by a monarch wanting to retain governmental control at any cost. Power was now expressed, not through religious dogma, but through an increasing scientific dogma. The vision of Hobbes to apply science outside of academia would help usher in the Enlightenment. Radical Empiricism – John Locke

John Locke (1643–1704) continued the application of science to society. He believed that experience, not innate or abstract theoretical principles, is what provides the framework of the mind. His argued that one should think for oneself and not blindly accept the teachings of the Church or state, and helped spark the French and American Revolutions. His philosophy provided inspiration to the founding fathers as they wrote the Declaration of Independence and continues to inspire American conservativism. His corpuscular Newtonian psychology reduced knowledge to elemental entities such as gravitation and the learning associations in the mind. This provides a unitary memory of experiences. Personal identity is the “gift” of understanding that occurs from the memory of our experiences

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 181 of the sensate world. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, written in 1689, Locke (1689/2019) reduced mental life to purely naturalistic experiences. He rejected any form of metaphysics and believed that self-knowledge results from direct experience of the natural world. Locke reduced the contents of human consciousness to the quality of two types of elementary sensations: primary and secondary. The primary quality of sensations is the direct experience of an object itself, which can be objectively measured. The secondary quality of sensations is the personal experience of an object, the subjective psychological experience of an object. The Paradox of the Basins symbolized how Locke disagreed with Galileo about whether psychology could be a science. Locke observed that the experience of warm water will either be perceived as hot or cold, depending on whether a hand is first placed in hot water or cold water. This proved that the sensation of temperature has secondary and not primary qualities. Hot and cold depend on a subjective experience of the person. Psychological processes could be scientifically studied because subjective experiences could be just as important for science as objective experiences. Since Locke believed in a tabula rasa psychology, he left the legacy of viewing the mind as purely physical. Matter has no soul and no innate purpose. Nonphysical exploration has no place in science. Since the mind is physical, psychology can be a science. Lockean principles influenced behavioral psychology, which rejects metaphysical understanding of human consciousness. Emancipatory Opportunities of the Scientific Revolution Consider the Psychological Impact of the Ptolemy and Heliocentric Shift

Think of the shock to humanity that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system. As a comparison, reflect on the impact of discovering life beyond earth. Buy a Telescope

In the spirit of Galileo, experience the wonder of the cosmos. Visit a Science Museum

Created during the Scientific Revolution particularly for aristocrats to display scientific discoveries to their families, science museums have become popular places to experience the Scientific Revolution. Museums that brand themselves as science centers typically emphasize a hands-on approach, featuring interactive exhibits that encourage visitors to experiment and explore the world of science. Consider the Idols of Grave Errors in Science

In assessing research findings, be aware of individual bias, total allegiance to the current scientific zeitgeist, and a blind belief in a scientific theory or practice. The Enlightenment Historical Analysis of the Enlightenment Political Systems

After centuries spent by Western philosophers and scientists mostly talking to themselves, the Enlightenment laid the foundation for science to appeal and serve the democratic aspirations of people

182  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs throughout the world. Science was to be in service to humanity, not the other way around. Philosophic principles provided the bedrock for the new emerging democratic societies (Passmore, 1968). The French Revolution was influenced by scientific principles often based on very mechanistic and deterministic thought and by the mind constrained and limited. The question was how the revolution could reconcile the contradictions in Newtonian views when much of the Scientific Revolution was not about humanistic or Romantic values. The answer was that all the philosophies were ultimately interested in human freedom, emancipating the mind through democratic revolutions. The first revolutionary action to emancipate the individual mind was ending and replacing the monarchies with republics so that people had a real voice in the decisions that affected their daily lives. The next step was to end undemocratic processes that had oppressed people throughout history. The French Revolution abolished feudalism; separated Church and state authority redistributed wealth; expanded the rights of women; and questioned, but did not end, slavery. The Enlightenment scientists had a truly revolutionary vision: the possibility of creating a society that benefited most people, not just the elites. This was a society based on “liberty, equality and fraternity.” It was Enlightenment philosophy that led to the French and American Revolutions. The French Revolution from 1789–1799 was influenced by the French philosophers, the visionary leaders like Voltaire, La Mettrie, Diderot, Rousseau, and others, who provided the intellectual foundation for the democratic revolution (Popkin, 2019). Their interest was to apply the learnings from the humanism of the Renaissance and Romantic movements as well as the scientific principles of the Newtonian Revolution. The French and American Revolutions changed more than philosophy. They changed human psychology with the vision of equality and opportunity for all. Human rights were now more than a philosophic concept; it was a realistic goal.

Figure 5.17 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 183 Rousseau conceded that a modern state developed in the image of nature could not be created, but a modern state based on a community of equals and democratic principles could be imagined. On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Rights (Rousseau, 1762/1947), written in 1762, articulated his romantic vision of the new world order by the symbol of peasants democratically passing their laws in nature under an oak tree. Understanding that it was too late to recapture the basic human goodness of the past and return to nature, Rousseau believed that peasants were psychologically the most connected to the earth and the natural descendants for a new sociopolitical world order. This was because they had not yet been educated into corrupt modern behaviors and would not be easily duped into policies that were not in their best interest. This was later a refrain heard in the modern Chinese revolution of 1949, which based its revolution on the liberation of the Chinese peasantry. Rousseau, to the amazement and chagrin of most of the intellectual thinkers of his day, viewed the peasants as the answer to a more democratic society. Rousseau inspired the French Revolution of 1789 because his concept of freedom appealed to the younger generation that was unfettered by centuries of Church and aristocratic control. Supporting the Enlightenment revolutionaries, the young philosophers rejected narrow theological doctrines and searched for a new political era. They applied scientific and humanistic principles of the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. The idea of the peasants making democratic decisions under an oak tree inspired many of the leading French revolutionaries, including Maximilien Robespierre, the most influential figure of the French Revolution. With the rise of modernity, peasants provided a powerful revolutionary symbol for a new vision of the common people in nature, peacefully making their own political decision (Popkin, 2019). Starting from the premise that political power starts in nature and not in what he called the new modern urban commercial political centers, no one could give their rights away to a state. Like humanity in its original natural state, every person is free. It is only through a special contract, a social contract, that a legitimate state can be given power. What was needed was a general will, the will to serve the common, not private, interests of humankind and to recapture the ancient traditions and avoid the ills of modern society. By stripping science of religious morality, ethics immediately became a more personal, individual process. It was open to many interpretations and caused confusion and even corruption. The philosophers resisted any insight that their world might be irrational and oppressive. They rejected the fact that an enlightened science, like all human endeavors, might have shadow elements. In the revolutionary furor of the French Revolution, revolutionaries literally “lost their minds” and became irrational about any dissent. This dissent caused violent impulses to destroy opponents. The destructive aspect of the unconscious shadow emerged uncontrolled, consuming the revolution. After the creation of the First Republic, there was a Reign of Terror inspired by the general will of Rousseau. Robespierre thought the best way to develop a republic of general will was to rid society of any opposition (Popkin, 2019). This led Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety to make unfounded claims of treason by its opponents. This led to the massacre and public executions of thousands of French citizens. In a violent counterreaction in 1794, a Coup d’etat of Thermidor, or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre, Robespierre was executed. A counterrevolution developed to control the terror spreading throughout France. The Thermidorian Reaction became a term for historians to explain a dialectic of history, which meant an extreme psychological action is counterbalanced by another extreme psychological reaction (Popkin, 2019). In this case, extreme radicalism resulted in extreme conservatism. The conservative reaction, with the approval of the affluent

184  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs upper classes, led to the brutal murder and massacre of the followers of Robespierre and the suppression of any radical thought. It is ironic that during the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) became a famous military leader and won an extraordinary number of battles. He was especially victorious during the Napoleonic Wars, building a large French empire in continental Europe before his demise in 1815. Napoleon became emperor of France in 1804 and returned France to authoritarian rule. He left a controversial political and cultural legacy, a symbol of the ultimate failure of the French Revolution to attain the goals of the Enlightenment. The American Revolution took a less radical approach. Europeans who fled to the New World were most often tired of philosophical and political conflicts. Many sought relief from papal oppression, intellectual elitism, and endless European wars. The founders of the American Revolution were schooled in Newtonian science and Enlightenment philosophy (Rossiter, 1963). It was from a strong philosophic base that the American revolutionaries drafted a constitution that became a model for revolutions throughout the world, even providing influence in the development of the Vietnamese communist constitution. In 1789, during the debate regarding the ratification of the Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and others wrote The Federalist Papers, which were written in the traditional writing style of the philosophic essays of Plato and Aristotle (Rossiter, 1963). These were essays sent to New York papers to defend a federal model of government. Although not directly noted, the Papers expressed the philosophical treaties of their time and the thoughts of Locke, Rousseau, and others. The founders believed a republic was superior to a democracy because in a republic the power is limited, based on power being derived from the people and under strict limitations. In republics, individuals can only hold political power for a limited amount of time, whereas in a democracy, there was fear of “mob rule,” factionalism, and tribalism, which could lead to anarchy. The originators of the Constitution had a basic mistrust of an uneducated population because uneducated citizens would neglect history and philosophy (Wood, 2002). One example of the mistrust of a democratic “mob psychology” was the creation of an Electoral College of educated and schooled electors. These electors would elect the president based not on a popular vote, which might be unenlightened. Enlightened electors would vote on what was best for the country, a vote based on reason, science, and in Enlightenment principles. The modern relevancy of the Electoral College has been questioned because electors are now elected by popular vote of the states, not by electors steeped in Enlightenment philosophy; in recent times, there has been concern because presidents have been elected by the Electoral College without the majority vote of the American people. The European and American revolutionary leaders were inspired by Enlightenment philosophy. They were especially inspired by natural law and general will, which was immortalized on July 4, 1776, in the American Declaration of Independence. It was not until the modern musical Hamilton, that many Americans became reacquainted with the fact that Enlightenment philosophy inspired the American Revolution. It was Enlightenment philosophy that inspired the American revolt against monarchy and British colonialism (Wood, 2002). The Declaration of Independence envisioned a new human psychology, a psychology endowed by Enlightenment philosophers. In one of the most revolutionary and famous sentences in the English language, the Declaration of Independence stated in its preamble: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with unalienable Rights, that among these Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 185 Socioeconomic Systems

The Three Estates became a symbol of the class struggle that would eventually lead to the creation of new socioeconomic systems. The goal of the Enlightenment was to end the oppressive forces of the clergy, the First Estate, and the nobility, the Second Estate, from the backs of common people, the Third Estate. The founders of the American Revolution used “men” as the main gender in all their documents, which initially gave socioeconomic power only to men, specifically white men. It was only in the twentieth century that women and black people would win, through often violent struggle, the right to vote. Issues surrounding the construction of the Statue of Liberty symbolize early socio-ecumenic problems in American society. Initially, wealthy Americans resisted funding the construction of Lady Liberty in America. Joseph Pulitzer, through the pages of his newspaper The World, led a citizen-based fundraising effort to support the construction in the harbor of New York. His message was brutally frank. The statue was not intended to celebrate rich French and American millionaires. Its intention was to celebrate the liberation and emancipation of all people, especially the poor and unseen. Therefore, he believed the common person should give, no matter how small, what they could afford. On a very cloudy October day in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was inaugurated amidst controversy, especially among oppressed socioeconomic groups. The civil rights advocates of the day cried hypocrisy as segregation laws were being strictly enforced throughout America. The Klu Klux Klan continued its reign of terror by murdering black people throughout the south.

Figure 5.18 

186  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Although Lady Liberty was a woman, no women were part of the official speeches at the celebration. Only a few were allowed in be in the audience. In response to the perceived slight, Suffragettes, advocating for the human rights of women, rented a vessel and managed to get close to the island to scream their protest. They screamed that although a woman was being erected as a symbol of freedom, women in the United States had no freedom, not even the freedom to vote. The labor movement was emerging in reaction to the economic abuses of the Industrial Revolution. During this time, there was a desperate need in the United States for cheap labor, so for many, Lady Liberty became a symbol of the abuse of immigrants and poor labor. The result was that the economic elite met an immigrant desire for a new life and freedom with economic exploitation. The year of 1886 is often seen as one of the worst years for labor unrest and strikes in U.S. history. Cultural Systems

The “birth of modern culture” would be secular and would seek universal principles by which humanity could live free of religion and the cultural traditions of the past. This was the new day and science would lead the way even though science was not always certain of the direction it was going. The French Revelation showed that science was often unaware of the shadow elements that could undermine its progress. French philosophers provided secular society with encyclopedic accounts of the philosophic principles and discoveries of science with the purpose of defeating religious superstition and the cultural tyranny and the oppression of the First and Second Estates. Philosophic humanism was now the active practice of human rights, which changed cultures throughout the Western world. The Declaration of Rights of Man, the Citizen was drafted in 1789 by Marquis de Lafayette, which articulated a doctrine of natural rights, rights that are universal and not dependent on any human laws or cultural traditions (Popkin, 2019). Lafayette, who had commanded American troops in the American Revolution, was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence. The Enlightenment applied some human rights to women. In her Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1779), condemned the state of servile ignorance that most women were consigned. She asked why women could not exercise their non-biological talents like men. Although there were many challenges ahead for cultural equality and freedom, the democratic instinct of the Enlightenment created a philosophic path for the development of new cultural systems based on humanistic principles throughout the Western world. Enlightenment Psychology Rationalistic Dualism – Rene Descartes

As occurs in history, there was counterreaction to empiricism, scientism, and emphasis on a purely physical and a passive tabula rasa mind. The leader of the movement during the seventeenth century was Rene Descartes (1596–1650). He attempted to reconcile a rational

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 187 philosophy with the new Newtonian science that permeated the Western world. Because Descartes challenged and integrated many of the concepts of the Scientific Revolution, he is often seen as the first great philosopher of the modern age. Like Newton, Bacon, and Locke, Descartes was interested in developing a scientific method to support his theories (Grayling, 2005). Perceiving empiricism as proposing a passive mind, a mind reacting passively to the environment, Descartes envisioned an active, reactive, and rational mind. He envisioned a mind that can think and introspect, that can be free of a purely physical experience of the world. Descartes started life in a vulnerable psychological state when his mother died when he was around 11 years old. This left him striving for certainty and stability for the rest of his life. In his early adulthood he had several major dreams that led him to decide to dedicate his life to philosophy. Descartes was alive when Giordano Bruno, a radical Dominican friar and Hermetic occultist, was burned at the stake and Galileo was under house arrest. The dreams seem to indicate that Descartes needed to “stand on his own two feet,” even as he felt a deep sense of insecurity and vulnerability. Descartes lived during an intense sociopolitical period as wars between the French Catholics and Protestant Huguenots intensified Catholic and Protestant hatred for each other. When the Church had no real answer to the Reformation and with its attack on Scholasticism, the Church tried to suppress any theories not based on faith. In a reactionary state, the Church began to see any theological opposition as heresy. It brought “heretics,” often many of the new scientists, before rigged Inquisitional Courts and destroyed their careers, threatened house arrest, and even death to anyone who challenged Church authority. Although Descartes agreed with Copernicus that the earth rotated and moved around the sun, in this oppressive environment he was often reluctant to speak or write openly about his scientific discoveries. It was his belief, long held by philosophical and theological scholars, that the soul, not matter, caused movement. The empiricist view of matter as the true mover meant that a soul was no longer needed. Descartes worried that arguing from a physiologically based understanding of the world would lead to condemnation by the Church. He sought to find his own method by which to find truth. He started with a critique of Aristotle and held that the major problem with Aristotelian thought was that it lacked a good method by which to investigate nature. In his Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences, Descartes (1637/2015) adopted a rationalist view of the mind that started with radical doubt about everything and by following the four rules of his methodology: never accept any knowledge that is not clear and irresistible; divide all problems into many small component parts; effective solutions come from of a continuum of starting from the simplest toward the more complex; and continue to test solutions with persistence and rigor to avoid mistakes (Grayling, 2005). His method led to examining and doubting all his beliefs and thoughts. Realizing that his thinking processes made him doubt whether the sensations from the external world, as the new scientists believed, even existed at all, he found that his senses deceived and were unreliable. Descartes realized by the very fact that he could doubt, even the existence of God, meant that he could think. Thinking must then be the first principle of philosophy and the only proof of human existence: I think therefore I am.

188  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs

Figure 5.19 

Descartes solves the external outer sensate world problem by turning to God. God created the outer world because God would never deceive humanity. Deception would mean imperfection and God is not imperfect. It is only by believing in God that we can consider information from the external world as reliable. Although Augustine said, “if I am deceived, I exist,” and Parmenides said, “it is the same thing to think and be,” Descartes made reason and the exploration of the mind the focus and foundation of his philosophy. His separation of matter from thinking led to the separation of the mind from the body. As Locke separated the primary and secondary experiences of sensations, Descartes took the concept further. Instead of a more passive Lockean mental response to the external world, the philosophy and methods of Descartes led to a more active reflective experience of sensations. This led to the emergence of a separate, thinking self, a self that can create a unique mental experience of sensations. Descartes revisits the concept of an individual consciousness that emerged in the Axial Age. The “I” is again necessary for consciousness unencumbered by nature and the body. After the

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 189 Axial Age through religious, political, and cultural orthodoxy, humanity was told what to think and believe for salvation or political survival. The individual self was experienced from externally determined belief systems, whether it be family, church, or state. After Descartes, the individual self could not only be studied but became one of the most important of modern psychological discoveries (Grayling, 2005). With Descartes, Rationalism was born and would provide a powerful and viable alternative to empiricism. Belief that the mind was a totally separate entity reflects the current separation of mind and body in Western healthcare, separate medical and mental health systems. Double Aspectism – Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was raised in a tolerant Holland because his Jewish family had to escape persecution in Portugal. He lived during a time when Descartes was the intellectual rage of Europe and became the first contemporary philosopher to reject the Judeo-Christian foundation of modern science. He rejected the dualism of Descartes as well as his view of a transcendent God. He believed that God could not be a separate entity and could not be embodied as described in the Hebrew Bible. This led to a painful excommunication from the Jewish community (Wolfson, 1934). The God of Spinoza was synonymous with nature, meaning humans were part of both God and nature. God unites matter and mind. If God were not nature, then there would have to be a boundary and separation, which means an imperfection. God cannot be separated from nature; therefore, there is no final cause, or teleology. The way to understand the world is through the symbol of material substance and consciousness on the same coin, double aspectism; physiology and psychology are inseparable (Wolfson, 1934). In reaction to the dualism of Descartes, Spinoza believed there could only be one substance. He subscribed to a monistic metaphysics in which all is one; there are no divisions, no mind and body separateness, God is in everything, and is everywhere. He believed in a pantheism that eliminates the distinction between secular and sacred; everything is sacred because everything is God (Wolfson, 1934). Since God is the cause of all things, free will is an illusion and is a logical impossibility. It is feelings that give the appearance that we have free will and the power to control our emotions. Spinoza posits that it is instinct, conatus, meaning the unconscious strivings of human desire that become the problem. It is only when a rational analysis of the illogical, unconscious, that conatus can be understood and controlled. This is a precursor to the psychoanalytic view that psychoanalysis is needed to control the irrational unconscious (Spinoza, 1996).Two types of feelings need to be acknowledged consciously: active and passive emotions. Until there is an active emotional understanding of the impact of external events, a passive mental response creates a powerless psychological disposition. Spinoza believed reason provided an active mental response and created feelings of empowerment. Reason also showed the importance of differentiating between active and passive emotions. Passive emotions are unconscious reactions to external events, while active emotions are under conscious control. Spinoza had a mechanistic and deterministic view of an ordered, unitary universe. For him, happiness results from a calm acceptance of worldly events, rather than responding from an unconscious emotional agitation that does not accept the world as already determined, a Buddhist-like psychology.

190  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Spinoza opened the door to the scientific study of feelings, strivings, and passions. His deterministic and mechanistic views helped shape a scientific environment to study the emotional impact of internal and environmental events on human behavior. Because introspection, an individual examination of mental and emotional processes, became a key determinant in the early development of experimental psychology, Spinoza provided inspiration for the creation of psychological laboratories, which included the laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of modern psychology. Spinoza was also an inspiration for the eighteenth-century Enlightenment to create a society based on rational, progressive, and scientific principles. Pure Reason – Immanuel Kant

In his essay, Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) coined the famous Enlightenment phrase, Dare to Know or Dare to be Wise (Kant, 1784/2009). This examined the causes of resistance to Enlightenment as well as the lack of the sociopolitical preconditions to make Enlightenment possible. For Kant, the answer to the question of the reason for Enlightenment was the need for intellectual freedom. Enlightenment was about humanity emerging from a deep immaturity and “dogmatic slumber.” It was not caused by a lack of understanding, but from a lack of courage to use reason and intellect without the direction of external authority figures. Besides lack of courage, Kant believed that people lived in fear of their intellect and perceived thinking as dangerous. This resulted in an escape from freedom. Trying to balance the new science while at the same time refusing to discard the past and all metaphysics, Kant wanted to reclaim philosophy as a basis for the physical sciences. His major disagreement was with the Scottish

Figure 5.20 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 191 philosopher David Hume (1711–1776). In A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume (1740) reduced knowledge of the mind to empirical experience and habitual psychological connections and associations. Knowledge was discarded of any philosophical foundation. Kant wanted to prove that knowledge of the mind was far more complex than the reduction of human psychology to habit formation. In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant (1781/1998) observed that there is pure reason, but it is a purity unconnected to direct experience. It is the mind that gives experience reason and understanding, not the reverse. There is a transcendental consciousness that knows in advance what will be experienced: a priori knowledge (“from earlier”). Kant concedes the mind has limitations because it can only experience what exists, a posteriori knowledge (“from the later”), which depends on experience and empirical evidence. Without a prior knowledge, there can be no understanding of experience because the mind is active, not passive. It is always processing information prior to an experience. True knowledge is ultimately in the mind and not in the noumena, things as they really are. The result was revolutionary; another Copernican Revolution where Kant overturned the order of scientific knowledge as Newton had overturned the place of the sun and earth. The mind became the center of the universe, usurping the sun and the natural order. The Kantian Revolution forever changed science and how humans viewed themselves. It was the active, courageous, and fearless mind that will change the world, not the empiricists who viewed the mind as a docile “blank slate” passively being imprinted by the natural and objective world. Kant utilizes the concept of category to describe the structure of the mind. A category is a characteristic of an object before it is experienced. There are four pure categories, which are space, time, substance, and causality. Before an object is experienced, an object already exists in space and time and has a substance and a cause. These four categories are always present and provide the structure for every engagement with the world and are the essential elements for a priori knowledge. Paul Tillich, a modern theologian, described Kant as a Shiva symbol of the Enlightenment. Like the dancing Shiva, he was both destroying some of the Enlightenment ideals while at the same time creating a new epoch of human understanding related to morals and ethics. As the Scientific Revolution rejected much of Church morality, the Categorical Imperative, based on a priori knowledge, provided a “religious-free” approach to ethics and morality (Kant, 1785/1981). For Kant, moral law was universal and rational. It did not dictate specific commandments, but had an imperative to act for the betterment of humanity: to see the other person as an end and never as a means and a moral obligation that transcends the current needs of an individual or society. Kant believed that the utilitarian morality of the day was too subjective since utilitarian morality believed that murder was wrong because of its effect on other people and because it was concerned only about the impact on individuals in society. Kant based his categorial imperative on a deontological moral system, which believed murder was wrong because it was wrong beyond any individual or societal concerns. He argued that hypothetical moral systems erode morality because the imperatives upon which they rely are too heavily dependent on subjective concerns.

192  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Kant described the human psyche from two basic psychological perspectives. There is a self that experiences the world as it appears, the phenomenal self. The second perspective, the noumenal self, views the world as it really is. The phenomenal self knows there is something greater to know beyond experience, like the existence of God or an afterlife. However, since these issues cannot be empirically proven, they become relegated to faith. Like most scientists, Kant was a prisoner of his time. He left a mixed message about the future of a psychological science because of his belief that transcendental consciousness and a priori knowledge and pure categories were unmeasurable and could not be studied empirically. It was impossible for a rational psychology to exist because it was impossible to know pure consciousness. For Kant, psychology could study the mind as a thinking substance through introspection, but the study of introspection could never be considered true science. Wundt, the father of modern psychology, did not agree and used introspection as a scientific method in the creation of modern psychology. Although Kant placed the mind and psychological understanding at the center of a new revolutionary science, in the final analysis, he failed to create a new method to study the mind. His Shiva-like approach ultimately reinforced the very science of his rebellion and betrayed his own version of the Copernican Revolution. Kant was unable to acknowledge the shadow of racism, which tarnished his legacy. He is often seen as providing the first scientific definition of race, using racial categories to describe racial differences (Kant, 1798/1996). Kant argued that the greatest perfection of humanity would be seen in the white race. Kant perceived a hierarchy of racial perfection, with the white race at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the “yellow Indians,” and ending with the American “negroes.” By the end of his life, he denounced colonial conquest and slavery, and mocked the European attitude of supremacy. This left scholars to argue whether his ideas of universal freedom could ever supersede how his racial categories continue to be used to perpetrate racism throughout the world. Dialectic Method – Friedrich Hegel

For Fredrich Hegel (1770–1831), history was the story of God coming to consciousness. God, the “Absolute,” realizes itself through the conflicts in history. Hegel believed that the scientific method and empirical sciences left no place to situate humanity in history. The natural science focus on the cause neglects the why, or the reason for ongoing conflicts in human society. The resolution of discord is through history and the development of the modern state because God expresses itself through the modern state. Hegel was the product of the Enlightenment and was a German absolute idealist. He believed being could be understood in a holistic manner (“Absolute”) through self-conscious questioning. He turns Descartes’s mantra on its head by changing I Think Therefore I am, to I am, because I think (Hegel, 1807/1977). Ideas provide a sense of personal subjective being and an identity. Without ideas, one would not have the ability to understand the objective outer world. Although he admired Newton, Locke, and other Enlightenment thinkers, Hegel developed a critique that rejected a mechanistic approach to knowledge. In his critique, he rejected Newtonian science that explains little and has little societal utility. Even more dangerous was the belief that Newtonian science could lead to scientific self-absorption with a focus more on the ego of the scientists and their irrelevant scientific arguments, than on a science seeking truth. In his

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 193 view, Newtonian science could not explain why the laws of science exist or even why science exists at all (Pinkland, 2000). Hegel is critical that one methodology should determine all scientific inquiry. Finding facts through natural science methods creates no urgency to act. However, human development requires an active and urgent attainment of knowledge. Humans, like societies, develop through stages from survival to literacy. Each stage results in a higher functionality than the previous stage. A true science needs a feeling of urgency, which arises from the tensions of struggling with opposing, dialectic forces. Human development can be viewed as a dialectic process of a synthesis between the affirming and negating forces in daily life. The struggle with contradictory tensions can create a needed urgency for change. This dialectic process is the Hegelian ontological logic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This is a process necessary for historical progress because as an example of the dialectic process, both a slave owner and a slave lack freedom since all humans are

Figure 5.21 

194  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs born to be free (thesis). Slaves cannot know this until they feel oppression from the slave owners (antithesis). The synthesis is the slave owner understanding that freedom is an instrument for a greater good and the betterment for all humanity, which includes their own freedom (synthesis). In history, change occurs through the dialectic process, which is conflictual and even at times violent. Hegel adds complexity to the belief of Descartes and other philosophers who argue that psychological awareness, self-consciousness, can only occur in relationship to others. For Hegel, individual psychology must be rooted in history (Hegel, 1807/1977). Both the slave and the slave owner lose their selfhood. The slaves perceive themselves as inferior, unconscious of their true value and the slave owners perceive themselves as superior, unconscious of their own enslavement. It is the synthesis that changes history. Without historic change, both parties are left with deep psychological scars and social and psychological alienation. The philosophy of Hegel developed during a time when Germany was reacting to all the changes in Europe, particularly the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. He believed that what came before him historically was important, but its understanding was too abstract. For example, because of the lack of a moral and ethical structure, when reason was supposedly liberating the French during the French Revolution, a Reign of Terror caused thousands of French to lose their lives. Hegel believed the ethics in the Categorical Imperative of Kant were too abstract and individualistic. What was needed was a universal moral community, a synthesis of rational Kantian ethics with German customs that would result in the creation of a unified, modern, German state (Pinkland, 2000). Hegel is considered one of the last great system thinkers. He was Aristotelian in the sense of presenting a total system of the world and claiming that the evolution of the natural and metaphysical sciences could only be understood through an understanding of history. For Hegel, history is ultimately religious. It is the Spirit of God that gives life to the dialectic historic process and infuses humanity with reason and morality. His belief in the Great Man theory and the subjugation of individual rights for the benefit of the state became problematic because modern states have often been led by authoritarian leaders whose need for power took precedence over the creation of a moral community. As science progresses, Hegel believed that national spirit evolves into a World Spirit, symbolized by the Owl of Minerva. This symbol became associated with Hegelian philosophy and is a symbol utilized by Hegelian groups and publications throughout the world (Brudner, 2017). The Owl of Minerva, is often associated with Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom, symbolizes the need for wisdom in science. Hegel had great respect for Greek thought and believed that it provided the philosophical and dialectic foundation for the evolution of humanity. Hegel embraced the symbol and noted that the owl flies, spreading its wings at dusk. This reminds science of the importance of accessing the wisdom during the challenges of history as it is being lived. The symbol provides science with inspiration and caution because historical stages often can only be “understood at dusk when the day is over,” when empires and cultures die. Hegel would optimistically note that Plato and Aristotle developed their greatest philosophical contributions while Greek society was decaying and dying. However, it was only “after the owl spread his wings at dusk” and Greece collapsed that history could begin to truly assess the full impact of Greek thought.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 195 Hegelian thought continued to develop throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Hegelian dialectic was adopted and revised by Marx and his followers. Marxists rejected idealism and the religious dialectic of Hegel and created the material dialectic as a foundational communist principle. For Marxists, capitalism provided the thesis, socialism the antithesis, and communism the synthesis of human history.

Figure 5.22 

196  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs In his attempt to resolve the Kantian problem of the mind and the barrier between reality as it really is and the perception of reality, Hegel asks a psychological question for the ages. If psychology accepts Kantian conceptualization, does psychology bypass the mind completely, leading to the neobehavioristic psychology of B. F. Skinner? Or does psychology accept the mind as a major focus of a true psychological science, as in the cognitive-behavioral psychology of Aaron Beck (see Vol. II, Ch. 4). Romanticism – Jean Jacques Rousseau

In 1750, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) entered the scientific world by writing a discourse in response to a competition sponsored by the DIjon Academy of Arts and Science (Academia de Dijon). The question was whether the restoration of the sciences and arts contributed to refining moral practices. Rousseau answered with an emphatic “no!” because the arts and sciences have been corrupted by Newtonian science (Rousseau, 2011). Rousseau led a counter-Enlightenment movement because the Enlightenment movement not only rejected feelings, the new sciences had the erroneous idea that emotions were dangerous. The Rousseau mantra was I feel, Therefore I am. Emotions are the best proof of the existence of a higher power because it is in nature where one feels connected to something greater: to God. In nature, humanity is uncorrupted. It is life in modern society where individuals are losing their humanity. In the socialization process, people are taught to repress their feelings and natural desires, which causes evil and anti-social behavior. Sadly, because the king has no accountability to a superior being, kings are the only individuals who can freely express their feelings. As Enlightenment leaders looked to create in the Western world modern versions of the ancient Greek and Roman republics, Rousseau did not see anything useful in that exploration. He searched for answers from ancestral societies. To his amazement, he found that some still existed. Rousseau idealized what he called “noble savages.” He discovered the existence of the American Indians and the South Pacific Islanders, whom he perceived as living the uncorrupted life, as it was before the necessity of societal concepts of good, evil, and morality. He rejected the idea of original sin. At birth, all people are good and free. It is society that robs humanity of its goodness and freedom. Rousseau stated in the first sentence of his work, Discourse on The Origin of Inequality Among Men, “Man is Born Free, But Everywhere in Chains” (Rousseau, 1762/1947, 2011). Rousseau questioned the need for progress envisioned by the Enlightenment (Rousseau, 1969). Before the Axial Age, humanity had not imagined that the future would be better than the past. In fact, for our “heroic ancestors,” the future was supposed be like the past. It was important to honor ancestors by learning to live in harmony with the past. The endless improvement of the world was a new concept that permeated the psychology of modern societies. Rousseau questioned this concept by asking if was worth embracing future progress at the expense of losing the natural beauty of the past. That is why he advocated for peasants, unfettered by the modern world, not Enlightened intellectuals to be the new leaders of society.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 197

Figure 5.23 

Rousseau thought that modern society had degraded love by making it necessary to come from others and by making people too dependent on each other. He distinguished between amour propre, love from others, and amour de soi, self-love. Animals in their natural habitat model amour de soi. An animal love is rooted in the natural world of personal survival. Amour propre love is societal love rather than self-love, and the unnatural need to receive self-love from other people. This neglects the natural love inherent in being human. Worse, amour propre is a socially destructive love and creates the desire to have more than others. Amour propre is a superficial love that believes love comes from having more money, private property, or fame. It also leads to different classes and class struggle. Voltaire, a critic of Romanticism, noted that he wanted to walk on two, not four legs, and rejected any idea of abandoning the progress of modern civilization by returning to the past. Because of his eccentric behavior and disturbed personal life, Rousseau is often called the Diogenes of his age. He was uncomfortable in the urban, commercial, and modern society. He changed religions many times, fathered children outside of marriage, and became the lover of his elder legal guardian. His thoughts were often so disturbing to society that his works were banned in France. He had to flee to his beloved Geneva to avoid the stoning of his house.

198  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Often seen as the beginning of modern autobiography and providing a modern version of the Confessions of St. Augustine, Rousseau’s Confessions was written in 1781 (Rousseau, 1781/1953). In Confessions, he reveals the trauma of his own childhood. His mother died nine days after his birth, and because of the inability of his father to ever recover emotionally, Rousseau was abandoned at age 13. His drive to heal his childhood wounds and find a mother figure later in his adult life often led to emotionally destructive relationships and feelings of emptiness. In his educational treatise, Emile, Rousseau (1762/1974) imagined a childhood that was joyous and loving, filled with emotional support. In the treatise, Emile and his tutor withdraw from society and return to nature. Rousseau thought that childhood provided humanity a vision of its most natural state, unfettered by the ills of modern society. Emile returns to society only after his natural talents and his ongoing ability to emotionally explore the world were psychologically solidified and when he had a sense of his true, natural being. In 1762, his book was publicly burned in Paris and Geneva because of a chapter in Emile entitled “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar.” In the chapter, the value of organized religion was challenged: If Emile needed a religion at all it should not be based on the corrupt modern religious institutions, but on nature itself. During the French Revolution Emile inspired the development of a completely new educational system in France. Returning to the natural roots of humanity, Rousseau became one of the first to study children and advocate for childhood education. Because of his own experiences, Rousseau did not believe that children should be viewed as miniature adults. It is through the eyes of a child that one can learn not only about the nature of the world but can recapture their own true self before the socialization process of a dysfunctional modern society. Emancipatory Opportunities of Enlightenment Envision a Different American Healthcare System

The healthcare system in many ways reflects the philosophy of Descartes, who separated the mind and body. Not only are the physical and mental health systems separate, they are often antagonistic and suspicious towards each other, especially regarding funding, parity, and professional authority. View the World through Your Childhood

Take a moment to reflect on the world through your childhood and assess how the modern socialization process has changed your emotional experience of the world. Understand That American Democracy Is Rooted in the Enlightenment

Read the Federalist Papers, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the Unites States. No other papers can give a better education as to the philosophic foundation of the American Revolution (Rossiter, 1963). Remember the pursuit of individual life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is rooted in Greek philosophy, the Scientific Revolution, and philosophers of the Enlightenment. Embrace the American Shadow

There is no doubt that America has become a beacon of hope in the world. The crack in the Liberty Bell symbolizes that slavery, women rights, anti-Immigrants, and native people attitudes

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 199 and policies have been part of the American psychological shadow. The question is whether the shadow of the revolution will be embraced or repressed. History has shown when France, in the pursuit of a republic, thought reason alone would fulfill the goals of the Enlightenment without awareness of the irrational, the unconscious shadow. The result was unspeakable violence, terror, and the debasement of humanistic values.

Figure 5.24  Save Democracy

Schooled in history and the Enlightenment, the founders realized that republics had always ultimately failed. Ironically, the closer a country came to republican values, the sooner the republic seemed to die. They believed that in the final analysis, survival of the American republic depended on leadership with strong religious and moral values. This was because republics were vulnerable to being seduced by self-serving unenlightened authoritarian rulers. Recent historic events confirm the concern of American revolutionaries about the fragility of democracy. Saving the legacy of the American Revolution is going to be challenging but essential not only for Americans, but for the future of democracy throughout the world (Holcombe, 2019). Another view of the Statue of Liberty can stand as a powerful symbol of the potential to “heal the crack,” and attain the dreams and aspirations of the Enlightenment and the French and American Revolutions. Gifted in 1886 by the French to symbolize the long history of friendship and revolutionary spirit between the two peoples, the real purpose, often lost or ignored, was

200  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs to also celebrate the end of American slavery. Besides holding the Roman numerals for July 4, 1776, on the tablet in her hand, at the feet of Lady Liberty are broken chains, meant to symbolize the removal of chains from the feet of black American slaves. Lady Liberty is rooted in mythology and religion. The sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was inspired by the goddess Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. She was worshipped in ancient Rome, especially among the liberated and emancipated Roman slaves. The Statue of Freedom atop the dome of the U.S. Capitol is an ongoing reminder to our elected leaders that laws and governance should be inspired by her message of freedom and justice. Lady Liberty evokes the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Roman Columbia, and the Christian Virgin Mary. Lady Liberty has been a powerful symbol for political revolution and for those seeking freedom and democracy throughout the world. Most recently, in 1989, Chinese students used the symbol, the Goddess of Democracy, in Tiananmen Square in a call for political reform, the end to corruption, and for building a more democratic Chinese society.

Figure 5.25 

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 201

QUESTIONS 

5

5.1 Describe how the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems influenced the development of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. 5.2 Explain how the School of Athens symbolized the Renaissance. 5.3 Describe the psychological impact of the Reformation. 5.4 Explain how the human psyche changed with the discovery of the Heliocentric world. 5.5 Describe how Newtonian science effects modern psychology. 5.6 Explain disagreements between Galileo, Locke, and Kant about whether psychology could be a science. 5.7 Describe the psychological world of Jacques Rousseau and Romanticism. 5.8 Explain how Enlightenment philosophy influenced the American Revolution.

Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 5.0. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Medieval Philosophers). Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0). https://handwiki.org/wiki/File:Jean-Jacques_Rousseau_(painted_ portrait).jpg Figure 5.1. A symbol of the reemergence of Greek thought. Figure 5.2. A symbol of the historic and perpetual violence against women. Figure 5.3. A symbol of the modern “printing press.” Figure 5.4. Nursery rhymes ritualize shadow and the darker experiences of being human. Figure 5.5. A symbol that simplicity is the best way to solve complex problems. Figure 5.6. Symbolic of the end of Church dogmatism during the Renaissance. Figure 5.7. A symbol of the renewed focus on the beauty of the body during the Renaissance. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Replica_Michelangelo%27s_David_black_background.jpg Figure 5.8. The ongoing need for a modern Renaissance for women. Figure 5.9. The need for the awareness of archetypal feminine and shadow energies. Figure 5.10. The relationship of the spiritual and physical worlds. Figure 5.11. Feminine awareness in men leads to the discovery of a “new world.” Figure 5.12. Symbolic of nature, not humanity, as the center of the universe. Figure 5.13. Human behavior subject to mathematical and observational laws. Figure 5.14. The worship of scientific idols leads to false scientific findings. Figure 5.15. A religious symbol which now applies to science. Figure 5.16. The belief that humans are born as a blank psychological slate. Figure 5.17. Peasants as symbols of the most capable people for the creation of a new sociopolitical order. Figure 5.18. The symbol for all modern political revolutions. Figure 5.19. A symbol of the body and mind as separate entities. Figure 5.20. The mind providing reason prior to experience. Figure 5.21. The slave and the slave owner both lack freedom. Figure 5.22. A symbol for scientific interest in the wisdom of history.

202  Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs Figure 5.23. Humans are born free, but live in chains because of modern progress and socialization. Figure 5.24. American freedom denied by sexism, racism, and xenophobia. Figure 5.25. A symbol of freedom from the chains of all forms of slavery.

References Andrade, T. (Ed.). (2016). The gunpowder age: China, Military innovation, and the rise of the West in world history. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Bacon, F. (1994). Novum organum. (P. Urbach & J. Gibson, Eds., and Trans.). La Salle, IL: Open Court. (Original work published in 1620). Brudner, A. (2017). The owl and the rooster: Hegel’s transformative political science. New York: Cambridge University Press. Buchan, J. (2006). The authentic Adam Smith. His life and ideas. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Burke, J. (1985). The day the universe changed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Cantor, F. (2001). In the wake of the plague: The Black Death and the world it made. New York: Free Press. Copernicus, N. (1995). The revolution of heavenly spheres. (C.G. Wallis, Trans.). Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. (Original work published 1543). Cremante, S. (2013). Leonardo Da Vinci: Artist, scientist, inventor. Florence: Giunti Press. Delamar, G.T. (2001). Mother goose, from nursery to literature. Lincoln, Nebraska: McFarland Publishing Co. Descartes, R. (2015). Discourse on the method of rightly conducting the reason and seeking truth in the sciences. (J. Veitch, Trans.). New York: Andesite Press. (Original work published in 1637). Gay, P. (1995). The Enlightenment: An interpretation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Grayling, A.G. (2005). Descartes: The life and times of a genius. New York: Walker and Company. Green, D. (2014). The hundred years war: A people’s history. London: Yale University Press. Guinness World Records (2018). Guinness world records 2018: Meet our real-life heroes. New York: Guinness World Record Illustrated Edition. Hall, M. (Ed.). (1997). Raphael’s school of Athens: Masterpieces of Western painting. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hegel, W.G. (1977). Phenomenology of spirit. (A.V. Miller, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published in 1807). Heilbroner, R. (1995.) The worldly philosophers: The lives, times, and ideas of the great economic thinkers. (7th ed.). New York: Touchstone Press. Hellman, H. (1988). Great feuds in science. Ten of the liveliest disputes ever. New York: Wiley Book Co. Hendrix, S.H. (2015). Martin Luther: Visionary reformer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Hilliam, R. (2005). Galileo Galilei: Father of modern science. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Hobbes, T. (1996). Leviathan. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published in 1651). Holcombe, R. (2019). Liberty in peril: Democracy and power in American history. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Hume, D. (1740). A treatise of human nature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Kant, I. (1981). Grounding for the metaphysics of morals. (J.W. Ellington, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. (Original work published 1785). Kant, I. (1996). Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. (V.L. Dowdell, Trans.). Carbondale and Edwardsville Ill: Southern Illinois Press. (Original work published in 1798). Kant, I. (1998). Critique of pure reason. (P. Guyer & A.W. Wood, Trans.). New York: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1781). Kant, I. (2009). Answer the question: What is Enlightenment. (H.B. Nisbet, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1784). Klooster, J.W. (2009). Icons of invention: The makers of the modern world from Gutenberg to Gates. Santa Barbara: Greenwood ABC-CLIO.

Symbols of Psychological Rebirth during the Cultural Epochs 203 Liebert, R. (1983). Michelangelo: A psychoanalytic study of his life and images. London: Yale University Press. Locke, J. (2019). Essay concerning human understanding. Dumfries, Scotland: Anodos Press. (Original work published 1689). Marx, K. (1992). Capital: A critique of political economy. (Vol. 2). (D. Fernbach, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1867). North, W. (2010). The life and prayers of Saint Joan of Arc. Washington, D.C: Wyatt North Publishing. Paine, T. (2010). Age of reason: Being an investigation of true and fabulous theology. New York: Merchant Books. Paoletti, J.T. & Radke, G.M. (2005). Art in Renaissance Italy. (3rd ed.). New York: Laurence King. Parkin, J. (2007). Taming the Leviathan: The reception of the political and religious ideas of Thomas Hobbes in England 1640–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Passmore, J. (1968). A hundred years of philosophy. New York: Penguin Books. Pinkland, T. (2000). Hegel: A biography. New York: Cambridge University Press. Popkin, J. (2019). A new world begins: A history of the French revolution. New York: Basic Books. Rossiter, C. (1963). The federalist papers. New York: Anchor Press. Rousseau, J.J. (1947). The social contract. (C. Frankel, Trans.). New York: Macmillan. (Original work published 1762). Rousseau, J.J. (1969). The first and second discourses. (J. Masters, Trans.). New York: St. Martin Press. Rousseau, J.-J. (1953). Confessions. (J.M. Cohen, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published in 1781). Rousseau, J.-J. (1974). Emile. (B. Foxley, Trans.). London: Dent. (Original work published 1762). Rousseau, J.-J. (2011). The basic political writings. (2nd ed.). (D.A. Cress, Trans.). Indianapolis IN: Hackett Publishing Co., Inc. Rubenstein, R.E. (2003). Aristotle’s children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews rediscovered ancient wisdom and illuminated the Middle ages. New York: Harcourt Press. Smith, A. (1977). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published in 1776). Sober, E. (2015). Ockham’s razor: A user’s manual. New York: Cambridge University Press. Spinoza, B. (1996). Ethics. New York: Penguin Books. Tarnas, R. (1991). The passion of the Western mind. New York: Ballantine Books. Tiner, J.H. (1999). Johannes Kepler: Giant of faith and science. Fenton MI: Mott Media. Vickers, B. (Ed.). (2008). Francis Bacon: The major works. New York: Oxford Press. Wegemer, G.B. (2012). St. Thomas More: A profile in courage. New Rochelle: Scepter Publishers Inc. Welsh, E. (1997). Art in Renaissance Italy 1350–1500. New York: Oxford University Press. Westfall, R. (1994). Never at rest: A biography of Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge Press. Wilford, J.T. (1991). The mysterious history of Columbus: An exploration of the man, the myth, the legacy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Wolfson, H.A. (1934). The philosophy of Spinoza: Unfolding the latent processes of his reasoning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, G. (2002). The American Revolution: A history. New York: Random House.

Figure 6.0

6

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Past, Present, and a New Vision for the Future

Introduction Never Give up on people with Mental Illness When “I” is Replaced by “We.”, Illness becomes Wellness. - Shannon L. Alder

A New Vision

It is only fitting that Volume I ends with a chapter on the history of mental illness because history has entrusted psychology with the responsibility of creating a better world from both its academic and clinical understandings. This is particularly true for one of the most misunderstood populations in the world, individuals with mental illness. Although late to its focus on serious mental illness, psychology, with all the other mental health professions because of the current crisis in mental health care, shares a common responsibility to create a new vision for individuals with mental illness. First, it is important to understand and learn from history to avoid repeating the injustices perpetrated on individuals with mental illness. But it is also important to avoid the belief that modern psychiatry and psychology have nothing to learn from the past because it is the past that might provide important lessons for the future (Penney & Stastry, 2008). The goal of this chapter is to not only to focus on a history of mistreatment but also on the visionaries that transformed mental health care. During a crisis in the United States in which the mental health system is underfunded and neglected at the federal and state levels, it is important to have hope and act from the learnings of history. Definition of Mental Illness

The definition has evolved throughout history. Currently, it is defined by the American Psychiatric Association (2013) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a disturbance of cognition, emotion, or behavior that causes distress or disability in social, occupational, and other activities. It was only in recent history that a qualified mental health professional could diagnosis mental illness. Previously, it was a variety of unqualified people, ranging from priests to politicians, who believed mental illness was a demonic or political problem. In this chapter, it is the historic understanding of those who experienced serious mental illness in history that would include the DSM-5 diagnoses of schizophrenic spectrum and psychotic disorders, bipolar disorders, major depressive disorders, trauma and stressor-related disorders, and dissociative disorders. DOI: 10.4324/9780367466763-6

206  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Personal Reflections This chapter will include personal reflections from my 50 years of experience in the community mental health system as a student, intern, staff psychologist, training director, program chief, and mental health director and in academia as chair of the Doctoral Clinical Psychology Program in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

A Community Mental Health Vision

Figure 6.1 

In 1869, Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch Impressionist, painted Starry Night, a scene just before sunrise about an imaginary village, from the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum window in the Saint-Remy-de-Provence in France. The imaginary village provides a symbol of a community where individuals with mental illness could someday be valued. Although Van Gogh viewed the painting as a total failure, he did write to his brother, Theo, that the sun inspired a new day as it rose in all its glory (Naifeh & Smith, 2012). Housed in a former monastery, the asylum catered to the wealthy and its sparse census provided a safe place for Van Gogh to paint from various locations throughout the asylum. In the aftermath of a mental health crisis resulting from self-mutilation of his left ear, Van Gogh produced many of his greatest paintings. Symbolizing the potential of transforming the creative energies from mental disturbance into great art, the year Van Gogh stayed in the asylum was one of his most prolific, creating hundreds of paintings (Naifeh & Smith, 2012).

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 207 Personal Reflections This chapter is personal. For nearly 30 years, I dedicated my life in service to individuals with mental illness in the community mental health system. Every day, on the wall in my office, Starry Night inspired my vision to change the world for individuals with mental illness. As a mental health director in rural Shasta County in Northern California and in suburban Santa Barbara County in south-central California, I learned the history of mental illness not taught in my graduate education. As a treating clinical psychologist, I learned of the resiliency and courage it takes to live with mental illness. As an administrator, I hired individuals with mental illness and learned the importance of their engagement in program development and setting policy, since in the final analysis, the system exists in service to their needs. Most importantly I learned that individuals with mental illness want what everyone wants, love, friendship, a good job, and a quality life. I also learned that many individuals with mental illness have incredible artistic abilities, producing some of the most powerful art that still grace my office walls. As a mental health director, in Starry Night, I saw the sky as symbolizing the incredible potential of individuals with mental illness; the tree stump, how mental illness can strike and wound; but the community below welcomes and provides the supports necessary for individuals with mental illness to feel valued as equal citizens, appreciated for their unique talents, and contributors toward building a stronger and more compassionate community.

Mental Illness Historical Analysis of Mental Illness Political Systems

Throughout history and until the present time, individuals with serious mental illness have had little political power to determine their future. It is important to understand that, as a vulnerable population, they have been dependent on others for political power, to protect their human rights and support their empowerment. Although often talented and brilliant, with an understanding of life unavailable to most people, few have openly attained political power. In 1972, when it was discovered that Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri had been treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depression, presidential candidate George McGovern, after supporting Eagleton “1000 percent” and consulting with psychiatrists who expressed concern that if he became president his depression could return, asked Eagleton to withdraw. A Time magazine poll found that 77 percent of the American people said that the medical issues of Eagleton would not affect their vote (Marano, 2003). The perceived lack of conviction was disastrous for the McGovern campaign as he went on to lose the election to Richard Nixon in a landslide. The most inhumane treatment approaches in history often occurred because individuals with mental illness had no political power or personal rights to give consent to the treatments imposed upon them. Political systems empowered doctors to make treatment decisions on their behalf, often leading to horrific impacts, even death. Another example of the need to always make shadow conscious with the understanding that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

208  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Benjamin Rush and Heroic Medicine

Benjamin Rush (1745–1813) is a perfect example of good people causing harm when individuals with mental illness have no power to give consent for treatment (Fennel, 1996). In 1965, the American Psychiatric Association recognized Rush as the father of American psychiatry. However, he was a proponent of the widely discredited heroic medicine that physically and emotionally endangered the lives of thousands of individuals with mental illness. Rush was a leading figure of the American Enlightenment and a revolutionary leader who signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a reformer who opposed slavery, advocated for public education, and supported women’s rights (Fried, 2018). Rush (1812) published the first American psychiatric text, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind. He was the first American psychiatrist to study mental disorders in a systematic and theoretical manner. His approach was rooted in academic medicine and provided a theoretical, not empirical, approach to psychiatric diagnosis. His theoretical orientation led Rush to become a leading proponent in American medicine of the medical theory of heroic medicine, or heroic depletion theory. It was called heroic because the treatments were outside the norm of typical medical practice. The Age of Heroic Medicine lasted from 1780–1850 and focused on medical treatments that included rigorous bloodletting, purging, and sweating to shock the body back to equilibrium (Stavrakis, 1997). Rush was called the American Hippocrates, after he practiced heroic medicine on patients and even himself during the Philadelphia Yellow Fever outbreak in 1793. Humoral therapy dates to the Greeks and Hippocrates, who practiced some form of heroic medicine in their attempt to balance the homeostasis of the four humors: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and the blood. However, heroic medicine went far beyond those efforts by routinely draining 80 percent of the blood volume of a patient, often jeopardizing their life. In 1799, George Washington died after excessive bloodletting and administration of the substance cantharidin to induce rigorous sweating (Stavrakis, 1997). Although he led a successful campaign in 1792 for the Pennsylvania State Hospital to build a separate, more humane psychiatric ward, Rush believed that individuals with mental illness should be treated with heroic medicine, along with coercion, restraint, and physical punishment. He believed that mental disturbance was caused by poor blood circulation and by an overheated brain (Fried, 2018). This is symbolized by his advocacy for some of the most brutal treatments of mental illness in history; most specifically spinning therapy and the infamous tranquilizer chair. Rush gained international acknowledgment when physicians began to use his tranquilizing treatment techniques. In spinning therapy, a patient was strapped horizontally to a gyrator board that would mechanically spin at great speeds until the patient was so dizzy and weak that any psychotic thoughts would be temporarily driven from the brain. If that did not work, there was always the infamous tranquilizer chair that he boasted could “cure madness” (Fried, 2018). Once strapped into the tranquilizer chair, the patient could not move, as the patient’s arms were bound, their wrists immobilized, their feet clamped together, and their sight blocked by a wooden box that did not allow for any movement. This was eagerly embraced by asylum doctors throughout the world. Rush claimed that it could make the most disturbed patient gentle and submissive. Some physicians reported keeping a patient in the tranquilizer chair for months (Whitaker, 2019).

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 209

Figure 6.2  Dorothea Dix and Political Advocacy

Dorothea Dix (1802–1887) became a role model for political advocacy. Dix had her own serious health issues. In 1836 she traveled to England to recover her health and met members of what was then called the lunacy reform movement. Upon her return to the United States, she began a two-year fact-finding review of asylums for poor individuals with mental illness in towns and cities throughout Massachusetts. In her 1843 emotional and fiery presentation, Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts (Dix, 1843), she spoke about the lack of government support for individuals with mental illness, especially for the poor, known as looney paupers. Until Dix, asylums were privately funded and too dependent on the wealth of family members. Dix called attention to the fact that poor mentally ill people lived in cages, stalls, and even pig-like pens. She witnessed abuse that she felt was a scar on humanity itself as she saw individuals with mental illness naked, chained, and beaten into obedience. In the Quaker tradition, she made the issue a moral one and called upon the sacred duty of government to finally take responsibility for the treatment of mental illness. Her lobbying was effective. The legislature immediately expanded services at the Worcester Mental Hospital. In the next few years, her investigative style led to political reforms in asylums from New Hampshire to Louisiana. Her commitment for public tax dollars to support mental hospitals finally came to fruition in 1853 with the founding of the first publicly funded American mental hospital in Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg State Hospital.

210  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness With all the state legislative success Dix took her “moral cause” on behalf of individuals with mental illness to Washington, DC. The Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane, which would have sold 12 million acres of federal land to build and maintain asylums throughout the United States, passed overwhelmingly in both houses. But in 1854, President Franklin Pierce vetoed it because he believed social welfare was the responsibility of the states. This began the legacy of neglect of mental health services by the federal government. Stung by the lack of American concern for the mentally ill, Dix returned to Europe, where she believed there was more openness to reform. Scotland and Nova Scotia passed her recommended legislative reforms. Significantly, after 13 years of advocacy an asylum was built in the Channel Islands. Extending her influence throughout Europe, upon her arrival in Rome, she met with Pope Pius IX and convinced him to visit an asylum. Afterward, the pope acknowledged that it took a Protestant from across the sea to call his attention to a sinful cruelty of mankind.

Figure 6.3 

Dorothea Dix became the modern Greek goddess Themis, who symbolized justice as a divine law that transcended human law. In Greek, Themis, tithemi, means “to put into place divine law.” Her gift from the Greek gods was to provide social order and justice to humanity. Dix spoke to a moral justice and a moral responsibility calling upon political leaders to treat individuals with mental illness with not only respect but with justice, acknowledging their political rights to be treated as valued human beings. Themis became Lady Justice, named after the Roman goddess Justitia, the modern symbol of a blindfold because Lady Justice is objective, impartial,

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 211 and blind to gender, race, ethnicity, social status, class, religious affiliation, and disability. The scales of justice balance truth with fairness because true facts have no middle ground. The sword symbolized, like the life of Dorothea Dix, separating fact from fiction regarding mental illness, fighting for justice and humane places for healing mental illness. The interest in mental illness for Dorothea Dix began with her experiences with the justice system. Her concern for reform started after teaching classes to women in an East Cambridge prison. There she saw mentally ill people in cells located in the prison basement where it was dark, dirty, and had foul air. There has been the suggestion that individuals with mental illness need a twenty-first-century Dorothea Dix because the American jails and prisons have become the new asylums. The Los Angeles County jail, Chicago’s Cook County jail, and New York Riker’s Island Jail Complex hold more individuals with mental illness than all the remaining psychiatric hospitals in the United States combined (Treatment Advocacy Center, 2016). Twenty percent of inmates in jails and 15 percent of inmates in prisons have seriously mentally illness, which makes approximately 400,000 individuals with mental illness incarcerated as criminals in jails and prisons across America (Roth, 2018, Treatment Advocacy Center, 2016). This is 10 times the number of patients in the remaining state mental hospitals. Because individuals with mental illness are often “refusers” that mistrust the system and refuse to cooperate with researchers, jail and prison statistics are most likely understated. Incarceration has replaced treatment for many individuals with mental illness as mental illness became criminalized in the late twentieth century with vulnerable individuals often abused in jails and prisons by guards and other inmates. (Chaimowitz, 2012, Lamb, Weinberger & Gross, 2004, Roth, 2018). Despair and hopelessness are so commonplace that most of the suicides in jails and prisons are completed by individuals with mental illness (Roth, 2018). The sad economic reality is that although mental health treatment is less expensive than incarceration, and most county sheriffs and prison superintendents complain about housing individuals with mental illness, few are willing to divert any of their funding toward the mental health system. Thomas Szasz – The Myth of Mental Illness

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012), in The Myth of Mental Illness (Szasz, 1961), argued that “mental illness” as a concept cannot exist because illness implies a physical disease that is based on biological or chemical tests to prove a diagnosis. No such tests exist in psychiatry; therefore, it is better to view mental illness as a metaphor for dealing with problems of living. Szasz, a libertarian, viewed modern scientism as the new religion. Psychiatrists were the new priests, deciding what was normal and what was abnormal behavior. As religious priests persecuted witches, Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals were the new political persecutors who demanded that their patients convert to the new secular medical religion (Szasz, 1961). Szasz warned against the development of a therapeutic state, which was the political collaboration between psychiatry and government. In this unholy alliance, psychiatry became an important arm of state political control that protected state interests by diagnosing and treating disapproved behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. He argued that the therapeutic state swallowed up everything under the rational control of medicine and health as the church swallowed up everything under the guise of God and religion. The state then has been empowered to persecute and punish. What Szasz viewed as real “madness” was the Enlightenment viewpoint that discovery of rational universal truths would lead to an expansion of human rights. The opposite had occurred because the rights of the “mad” modern individual were no different than a “mad” person living during medieval times. It is the political secularization of religion, and the medicalization of good behavior made modern

212  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Western civilization ill-prepared to deal with difference or “madness.” Once the power structure defines with psychiatry the current universal truths, there must be an all-out political effort to guard against unreason and “madness.” Personal Reflections I have mixed feelings about using the term mental illness to define people. Like Thomas Szasz, there are those who do not believe mental illness exists and others that have attempted to provide more positive descriptors. Being involved in mental health for over 50 years, I have found there is no consensus among individuals who struggle with mental health challenges on how they want to be identified whether it be mentally ill, consumer, patient, client survivor, or member, as long it is done with respect. I use the term mental illness in this chapter reluctantly, understanding that it may further the very stereotype that I hope I am attempting to change. On the other hand, I do not think “sugarcoating” history is helpful and that by understanding history, future generations will know what has and has not worked, particularly some of the most inhuman practices that should never occur in a humane society. By using “individual” or “people” throughout the chapter before mental illness will be a constant reminder, a written symbol, that individuals who struggle with mental health issues are not their diagnosis. That each person is a unique, valuable human being that has special gifts to offer the world. Socioeconomic Systems

In the classic Social Class and Mental Illness, August Hollingshead and Fredrick Redlich (1958) examined the interrelationship between social class and mental illness. The 10-year study found that social class and mental illness can be symbolized by the Titanic ramming an iceberg in 1912. Ninety percent of the iceberg was below the surface, which symbolized the American denial of the existence of social classes. In the Titanic crisis, like today, class status played a role in in the determination of whether one survived or drowned. Only four people in first class of 143 died, while third-class passengers were ordered to stay below the deck, some at gun point. Hollingshead and Redlich (1958) argued there was a distinct relationship between social class and mental illness; the higher classes were treated in private institutions with analytic psychotherapy while the lower classes were treated in public institutions with more directive and organic therapies, at the time, shock treatments, lobotomies, and high dosages of psychiatric medication. They concluded the lower the class, the more brutal the treatments. In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 which initiated the deinstitutionalization of state mental hospitals and the Community Mental Health movement throughout the United States. The goal was to create a high quality Community Mental Health service delivery system (Krieg, 2003, Sharfstein 2000). States did not reinvest the millions of dollars in savings from the closure of state mental hospitals into community care. Most individuals with serious mental illness live in severe poverty, dependent on bureaucracies that have expressed little interest in their socioeconomic well-being. (Cunningham, McKenzie & Taylor, 2006) Although not hopeful, Dean (2017) argues that psychiatry should recognize the impact of socioeconomic inequality and its effect on mental disorders. His view is that a new model of mental health care is needed because, under the medical model, billions of dollars have been allocated toward brain, genetic, and psychotropic research, with little attention to social

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 213 and economic inequality. Perese (2007) recommends that stigma, poverty, and victimization be included in every patient assessment and treatment plan. Poverty causes psychological distress; it undermines self-esteem and self-worth. It increases depression, anxiety, and suicidality (Manseau, 2014). Socioeconomic distress is associated with the development of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and adults; the lower the socioeconomic status the higher the risk for mental illness (Hudson, 2005, Johnson, Cohen, Dohrenwend et al, 1999, Liem & Liem, 1978). Poverty decreases the ability to attend to basic needs and increases the risk for victimization. After decades of advances in psychotropic medication and the era of mental illness as a “brain disease,” the mentally ill continue to die and commit suicide at significantly higher rates than the general population (Siris, 2001). Although there is little doubt that genetic and imaging studies have added to the understanding of brain structure, the delineation of brain circuits, and the biology of psychotropic drugs, the evidence remains limited that brain research has led to accurate psychiatric diagnoses, effective treatment plans for serious mental illness, or useful clinical biomarkers (Dean, 2017, Kapur, Phillips & Insel, 2012). Although medication is an important component of treatment, the medical model has led to neglect of other important treatment issues, particularly socioeconomic inequality. The dramatic changes in the socioeconomic structure in American society have impacted not only the middle class, but the most vulnerable and disabled in society. Between 1973 and 1993, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth in the United States as $255 billion shifted from the middle class to the top 1 percent (Dean, 2017). Since 2008, the ranks of the middle class have fallen by 20 percent, with few, if any, real wage increases since the 1970s, leaving almost 50 million people in poverty in the United States.

Figure 6.4 

214  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness The economic effect is even more dire for individuals with mental illness because of their lower-class status and their dependency on a dysfunctional and underfunded mental health system (Foster, 2021). In line with the research of Hollingshead and Redlich, the limited resources intended to support individuals with mental illness have often been spent on the most brutal treatments or no treatments at all by government bureaucracies, prisons, and to no treatment, relegated to survive on the unsafe streets in American communities. During the 1980s, the Social Security Administration removed addiction as a disability and made it more difficult for individuals with mental illness to receive disability benefits. The Social Security Income (SSI) system is brutally dysfunctional, focused on denial of benefits, a complex bureaucratic system that can take years and often necessitates legal advocacy for the procurement of minimal financial benefits that still results in a life in poverty. The SSI system reinforces governmental dependency because there are few incentives to seek employment and become economically self-sufficient. Since the 1970s, the prison population in the United States rose by 400 percent, with estimates that the rate of mental illness in prisons increased from 5 percent in 1970 to 40 percent by the 1990s, making the prison system the largest mental health institution in the United States. Vulnerable, stigmatized, and untreated individuals with mental illness are often victimized and resort to suicide to escape the brutal prison environment. Although only 6 percent of the population, 25 percent or more of the homeless population in America is mentally ill. Few of the homeless mentally ill receive any public benefits and, like prisons and homeless shelters, unqualified to treat mental illness, often provide the only available housing option (Bassuk, Rubin & Lauriat, 1984). Being homeless and mentally ill leads to catastrophic health crises requiring medical and psychological interventions (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). Unlike the medical system, there is no national mandate or standard for emergency mental health services, which leaves individuals with mental illness prone to homelessness, involuntary care, and incarceration. Amid the economic struggles of the middle class and disinterest by the wealthy and political leaders, individuals with mental illness have been left in poverty with no societal or professional advocacy yet seen on the horizon. Cultural Systems

The reality in American culture is that one in four families will experience the challenge of mental illness. Cultural misunderstandings about mental illness are deeply rooted in history, starting with the Greek belief that Olympian Gods controlled human behavior, that mental disturbances came from external forces. This misconception continued during the Christian period, when it was believed that the mentally ill were possessed by evil forces, the devil. Historic misconceptions were created to understand mental illness like the concept of lunatic, “ship of fools,” and the art of A Rake Progress. In modern times, the cultural phenomenon of the movies One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Beautiful Mind shed light on the culture of mental illness. There is limited research on mental illness as a culture, the unique qualities of that culture, the individual experiences of that culture, or the impact of that culture it interfaces with the dominant culture. Standpoint theory has been a popular method of feminist researchers. Sandra Harding (1991) coined the term, for people “not seen,” the oppressed in our culture. Harding believes the disenfranchised are constantly neglected by social scientists and this results in most research being in service to the current power structure and to the status quo. This negates the

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  215 possibility for both the scientist and the socially disenfranchised to change their cultural standpoint. In terms of mental illness, it is important to understand that dependency on the groups that individuals with mental illness need have often been part of the problem, which can make it difficult to risk alienating the people upon which dependence is essential for their survival. Oppression is defined as the malicious and unjust exercise of power, often perpetrated by governmental, religious, political, or cultural authorities. It can be done consciously or unconsciously. Discrimination is oppression, targeting a special group of people, an example being individuals with mental illness (Szmukler, 2004). Mental illness is the number one factor in episodes of police violence. A report by Doris Fuller, Richard Lamb, Michael Biasatti, et al (2015) from the Office of Research and Public Affairs, indicates that people with mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed when approached or stopped by police than other civilians; at least one of four fatal police encounters ends the life of an individual with mental illness.

Figure 6.5 

These incidents often occur during an assessment by police for involuntary care when individuals with mental illness in crisis feel ambivalent, even hostile, about being hospitalized against their will (M.J. Cherry, 2010, Hoyer, 2008). One can imagine the feeling of losing the freedom to make important, often life-threatening, decisions. From a client standpoint, involuntary care often provides more trauma than treatment (Delgat, 2015, Large, Nielsen, Ryan, et al, 2008, Dennis & Monahan, 1997). Whether it is from disrespectful staff, treatment by police, or overuse of medication, involuntary care increases the mistrust of the mental health system (Hughes, Hayward & Finlay, 2009). That lack of trust leads to resistance to voluntary outpatient treatment because clients believe the system does not value their input and feedback, or are uninterested in their assessment, standpoint, of their treatment needs (Kirk, 2017, Swartz, Swanson & Hannon, 2003, New York Civil Liberties Union, 1971).

216  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness For many centuries, until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term lunatic was associated culturally with mental illness. “Lunatic” is derived from the Latin lunaticus, meaning “of the moon” or “moonstruck.” Historically, this word applied to epilepsy and “madness” because both appeared to be about losing control. In epilepsy, one loses physical control and “shakes” uncontrollably. In “madness,” a person loses control of their mind and “shakes” uncontrollably. Aristotle, Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, and other philosophers in history believed that the brain was the moistest organ of the body and was most susceptible to the influences of the moon. They reasoned that when the full moon triggered high tides, the brain, like the earth, became susceptible to an intense emotional reaction. When that occurred, the full moon caused wild, bizarre, violent, out of control, and deranged behavior. For the Western world, the full moon symbolized “lunacy.” “Lunatic” It is the very moon She comes more near the earth Then she was wont And makes men mad. - William Shakespeare, Othello

Figure 6.6 

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 217 “Lunatic” also comes from Luna, the divine Roman goddess of the moon. She is one of the Roman gods that can be seen, distinguished from the unseen gods Neptune and Hercules. She brings light from the darkness. Luna is often viewed as driving a chariot called a biga, a twohorse chariot, with one white and brown horse, toward the sun god, Sol. As Luna traveled on her chariot from night to daytime toward the sun god, Sol, the brown horse keeps her seen and present in the moon throughout the day. Since Luna is seen in Roman mythology and Mithraic iconography as a divine figure, it is a reminder that the negative modern cultural stigma of mental illness was viewed differently in some ancient cultures because of the belief that hearing voices or seeing things not there was not considered lunacy but as important messages from the divine, the gods (Ellenberger, 1970). The symbol of Luna speaks to a different experience of lunacy because out of the darkness of “lunacy” she brings light and reminds us that the moon symbolically fades every day from night into daytime, from darkness to light, from illness to health.

Figure 6.7 

218  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness “Ship of Fools”

The famous “Ship of Fools” symbolizes the belief that individuals with mental illness needed to be isolated from society because they were perceived as violent, deranged, and dangerous. These cultural efforts toward segregation and isolation are not unfamiliar to modern cultures. The Renaissance meant rebirth for many, but not always for individuals with mental illness. In the early days of the Renaissance, inspired by the painting of Jeronimo de Bosh, El Bosco, of the same title, Sebastian Brandt (1494/1962) wrote a mythic poem called the “Ship of Fools.” The poem captured the pilgrimage of 111 “madmen” who were “not in their right minds.” They were sailing nowhere, which symbolized the historic plight of people with mental illness left by society to meander endlessly at sea with no real home, no place in European culture.

Figure 6.8 

Michael Foucault (1926–1984), a twentieth-century French philosopher and strong advocate for mental health reforms, believed that “Ship of Fools” was not a myth, because in the Middle Ages, the cargo in some ships contained “fools,” another name at that time for “lunatics” (Foucault, 1987). These ships were not allowed to dock in any port, but the ship would get close so people on the shore could enjoy a sideshow of a ship full of “lunatics.” For Foucault, the symbol of the “Ship of Fools” symbolized the very essence of how modern society views mental illness. Unlike the empathy given to people with serious medical illnesses, there is little compassion afforded individuals with mental illness. Instead, their isolation, “meandering at sea,” gives

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 219 society an unenlightened sense of relief. Compassion is replaced by fear, which unleashes intolerance, unspeakable cruelty, and a belief that permeates the lives of people with mental illness that they have no value to society. A Rakes’ Progress – Bedlam Hospital

A Rakes’ Progress (1732–1734) is a series of eight engravings that became paintings by the eighteenth-century artist William Hogarth. It is the life story of Tom Rakewell, the rich son of a wealthy merchant, who, upon arrival in London, lived a life of debauchery. The paintings became famous in America in the 1930s by Walt Disney Productions for the graphic process known as a storyboard: the sequential illustration of images that are a previsualization of a motion picture, animation, or active media sequencing. In London Rakewell squandered all his money on prostitution, orgies and gambling which led to mental deterioration. He first was held at the Fleet Prison in London, then later at Bedlam Hospital, the infamous mental asylum in London (Einberg, 2016). Initially, A Rakes’ Progress went public, and many found the final painting disturbing. This painting depicted a well-dressed young woman, Sarah Young, who was trying to rescue him, and who was surrounded by “lunatics.” It was not unusual during this period in history that people dressed up for a social outing

Figure 6.9 

220  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness and often paid money to visit asylums to be entertained by the bizarre behavior of the patients. This final painting came to symbolize an example of how a culture can sink into degradation, exploitation, and lack of human decency toward the vulnerable, especially individuals with mental illness. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Cultural awareness of the dire situation in state mental hospitals, where shock treatment and lobotomies were being accepted as positive psychiatric treatment, was dramatically symbolized by Ken Kesey (1963) in his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Since the Middle Ages, the cuckoo nest was often a symbol for mental illness. In the modern One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, psychiatric rebel Randall Patrick McMurphy threatened the psychiatric institutional cuckoo nest of Nurse Mildred Ratched. This was a play on words because of Kesey’s disdain for psychiatry and the emerging rat and behavioral psychology. Threatened by the rebellion, Nurse Ratched ordered a lobotomy, which left McMurphy like many lobotomy patients, psychologically castrated, mute, child-like, and without an adult personality. Cuckoos have been a powerful symbol throughout history, mentioned by Aristotle and a favorite bird of the Greek goddess Hera. Cuckoos are a brood parasite bird that rely on others to raise their young. They carefully place their eggs in other host nests, which give the cuckoos time to produce other eggs to survive. Once their egg is hatched, the host bird and the parasite cuckoo become locked in an evolutionary battle for dominance. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there was a fight for dominance between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched for control of the patients who existed in the safe nest of a mental institution after being left by their parents, waiting to be reborn with the arrival of a host bird. McMurphy, the heroic figure, was the host bird inspiring the patients to fly to freedom from the parasitic and oppressive psychiatric nest of the institution. The 1976 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring Jack Nicholson as McMurphy and Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, became a cultural phenomenon winning all five major Academy Awards. The American Film Institute rated it as one of the greatest films of all time. In 1993, the Library of Congress selected Cuckoo’s Nest for preservation in the National Film Registry because of its cultural and historical significance. A Beautiful Mind

In 2001, the movie A Beautiful Mind was released to critical acclaim, reminding American culture that individuals with mental illness can achieve greatness, that schizophrenia can be successfully treated. The biographical drama was based on the life of American mathematician and Nobel Laureate in Economics, John Nash. The film addressed the development of paranoid schizophrenia of Nash and how he endured delusional episodes. It showed in vivid detail the reality of mental illness and the lived experience of hallucinations and psychosis. A Beautiful Mind demonstrated the importance of family, social, and cultural support, especially from his wife, Alicia Nash. She continued to love and care for him through his most challenging psychotic episodes. The movie provided insight into how stigma led to social and cultural isolation from his fellow academic colleagues who struggled to understand and support him throughout his illness. By its very title, A Beautiful Mind, the movie provided a powerful symbol for individuals with mental illness, challenging the current belief of a permanent disabling brain disease and the historic overemphasis on the “overheated and damaged brain.” The Nash story indicated that

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 221

Figure 6.10 

a serious mental illness does not preclude great achievement, even a Nobel Prize. The movie showed how Nash became a unique and successful person beyond his diagnosis of schizophrenia. Critics noted that the movie was not a totally accurate description of his life and that it was “too Hollywood” because most individuals with mental illness do not receive the needed psychiatric, familial, social, and cultural supports needed to overcome mental illness. The movie was a cultural phenomenon, seen as inspirational and a close resemblance of how mental illness is experienced, that psychosis is real. In 2002, A Beautiful Mind was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won Best Picture of the Year as well as Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. The American Film Institute (AFI, 2012) rated A Beautiful Mind one of the top 100 most inspiring American movies. Historically Based Best Practices Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs)

Evidence-based practices (EPBs) began in medicine in 1992, based on the work of epidemiologist Archie Cochrane, who in 1972 argued that clinical decisions should be based on the best available research, professional expertise, and consideration of patient characteristics, culture, and preferences (Maynard & Chaimers, 1997). Clinical practices are now often categorized on a continuum of emerging, promising, leading, or best. The American Psychological Association (APA) adopted a policy statement on evidence-based best practices in psychology at their August 2005 APA Council of Representative meeting (APA, 2021).

222  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Because of the limited success in treating mental illness in modern times, it is important to acknowledge historically based best practices (HBBPs). Family care in Geel, Belgium, and the Quaker moral treatment approaches showed positive outcomes that would be the envy of the modern mental health system. Geel providing community historically based best practices for over the 600 years. In recognition of the superiority of the Geel model for community mental health care, in 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated family care as an “evidence-based best practice.” Family Care – Adoption and a Community Approach

Six hundred years ago through the intercession and inspiration of St. Dymphna, a little community in Geel, Belgium, created a new vision that valued inclusion of individuals with mental illness in community life. Once a spiritual inspiration for the cure of mental illness, St. Dymphna now inspires Geel and the world through myth. Note: First read the myth, engage the symbol, reflect on their non-literal underlying meaning, and then read the narrative, understanding the myth can have many meanings.

Figure 6.11 

Myth of St. Dymphna There was a royal family that lived in harmony and peace in Northern Ireland until the wife of the Irish king became extremely ill. The wife had converted to Catholicism and raised her daughter as a Christian. After the wife died, the king was so inconsolable that his courtiers advised him to

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 223 find a new wife. He agreed, but only under the condition that the new wife bear total resemblance to his deceased wife. This became an impossible task and when the king became frustrated, one of his demonic advisors recommended that he marry his daughter, Dymphna. The king said, “Why not?” When he approached his daughter, she was shocked and refused. He went into a psychotic rage with desire for his daughter. To escape the fury of her psychotic father, she decided to flee with her confessor priest, Gerebernus. They crossed the sea to Antwerp, Belgium, and traveled to a little town named Geel, discovering a humble dwelling close to a chapel. Her father and his militia were able to follow her because, along the way, Dymphna and the priest dropped Irish coins. The coins led the king to a restaurant inn, and when the soldiers paid their bill, the landlady noted that they were paying with the same money as the recent guests, Dymphna and the priest. She pointed the Irish soldiers in the direction of Dymphna’s hut and from that date forward, the landlady could not use her arm. When the king found Dymphna, he again implored her to marry him and again she firmly declined. In a psychotic rage, he ordered his soldiers to kill the priest and, with his own hands, beheaded his daughter Dymphna on May 30, 600. The remains of Dymphna and Gerebernus were interred in coffins of white stone. The type of stone was completely unknown in Geel, so the people believed that the martyrs were buried by Angels. After the death of Dymphna and the priest, Geel became a sacred place, where people believed that through the intersession of these martyrs, through ritual, spiritual practices, and prayer, they could be cured of their mental illness.

Figure 6.12 

224  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness For over 600 years, the people of Geel have provided a loving community to individuals with mental illness (Byrne, 1869). For hundreds of years, individuals with mental illness have journeyed to Geel to be cured. Initially, it was a religious pilgrimage, where the healing occurred through spiritual intervention. Frank Fahey (2002) distinguishes a tourist from a pilgrim. A pilgrim always has “faith expectancy,” meaning a search for psychological wholeness; the feeling of being part of a faithful community; the silence to create internal sacred space; ritual to externalize the change, votive offerings to leave something behind; a celebration of “victory over self”; perseverance; and a commitment that the pilgrimage is never over. It is not only Christians that pilgrimage to sacred places. Buddhists pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Temple in India, where Buddha attained enlightenment. Kumbh Mela is one of the largest gatherings in the world for Hindu pilgrims to bathe in the holy and sacred rivers. For Muslims, the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is a one of the five pillars of Islam, a pilgrimage required for every healthy Muslim during their lifetime. For Jews, the pilgrimage to the Temple of Solomon ended after its destruction by the Romans in in 70 CE. The Western Wall is now the most sacred and visited pilgrimage site for Jews. The Western Wall is the only remaining part of the Second Jewish Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem, which was off-limits to Jews from 1948–1967, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. The seashell symbolizes the key element of any pilgrimage: a natural bowl holding water and food needed throughout a pilgrimage, without which one could not survive. In the Birth of Venus, the Renaissance painter Sando Botticelli (1445–1510) painted Venus, the Greek goddess of love and of rebirth. She arises from a large scallop seashell and symbolizes how natural beauty can open the mind to experience spiritual beauty; the beauty that exists deep within every human soul. St. Dymphna became the Venus of Geel, providing the inspiration for the rebirth of those struggling with mental illness. From all over Europe, thousands of pilgrims descended on the small town of Geel, Belgium. Because St. Dymphna had overcome evil, the devil, the psychosis of her father, thousands believed that through her intercession they too could overcome their own mental illness. So many came that the church fathers had to build special rooms to house the pilgrims next to the cathedral, built in her honor, a church still of worship in modern times They also built a hospital close by the church because in the fifteenth century it was believed that mental and physical illnesses had a spiritual component. Throughout the world, St. Dymphna became a symbol of the hope of recovery, even a cure for mental illness, as the patron saint of the mentally ill. St. Dymphna became the inspiration for family care, a system to treat mental illness through adoption and community empowerment. The spiritual interventions proved so successful that the priests became overwhelmed by all the pilgrims and asked the Geel farmers for help (Liegoeis, 1991). On the farms, individuals with mental illness became valued and needed workers to the amazement of the farmers, who found them to be more reliable than many of the so-called normal workers. For the farmers, the “miracles” had both spiritual and human implications. The farmers began to reject the stereotype that this population was “useless to society” or even demonic. The result was that individuals with mental illness became an essential Geel workforce, and farmers started “to adopt” them, making them important members of their families. They also became valued members of Geel society, involved in all aspects of Geel daily life, which included the social discourse that occurs in cafes and pubs where they began to be accepted as equals and hard-working citizens. Between 1900 and 1973, thousands of individuals with mental illness journeyed to Geel for healing (Goldstein & Godemont, 2003). The peak came in 1937, when over 3,800 individuals journeyed to Geel, which at that time, had a population of only 15,000. The change in approach necessitated a change in what to call these new citizens. Initially, they were called boarders, then patients, and now clients and family members. Family members were initially called board givers, and now foster mothers, fathers, or parents. From the beginning the success of family care has been more dependent on the family and less, although important, on professionals.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  225 In 1970, out of concern that family care might end, anthropologist Leo Srole, of Columbia University, completed an eight-year National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) research grant whose purpose was to rescue family care from extinction and to document the history of the legendary program. The Geel Research Project (Srole, 1975) studied the behaviors of individuals with mental illness outside the family in the wider community, in the streets, churches, cafes, cinemas, stores, and other public places. Srole found that most individuals with mental illness had become respected, even treasured, members of their foster family; that the medical model was not essential for their healing; and that the family, not professionals, served as the essential caretaker, teacher, and role model. Most importantly, and to the amazement of many mental health professionals around the world, the mentally ill were active and valued members in all aspects of Geel daily life. Although struggling through many challenges, family care remains alive and well in Geel, Belgium (Srole, 1977). The family care program had to adjust to the reality that Geel is no longer an agricultural community (Roosens & Van de Walle, 2007). Adoptions by the modern two-parent family have created new challenges, since a small family does not often have the human and financial resources of a farm. Belgium health authorities realized that the program needed to be modernized and, in 1991, family care and the regional psychiatric care were integrated into State Hospital Geel. In 2006, the name was changed to State Psychiatric Care Center, OPZ, removing the name hospital to reflect the move from a medical to a community treatment model. To reflect the ongoing commitment to preserve family care, in 2006, a new, modern OPZ building and campus were inaugurated. The impressive grounds provide a rich number of mental health programs, including a new 135-bed psychiatric hospital. Besides family care, there are mental health programs for adults, youths, geriatrics, medical inpatients; long-term residential care; day treatment; job training; somatic medicine; clubhouse; and places for leisure and sport activities. Family care adoption is not a legal process. Individuals with mental illness stay connected to their natural families. However, some families are better suited to handle mental illness than others. Great care is given by the OPZ staff when deciding on a family placement. Since family matches are based on behavioral, not medical, or psychiatric criteria, families are not given a psychiatric diagnosis. Families must have a stable income, no criminal record, and be committed to work closely with the OPZ staff, but most importantly to commit to making a person with mental illness an active and valued member of their family. This means involvement in all aspects of family daily life, including taking vacations together. In the 1970s, families rebelled against clergy and professionals because they believed they were not being fully appreciated. They also opposed the church and mental health system abandonment of the legacy and importance of St. Dymphna. In response, family advisory committees were formed to empower families, since it was acknowledged that families continued to be the backbone of this legendary program. Families have no formal training but are provided 24-hour support by a lead nurse case manager and a multidisciplinary team that serves 24–30 clients. This team consists of social workers, physicians, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and, when needed, psychologists. The entire town is considered a “hospital” for financial reimbursement and treatment purposes. OPZ receives state funds for administration, professional staff, and care for the facilities and provides families with an adoption payment. In 2013, families received a daily stipend of around $22–$32, which is negotiable depending on the needs of the client. When a family member needs a psychiatric hospitalization, “no questions are asked” since a bed in a Geel family home is technically considered a hospital bed. The nurse case manager is called and coordinates the admission to the hospital. The client receives, unlike in most psychiatric hospitals throughout the world, their own private bed.

226  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness This innovative approach to hospitalization cannot be overstated. In the United States, hospitalization for mental illness is often mired in bureaucracy, red tape, and the involvement of untrained law enforcement personnel. Because of the lack of adequate crisis and emergency resources, individuals with mental illness are often forced into treatment against their will. In the United States, police officers are usually the first responders to a mental health crisis, which includes an assessment for an involuntary hospitalization (Dean, Steadman, Borum, et al, 1999). Involuntary care occurs when there is a determination that an individual is a danger to self or others, is or gravely disabled because of a mental disorder. The fact that in Geel a hospitalization is seamless and done in the most humane manner again speaks to the inadequacy of the crisis and emergency services for mental illness in the United States. It also speaks to the lack of funding for community mental health services since research indicates that quality community mental health services decrease the need for hospitalizations. The pilgrimages are over. St. Dymphna has been symbolically secularized to the name of a Geel Shopping Mall, a high school, or a city street. She is also absent from the new modern OPZ treatment buildings, her statue left as a relic at the entrance in Geel of the old, empty central hospital admission building. However, her statue is seen in family homes, families saving her legacy by demanding a parade every five years to honor her on her feast day. A parade of the remains of St. Dymphna and priest Gerebernus are carried through the streets before their return to the church named in her honor. After the parade, the mayor honors those families that continue to adopt and support this legendry program, which continues to inspire the millions around the world who envision more effective community approaches to the treatment of mental illness.

Personal Reflections When I visited Geel, Belgium, in 2013, I was amazed at the perception that individuals with mental illness were perceived so positively and with such deep respect. One memory was a waitress in a café speaking proudly of the long history in Geel of adopting individuals with mental illness and how her family and neighbors had continued that proud history of family care. I wondered if this could ever happen in my country that a local waitress would so proudly represent their local community mental health system. The spirit of St. Dymphna dominated the town, the cathedral, the high school, street signs, and even retail stores. Although the current leaders of family care show little interest in her myth and church leaders have abandoned the belief that her intercession could help cure mental illness, the family members we met often had her statue in their home. Families, unlike many of the professionals we met, understood that in stripping the spirit of St. Dymphna something important was being lost, although they fought for her acknowledgment every five years on her feast day. It is another reminder that myths and symbols are needed to touch people beyond ordinary understanding. I began to realize that I was on my own pilgrimage to Geel. After being a community mental health director for over 20 years in two California counties (Shasta and Santa Barbara), the myth of St. Dymphna had inspired my pilgrimage to Geel. I wanted to see for myself what it would be like for a community to value and integrate individuals with mental illness into civic life. As I was leaving Geel, I knew that I could never leave, that the spirit of the 600-year-old program would forever touch my soul. When I lit the votive candle in the church of St. Dymphna, I felt I was leaving a little of myself behind, that my many years of public service were not in vain.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 227 The Geel Question

Although there were some worldwide efforts to model the Geel approach, it has often been argued that the Geel model was implausible for the rest of the world. This argument began with Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), a French physician, who was the liberator of the mentally ill. He is often pictured symbolically removing the “chains” of individuals with mental illness while in a crowded dungeon. The removal of the chains would forever symbolize legitimizing mental illness as a medical problem and replacing the terms “mad” and “possession of the devil” with “patient” (Pinel, 1806/1988). Pinel, influenced by the Enlightenment, believed in a more humane approach to mental illness and established the asylum system that would become the worldwide institutional model for treating mental illness, He created the Hospice de la Salpetriere, a 600-bed asylum for individuals with mental illness. This began a medical model approach to mental illness that included early attempts at psychiatric diagnosis and the creation of medical records to document medical progress. Salpetriere would later become the historic home to Charcot and Freud, and other early pioneers in psychoanalysis. Pinel was influenced by the renowned French Enlightenment philosophy of Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714–1780), an empirical psychologist who utilized the symbol of a statue to explain empiricism. Condillac imagined a statue organized inwardly like a person and animated by a soul that had never received an idea nor a sensation. In his theory, the mind is formed as the statue symbolically unlocks each sensation, starting with smell and then each of the senses. Disagreeing with Locke and other philosophers of his time, Condillac believed consciousness results from the psychological transformation of physical sensations and their associations, not from abstract intuitive rational analysis (Hine, 1979). Pinel approached mental illness from an empirical, Condillacian, physician-oriented philosophy (Pinel, 1806/1988). This laid the foundation for the subsequent medical model that

Figure 6.13 

228  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness throughout history became the dominant model for treating mental illness. The Pinel approach places the doctor, the knowledgeable empirical scientist, at the center of treatment; “the doctor knows best.” The physician as the key determinant in healing mental illness came into direct conflict with the Geel model, which argued that it is the family and the community, and not the physician, that is the key factor in healing mental illness. Jean-Etienne Esquirol (1772–1840), a student and fervent follower and chosen successor of Pinel, recognized as the earliest proponent of the complete medicalization of mental illness, insisted that a new asylum be under total physician direction. In 1821, he visited Geel and was amazed how “lunatics” were roaming the streets unsupervised. Although an advocate for a humane approach, he criticized the Geel model as lacking physician control and quality medical treatments. Another reason for Esquirol’s disdain for the Geel model was his belief that Geel physicians had betrayed the medical model by allowing the myth of a Catholic saint, St. Dymphna, to interfere in the practice of modern scientific medicine (Roosens & de Walle, 2007). When the French conquered Belgium during the French Revolution, in their anti-religious furor they made every attempt to end family care and suppress any mention of St. Dymphna. As Pinel and his followers developed asylums in the nineteenth century, doctors from all over the world traveled to Geel “to see the miracle.” This resulted in psychiatrists considering the question that continues to be asked worldwide regarding the best ways to treat mental illness. The famous Geel Question: Is the Geel model based on sound practices that could be exported to the rest of the world and is it superior to the new developing asylums? In other words, should mentally ill people be treated safely in institutions, or should they be integrated into the daily life of the community? In 1902, the International Congress of Psychiatry met in Antwerp, Belgium, to address the Geel Question. The answer was a resounding endorsement of the Geel model (Jay, 2015). The final recommendation was, wherever possible, the community model should be exported. After the Congress, the Geel community model spread quickly and, within a few years, 32 new programs started in Germany alone. It is estimated that there are now over 200 Geel-oriented programs throughout the world. In America, there would be a different response. John Parigot (1865), the first colony medical director, visited Geel in 1865 and was impressed with the community model and argued that it was more humane and cost effective. Upon his return from Europe, his endorsement was totally rejected. The development of moral treatment and an emerging eugenics movement would take America on a different path toward institutional, not community, care. Quaker Moral Treatment Oppression…makes a wiseman mad…is it supposed that…insults…injuries…make a wiseman wise…why is furious mania almost a stranger at the Retreat…why all patients wear clothes, and are generally induced to cooperate to adopt orderly habits? - William Tuke (Whitaker, p. 23)

In eighteenth-century England, another spiritual, historically based best practice would emerge from the Quakers. The trigger was the death of a Quaker, Hannah Mills, after her admission to the York Asylum. Before her death, she was not allowed any visitation from her family or friends, which led William Tuke (1827–1895) to investigate the asylum and find horrific medical practices (Whitaker, 2019). Tuke discovered that under the direction of physicians and asylum medicine, mentally ill people were being treated like wild animals and subjected to the most horrific torture. Doctors explained that the only way to control “these wild animals” was heroic

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 229 medicine, which had a tranquilizing effect, causing extreme physical weakness and submission. This occurred by the regular use of purges, emetics, and other nausea-inducing agents. Additionally, this included a draconian approach and dangerous practice of bleeding the blood of the mentally ill by life-threatening cuts into the jugular vein. The doctors in England found that hydrotherapy was another effective way to tranquilize patients. Hydrotherapy mummified the patient in a wet cloth or by continually spraying the client with water and without warning dropping the agitated patient into an ice-cold bath. The patient, often screaming for mercy, was strapped into the tub with a canvas sheet covering the tub with just the head of the patient poking out. The bath could last for several hours or even several days until the patient denied their psychosis, depression, or suicidal thoughts. This practice continued well into the twentieth century and provides another symbol of the dark shadow of asylum medicine. In response, Tuke embraced moral treatment, which combined Enlightenment philosophy with Quaker theology (Glover & Glover, 1984).The appeal for moral treatment was the Enlightenment philosophy of social justice, human rights, and the power of reason. To many thinkers of the day, the Age of Reason did not apply to individuals with mental illness, as they were perceived as incapable of reason, and to be more like animals than humans. Jean-Baptiste Pussin (1746–1811), an Enlightenment thinker, became the hospital superintendent after Pinel of the renown LaBicere asylum in Paris. His approach, unlike Pinel, was primarily psychological because he believed having intimate, rational conversations with individuals with mental illness led to significant healing (Weiner, 1979). By living daily among the mentally ill in the asylum, Pussin learned to appreciate their worth as unique, rational, and worthwhile human beings. His approach so impressed Pinel that he embraced moral treatment. Tuke embraced moral treatment from primarily his Quaker faith and from his outrage and total rejection of asylums. Inspired by his faith, he approached mental illness differently (Glover & Glover, 1984). He was not impressed with physician-controlled asylums and believed it was not a medical asylum or hospital that was needed. Mentally ill people needed a place to retreat from the world that was based on Quaker principles. After two years of studying “madness” and the treatments of the day, in 1796, Tuke opened The Retreat. Also known as the York Retreat, it was founded on the core Quaker belief that “each soul is guided by an inner light.” This was a truly revolutionary approach in history when most often individuals with mental illness were associated with acting like animals and being possessed by the devil. The Retreat is a symbol that continues to inspire reform throughout the psychiatric world, especially the current strengthbased, rehabilitative approach to mental illness in community mental health (Bockoven, 1972). The Quakers, known as the Religious Society of Friends, were founded by George Fox in 1650. They were known for their peaceful and progressive principles. Their doctrine of the “inner light” led to a rejection of a formal ministry and ritualistic forms of worship (Martin, 2016). There was no need for a “middleman” or a structured institution because the “inner light” came from a direct relationship with Jesus. The name “Quaker” originated from the idea that one would feel a spiritual “quake” when they heard the word of God. Besides their humane treatment of individuals with mental illness, the Quakers were part of early movements to end slavery and promote equal rights for women. They paid dearly for their beliefs, especially when they immigrated to a Puritan America, where they suffered discrimination and violence and were often beaten, murdered, and ostracized. In the mid-1650s, Massachusetts outlawed and fined anyone associated with the Quakers. During this time, if a Quaker was found in the Massachusetts colony, Puritans were permitted by law to cut off their ears (Brayshaw, 1911). As in Geel, the York Retreat model first and foremost treated the mentally ill as valued members of the Quaker family. As with any family, the expression of kindness, love, attentiveness, and respectful discipline brought order that was missing in asylum medicine.

230  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness They adopted an approach that dated back to the Greeks and Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy. In the play The Oresteia, Aeschylus (1975) dramatized the development of an internal psychology not directed by the gods from above but from a force from within, an inner light. Aeschylus used the power of symbol to dramatize his new psychology and showed how Zeus and Apollo symbolized the old gods who controlled the outer world while Athena symbolized the new order, the inner light. Through his play, Aeschylus reveled how the gods of Olympus could be experienced psychologically inside each person. Aeschylus, like Pussin, explained that the best way to deal with internal psychological disturbance was through “soft speech.” “Soft speech,” discovered 2,000 years earlier, became a foundational principle of moral treatment (Barrientos, 2002). Gone from The Retreat was the verbal abuse and punitive environment of the asylums (Whitaker, 2019). The Quakers discovered that verbal or physical punishment only made mental illness worse; listening and engaging in the “soft speech” of Aeschylus was the key to healing. Some confuse The Retreat with asylums. Although both had an institutional approach, they were significantly different in attitude and leadership. The main asylums were managed by physicians who practiced the medical model. The Retreat opposed the medical model and operated under Enlightenment and Quaker philosophies. Many asylums under physician control adopted moral treatment, but the physical environment of The Retreat provided a dramatic contrast between the two approaches.

Figure 6.14 

The physical layout of The Retreat expressed a home, not a hospital (C. Cherry, 1989). The setting consisted of small, cottage-like homes that emphasized the importance of family and not doctors. Limited to around 250 patients, the environment was attractive with lush gardens and beautiful flowers. The superintendent had to be a compassionate leader, not necessarily a physician, and operate from the Quaker principle that the light of God exists in everyone. The need for restraints and barbaric interventions decreased because positive behaviors were rewarded.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 231 Negative behaviors were minimized by distraction to more productive activities. George Jepson, the first superintendent of the York Retreat, had no formal medical training. However, his authoritative, yet compassionate approach proved much more effective than the authoritarian physician approach of asylum medicine. After his marriage to Retreat nurse, Katherine Allen, the Quaker value of equality between the sexes resulted in both Jepson and Allen managing the Retreat together, as co-leaders. During this time in history, this was an unusual acknowledgment for women. At The Retreat, occupational therapy was utilized for the first time in an institutional setting (Tuke & Bucknill, 1827). Geel had already proven that individuals with illness could be productive members of the community. In The Retreat setting, occupational therapy provided hope that by learning an occupation and real-world vocational skills, a productive life could await outside the institution. Throughout history, it was often the case that when an individual with mental illness was admitted to an asylum or mental hospital it was for life (Penney & Stastry, 2008). In fact, upon admission, they would often be measured for their burial gown and, after their death, be buried in unmarked grave sites on asylum or mental hospital grounds. To prevent this fate, occupational therapy was essential. Astonishingly, during the first 15 years the Retreat existed, 70 percent of the patients who had been ill for less than 12 months fully recovered, defined by Tuke as never having a relapse. Of those that had a history of mental illness, viewed as incurable, 25 percent fully recovered (Whitaker, 2019). Outcomes that would be the envy of modern approaches to mental illness. The contrast between The Retreat and modern psychiatric inpatient settings could not be more dramatic. For a medical and psychiatric system preoccupied with evidence-based best practices, clearly the Retreat experience indicates that the creation of a homelike environment could reduce the violence and the need for restraints and seclusion rooms that often plague our modern psychiatric hospitals. The symbol speaks to the historic failure to develop crisis services that are conducive to healing mental illness. When in psychological distress, being in an environment not designed with mental illness in mind, sets the stage for the type of care from which the Quakers rebelled.

Figure 6.15 

232  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Moral Treatment in the United States

Although moral treatment was slow to gain traction in America, it was Thomas Kirkbride (1809–1883), a Quaker, who, in 1840 became superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, would have the biggest impact on early American asylum treatment. As an environmental determinist, he created a therapeutic, not medical, oriented environment; Kirkbride designed the “archetypal” design for moral treatment. Kirkbride (1854) developed the vision for the emerging asylums in the United States (Yanni, 2007). The Kirkbride Plan would become the model for the construction of asylums into the twentieth century. Kirkbride believed that the environment, especially exposure to light and air circulation, was crucial to any building that housed the mentally ill. The Pennsylvania Hospital was an opulent place. There was a large, lovely dining room for social activities and even for formal dinners in which the patients often dressed in suits and ties. The Pennsylvania Hospital had a museum for education and amusement. The grounds were meticulous, with lush gardens and flowerbeds, which not only made the environment more therapeutic, but showed how nature mirrored the healing process. Teachers were hired to provide education, especially in reading and sewing. In the evening, entertainment was of such quality that it made the locals envious. The key was the limitation of 250 patients so that everyone received special individual care. This limitation allowed the Pennsylvania Hospital to provide each person a semiprivate room that resembled a pleasant hotel room. Each room was furnished with the best quality furniture and was adorned with beautiful wall hangings. Like The Retreat in York, England, the Kirkbride Plan became a symbol of a home-like and healing environment, creating the feeling of being part of a loving family. Personal Reflections In the late 1980s, Shasta County followed most California counties and closed its county hospital. The impact on medical care, especially for the poor, was immediate and negative, since the remaining two private hospitals in Redding, California, made it clear they had no intention of filling the medical gap by serving the poor. The inpatient psychiatric unit remained in the closed hospital, which provided an opportunity to relocate outpatient services from downtown Redding to a remodeled hospital that would integrate inpatient and outpatient mental health services. With significant county support, the old hospital was transformed into a therapeutic environment. Clients entered the building through a grassy knoll and fountain and the facility was filled with beautiful paintings and modern up-to-date offices. One client remarked, “What did we do to deserve this?” Although during my administration, the inpatient unit was remodeled twice, I came to understand the limitations of serving individuals with mental illness in crisis within a former acute medical unit. In Santa Barbara, there was a similar problem of providing inpatient services in an old county hospital. In response, an outpatient crisis service was provided in a homelike environment in downtown Santa Barbara. The incidents of violence and need for involuntary admissions decreased, which, in the spirit of Kirkbride and moral treatment, indicated that the mental health crisis system is not only dysfunctional but inhumane, because it does not provide the environment necessary for healing and recovery, which leads to an overdependency on medication and use of seclusion and restraint to respond to out-of-control behaviors. I came to understand that a totally different mental health crisis system is needed including a different environment, a non-medical, setting to adequately serve individuals with mental illness in crisis, setting the stage for a more positive experience of the mental health system.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 233 A Half Century of Darkness: 1900–1950 The End of Moral Treatment Medical Takeover of State Mental Hospitals

The unintended consequences of Dix’s reforms led to the proliferation of state mental health hospitals throughout the United States. These were not the asylums in the Tuke, Kirkbride, and Quaker tradition. State mental hospitals became “dumping grounds” for other illnesses considered problematic for society. Individuals with mental illness now shared their hospitals with alcoholics, syphilitics, and the senile elderly. In 1840, there were only 2,500 individuals with mental illness in eighteen state mental hospitals or asylums in the United States. By the end of the nineteenth century, there would be over 74,000 individuals in 139 state hospitals and asylums (Whitaker, 2019). Gone from the growing number of state mental hospitals were the 250-bed limitations and the focus on creating a homelike environment. As physicians took over the Quaker facilities, the emphasis shifted to a medical model, uninterested in such unscientific Quaker beliefs such as the “light of God exists in everyone.” After the Civil War, a whole new medical profession needed patients. During the war, neurology expanded to treat gunshot victims and after the war, neurologists felt a new level of importance. They believed they were best situated to treat the “brain disease” of individuals with mental illness and went on a direct assault on the asylum superintendents, whom they perceived as unqualified to treat mental illness. Many southern psychiatrists had a difficult time adjusting to the post–Civil War world. Samuel A Cartwright (1851) created a new medical diagnosis, drapetomania, from the Greek root, meaning “crazy runaway slave.” Drapetomania was a mental illness that caused enslaved people to run away from their slave holders. The root of the mental problem was that those enslaved were “getting too familiar” with their owners, which gave those enslaved the feeling of equality. Not to be satisfied with a new racist mental illness, he added dysesthesias aethiopica, a mental illness that caused slaves to be lazy (Cartwright, 1851). One symptom was insensitivity of the skin, and the cure was to stimulate the skin by whippings, which caused massive lesions on the backs of the enslaved. Meanwhile Quaker visionaries began to fade from the scene. Tuke died in 1822 of a paralytic attack, still living in his York Retreat. Kirkbride died in 1883 of pneumonia at his home at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Dix died in 1887 at the asylum built from her political advocacy, Trenton State Hospital. They died as they had lived: living close and providing love to those they believed society had a moral obligation to uplift and value as individuals. Kirkbride had founded the Association for of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII). The AMSAII became the first specialized professional organization in America and laid the foundation for the future American Psychiatric Association. The Civil War neurologists mocked the AMSAII for not having any mention of “science” in its preamble and documents. This began an onslaught that would in large part remove from psychiatric history a fair analysis of the successful moral treatment approach. Some of the results were phenomenal by current standards. Not only did individuals with mental illness leave the asylums, but many never returned. Most asylums that practiced moral treatment reported that over 50 percent successfully recovered (Whitaker, 2019). Over 80 percent recovered if the illness was treated within a year of its emergence, indicating the importance of early intervention, crisis services, and public education. The attacks on moral treatment were relentless, with doctors claiming that asylum doctors were old-fashioned charlatans who knew nothing about psychopathology, diagnosis, and treatment of insanity. They ridiculed the asylums as “deadly for the insane” and advocated for the

234  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness new day when science, not “spiritual quacks,” would cure insanity. Since insanity was now a brain disease, it was only medically trained physicians, who were deemed competent to treat mental illness. Scourge of Eugenics Why do we preserve these useless and harmful beings? The abnormal prevent the development of the normal. This fact must be squarely faced. Why should society not dispose of the criminal and the insane in a more economical manner. - Dr. Alexis Carrel (1938), Nobel Prize Winner, Rockefeller University

Eugen Bleuler (1857–1939), a eugenicist and advocate of sterilization, coined the term schizophrenia during a lecture in Berlin in April 1908. The word schizophrenia originates from the Greek root of schizo, meaning “broken,” and phrenos, for “mind.” Bleuler continued the earlier work of Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926), who used the term dementia praecox to describe schizophrenic symptoms. Both believed schizophrenia was the result of a deteriorating brain. However, Bleuler thought that the central characteristic of schizophrenia was a dissociative split in the personality between the affective and intellectual, the rational and irrational (Berrios, 2011). This led to the cultural misunderstanding that schizophrenia is two separate personalities. Doctors quickly changed the name of the ASMSAII to the American Medico-Psychological Association and vowed to replace the fraudulent treatments of the Quakers with science and medicine. The reforms that were initiated a century before against the horrific science and dangerous heroic medicine practiced by doctors came to an abrupt ending. The Quakers, a group of pacifists, provided no resistance, which ushered in one of the darkest periods for the mentally ill in American history. Acknowledging failure has never been easy for physicians, However, most objective observers would acknowledge that the twentieth century was not a great century for the treatment of mental illness (Beam, 2001). But it is the first half of the century that was especially dark and brutal. As the new century began, so did some of the most gruesome approaches to mental illness in history. Between the cold brutal forces of the medical model and the rise of eugenics, individuals with mental illness were powerless, with no civil rights or legal protections. They became a great scapegoat for the powerful to advance their scientific theories and medical practices. As immigrants arrived from abroad, concern arose in the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) class that their dominance in American culture was slipping away. Eugenics was appealing because it reinforced the belief that people from abroad carried “bad plasma” and were lowering the quality of the American genetic pool. This belief was reinforced by the growing number of slums and people living in poverty. Social Darwinism was also appealing because of its belief that it was natural for the strong to survive. Social programs only delayed the inevitable demise of the weak. In the meantime, the best way to eliminate the weak was through programs that isolated or prohibited the weak from procreation. Mental hospitals were no longer places for treatment but essential institutions for isolating individuals with mental illness from society, and society from their “bad plasma.” Under the guise of empirical science, psychiatry embraced the medical model and psychologists embraced eugenics. Left without any true organized professional advocacy, individuals with mental illness became easy pawns for the emerging psychiatric and psychological associations. Psychiatrists could now prove they were real doctors and psychologists could prove they were real scientists.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  235 Thomas Galton, an Englishman, coined the term eugenics, from the Greek word for “well bred.” He divided race into two classes: the eugenic well born and the cacogenic poor born classes. Individuals with mental illness were the poor born and Galton supported American efforts to sterilize and isolate them from society. After traveling to England and meeting Galton, Charles Davenport became a leading American convert to eugenics. Galton supported Davenport’s effort to fund the Eugenics Record Office. This would become an important force in “weeding out” the defectives in society. The Eugenics Record Office would become the national leader in translating empirical research findings throughout the country into societal laws, especially compulsory sterilization. In Heredity in Relation to Eugenics, Davenport (1911) described in glowing terms his own immigrant family history dating back a couple of hundred years. He described his “own white people” as people who loved liberty and who became social leaders and brilliant scholars. He believed the new immigrants were much different and inferior to earlier immigrants. To prove his point, Davenport used racist stereotypes that would become familiar themes within the eugenics movement. The arriving “hordes of Jews” were inferior to the British and Scandinavian people; the Irish were prone to alcoholism; the Italians were lazy and susceptible to criminal behavior; and the newly arrived black Portuguese agricultural workers lacked intelligence. The state mental hospitals became a key part of the eugenic plan to isolate “mental defectives” from society. By the 1940s, of the over 500,000 people who were in state mental hospitals, only half were mentally ill (Whitaker, 2019). As the eugenicists achieved one major goal of isolating “mental defectives,” they turned their efforts to state legislatures and the Supreme Court to legalize compulsory sterilization. In 1907, Indiana became the first state to pass compulsory sterilization. Scientists provided so-called empirical evidence that heredity played a major role in the transmission of crime, alcoholism, “mental retardation,” and mental illness. Over the next 20 years, 30 states would pass compulsory sterilization legislation based on scientific testimony that defectives bred defectives. As bad science became bad law, in 1927, the infamous Supreme Court Case, Buck v. Bell, in an 8–1 ruling, would come to symbolize the unholy alliance and shadow of science, medicine, and the judiciary (Cohen, 2016). These fields worked together to impose compulsory sterilization of individuals legally and medically with mental illness. The eugenic movement made Carrie Buck a human symbol for their sterilization campaign, by calling her feebleminded and an imbecile. History has shown that professional people in the name of the eugenics movement fabricated medical, scientific, and legal information (Cohen, 2016). As it turned out, Carrie Buck was not “feebleminded” or an “imbecile.” But, by the time history cleared her name, the damage was done and compulsory sterilizations of the mentally ill became law. The Supreme Court found that there was scientific evidence that hereditary played an important role in creating social problems and mental illness. Justice Wendell Holmes, often acknowledged as one of the greatest Supreme Court justices, argued that instead of waiting to execute criminals or letting individuals with mental illness starve to death, the more humane solution was for society to sterilize them (Cohen, 2016). Rarely is this case mentioned as an important civil rights case in legal lawbooks or important civil rights case in judicial literature or education. In a 1,778-page American Constitutional Law text, there is barely one sentence and one footnote regarding the Buck v. Bell case (Cohen, 2016). It was only in 1981 that Oregon ordered its last forced sterilization and between 2006 and 2010, 150 women were sterilized, often without their consent, in California prisons. After the 1927 Supreme Court decision, compulsory sterilization increased expeditiously across the nation. Support came from many surprising quarters, including the national media.

236  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Editorials in the prestigious New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine overwhelmingly endorsed compulsory sterilization. Public opinion polls showed that most of the American public supported forced sterilization of “mental defectives.” By the 1940s, over 45,000 Americans had been sterilized, with half performed in state mental hospitals. California performed the most sterilizations of any state (Whitaker, 2019). Doctors rationalized that compulsory sterilization was therapeutic, since the male testicles of individuals with mental illness were larger than the normal male population. Cutting the vas deferens was proving to be a new effective treatment for mental illness. Sterilization was not popular in Europe except in Nazi Germany, where eugenics was implemented on a grand level and practiced the effectiveness of their new gas chambers. Seventy thousand individuals with mental illness were murdered before this practice was expanded to the Jews and other populations. During the Nuremberg Trials of 1947, Nazis, who performed 375,000 forced eugenic sterilizations, cited Buck v. Bell as a defense. Although the eugenics movement was eventually discredited by the 1950s, psychiatrists and psychologists who supported eugenic policies for many years never advocated for the Supreme Court to overturn Buck v. Bell, which still allows individuals with mental illness to be legally sterilized against their will. By the 1950s, a dark pessimism began to occur in the state mental hospitals, because, in contrast to Quaker-run asylums, only 15 percent of individuals were being discharged back to the community. The Shock Therapy Generation in Psychiatry

As general medicine made progress in the treatment of cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, tuberculous, and other serious medical illnesses, psychiatry showed little progress in the treatment of mental illness. In the medical world, psychiatrists began to be perceived as the weakest and most incompetent of physicians. To improve their status, psychiatrists turned to some of the most controversial, critics said draconian, approaches to mental illness in the hope to increase their status as competent physicians. Called “therapies,” psychiatrists experimented in state mental hospitals, where most individuals with mental illness were now safely locked away from society. These therapies would come to symbolize the ultimate demise of state mental hospitals throughout the United States. Since mental illness was now perceived only as a brain disease with psychology and sociology minimized, psychiatry turned to “shocking” the brain by a variety of methods under the guise that these new and innovative treatments could possibly cure mental illness. The idea that mental illness was caused by an “overheated” brain had returned, and psychiatry now had the full force of modern chemicals, drugs, and technology at their disposal to prove their value to the medical community. Insulin Coma Shock Therapy

Insulin, a hormone developed in the early 1920s, draws sugar from the blood into the muscles. A Viennese psychiatrist, Manfred Sakel (1900–1957) had found that small doses of insulin had helped morphine addicts cope with their withdrawal symptoms. He thought the insulin coma shock therapy approach might help patients with schizophrenia. In insulin coma shock therapy, the brain was deprived of essential brain sugar, so brain cells “starved” of sugar would shut down. This action would shock the higher intellectual brain functions with the hope of decreasing psychosis. Deprived of insulin, the patient would go into a coma, often near death, for up to two hours. Twenty to 60 treatments could occur over a brief period as patients regressed to a childlike

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 237 state, which many doctors saw as the opportunity for “rebirth.” As more research occurred, it became clear that depriving the brain of insulin could result in neurological shrinkage, hemorrhaging of the brain, destruction of nerve tissue in the central cortex, and cause permanent damage to the central nervous system. Although insulin coma shock therapy was an abysmal failure, psychiatrists continued the practice until the 1950s, even as they observed that most discharged patients who had received this therapy quickly returned to the hospital (Palmer, 1950). By conservative estimates, at least 5 percent of state mental hospital patients were dying from this treatment. Insulin shock therapy became a fascination of the public. It was positively represented in the 1940 film Kildare’s Strange Case, in which Dr. Kildare was cured of schizophrenia. Insulin shock therapy was also shown in a sinister light in the 1946 film, Shock, in which Vincent Price plots to murder a patient using an overdose of insulin to cover up his own murder.

Figure 6.16 

238  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Metrazol Convulsion Shock Therapy

Since insulin shock coma therapy was costly because it took a significant amount of professional and staff time, state mental hospitals looked for cheaper methods. Metrazol convulsion shock therapy required the injection of Metrazol, a powerful central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. When injected intravenously, it induced violent convulsions, which led to the patient having violent seizures. During the procedure, as Metrazol produced the convulsions, a patient’s bones would often begin to break, teeth would crack, and muscles tear. Although little qualitative research is available as to how individuals with mental illness responded to these new and shock therapy techniques, there is evidence that individuals with mental illness had a tremendous fear of Metrazol convulsion shock therapy. After a Metrazol injection, a patient would often scream, “in the name of humanity please stop these injections I don’t want to die” (Whitaker, 2019, p. 94). Many patients related to the experience as being roasted in a whitehot furnace. Some psychiatrists rationalized that the procedure was strangely liberating because it had a sadistic punishing attack; it helped the patient overcome their unconscious sense of guilt. Shock therapies were often rationalized from the standpoint that psychological punishment was necessary to alleviate bad psychotic voices and thoughts. Through shock therapy, those voices and thoughts would be replaced by a healthier conscience and stronger ego. Metrazol convulsion shock therapy replaced insulin shock coma therapy in the mid-1930s as the dominate shock therapy in most state mental hospitals. Nearly 37,000 patients received the treatment by the early 1940s (Whitaker, 2019). Because of increasing death rates and the lack of clinical efficacy of insulin and Metrazol therapies, psychiatry temporarily turned away from chemicals. Electricity was now seen as an even a better way to shock patients “back to reality.” Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy

In Rome, an Italian psychiatrist, Ugo Gerletti (1877–1963), a major supporter of the new shock therapies, had been using electricity to study epilepsy. He found that electric shock to dogs induced convulsions like insulin and Metrazol. The question was how to make it safe for humans. He found his answer in a local slaughterhouse, where he observed that after pigs were anesthetized by shocks of electricity directly to their head, they became more compliant for slaughter. Gerletti, considered the father of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), believed he had found the secret cure for mental illness by observing the slaughter of pigs. The key was to induce convulsions by replacing chemical interventions with electricity. Even before ECT became a human therapy, he found during his experimentation that half of the animals died from the procedure. His first subject was a homeless man that he simply took off a Roman street. Although no one would ever discover his real identity, the homeless person, “S.E,” would become famous as the first person to receive what Gerletti would later claim as the first successful ECT treatment. When ECT became widely used in American state mental institutions in the 1940s, there was concern that the damage to the brain was of greater magnitude than insulin and Metrazol therapies. Psychiatry, somewhat ambivalent about those concerns, began to endorse the medical concept of “decortication.” Psychiatrists reasoned that the positive impact of causing disorientation, amnesia, and trauma to the brain to calm the patient outweighed the negative impact of damage to the cerebral cortex. The “decortication” theory proved to be very wrong (Whitaker, 2019). The “decortication” process “dulled” the intellectual aspect of psychosis causing severe damage to the cerebral cortex, responsible for the higher intellectual functions of the central nervous system. This stripped the patient of the needed intellectual abilities to deal with the anxieties, delusions, fantasies, and paranoia often associated with psychosis.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 239 Gerletti was concerned about the symbolism of using electricity on mentally ill people. He noted that in America, criminals were often electrocuted in an electric chair. He lamented that his discovery could be viewed as barbaric and dangerous. ECT shock treatment would forever be linked to the electrocution of criminals in the electric chair. Max Fink, in his book Electroshock Therapy: A Guide for Professionals and Their Patients (2009), advocated for the continued use of ECT, especially when all the other therapies, psychotropic medication, and psychotherapy did not work. He believed that tremendous improvements had been made in ECT treatment and found that ECT relieved feelings of depression, suicidal thoughts, and some forms of acute psychosis. Most importantly, unlike during the shock therapy generation in psychiatry, Fink noted that one of the most important modern improvements had been that by law a patient had to provide informed consent for ECT. This meant that the psychiatrist was required to educate the patient, especially about the possible side effects, and the patient must sign a consent form before ECT occurs. However, major societal concern remains for potential abuse and some states require that other doctors review and approve the necessity for ECT before the procedure occurs.

Figure 6.17 

240  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Until the civil rights movement in the 1960s, individuals with mental illness had no legal right to refuse psychiatric treatments. Although occasionally asked for their permission, there were no legal requirements that individuals with mental illness give written consent, be educated about the psychiatric interventions, especially the possible side effects. Lobotomies

Although the Greeks viewed the frontal lobes of the brain as the location of the higher forms of human intelligence, modern science believed it had discovered the distinguishing characteristic between a human and the ape brain was the frontal lobes because, in 1861, the French neurologist Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880) proved that it was indeed the frontal lobes that gave humanity its most important intellectual powers. As the brain became the key for psychiatry, the only key, to the cure of mental illness, another even more dramatic way to damage the brain was instituted in mental hospitals throughout the United States. The importance of the frontal lobes was also discovered in the American Crowbar Case of Phineas Cage. A young Vermont railroad worker, who, in 1848 while preparing a hole for blasting powder for an explosion, drove a 3.5-foot iron rod into his left check and into his frontal lobes. He survived and lived for another 12 years. However, he was supposedly never the same. His personality changed significantly. Prior to the accident, he was admired as a very competent, shrewd, and ambitious young man. After the blast, he became disagreeable, stubborn, and rude. The Cage case remains a fixture in neurology, psychology, and neuroscience curriculum, particularly regarding the role of the brain in personality and social development. Often missing in the curriculum are reports that because of social supports, Cage appears to have fully recovered in Chile as a stagecoach driver (Macmillan, 2008). The overemphasis on brain functioning in the treatment of mental illness continued even as shock treatments were being acknowledged as damaging the brain and causing intellectual and emotional problems. This acknowledgment was appealing to Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz (1874–1955), who would become the father of the prefrontal lobotomy. Lobotomies became so popular in medicine and even in society at large that in 1949 Moniz received a Nobel Prize for discovering the therapeutic value of leucotomy, known today as lobotomy, for the treatment of psychosis. Moniz started as a political reformer, supporting the end of the Portuguese monarchy and advocating for democratic reforms in Portugal. His views led to jail time and eventual election to the Portuguese Parliament. Holding on to his dreams of having a significant impact on the world, after a military coup in 1926, he became disenchanted with politics and turned his sites to medicine and neurology. Surgery to the brain was not new. In the twelfth century, the practice of trepanning was developed to cut holes in the brain to allow the demons to escape. In the late 1800s, Gottlieb Burckhardt, a Swiss asylum director, removed a part of a patient’s cerebral cortex to control hallucinations. In the early twentieth century, Ludwig Puusepp, a Russian surgeon, treated depression by cutting into the frontal lobes of his patients. After attending professional conferences and reviewing research, Moniz was encouraged that there was sufficient evidence to start brain surgery to cure mental illness. His lobotomy procedure consisted of opening access to the brain by drilling holes into the skull. Before completion, a syringe was used to add alcohol to kill the white fiber tissue. His first patient was an unidentified 60-year-old woman who previously was a prostitute and suffered from psychosis, paranoia, and anxiety. After the operation, Moniz claimed she was cured when she returned to the asylum calm, cognitively stronger, and in control of her emotions.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 241

Figure 6.18 

Another unidentified person was first treated by Moniz with a lobotomy, another important example of the mistreatment of individuals with mental illness and their historic lack of legal rights to give informed consent for treatment. Moniz believed that thoughts, ideas, and feelings were stored in groups of connected cells in the brain. Mental illness was a result of a dysfunctional cellular connective system, especially in the frontal lobes. For Moniz and those that followed, lobotomies were the only effective way to destroy fixed cellular connections (Freeman & Watts, 1942). Never mind that these intrusions into the brain left irreparable damage. In the final analysis, lobotomies served institutional, not individual treatment goals, because the patients became more docile, less psychotic, and more manageable. Moniz described lobotomies as “surgery of the soul.” Critics say it was really the soul of psychiatry, not the patient, that was trying to be saved. If they could speak, patients would say lobotomies were not surgeries of the soul but surgeries that removed their soul (Whitaker, 2019). Walter Freeman and James Watts (1942) became American converts to the practice of lobotomies. By the mid-1930s Freeman was acknowledged as the national leader in America for lobotomies placed on the front page of the New York Times in 1937, that his “surgery of the soul” lobotomies was creating miracles in psychiatry (Valenstein, 1984). Ironically, during this time, empirical research, supposedly the most scientific, continued to report the positive outcomes of lobotomies.

242  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness The reality was that after lobotomy, patients were typically incontinent and lay in their beds like dead “wax dummies.” Nurses had to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to wake them up by tickling, pounding their chests, and grabbing them by the neck to “playfully throttle them.” Patient behaviors often became bizarre, with a loss of the sense of shame, as they often walked around the hospital naked. The “good news” was that patients who were previously disruptive, violent, or aggressive now caused fewer problems. Freeman and Watts (1942) described the lobotomy process as “surgically induced childhood.” Patients regressed to childhood. Adult interests were replaced by coloring books, dolls, and teddy bears. If by chance any previous negative behaviors immediately resurfaced, ECT would follow, even close to a recently completed lobotomy. After a lobotomy, over 25 percent of the patients never left the hospital (Whitaker, 2019). Outside the hospital, families were encouraged to treat their family member like a child. This meant teaching the patient manners and making them understand that no amount of “tears, pleading or reasoning” would have much of an impact. In fact, punishment was preferable over love and affection. Since individuals with mental illness were typically seen to have lost the sense of conscience and shame, therefore physical abuse was not only viable but recommended for controlling bad behavior. A few discharged patients progressed beyond a “household pet” to become employed or have a normal life. But Freeman and Watts (1942) cautioned families not to expect too much or cause too much stress. Their employment should be based on simple tasks, punctuality, and adaptability. This diminishment was viewed as necessary and a successful outcome for their survival in a complex world. To please their financial donors, Walter Freeman and James Watt developed a transorbital lobotomy, which was cheaper and quicker to administer because it could be done without trained medical personnel. The transorbital lobotomy became known as the “ice pick lobotomy” because the medical instrument used looked like an ice pick. No drilling of holes in the skull was necessary. A tool called an orbitoclast went straight through the eye socket of a patient. After the orbitoclast entered the eye, the doctor or staff attendant would tap lightly with a hammer to continue entry into the brain. This hammering broke through a thin layer of bone and into brain fibers that were then cut by the twisting of the orbitoclast. It is estimated that around 50,000 lobotomies, 60 percent on women, were performed in the United States (Whitaker, 2019). Three thousand to 5,000 were done during the Freeman and Watts period alone. Since most were performed in state mental hospitals, the fact was that after a lobotomy individuals with mental illness became docile, lost their personality, and could no longer take care of themselves was often seen as a positive outcome, symbolized dramatically in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Rosemary Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy underwent a lobotomy in 1941 that left her incapacitated and institutionalized for the rest of her life. That experience inspired President Kennedy to pass the Community Mental Health Act of 1963, which began the community mental health movement throughout the United States. In recent years, there have been calls demanding that the Nobel Prize Moniz received be withdrawn because of all the human suffering he created. His so-called achievement did tremendous harm and caused unthinkable suffering to individuals with mental illness and their families. In 1939, Moniz was shot several times by a mentally ill patient and was confined to a wheelchair for the remaining 16 years of his life. Shame of the States

By the mid-twentieth century, individuals with mental illness were dying at five times the rate of the general population (Whitaker, 2019). The situation was dire. As is often the case in history,

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 243 an important critique about psychiatric care in state mental hospitals came from outside the field. In 1948, Albert Deutsch (1948), a journalist and social activist, wrote Shame of the States, which exposed the horrific situation in American state mental hospitals. Besides interviews with hospital staff, much of the inspiration for the book originated from the experiences of conscientious objectors (COs) of World War II, who had been assigned to state mental hospitals in lieu of military service. Upon exposure to the state mental hospitals, COs reported being traumatized because they could not believe that a civilized society could tolerate such inhumanity. The book could have been called the Shame of American Society or the Shame of American Professional Organizations because Deutsch made a scathing rebuke of societal and professional attitudes about mental illness. He compared the medical, societal, and euthanistic attitudes to Dr. Karl Brandt, Hitler’s physician, to the shameful American treatment practices but unlike the Nazis, there was no official state policy to kill the “insane.” Rather, the American system does it passively through neglect. Deutsch saw himself as a modern Dorothea Dix and advocated for national leadership to end the shame. He believed the system was underfunded and understaffed, and that custodial care had replaced real treatment. Although the book received critical acclaim by the mental health community as well as journalists and advocates, few reforms occurred. Deutsch died in 1961, frustrated by the ongoing neglect of individuals with mental illness. The 1968 Proclamation of Teheran

After World War II and the fall of Nazism, every nation had to reflect on its own eugenic and sterilization policies. Although modern science has produced new conditions for a neo-eugenic movement, the original eugenic science that the “weak breed the weak” became discredited. The 1968 Proclamation of Teheran (United Nations, 1968) became one moment in history when the world said “enough” to eugenics. The 1968 Proclamation of Teheran was read at the First Conference on Human Rights led by the United Nations. In the proclamation there was direct acknowledgment that all people had the basic right to determine freely and responsibly the number of children they would bear. There were to be no exceptions. One hundred and twenty nations, including the United States, signed the declaration. The Psychiatric Pharmaceutical Revolution First Generation Antipsychotics

In May 1954, with the advent of psychotropic medication, the world of psychiatry and the life of individuals with mental illness would dramatically change forever. Smith, Kline, and French introduced chlorpromazine, which would become known as Thorazine. The term neuroleptic, from the Greek, meaning, “take hold of nerve seizures,” described the goal of antipsychotic medication, which was to cause chemical restraint and to tranquilize the overheated brain. Kurt Schneider (1887–1967) was a German psychiatrist, who after the fall of the Third Reich, rejected Nazi eugenics and became a leading phenomenological psychiatrist to rebuild German psychiatry. His phenomenology included the assessment of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Schneider, 1959). Positive symptoms of schizophrenia were hallucinations, delusions, and excited motor behavior; negative symptoms were emotional and social problems that included impoverished thought and speech, blunted affect, and social withdrawal. The early anti-psychotics, Thorazine and Haldol, improved the positive symptoms of schizophrenia but had no impact on the negative symptoms. The release of dopamine into the

244  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness mesolimbic pathway had been linked to psychosis. The antipsychotic drugs, especially Thorazine, blocked the dopaminergic pathways in the brain and decreased psychosis. Since dopamine makes humans feel alive, dopamine inhibition reduced positive psychotic symptoms, often at the expense of basic human feeling. Some of the worst side effects left clients feeling like “zombies”: wax-like and without spirit. With the advent of neuroleptics, many patients could now leave state institutions and live in the community, although many described the neuroleptics as being “chemical lobotomies.” In 1938, the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act was passed by Congress, creating the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Its mission was to protect and promote public health in most areas of health, including psychiatric medications. Until 1951 and the Durham-Humphrey Amendment to this bill, pharmaceutical companies sold medications directly to consumers through pharmacists. After this amendment passed, only physicians were authorized to prescribe habit-forming or potentially dangerous medications. Although the intent was meant to protect the public and have physicians who were trained in medicine to control the safe distribution of drugs, after this legislation the role of the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association changed dramatically. Understanding that physicians were the only professional group that could prescribe medication, to gain their favor, the pharmaceutical industry poured millions and millions of dollars into medical organizations. It is estimated that 30 percent of the budget of the American Psychiatric Association comes from drug advertisements in their academic journals. With the development of psychotropics and total medical control of prescription medication, psychiatry, strongly criticized for the failure of state mental hospital psychiatry, had another opportunity to prove its worth. The pharmaceutical industry investment in psychiatry proved fruitful. By 1970, the Smith, Kline, and French initial investment of $350,000 in Thorazine had skyrocketed to $116 million (Whitaker, 2019). Psychiatric medication became one of the most profitable drugs for the pharmaceutical industry. It was in the interest of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry to view mental illness as a “brain disease,” a disease primarily in need of medication. Thorazine quickly gave way to other neuroleptics. Haldol and Prolixin could also be injected to decrease psychosis quickly. There was hope in the mental health community that the new drugs would prove revolutionary. However, the initial results were mixed. The marriage of psychiatry to the pharmaceutical industry caused concern about an overemphasis on medication to the neglect of other treatment approaches (Jacobs, 1995). The “typical” psychotropics of Thorazine, Haldol, and Prolixin continued to have mixed results because of serious side effects. One of the worst was Tardive Dyskinesia, involuntary repetitive movements, which caused irreversible injury to the body. Akathisia, the constant desire to move, caused constant pacing, shaking of the legs, and rocking on the feet. Acute Dystonia caused involuntary contractions of the eye, twisting head, protruding tongue, and extension of the neck. Parkinsonism caused rigid muscles, increased salivation, slow movements, and changes in the posture of gait. The worst was Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS), which caused life-threatening seizures, coma, renal failure, and many deaths. Robert Whitaker (2019) estimated that between 1960 and 1980, 100,000 Americans died from NMS, noting it could have been reduced to 20,000 deaths if psychiatrists had taken feedback from clients more seriously. In human history, the pill has become a symbol of health. Pills preserve health and life; pills have a certain power and captivate in mysterious ways. How could something so small be so life sustaining? Over 4,000 years ago, Egyptians did recipes with medicinal substances to create pills. The Greeks called pills katapotia, meaning “something to be swallowed.” The Roman philosopher Pliny, around 55 CE, was the first to use the word pilule, “pill.” Although a pill is one of the oldest symbols of healing, pills in modern life have often replaced human agency, the importance of an individual to develop the skills to act in the face of discomfort and life challenges.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  245

Figure 6.19  Second-Generation Antipsychotics

As the neuroleptics celebrated their fortieth anniversary in the late 1980s, the research of the effectiveness of the “pharmaceutical revolution” was at best mixed, and at worst, a failure. For many individuals with mental illness, anything that would allow them to escape state mental hospital psychiatrists was a positive. On the other hand, by the late 1980s 80 percent of individuals with serious mental illness were unemployed, with most living in extreme poverty (Cunningham, McKenzie, & Taylor 2006). It was disconcerting that researchers found that the neuroleptic goal of controlling the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, the hallucinations, and delusions, were often a complete failure (Whitaker, 2004, 2010). By the late twentieth century, most of the mental health community had fully embraced the “brain disease” approach to mental illness. It was now accepted as “normal” that the “old” typical antipsychotic drugs would consistently result in extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) like Parkinsonian symptoms and encephalitis lethargica, damage to the dopaminergic systems. The pharmaceutical industry, understanding this reality, came to the rescue with new “atypical” antipsychotic medications. The hope was to impact the negative symptoms because the positive symptoms had most often paralyzed individuals with mental illness from social engagement and a quality life.

246  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Not to be ignored, was the enormous financial profit that would result if the new “atypical” antipsychotics proved successful. There was such excitement about the release of the new “atypical” medications that in 1994 Diana Ross played Pauline Cooper in Out of Darkness. This was a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV production about a 40-year-old medical student who had lost 20 years of her life to paranoid schizophrenia. Because of the drug Clozaril, the new “atypical,” she was now on the road to recovery. Individuals with mental illness had another “brain disease” problem. Not only did their medication need to continue to block dopamine, but now the serotonin receptors in the brain. This discovery led to a major competition within the pharmaceutical industry to replace the widely discredited old neuroleptics with a whole new generation of antipsychotics. These were intended to have a greater impact on the “overheated brain” and the negative symptoms of mental illness. Research on Clozaril, the granddaddy of the new antipsychotics, was tested in Europe by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in the 1970s. It was found to reduce extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). However, it also had serious neurotoxic effects that caused seizures, severe sedation, urinary incontinence, respiratory arrest, and heart attacks. Although that might have been enough to stop most medication trials, Sandoz only withdrew their support of Clozaril after discovering it caused agranulocytosis, the fatal depletion of white blood cells. With neuroleptics denigrated and the pharmaceutical industry profits decreasing, Sandoz moved ahead in the 1980s and received approval from the FDA to use Clozaril only when the old neuroleptics did not show efficacy. That was easy to prove since the old neuroleptics were often discredited and there was a growing cynicism among mental health clients that all that seemed to matter to their parents and the mental health community was taking their medication, a biological determinism that reduced their lives to physiology and medical diagnosis. After Sandoz and Clozaril, Janssen came next with Risperidone, then Eli Lilly with Zyprexa, and AstraZeneca with Seroquel. The cost of these drugs became astronomical. Initially, Sandoz provided a $9,000 a month package for Clozaril that included weekly blood tests for agranulocytosis. Janssen charged $250 a month for Risperidone, 30 times the cost of Thorazine. Eli Lily topped them all for Zyprexa with annual sales in the late 1990s of over $1 million. By the end of the twentieth century, U.S. sales for the new atypical antipsychotic medication topped $2 billion (Whitaker, 2004). By changing how clinical trials occurred, the pharmaceutical industry had another strategy to profit from the psychiatric industry. Before the atypical medications, most of the clinical trials occurred in academic settings by thought leaders, academicians whose concern was protecting patients and who often viewed the pharmaceutical industry with disdain. In return, the pharmaceutical industry viewed the academic process as too slow and tedious. By the 1980s, the pharmaceutical industry was fed up with academia and built a for-profit clinical trial process that would better serve their interests. It first started by paying community physicians who felt squeezed by the new managed care cost containment requirements to complete clinical trials in their private offices. With success from community physicians, the pharmaceutical industry supported the development of private affiliated research centers that could provide faster and larger patient pools for clinical trials. That being successful, venture capitalists built nationwide chains of private for-profit research centers. By the end of the twentieth century, the pharmaceutical industry had invested billions of dollars to support the for-profit system of clinical trials that was now under their total control. Even though there were some skeptics about the rush to the atypical antipsychotics, there was little opposition since the pharmaceutical industry controlled the researchers and the results of their clinical trials. With little objective research and with significant money to be made by psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry, the old neuroleptics were quickly replaced by the atypical medication. In fact, there were national advertising campaigns led by the American

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 247 Psychiatric Association and the pharmaceutical industry celebrating the arrival of the second generation of antipsychotic medication. Although atypical antipsychotics showed some improvements with positive symptoms, the hope for dramatic improvements in the negative symptoms did not occur. The atypical antipsychotics continued to have many of the same serious side effects of the neuroleptics: tardive dyskinesia, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, stroke, sudden cardiac death, blood clots, and diabetes. Most disturbing, after all the pharmaceutical industry bravado about the supposed success of psychiatric medication, individuals with mental illness continued to have higher incidents of health problems, commit suicide at twice the national average, live in extreme poverty, were often homeless, and suffered a stigma unlike any other health population (Murray and Lopez, 1996). After experiencing such financial success with the new antipsychotics, the pharmaceutical industry turned more aggressively toward other mental health problems, particularly depression, bipolar, and anxiety difficulties. By 2007, Americans spent over $2.5 billion annually on antipsychotics and antidepressants (Whitaker, 2010). In this “medication for every problem” generation, many hailed the twentieth as the “century of the brain.” Critics argued it was better called the “century of the pharmaceutical industry.” The Psychological Revolution in the Treatment of Mental Illness Resistance in America to eugenics and state hospital psychiatry came from all Four Forces in Psychology: behaviorism, psychodynamic, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal psychology. Behaviorism

For behaviorists, learning replaced instinct and environmental conditioning was far more important than hereditary. Behaviorists believed that people learn abnormal behavior the same way they learn normal behavior. When the environment changes, the person changes, not the other way around. Behaviorists also opposed punishment because not only was it ineffective, but punishment also reinforced bad behavior. State mental hospitals began to develop behavior modification programs that provided positive reinforcement. The token economy approach replaced coercion and punishment with patients earning tangible goods for positive behaviors. With their tokens, a patient could “buy” goods in the state hospital store or earn a pass to eat at a local restaurant. Impressed with how some institutions were being transformed, in 1972, B. F. Skinner, the father of neo-behaviorism, was awarded the Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. Psychoanalysis

Initially, the classical Freudians adopted his view that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia could not be psychoanalyzed because they could not form a transference which is the essential element to psychoanalytic treatment. This was rejected by neo-Freudians, especially by a leading psychiatrist during this period, Henry Stack Sullivan, who said that individuals with schizophrenia could form a transference and recover from mental illness. He criticized psychiatry as appalling and inhumane for the belief that it was better to be psychologically docile without a personality than to have schizophrenia.

248  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Jungian Analysis

One of the most creative psychodynamic approaches came from Jungian psychiatrist John Weir Perry (1914–1998). In The Far Side of Madness (Perry, 2005), explained that schizophrenia was a self-healing process. During the healing process, the unconscious overwhelmed the ego, which resulted in a dreamlike state. A psychiatrist should not fight, or medicate this state away, but embrace the state like a dream. In dream analysis, the therapist attends to symbolic and mythological material, which helps the patient find meaning in their journey to create a new world view. Perry believed that the psychotic and visionary religious experience brain states were similar. Like a visionary religious experience, an acute psychotic episode typically lasts six weeks. Or, Perry noted, in Christian mythology, lasts for 40 days and 40 nights. As with Jesus, the psychotic episode starts with isolation and then a feeling of death. And as the ego dies, there is a feeling of being connected to what Jung described as the Self, the unconscious organizing principle of the psyche. Perry believed psychosis connects the individual to the collective unconscious, which resulted in the recapitulation of human history. During the psychotic process, one experiences internally through symbols and myths the evolution of history. In this way, individuals with mental illness are the modern visionaries that carry the new history, the “messiahs” trying to communicate a new vision, a new mythology, for humanity. Perry agreed with the Quakers and others, that medical hospitals were one of the worst places on earth to treat mental health problems, especially psychosis and schizophrenia. To create the safe, compassionate, and homelike environment, and a totally different attitude about mental illness, during the 1970s Perry founded Diabasis in Berkeley, California. The facility was designed for young adults who were experiencing early stages of schizophrenia. He claimed that individuals emerged from the “far side of madness” to a level of human understanding that transcended most so-called healthy people. The approach of Perry was so successful that his Jungian approach was adopted by San Francisco General Hospital. Not attending to his own shadow, Perry began to violate patient boundary issues and surrendered his medical license in 1980. However, his Jungian approach to the visionary experience of mental illness awaits a new generation of revolutionary pioneers. Perry was able to achieve incredible results without the use of medication, shock treatments, restraints, or inpatient locked facilities. Along with other leading psychiatrists in America, he began a rebellion against state mental hospital psychiatry and formed an anti-psychiatry movement (Boyers & Orrill, 1971). The anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s rejected shock treatment and involuntary forced treatment. The movement included some of the leading psychiatrists who rebelled against traditional psychiatry and advocated for treatment consent laws, racial and social justice, less dependence on medication, ending stigma, and the freedom to be different. Psychiatrists Thomas Szasz and R. D. Laing took different approaches, but both rejected traditional and state mental hospital psychiatry. Existential and Transpersonal Psychology

R. D. Laing (1927–1989), a Scottish psychiatrist, was influenced by existential philosophy and opposed shock treatments and the overemphasis on medication in psychiatry. Inspired by phenomenological psychology of anthropologist George Bateson and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, and by his extensive experimentation with mind-altering drugs, especially lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Laing argued it was hard to be sane in an insane world. In a play on words, he noted the insane are really the one’s in sanity.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 249 Laing rejected the diathesis-stress model of psychiatry that sought to explain the origin of mental illness. The word diathesis comes from the Greek and means predisposition or vulnerability. Diathesis theory was developed by psychologist Paul Meehl to explain schizophrenia in the 1960s. The diathesis-stress model of psychopathology theorizes that mental illness results when genetic susceptibility combines with environmental stressors. Laing rejected this theory because of its overemphasis on biology and lack of focus on the impact of society and the family (Laing, 1967). For Laing, it was culture and community, not biology, that ultimately socialized the person. Like Szasz, he believed that mental illness needed to be approached from the standpoint of the therapist learning a different and symbolic language. He implored psychiatry to remember that the Greeks saw the heart, not the brain, as the center of human understanding. Laing argued that there would a totally different approach to mental illness if modern psychiatry viewed schizophrenia as a “broken heart” rather than a “broken mind.” As the psychoanalysts, Jungians, and behaviorists began to apply their theories to mental illness, Laing (1960) conceptualized mental illness through an existential perspective. Laing explained mental illness by utilizing the existential concept of ontological security, which is feeling secure about identity and being a real and autonomous person (Laing, 1960). Ontological insecurity is an overwhelming fear of losing self. This results in a defensive reaction that splits the mind from the body into separate components and generates psychotic symptoms to survive an imagined external threat of annihilation. In 1965, Laing and a group of colleagues developed the Philadelphia Association, a United Kingdom charity concerned with understanding and treating psychological suffering in new and revolutionary ways. The Philadelphia Association also started Kingsley Hall in the 1960s, where Laing and other psychotherapists lived together with the residents. Like John Weir Perry, but from an existential perspective, Laing offered that psychosis was like a waking dream to be embraced. It was not to be treated through a Western psychiatric perspective of shock treatment and medication, but to learn from the ancient and Eastern cultures who were more comfortable with a transpersonal psychology. Before Western approaches to medicine, psychosis had a different place in human history. It was often viewed as valuable spiritual, mystical, and shamanistic experiences, not only for the person, but also for their culture (Ellenberger, 1970). In the tradition of successful treatment approaches for mental illness, Laing believed the key to healing any mental health problem, especially psychosis, was kindness, respect, and empathy. After reading The Divided Self (Laing, 1960) and being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Mary Barnes became the first and most famous patient of Kingsley Hall. She went on to describe herself as an “ambassador for Laing” and Barnes (1978) wrote Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness. This book explained how psychosis helped her discover her interest in painting and creative expression. David Edgar, one of the most prolific British playwrights of the post-1960s generation, made Mary Barnes famous with his 1979 play, Mary Barnes (Edgar, 1979). The East London community became hostile to Laing and his approach to mental illness, which resulted in constant harassment. By the 1970s the program ended. The building returned to its famous roots in the 1980s by becoming a community center for social justice groups and the Gandhi Foundation. In the 1930s, Gandhi spent 12 weeks at Kingsley Hall discussing the future of India with many of the most influential political leaders of the day. He loved East London and the Hall, and, upon leaving, noted that the people of Kingsley Hall surrounded him with love throughout his stay. The Philadelphia Association has survived and continues to teach psychotherapeutic skills and provides affordable therapy and community housing for individuals with mental illness seeking retreat.

250  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness

Figure 6.20 

Rollo May, the renowned American existentialist, considered Laing’s book, The Politics of Experience: The Bird of Paradise (Laing, 1967), as one of the most unsettling and thoughtprovoking books ever written about mental illness. For Laing, the Bird of Paradise symbolized the need for psychotherapists to embrace their own “madness.” The embrace was essential for the liberation of the patient. The bird of paradise looks like a bird ready for the flight of freedom, joy, and triumph. It is likely that Laing would encourage a bird of paradise flower be in the office of every psychologist as a symbol of their own “exotic” nature. A shared joy with a client of the feeling that both had triumphed over a mad and destructive world. The Community Mental Health Revolution Deinstitutionalization and the Birth of Community Mental Health

With the development of antipsychotic medication and a national interest in reforming the mental health system, new hope arose for community treatment. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy, as part of his New Frontier initiative, heralded the beginning of the community mental health movement. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 provided funding for hundreds of community mental health and research centers throughout the United States.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  251

Figure 6.21 

Kennedy urged mental health professionals to leave their large institutions, universities, and state hospitals, and develop community treatment that provided individuals with mental illness a quality life in their home communities; to finally unlock the chains of mental illness by the experience of a loving, supportive community. The ambitious goal was to build mental health centers in every population center of 30,000 people. With this type of support, individuals with mental illness could work, love, and feel at home in their local communities. Since the federal government was providing financial resources for the new community mental health movement, states began a massive deinstitutionalization of state mental hospitals throughout the United States. Between 1950 and 1990, states closed most of their state mental institutions, discharging nearly 500,000 individuals with mental illness back to their local communities. After the Kennedy/Johnson administration, the federal government began to withdraw its support for the new community mental health centers. Only half of the federal community mental health centers were ever built, and none currently receive any federal funding from the Community Mental Health Act of 1963. Since most states did not reinvest the significant budget savings from closing their expensive state mental institutions into community treatment, the community mental health vision of President Kennedy remains an unfilled dream.

252  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness An inspiration for deinstitutionalization during this period was a book by sociologist Erving Goffman (1961): Asylums: Essays on the Conditions of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. In his book, Goffman described his participant observation field research at a mental institution in Washington, DC. From his experience, Goffman developed the theory of total institution, which is when a guard and captor class structure forms within an institution. In this structure, everyone understands and plays their social role, which leads to an institutional psychology. Treatment becomes secondary in an institutional psychology because it is essential that the patient first play their social role as subservient to the role of the doctor. Goffman compared the medicalization of mental illness and various psychiatric treatment approaches to the role of workers during the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. Like a patient in a state mental hospital, the activities and routines relate more to the needs of the boss and the doctor, rather than to the needs of the worker and the patient (Krieg, 2003, Mansell & Ericsson, 1996).

Personal Reflection In 1970, I was a student in Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE), a program developed to encourage students to consider mental health as a career option by placing undergraduate students in various mental health programs throughout California. I was placed in Mendocino State Hospital in Ukiah, California. It was a very progressive and experimental hospital with innovative programs for adolescents, addiction, and community reintegration. I lived and worked on the state hospital grounds. In fact, my housing was close by the unit I was assigned. Besides learning so much about mental illness, I learned to view individuals with mental illness with great admiration. Working on the community integration unit, I experienced firsthand community discrimination as individuals with mental illness sought jobs in the community or registered to vote. Since the hospital was set for closure, I saw the first examples of an unplanned deinstitutionalization that set individuals with mental illness up for failure. As deinstitutionalization progressed, many individuals with mental illness wanted to return to the safety and treatment of the state hospital because of their discharge to inept, local, six-bed residential facilities that were providing only custodial care, often only for money. State officials used the closures to save millions of state general fund dollars with no commitment of state savings to fund a new community mental health system throughout California. In terms of the work of Goffman here was no real preparation for individuals with mental illness or their families on the psychological meaning of deinstitutionalization or how to leave the state hospital and build a non-institutional life in the community. There was also an absence of planning at the community level, leaving many communities unprepared, even hostile to their new mental health responsibilities. Professionals were also unprepared and untrained, building a community system often based on a private practice model of weekly psychotherapy, not on a rehabilitation; recovery and community support models developed many years later. The result was the first generation of homeless mentally ill because of poor planning, scarce local financial resources, inadequate housing facilities, and the unavailability of community-based mental health services.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  253 Gregory Baum (1979), a renowned Catholic theologian, provided social justice documents to the Vatican Ecumenical Council in the 1960s. He embraced teachings of the Frankfurt School of Social Research which resulted in his support of Liberation Theology. This theology emphasized social concern for the poor and the political liberation of oppressed peoples throughout the world. He viewed the lack of acknowledgment of the poor and the unseen as a “social sin,” being a collective blindness that resides within a community of people who oppresses human beings, violates human dignity, stifles freedom, and imposes great inequality. Hands over the eyes provides a stark symbol of the “social sin” of the failed deinstitutionalization and the continued neglect by society for the care of individuals with mental illness.

Figure 6.22 

Community Psychology

Adjustment to community mental health did not come easy for traditionally trained mental health professionals, especially clinical psychologists. In 1965, psychologists gathered in Swampscott, Massachusetts, to assess the new role of psychologists in community mental health. From the Swampscott Conference emerged a new branch of psychology: community psychology. Community psychology, separate from clinical psychology, was to focus on public policy and system change rather than individual change (Gibbs, Lachenmeyer & Sigal, 1980). The initial idea was that community psychologists would be a separate department within a community mental health center. Community psychologists would not be burdened with direct services but available to become active in local community issues, especially focused on policy boards that had a direct impact on the lives of mental health clients. These boards included the local Board of Supervisors/ Commissioners, Housing Authority, Planning Commission, and many other areas where policy decisions could be made to improve the mental health of the community.

254  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Community psychologists would provide programs to reduce stigma and educate the community about the value of mental health services (Yanos, Rosenfield & Horowitz, 2001). For the community to “own” their local community mental health center, there would be ongoing program evaluation of community services. This would include supplying clinicians with treatment outcome reports to improve their clinical work. The result of this process would be community research, research that spoke to the needs of the community rather than to the needs of the researchers. The sad reality is that after the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 there was no federal or state funding available, required, or prioritized for a separate community psychology division within the community mental health system. Observing no future in that system, community psychologists sought positions elsewhere and in 1965 created the 27th division in the APA now called the Society of Community Research and Action: Division of Community Psychology, which publishes the American Journal of Community Psychology and The Community Psychologist. In 2016, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Swampscott Conference, the American Journal of Community Psychology published a special issue on the future of community psychology. In Reflections on the Future of Community Psychology from the Generations; A Commentary and Introduction to the Special Issue, Jacob Tebes (2016) summarized how the basic principles of community psychology had survived and, although small, 10 doctoral programs in community psychology still thrived. Of the 15 commentaries that followed about the future of community psychology, none focused on the role of community psychology in community mental health centers or efforts to improve the lives of individuals with mental illness. Clinical Psychology and the Realigned Community Mental Health System

By the 1980s the spirit of a broad-based community mental health system envisioned by the Community Mental Act of 1963 had died. Underfunded and understaffed and because of the tremendous need and neglect of the seriously mentally ill, with limited financial resources, community mental health centers prioritized serious mental illness as its top priority. The days were gone when community mental health centers provided a broad spectrum of mental health services. With homelessness and family and consumer advocacy increasing, the community mental health system would undergo a significant change in priorities that would continue to define the community mental health system into the twenty-first century. In the late twentieth century, the community mental health centers became the specialists of treating the most seriously ill, the “heart surgeons” of mental health care. The “worried well” were now the responsibility of primary care doctors, private therapists, and insurance companies. By the 1980s it was clear community mental health needed a different type of staff; many traditionally trained professionals, especially traditional psychotherapists, felt marginalized and alienated and fled the system because of the medication and case management focus. Traditional professionals did not feel trained or were often uninterested in community models, such as clinical case management, a model in which clinicians provided both psychotherapeutic and case management interventions to individuals with mental illness, most often outside the clinic in the community. In response, a Doctor of Mental Health Degree (DMH) emerged in California in the 1980s, which was a degree that met the manpower need of the newly realigned community mental health system. This was a professional who could prescribe medication and provide psychotherapy and social work support. Threatened, the psychiatric, psychological, and social work associations quickly criticized the degree as being unrealistic and claimed that one professional could not attain skills in medicine, psychology, and social work. After only a few years of the degree program and with only a few graduates, the professional associations, acting in a rare show of political unity, quickly killed the DMH degree.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  255 Personal Reflections If the Swampscott Conference clarified the role for the emerging community psychologist, it did not address the future role of clinical psychology in the evolving community mental health system. Entering the community mental health system in Shasta County, California, in the late 1970s, I witnessed the resistance of mental health professionals, particularly clinical psychologists, to community approaches because the realigned system focused primarily on individuals with serious mental illness. Many psychologists left public service to work in private organizations or to develop a private practice. The absence of strong psychological leadership in the realigned system left a permanent void filled by the other mental health professions. It also left individuals with mental illness with no strong professional counterbalance to the overemphasis on medication and case management. Without a stronger psychological perspective, clients were often seen as cases to be managed, not individuals to be psychologically understood. Psychotherapy, a place where individuals with mental illness could explore their lives, was often unavailable, cut statewide from budgets for more psychiatrists and case managers, or not valued as a necessary part of a quality treatment plan. Viewing the reality that graduate schools were not educating professionals in the new community treatment models, I successfully advocated for a pre-doctoral training program in clinical psychology, which eventually received accreditation from the American Psychological Association. As a director, I also added a post-residency program in clinical psychology and a training program for clinical social workers. As other counties were cutting psychological services, Shasta County was balancing the biopsychosocial needs of individuals with mental illness, with psychotherapy, and community-based services provided often against protests from psychiatrists and the medical community. Former and retired employees continued to meet for monthly lunches long after I left for Santa Barbara County, describing the period, with all its problems, as a “Renaissance” and one of the most satisfying times in their careers.

Innovation and Best Practices in Community Mental Health Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)

The importance of a team approach, professionals and paraprofessionals working in close collaboration emerged in the 1970s as crucial to the treatment of mental illness during deinstitutionalization (Allness & Knoedler, 2003). The “Madison Model” emerged as a successful model to patients leaving the Wisconsin state mental hospitals and by the 1980s it evolved into the Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) that provided mentally ill clients a personalized, small, multi-disciplinary team available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Phillips, Burns, Edgar, et al, 2001). PACT became an evidence-based treatment (EBT) because its team was mobile and composed of a nurse, psychiatrist, mental health professional, and case manager. Other specialists, especially psychologists, drug and alcohol and vocational counselors, were available as needed. A key to its success was a small client caseload, typically 25 clients and its “one-stop” wraparound service-delivery system available around-the-clock. Some patient rights advocates have criticized the coercive methods of the PACT model.

256  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Stuart Kirk (2017) argues that successful outcomes regarding PACT and other community treatments are based on distortions of empirical research. The book claims that coercion in psychiatric treatment, the adoption of an unscientific diagnostic system into controlling access to community treatment and the failure of drug treatments, did not improve the lives of individuals with mental illness. Proponents argue that the quality of staff, the fidelity to the original community-oriented model, and adequate funding of PACT and other similar community programs decrease coercion and the overdependence on psychiatric medication (Phillips, Burns, Edgar, et al, 2001). Recovery – Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)

Although a recovery model is a recent development, the concept dates as far back as to 1840 when John Perceval, son of a British prime minister, wrote of successful recovery after a psychotic episode, despite the treatment by heroic medicine and “lunatic doctors” (Bateson, 1962). Perceval was also a founder of the nineteenth-century Alleged Lunatics Friend Society, a precursor to the psychiatric survivor movement. The society advocated against wrongful confinement, cruel treatment, and physicians establishing themselves as arbiters of sanity who relied on subjective diagnoses. The concept of psychological recovery emerged as another important model after the failure of deinstitutionalization and from the advocacy of the psychiatric survivor and antipsychiatry movements. The recovery model is a rejection of the medical and psychological models that view mental illness as a chronic disability with the best outcomes being only symptom-reduction and relapse prevention. In line with the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step model, mental health recovery, like substance dependence, is a personal journey that requires hope, purpose and meaning, supportive relationships, empowerment, social justice, and new coping skills. Most importantly, recovery requires social inclusion, the feeling of belonging and being valued by the community (Davidson, Rowe, Tondora O’Connell & Lawless, 2009). One of the most successful consumer-oriented and evidence-based treatment (EBT) approaches is the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), developed in 1997 by Mary Ellen Copeland (2011). Both she and her mother had been diagnosed with manic depression. Her mother was treated in a state mental hospital for eight years. From her family and personal experience, Copeland believed that active involvement by mental health clients in treatment planning was essential for a successful recovery. Clients utilize the WRAP program to enhance the quality of their lives by developing an individual daily plan to improve selfhelp skills; monitor and understand emotions; list daily recovery activities; track triggering events; prepare healthy responses to challenging daily stressors; plan social activities; create a daily diet, exercise, relaxation, and sleep schedule; and develop creative skills, especially journaling, music, art, and reading. In other words, do what all healthy human beings do on a routine basis. Psychiatric and Psychosocial Rehabilitation

In the spirit of moral treatment and Geel, psychiatric and psychosocial rehabilitation is the restoration of community functioning. The key role of the community mental health rehabilitation professional is to effect environmental change. Rehabilitation requires the activation of all community support systems and includes a “network of community service providers” outside the traditional mental health system. In the spirit of recovery, rehabilitation

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  257 practitioners focus on the clients experiencing themselves beyond a diagnostic label and rediscovering their value to community life. This entails a major focus on vocational training and education because of the historic neglect of the importance of employment and education in mental health treatment. Attacking stigma in very concrete terms by providing on-the-job support at the workplace shows how individuals with mental illness can be productive employees. Often, psychologists find psychosocial rehabilitation under the auspices of other professions. Abraham Rudrick and David Roe (2018) provide a Rogerian, person-centered psychological approach to serious mental illness. They address the rehabilitation process from a psychological perspective that includes acknowledgment of the ongoing value of moral treatment. Often neglected in the traditional clinical world, Rudrick and Roe (2018) provide a guide on how to integrate person-centered and community rehabilitation approaches in assessment, treatment, self-help activities, community policymaking and research. It took the American Psychological Association over a century from its inception to publicly endorse a rehabilitation approach to mental illness. In 2009, the APA Council of Representatives passed a resolution entitled Endorsement of the Concept of Recovery for People with Serious Mental Illness (APA, 2009). The resolution indicated that individuals with mental illness can live quality lives when there is community integration, supportive interpersonal relationships, vocational training, and educational opportunities. It endorsed a psychological model over the failed medical model and a psychologically oriented recovery-based treatment rather than a medical “medication-first” approach to mental illness. The APA resolution had no specific recommendations that required recovery and community-based education and training for accreditation of its doctoral-level graduate programs in clinical psychology. This left new and developing psychologists unaware of recent evidence-based best practices in serious mental illness, missing the opportunity for a community-based psychological renaissance by learning the competencies needed for a satisfying career in the community mental health system. Early Intervention – Dialogical Healing – Open Dialogue Love is the life force, the soul, the idea. There is no dialogical relation without love, just as there is no love in isolation. Love is dialogic. - David Patterson, Literature and Spirit

Open dialogue was developed in the 1980s in Lapland, Finland, by Jaakko Seikkula and Tom Erik Arnkill (2006). In Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks, they explain their innovative approach to mental illness (Seikkula & Arnkill, 2006). The treatment approach was rooted in the philosophy of language of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975). In Dialogic Imagination, Bakhtin (1981) described his philosophy in three major ways: dialogism, dialogue essential to effective communication; heteroglossia, various unique ways people speak; and chronotope, the time and place where communication occurs. In open dialogue, the therapists suspend the language of their social world and enter into dialogue with the language and meanings of the world of a psychotic or severely disturbed client. Bakhtinian philosophy rejects typical monolinguistic communication, the belief that the language of an individual is the most important element in communication. Rather, in dialogism, there is recognition that language shapes social reality, which can only be understood through a dialogical relationship that creates a shared language of understanding. This means that our

258  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness language, our thoughts, and our behaviors are constructed through interpersonal relationships rather than on predetermined objective scientific truths. Because of the chronicity that can occur with mental illness, early intervention is essential to the open dialogue approach. During the first hospitalization, staff includes daily dialogic meetings not only with the disturbed client, but with all essential staff, family members, friends, and essential community members. These are truly open dialogue meetings because there is no specific agenda or treatment plan for the therapy sessions. Although family therapy and personcentered techniques, especially unconditional positive regard, are utilized, the goal is egalitarian communication. It is not unusual for staff to disagree with each other, or for family members, the client, or community members to have the best therapeutic insights. All decisions about the client are made during the open dialogue sessions. Seikkula and Arnkil (2006) report impressive community outcomes for the treatment of acute psychosis. After five years (1992–1997) of open dialogue treatment, 81 clients had no remaining psychotic symptoms and returned to full employment. After hospitalization, only 35 percent continue the use of antipsychotic medication. The open dialogue approach has inspired similar programs throughout the world, most notably in the United States, the Parachute Project in New York City. The Parachute Project provides a “soft landing” for entry into the mental health system by providing mobile crisis teams, crisis respite centers for short stays to prevent the need for hospitalization, and a peer support telephone line operated by mental health consumers to handle crises from a client perspective. Public Policy – The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

After President Kennedy, there were other presidential federal efforts to improve mental health services. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter’s Commission on Mental Health made 117 recommendations to improve the community mental system and he signed the Mental Health Systems Act in 1980. This dedicated $800 million in federal grants over four years. The problem with grants was that poorer states and localities could not compete. These states were reluctant to apply because after the grant ends, the state is left to continue the programs without federal revenue. In 1999, President Bill Clinton was first to ever host a White House Conference on Mental Health with the goal of reducing stigma. Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, emerged and remains a leading national advocate for improving mental health services. George W. Bush signed Senators Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici’s Mental Health Parity and Addictions Equity Act of 2008, which requires, by federal law, equity in insurance coverage of mental health and medical care, although there is no evidence that insurance companies are being held accountable. In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health: Transforming Mental Health Care in America (2003). This commission brought together leading experts in all fields of mental health and included consumers, family members, providers, and advocates. Unlike many past commissions, there was also a focus on the mental health needs of children. The New Freedom Commission found that the mental health system was fragmented and in desperate need of a new vision. It sought to transform the system after assessing 50 years of the community mental health movement and the failures of deinstitutionalization. By listing six major goals for a reformed system, this document is a blueprint for the future development of the mental health system. Although a good blueprint for a possible transformation, the report did not lead to any significant funding. The report, although visionary, continued the long history of federal neglect

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  259 Six Goals of the President’s New Freedom Commission Goal l: Americans understand that Mental Health is essential to overall health. Goal 2: Mental Health is Consumer and Family driven. Goal 3: Disparities in Mental Health are eliminated. Goal 4: Early Mental Health screening, assessment, and referral are common practice. Goal 5: Excellent Mental health Care is delivered, and research is accelerated. Goal 6: Technology is used to access Mental Health care and information. of the mental health system. Another criticism was that the report was service-centered, not community-centered, as there was little mention of the role of communities in the transformation of the mental health system. National Health Care – Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare)

Most industrial nations have a national insurance plan that covers all of its citizens. In America, insurance is primarily connected to employment, which has made medical coverage difficult for individuals with mental illness due to the many challenges they face when seeking employment. Feeding the stigma and bias that individuals with mental illness cannot work, mental health professionals and the community mental health system have too often not provided the needed supports for vocational success. The President’s New Freedom Commission provided a blueprint for many of the mental health reforms in Obamacare. Obamacare provided America its first national insurance system and made dramatic changes in medical and mental health coverage. It allowed individuals through exchange pools to select their insurance from a new, open, competitive marketplace. To be in the exchange pools, insurance companies were required to offer 10 essential health benefits (EHBs). These benefits included mental health and substance abuse treatment. In Obamacare, individuals with preexisting mental illness must be covered by insurance companies in the same manner as for cancer and diabetic patients. Insurance plans must offer parity in their mental and physical health coverage. Obamacare requires insurance companies to cover psychiatric medications as they would medical medications. However, Obamacare is vague on distinguishing between how the requirement applied to “preferred” drugs, generics, and “specialty” drugs. Often, drugs for mental illness are considered “specialty” drugs, which are more expensive. This means physicians must often change psychiatric drugs for financial, not clinical, reasons. Since private insurance does not meet the medical needs of many Americans, Medicaid insurance fills much of the gap. One in five Americans receives Medicaid benefits. Prior to Obamacare, in many states mentally ill adults had to be designated as disabled and receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to receive Medicaid services. Medicaid expansion ended that requirement and enabled adults with mental illness to receive services not covered by private insurance companies. Under Medicaid, expansion states could now bill Medicaid for case management and other rehabilitative services. Obamacare attempted to hold insurance companies accountable for parity between mental and medical health care. However, the disparities remain enormous since little of the nearly $3 trillion spent on medical health care in America goes for mental health care, even though research has indicated that quality mental health care reduces the cost of medical care. Critics argue there are no federal or state agencies holding insurance companies accountable for parity.

260  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness In fact, many insurance companies pay poorly or limit the number of professionals on their panels, making private insurance access to mental health care difficult. The Consumer and Family Member Revolution The Psychiatric Survivors Antipsychiatry Movement

Throughout history, individuals with mental illness have advocated for treatment and public policies that would best meet their needs. In the modern era, it was Clifford Beers (1876–1943), a former patient of state mental institutions and viewed as the father of the psychiatric survivor movement. His book, A Mind That Found Itself (Beers, 1981), received critical acclaim because it was an early book written from the viewpoint of someone who had survived state mental hospitals. Beers became a role model for individuals with mental illness because he was able to gain support from fellow survivors as well as the medical profession. His advocacy led to significant and long-lasting reforms. He founded the nation-wide Mental Health Association, which has, for over 100 years, continued to provide advocacy for mental health clients. He also founded the Clifford Beers Clinic in New Haven, the first outpatient mental health clinic in the United States. Although Beers provided inspiration to clients who advocated for reform, it was not until the civil rights movement of the 1960s that individuals with mental illness began to attain true civil rights. One of the most important rights was consent for treatment: the legal requirement that individuals with mental illness give their written permission after professionals have explained the benefits and risks of their treatment. For the first time in history, mental health clients could finally say “no” to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. The psychiatric survivor movement does not have a unified organization that speaks as one voice (Nelson, Ochocka, Rich & Trainer, 2006). It remains a diverse group of associations. However, it is unified in “talking back to the power of psychiatry” and creating organizations that advocate for self-determination and consumer empowerment. The key text, the “bible,” of the psychiatric survivor movement was On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System written by Judi Chamberlin (1979). As a former patient, and as founder of the Mental Health Liberation Front, Chamberlin criticized psychiatry as creating passive patients, rather than discriminating consumers who decide what services best meet their need. She was also concerned that the new community mental health centers were becoming bureaucratic “mini state hospitals.” Chamberlin coined the term mentalism, which has remained an important concept in the evolving survivor movement. Mentalism is a form of discrimination like sexism and racism that results in many forms of oppression, social inequalities, and imbalances in power. It is how society, especially mental health professionals, stereotype individuals regarding their mental disorder, cognitive impairments, or behavioral challenges. Most importantly, like sexism and racism, the negative attitudes become internalized in a mentally ill person, impacting self-esteem and value as human beings to society. Although not universally accepted, by the late 1980s, the term consumer replaced patient for many individuals with mental illness. Now also known as the consumer movement, most clients turned their focus to reform the current community mental health system, oppose forced treatment, fight stigma, and develop their own supportive services. Throughout the United States, mental health mutual support groups (MSGs), self-help organizations (SHOs), and consumer-operated services (COSs) have continued to flourish, funded by grants as well as state agencies and local community mental health centers. Research completed by Geoffrey Nelson and associates (2006) described in A Longitudinal Study of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Initiatives, indicated that consumer initiatives of social support, empowerment, mental well-being, and self-management had transformed the lives of many individuals with mental illness. Consumer-run services had reduced hospitalizations, forced treatment, and

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 261 overuse of mental health services. The major obstacles for consumer-run services were funding and the ongoing discrimination by some psychiatrists, family members, and mental health professionals against client empowerment. There has been historic tension between the consumer and family advocacy groups, especially in relation to voluntary and involuntary treatment. During the civil rights movement, most states instituted more restrictive commitment laws that protected individuals with mental illness against centuries of abuse and against forced treatment without any legal basis. In response to the abusive history, most involuntary treatment laws require that a threat to self, others, or grave disability because of a mental disorder had to be present under current, not previous, historical circumstances. Controversy between Clients and Their Families – Involuntary Care

For many family members, protection of rights is extremely frustrating when seeking involuntary care for their family member. Beyond involuntary inpatient hospitalizations, tragic events in New York and California led to legislation that allowed for involuntary outpatient treatment. In New York in 1999, a man diagnosed with schizophrenia pushed Kendra Webdale into the path of a subway train, which resulted in her death. In 2001, in California, Laura Wilcox was shot to death with other employees while working as a receptionist at the Nevada County Mental Health Clinic by a paranoid and delusional man refusing to be hospitalized. The National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) and organized psychiatry pushed for involuntary outpatient treatment in New York and California. In California, implementation was at the discretion of the local county Board of Supervisors. Less than half of the 58 California counties have implemented Laura’s Law because many view involuntary outpatient treatment as an excuse for the underfunding of the community mental health system. Many consumers fear that involuntary outpatient treatment will begin the erosion of the rights they have fought so hard to attain. Beyond involuntary treatment, psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, a family leader in the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has led efforts against funding of consumer groups and services, especially when antipsychiatry views are promoted. The opposition of some NAMI members to the consumer movement exacerbates tensions between the consumer and family advocacy movements. MindFreedom International, founded in 1990, is rooted in the antipsychiatry survivor movement. It is an international coalition of over 100 grassroots consumer organizations in 14 countries fighting against involuntary treatment, forced medication, and abusive medical procedures. Membership is opened to not only consumers, but mental health professionals, advocates, and family members. In 2003, the executive director of MindFreedom, David Oaks, went on a hunger strike until the American Psychiatric Association, NAMI, and the U.S. Surgeon General proved that mental illness was a “brain disorder.” He received no response. National Alliance on Mental Health

Often discouraged by the state of the mental health system and the lack of perceived understanding of the needs of families of the mentally ill, in the late 1970s, family members began to advocate for their adult mentally ill children. Until this time, parents, especially mothers, were often blamed for mental illness. A whole generation of psychologists and mental health professionals were trained to believe that mental illness, especially schizophrenia, was the result of bad parenting. The family, especially the schizophrenogenic mother, symbolized the bad parenting in the family as the cause of mental illness. The theory held that schizophrenia was a result of the creation of inescapable double binds, which had no emotionally satisfying response. Besides double bind communications, the schizophrenogenic mother was perceived as a very cold, rejecting, emotionally unavailable, and disturbed perfectionist lacking in empathy.

262  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness The term schizophrenogenic mother was first coined in 1948 by German psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1948), a protégé of Freud, in a paper Notes on the Development of Treatment of Schizophrenics by Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Unlike many American psychoanalysts who were abandoning the hope that psychotherapy could heal serious mental illness, FrommReichman (1948) rejected the overemphasis in psychiatry on “brain disease” and treated people with schizophrenia with psychotherapy without medication. Her most famous patient was Hannah Green (1964) who wrote a fictionalized autobiography, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden of her treatment by Reichman at the time of her hospitalization in a state mental institution. She described the key to her treatment was what psychoanalysts called a positive transference, a deeply trusting relationship with a gifted and empathetic psychotherapist. The movie version was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award in 1977 and Lynn Anderson made a song version a number one country music hit in 1971.

Figure 6.23 

As many mental health professionals continued to view mental illness through a schizophrenogenic mother lens, it was easy to understand the suffering of family members and the reason that a “brain disease” approach became very appealing. Frustrated with the view that bad parenting led to mental illness, in 1979, two mothers of mentally ill sons, Harriet Shetier and Beverly Yung, founded the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) because they were tired of being blamed for their sons’ mental illness. NAMI endorsed a medical model approach to mental illness and have led various campaigns to educate the public that mental illness is a “serious brain disorder.” NAMI also endorsed the theory of anosognosia, which is the belief that many individuals are not able to accept or perceive that they have mental illness. This has led to legislative advocacy for more forced and involuntary treatment, even involuntary outpatient treatment. NAMI became a powerful force after the 1980s in the mental health system as medication became a primary mode of treatment for serious mental illness. Since mothers had no control of the brain of their child, the schizophrenogeic mother theory became discredited and replaced by a diseased brain. Since there were limited resources in the evolving community mental health

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 263 centers, NAMI advocated for more psychiatrists to provide the medication and for case managers to ensure individuals with mental illness took their medication. Budgets for psychotherapy, and other non-medical model approaches were reduced since NAMI believed those approaches had proven ineffective in the treatment of serious mental illness. NAMI remains an important support for family members and has developed affiliates in all 50 states with over 1,000 chapters in many local communities. They provide a host of educational and peer support programs to family members. The popular Family-to-Family Program was developed by clinical psychologist Joyce Burland. This program provides a 12-week course led by NAMI family members that teaches about the medical model, diagnosis, medication, and “biologically based” treatment approaches. As NAMI became the most important advocacy group for family members throughout the Unites States, in 1999, an article in Mother Jones exposed a shadow of the unholy alliance between the pharmaceutical industry, psychiatry, and NAMI. After the article, a Senate inquiry found that the majority of NAMI funding came from the pharmaceutical companies, which continue to invest millions of dollars to assure that the “brain disease” approach remains strong within psychiatry and family advocacy. The priestess of Apollo, Cassandra symbolizes those certain truths exist about individuals with mental illness that have often been ignored. For instance, that individuals with mental illness want love, productive work, and feel valued like everyone else in the world. Many times in history there has been a belief that they were not capable or even deserving of attaining normal human needs. According to Aeschylus in his play Agamemnon, Cassandra promised Apollo favors and then he gave her the divine power to see the future. When she went back on her word, he did not go back

Figure 6.24 

264  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness centers, NAMI advocated for more psychiatrists to provide the medication and for case managers to ensure individuals with mental illness took their medication. Budgets for psychotherapy, Personal Reflections As we have seen in this chapter, many in history envisioned a new world for individuals with mental illness. But like Cassandra, although history has shown what can work, no one has really listened. Even though there have been improvements, most agree the mental health system is in dire need of reform. The title of the President’s Commission, New Freedom, could have been called Emancipatory Opportunities. It was an opportunity to totally transform the mental health system, but again the federal government failed to fund the goals of another important report. History has shown the current approach of small changes around the edges is not working. From my experience, there needs to be a bold massive injection, a modern Kennedylike investment of billions of dollars, to build a quality mental health system. An extensive discussion of each opportunity is not under the purview of this text. However, considering the history described in this chapter, there are indications of what works and what does not work. It is long overdue to finally build a system in communities throughout the United States that work for individuals with mental illness. A strong community mental health system would psychologically uplift all of society and improve community life for every citizen. Hopefully, one day soon, history will produce a President Kennedy, a William Tuke, a Dorothea Dix, a Clifford Beers, or a congressperson or senator who will not only envision, but provide funding for a new freedom, an emancipation, of the lives of individuals with serious mental illness and all people who struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues. In my final Personal Reflections, I want to end this Chapter and Volume I with a poem, I hope the poem touches, with the symbols, something deeper beyond the words in this Chapter. In the context of the subtitle of the book, From Reflective Study to Active Engagement, and after reviewing the history of mental illness, the hope is that you will be inspired to develop your own ideas and advocacy for a New Vision to Transform the Mental health System. The Emancipatory Opportunities to Transform the Mental Health System below are public policy recommendations for action from my experience which can assist in framing a discussion. The vision is that the reforms that occur in the future will truly transform, not only the mental health system, but our attitudes about individuals with mental illness. The Mountain Top I’ve been to the Mountain Top Saw a world where people with mental illness Were honored and loved as neighbors, friends, co-workers, colleagues and lovers. Valued as essential to all aspects of community life. Excelled in the world like their historic role models: President like Abraham Lincoln. Great military leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte and William Sherman. Great international leaders like Winston Churchill.

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness  265 Great scientists like Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and John Nash Great psychologists like William James Great authors like Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath Great artists like Michelangelo, Merisi da Caravaggio, and Vincent Van Gogh and Edward Munch Great musicians like Ludwig van Beethoven. Great free thinkers like Jack Kerouac Mentally ill finally acknowledged for their incredible historic contributions. No longer scapegoats for societal problems, exploitive politicians, and bad science. Emancipated Gratitude filled my heart for those who struggled, against great odds, to make this happen. Inspired, I realize my soul never leaves that Mountain Top.

Emancipatory Opportunities to Transform the Mental Health System Community Mental Health Act of the Twenty-First Century

An act of Congress to fund a complete overhaul of the community mental health system throughout the United States. U.S. Department of Community Mental Health (CMH)

A cabinet position beyond the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that tends to have a medical, not mental, health focus. It could be a federal agency implementing a bold community vision and assuring parity between mental and physical health. The department would include an integrated mental health and substance abuse delivery system and involvement of consumers and family members.in all levels of policy development and service delivery. National Campaign to Honor Individuals with Serious Mental Illness

Led by consumers to end stigma and national spokespersons to speak through various media outlets to the courage and achievements of individuals with mental illness. The department would fund consumer-led services in every CMH catchment area. Community-Based Services per 50,000 Population

In the spirit of the Kennedy vision, assure there are CMH services available in population centers of 50,000 or more with special consideration to the needs of rural areas. 24/7 Community Mental Health Crisis Services

Learning from moral treatment, the Kirkbride Plan, open dialogue, Geel et al., end inpatient services in medically modeled units, require every CMH to have a 24/7 psychologically oriented crisis wellness center in a beautiful, homelike environment (Callaway, 2007). Assure every CMH has 24/7 Mobile Crisis and Suicide Prevention Services.

266  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Public Safety

Require that every police department implement Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT), or related programs to deal with mental health problems. Assure that every police officer is certified and qualified to deal with individuals with serious mental illness. Outpatient Treatment Services – Believe in Psychotherapy Again

Assure adequate funding for children, adolescents, adults, and older adults the treatment services in each CMH catchment area. Require that services are linked into needed community supports. Offer psychotherapy to individuals with serious mental illness. Offer psychotherapeutic treatment to the dually diagnosed, clients who have both a mental health and substance abuse diagnosis. School Services

Require every school district to have a continuum of mental health and substance abuse counseling services ranging from school and drug and alcohol counselors to licensed mental health clinicians. Support Services

End the cycle of poverty. Require every CMH to have a Housing, Employment, and Education Department that is linked to local housing authorities, educational institutions, and the business community. Develop housing programs to assure that individuals with mental illness have quality housing. Create financial and support incentives with local businesses to hire individuals with mental illness by assigning, when needed, employment counselors at the workplace. Provide grants and scholarships for educational opportunities. Consider developing an “adoption” or “foster care” system like Family Care in Geel, Belgium (Arnold, 2015). Reform the Medicaid System

Change the medical necessity requirement for Medicaid reimbursement to recovery necessity. Emphasize a strength-based, not a medical-based approach to mental illness (Rapp & Goscha, 2012). Change the archaic paperwork requirements that necessitate the mental staff treating the chart rather than the clients. Focus on Socioeconomic Inequality

Lift individuals with mental illness out of poverty by developing systems that provide adequate disability income while at the same time provide incentives for employment. Make the dysfunctional Social Security Income (SSI) program, by reform or relocation, more accountable to the community mental health system. Assure that every treatment plan includes a socioeconomic evaluation. Provide consumer resources, i.e. stipends, to select services. Require Primary Care and CMH Integration

Although the priority of CCMH should remain individuals with serious mental illness, a community-based system should also include integration with other essential community mental health and substance abuse services. Since primary care doctors provide most of the psychiatric medication and many mental health problems are handled by primary care physicians, the

The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness 267 availability of mental health professionals on primary care sites would enhance medical care and avoid the need for higher level and costly health services. Psychological Renaissance in CMH

Require community psychologists in each CMH for research, program assessment, consumer/family outreach, public policy development, and prevention. For APA accreditation, require community mental health coursework in doctoral-level programs in clinical and counseling psychology. Expand Manpower

Invest in manpower expansion in psychiatry, clinical psychology, clinical social work, drug and alcohol counseling, and other related mental health professions, especially in regards to cultural diversity. Require curriculum to include community mental health, addiction, biopsychosocial treatment, psychiatric rehabilitation, recovery, and community support principles (Davidson, Rowe, Tondora O’Connell & Lawless, 2009). Consider reestablishment of the Doctor of Mental Health (DMH) degree. Require Cultural Competency

Because of the disparity in cultural access, assure that all CMH centers have cultural competency plans to serve the cultural diversity of their community. Use Technology

Utilize technology to end stigma, improve mental health access, explain service delivery system, respond to community needs and crises, provide telehealth, and receive community feedback.

QUESTIONS 

6

  6.1 Explain how the political, socioeconomic, and cultural systems impacted individuals with mental illness.   6.2 Describe the relationship between historically based and evidence-based best practices.   6.3  Explain why St. Dymphna became the Patron Saint of individuals with mental illness.   6.4  Describe the importance of the Geel Question.   6.5  Explain the relevance of moral treatment to the current mental health system.   6.6 Describe why the period between 1900 and 1950 is described as a Half Century of Darkness.   6.7  Explain how the four forces of psychology contributed to mental health reform.   6.8  Describe the pros and cons of the psychiatric pharmaceutical revolution.   6.9  Explain the goals of the community mental health movement. 6.10  Describe the importance of consumer and family advocacy. 6.11  Envision a reformed mental health system.

268  The Symbols of the History of Mental Illness Universal Meanings of the Chapter Symbols Figure 6.0: Photo source Albert Deutsch. (2022, January 8). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Albert_Deutsch-Fairuse Photo source Judi Chamberlin. http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/ 2010/01/20/judi_chamberlin_writings_took_on_mental_health_care/ Photo source RD Laing. https://www.perlego.com/book/1562463/the-legacy-of-r-d-laing-anappraisal-of-his-contemporaryrelevance-pdf Photo source Michel Foucault. https://whoseknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ Creating-drawings-.pdf Photo source Dorothea Dix. Courtesy of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Dorothea-Dix Photo source William Tuke (2022, February 10). In Wikipedia. https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/ William_Tuke Figure 6.1. A symbol of community mental health. Figure 6.2. A symbol of the failure of heroic medicine. Figure 6.3. A symbol that divine law transcends human law. Figure 6.4. A symbol that class determines the quality of mental health treatment. Figure 6.5. Symbolic of the lack of police training which leads to violence, brutality, and the death of many individuals with mental illness. Figure 6.6. Belief the moon controls the mind and causes lunacy. Figure 6.7. The historic reality that “hearing voices” was once viewed as messages from the divine. Figure 6.8. A symbol for the isolation of individuals with mental illness. Figure 6.9. A symbol of oppressive and dehumanizing state mental hospitals Figure 6.10. Symbolic of the reality that individuals with mental illness can achieve greatness. Figure 6.11. Symbolic of the needed spiritual support to meet the challenges of mental illness. Figure 6.12. The need for family and community support for recovering from mental illness. Figure 6.13. A successful community life entails more than the historic removal of the chains. Figure 6.14. The reality that a therapeutic environment is crucial for healing mental illness. Figure 6.15. Symbol of the limitations of a traditional medical setting for mental health recovery. Figure 6.16. The shadow of asylum medicine, the “decortication:” of the brain. Figure 6.17. A psychological electric chair symbolizes the shock therapy generation in psychiatry. Figure 6.18. A symbol of the degradation of individuals with mental illness. Figure 6.19. A symbol of the overdependence on medication in modern life. Figure 6.20. A symbol to embrace “madness” and like a bird fly to freedom, joy, and triumph. Figure 6.21. Mental illness as a “broken heart” not a broken mind. Figure 6.22. The sin of “collective blindness.” Figure 6.23. Schizophrenogenic mother. Figure 6.24. Symbolic of Ignoring the truth. References AFI Awards. (2012). American Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 17, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2007. Aeschylus. (1975). The Oresteia. New York: Penguin Books. Allness, D. & Knoedler, W. (2003). National Program Standards for ACT Teams. Retrieved from https:// oceact.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/National-Provider-Standards-for-ACT.pdf

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Index

Note: Page references in italics denote figures. 21st Century Maritime Silk Road 159 24/7 community mental health crisis services 265 95 Theses: A Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (Luther) 168–169 1968 Proclamation of Teheran 243 Abelard of Bath 140 absolute idealist 192 acropolis 84 active emotions 189 active engagement: and dialectic method 109; and history 1 active reason 88, 112 acute dystonia 244 adoption payment 225 Aeschylus 230 Afternoon Prayer 148 agent intellect 141–142 Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (Paine) 155, 170 agranulocytosis 246 Ahriman 30, 32 Ahura Mazda 29, 30, 32 akathisia 244 Alexander the Great 81, 86, 118–119, 122, 154 allegorical exegesis 127 allegorical method 145 Allegory of the Cave 105–106 American capitalism 11 American Constitutional Law 235 American democracy 198 American Film Institute (AFI) 221 American healthcare system 198 American Journal of Community Psychology 254 American Psychiatric Association 205, 208, 233, 244, 261 American Psychological Association (APA) 13, 221 American Revolution 170, 177, 180, 182, 184–185, 186, 198–199 American Revolutionary War 177 American slavery 200

amour propre 197 anaideia 120 Analects of Confucius 55 anamnesis 104 anatta 50 Anaxagoras of Clazomanae 101 Anaximander 96, 154 Anaximenes: empirical synthesis 96; rational synthesis 96 Anaximenes Crater 96 ancestor worship 54, 57–58 Anderson, Lynn 262 Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment (Kant) 190 Anthony, Marc 126 anti-psychiatry movement 248 Antisthenes 119, 120–122, 154 apara vidya 40 apeiron 101 Apostles Creed 131 Aquinas, Thomas 117, 125, 140, 141, 156 Aquinas Revolution 156 arahant 51 Arcesilaus 122 arche 95–96, 98–99, 101 archetypal energies 93 archetypes 5, 10, 18, 95 Archimedes 154 Aristotelian thought 141 Aristotle 16, 81, 107, 139, 154, 162, 170, 173, 175, 194; empiricism 107–112; scientific research 107–112 Arnkill, Tom Erik 257–258 artha 40 art museum 169 Aryanʼs: culture 34; race 86 Ashoka, Mauryan Empire King 41–42 Aslan, Reza 128 Association for of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII) 233–234

Index  275 Asylums: Essays on the Conditions of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (Goffman) 252 asylum system 227 Atar 32 Athena 91–92 Athena myth 83, 91 Atman 35 atomism 100–101 Augustine, St. 117, 125, 126, 132–133, 138, 140, 143, 164, 168 Aum (Universal Hindu Symbol) 38–39, 39, 41 authoritarianism 2, 4, 9 autobiography 132–133 Averroes 145 Averroism movement 155 Averroist 156 Avicenna 145 avidya 40 Axial Age 1–2, 5, 9, 15; controversies 26; end of 117–118; Greek psychology in 89–94; Greeks in 15–16, 81; Palestine 70; sages of 24; scientific method 24; shadow 27; symbols of 23–77 bacillus 160 Bacon, Francis 155, 170, 175–177, 187 Baker, Mark 128 Bakhtin, Mikhail 257 Barnes, Mary 249 Bartholdi, Frederic Auguste 200 Bastian, Adolf 10 Bateson, George 248 Battle of Actium 124 Battle of Milvian Bridge 125 Baum, Gregory 253 A Beautiful Mind 220–221 Beck, Aaron 4 Beck, Rogers 4 becoming 84, 95, 100–101 Beers, Clifford 260 behavioral psychology 156, 220 behaviorism 4, 10, 18, 155, 179, 247 behavior modification 247 being/becoming 84, 100–101, 105, 109–110 Bennett, Danuta 1 Bhagavad-Gita 35 Biasatti, Michael 215 Black, A. 26 Black plague 158, 160, 172 Bleuler, Eugen 234 The Bloody Week in May 1871 10 bodhisattva 42 Bohler, Eugen 12 Bonaparte, Napoleon 184 Bosco, El 218 botanical gardens 108 Botticelli, Sando 224

Brahe, Tyco 175 Brahman (Hindu god) 35, 36 Brahmin caste 34 brain disease 213, 220 Brandt, Karl 243 Brandt, Sebastian 218 British empiricism 179 Broca, Pierre Paul 240 Bruno, Giordano 187 Buber, Martin 64 bubonic plague 160 Buck v. Bell 235, 236 Buddha 9, 41–43, 47 Buddhism 6, 15, 23, 41–52, 112, 126; Buddhist psychology 45–51, 46; emancipatory opportunities in 52; Four Noble Truths 48–49; historical analysis of 41–44; Noble Eightfold Path 49–50 Buddhist 82, 126 Buddhist psychology 45–51, 46 Burckhardt, Gottlieb 240 “a burning cross” 138, 139 Bush, George W. 258 Butterfly Dream story 66–67 Byzantine Empire 135, 136 Caesar Augustus 124 Cage, Phineas 240 Cahill, Thomas 141 Call to Prayer 147–148 Campbell, Joseph 10, 112 cannone 159 capitalism 11, 170–171, 195 Carneades 122 Carter, Jimmy 258 Cartwright, Samuel A 233 caste system: economic status 34; India 33–34; varna system 34 cast iron 159 causality 110 central nervous system (CNS) 238 Chamberlin, Judi 260 charcoal 159 chi 66 China: Confucianism 15, 52–60; cultural systems 54, 62–63; Daoism 61–68; political systems 52–53, 61–62; socioeconomic systems 53–54, 62 Chinese revolution 183 Christian empiricism 161–163 Christian empiricist 162 Christian Era 124–143; Christian psychology 126–142; cultural systems 125–126; emancipatory opportunities in Christianity 142–143; historic analysis of 124–126; political systems 124–125; socioeconomic systems 125 Christian fanaticism 107

276  Index Christian humanism 167–168 Christianity 23, 26, 33, 107, 112, 117, 118, 125, 126, 128, 129, 143; attend a Christian mass 143; autobiography 143; emancipatory opportunities in 142–143; love thy neighbor as thyself 142; medieval 109 Christian psychology 126–142; autobiography and grace 132–133; Christianity 128; Christian symbolism 129–131; Cicero 126; Crusades 138; Dark Ages 134–136; feudal psychology 134–136; Inquisition 138; Jesus 128; Neoplatonism 131–132; Philo of Alexandria 127; Plotinus 131–132; psychological escapism and fantasy 136–138; scholasticism 139–141; St. Augustine 132–133; symbolic allegory 127; syncretic philosophy 126; Thomism 141–142 Christians 147 Christian symbolism 129–131 Cicero 125, 126 citizens 86–87 Classical Greek philosophers 84 Classical Greek philosophy 101–112; Allegory of the Cave 105–106; Aristotle 107–112; empiricism and scientific research 107–112; humanistic psychology 102; metaphysical and transpersonal psychology 104–105; Plato 104–106; Socrates 102 Classic of Chang 60 Classic of Filial Piety 56 Classic of Poetry 59 clinical psychology 254 Clinton, Bill 258 Cochran, Tracy 47 Cochrane, Archie 221 cognitive-behavioral psychology 196 Coke, Edward 177 collective unconscious 3, 5, 10, 18, 93, 248 Colliget (Avicenna) 145 Columbus, Christopher 171–172 common sense 111 community-based psychological renaissance 257 community-based services 265 Community Mental Health (CMH) 265–267 Community Mental Health Act 212, 242, 250, 251, 254, 265 Community Mental Health Revolution 250–260; and clinical psychology 254; community psychology 253–254; deinstitutionalization and birth of 250–253; innovation and best practices in 255–260; realigned 254 The Community Psychologist 254 community psychology 253–254 complete medicalization 228

compulsory sterilization 236 The Condemnations of 1277 156 Confessions (Augustine) 132 Confucianism 15, 52–60, 63; ancestor worship 57–58; Confucian psychology 55–60; emancipatory opportunities in 60; filial piety 56; li 56–57; quiet sitting meditation 57; ren 57 Confucian psychology 55–60 Confucius 9, 23, 53–54, 55, 63; human development ritualized 59; junzi 59; poetry and music 58–59; rujia 59–60 conscientious objectors (COs) 243 Conservative Judaism 70, 71 Constantine the Great 125 Constitution of Medina 143 consumer and family member revolution 260–267 consumer-operated services (COSs) 260 Copernican Revolution 173–177 Copernicus, Nicolaus 155, 173 corpuscular Newtonian psychology 180–181 Corpus Juris Civilis 134 COVID virus 90 Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) 266 Crisis of the Late Middle Ages 153 critical consciousness 4 critical emancipatory psychology 2–4 critical theory 2 Critique of Pure Reason (Kant) 191 cross-cultural psychology 13 Crusades 138 culturally inferior nations 87 cultural misogyny 87 cultural psychology 13 cultural systems 13; China 54, 62–63; Christian Era 125–126; Greek Era 87–88; Hellenistic Age 119–120; India 34–35, 43; Iran 28; Islam 143–145; Palestine 71–72 culture 13 cynicism 119, 120–122 Cynosarges Gymnasium 119, 120 Cyrus the Great 69 Dalai Lama 42 Dao 57, 64 Daodejing (Laozi) 61–63, 64–65 Daoism 15, 23, 61–68; Daoist psychology 63–67; emancipatory opportunities in 67–68 Daoist monks 159 Daoist philosophy 159 Daoist psychology 63–67 daojia 61 daojiao 61 Darius the Great 27–28 Dark Ages 134–136 The Darkening Age (Nixey) 135 Davenport, Charles 235

Index  277 da Vinci, Leonardo 165–167 Dean, C. E. 212 De Anima (Aristotle) 109 death 88; Homeric vision of 88 de Bosh, Jeronimo 218 Declaration of Independence 180, 184, 186, 198, 208 de Condillac, Etienne Bonnot 227 deductive method 174 Deism 170 Demiurge 104 Democritus 100–101 deontological moral system 191 Descartes, Rene 156, 179, 186–189 Deutsch, Albert 243 de Vinci, Leonardo 169 dharma 38, 40 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) 205 dialectical behavioral therapy 45 dialectic methods 102, 109, 140, 192–196 dialectic process 156 Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks (Arnkill) 257 dialogical questioning 102 dialogic method 102 Dialogue Concerning Two Chief World Systems (Galileo) 175 diathesis-stress model 249 Didache 131 Diogenes 120–122, 154 Diogenes the Cynic 120–122, 121 direct observation 176 Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences (Descartes) 187 Discourses (Epictetus) 169 The Divided Self (Laing) 249 Dix, Dorothea 209–211, 233 Doctor of Mental Health Degree (DMH) 254, 267 doctrine of predestination 168 Domenici, Pete 258 Dome of the Rock 146, 146–147 double aspectism 156, 189–190 Douglass, Frederick 11 doxa 100, 101 drapetomania 233 dukkha 48 dynamic democracy 86 dysesthesias aethiopica 233 Eagleton, Thomas 207 ecumenism 168 Edward, King of France 156 Edward III, King of England 156 ego 52, 105 Einstein, A. 1

Electoral College 184 electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) 207, 238–240 Electroshock Therapy: A Guide for Professionals and Their Patients (Fink) 239 elementargedanke 10 The Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind (Wundt) 13 Emancipation Proclamation 7 emancipatory opportunities 14; Buddhism 52; in Christianity 142–143; Confucianism 60; Daoism 67–68; of Enlightenment 198–200; in Greek philosophy 112–113; in Hellenistic psychology 124; in Hinduism 41; in Islam 149; in Judaism 76–77; of Renaissance 169; of scientific revolution 181; in Zoroastrianism 32 Empedocles 101, 154 empirical and rational synthesis 96 empirical psychology 112 empirical science 234 empiricism 107–112 enantiodromia 99, 101 encephalitis lethargica 245 end of the Axial Age 117–118 Endorsement of the Concept of Recovery for People with Serious Mental Illness 257 English Channel 156 Enlightenment 11, 155–156; cultural systems 186; emancipatory opportunities of 198–200; historical analysis of 181–186; political systems 181–184; psychology 186–198; socioeconomic systems 185–186 entelechy 112 Epictetus 124 epicureanism 120 Epicureanism 119, 123–124 Epicurus 123–124, 154 Erasmus, Desiderius 167–168 Eros and Psyche myth 83, 93–94 Esquirol, Jean-Etienne 228 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Locke) 181 essential health benefits (EHBs) 259 Ethics (Aristotle) 154 ethnocentrism 26; Western 27 Euclid 119, 154 Euclid Elements 140 eudaimonia 122 Eve 74, 126, 127, 164, 168 Evening Prayer 148 evidence-based practices (EBPs) 221–222 evidence-based treatment (EBT) 255, 256 existential perspective 106, 249 existential psychology 248–250 expression of power 180 extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) 245–246

278  Index Fahey, Frank 224 faith 89; expectancy 224; and grace 132–133; Islam/Muslims 143–145, 147, 149; Jewish 69, 73–74; quality and sincerity of 35 family care 222–226 fantasy 136–138 Faravahar 29–30 Farewell Pilgrimage 148 The Far Side of Madness (Perry) 248 fascism 2 Fawodhodie 7, 7 Fears, Rufus 112 Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act 244 The Federalist Papers 184 feudal psychology 134–136 filial piety 56 Fink, Max 239 first generation antipsychotics 243–244 Five Aggregates of Clinging 50–51 Five Pillars of Islam 145, 146–147 Fletcher, Louise 220 Florence, Italy 169 folk psychology 13 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 244 Form of Good 10 Forms 104–106, 109–111 Foucault, Michael 218 Four Great Inventions 159 Four Noble Truths 48–49, 52 Francis of Assisi 141 Franco-Prussian war 10 Frankfurt School 2 frashokereti 32 fravashi 30, 32 Freeman, Walter 241, 242 French Revolution 182–184 Freud, Sigmund 4, 5, 82, 92, 105, 179 Friedman, Milton 12 Friedman, Rose 12 Frogs (Aristophanes) 169 Fromm-Reichmann, Frieda 262 Fuller, Doris 215 Gaia myth 89–90 Galilean Revolution 173–177 Galileo Galilei 155, 174–175, 178, 181, 187 Galton, Thomas 235 Gandhi, Mahatma 14 Gandhi Foundation 249 Garden of Eden 177 Gathas 28, 32 Gautama, Siddhartha 42–43, 45; see also Buddha Geel Question 227–228 Geel Research Project 225 Gerletti, Ugo 238–239 Gestalt therapy 3 G’milut Chasadim 75

Goffman, Erving 252 Golden Age of Athens 84 Golden Age of China 159 Golden Age of Chinese Philosophy 54 Golden Mean 112, 168; living by 113 Golden Rule 168 good karma 41 grace 132–133 gravitation 177 Great Depression 3, 11–12 greatest loss 93 Greatest Psychologist that Ever Lived (Baker) 128 greatest truth 93 Great Famine of 1315–1317 158 Great Islamic Age 146 Great Library of Alexandria 135 Great Pilgrimage (hajj) 148 Great Society 12 Greece 118–124 Greek Era: Classical Greek philosophy 101–112; cultural systems 87–88; emancipatory opportunities in Greek philosophy 112–113; Greek psychology in Axial Age 89–94; Greeks in Axial Age 81; historical analysis 84–88; myth 82–83; from mythology to philosophy 83–84; political systems 84–86; pre-Socratic Revolution 95–101; socioeconomic systems 86–87; symbols of 81–114 Greek Hellas 118 Greek philosophy 145; Classical 101–112; emancipatory opportunities in 112–113; embrace soul as root of psychology 112; experience a world “beyond the cave” 112; Golden Mean 113; personal myth 112; Read mythology 112; Socrates Café 113 Greeks: in Axial Age 15–16; in the Axial Age 81, 153; classics 169; Homeric 87; and humanism 87; and humoral therapy 208; and katapotia 244; and lobotomies 240; and Olympian gods 89; polytheism 96; pre-Socratic 84; psychology 89–94; and psychology 84, 87; psychology beyond 23; and Sophism 87 Green, Hannah 262 Grof, Stanislav 3 The Guide for the Perplexed (Maimonides) 146 Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Research, Practice and Organization Change 13 Guinness Book of World Records 165 gunpowder 159 Gutenberg, Johannes 159 Habermas, Jürgen 3, 113 Hagia Sophia 136 Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca 224 halakha 71

Index  279 Hall, Kingsley 249 Hamilton, Alexander 184 Hamilton, Edith 112 Han Dynasty 159 happiness 88 Harding, Sandra 214 Harlow, Harry 4 Hegel, Friedrich 156, 192–196 Heidegger, Martin 106 Heilbroner, Robert 170 Hellenism/Hellenistic Age 117, 118–124; cultural systems 119–120; emancipatory opportunities in Hellenistic psychology 124; Hellenistic psychology 120–124; historical analysis of 118–120; political systems 118–119; socioeconomic systems 119 Hellenistic art 117 Hellenistic psychology 120–124; antisthenes 120–122; conscious cynic 124; cynicism 120–122; diogenes 120–122; emancipatory opportunities in 124; Epicureanism 123– 124; Epicurus 123–124; and happiness 124; Pyrrho of Elis 122; skepticism 122; Stoicism 122–123; therapeutic philosophies 120–122; thoughts and behavior 124; Zeno of Citium 122–123 Henry VIII, King of England 167 Heraclitus 95, 99, 100, 110, 154 Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (Davenport) 235 hermeneutics 6 Hermes 6–7 heroic medicine 208, 234, 256 hero worship 87 Hesiod 6, 83 hijab 144, 144 Hinduism 6, 15, 23, 33–41, 112, 126; emancipatory opportunities in 41; goals of 40; Hindu psychology 35–40; historical analysis of 33–35 Hindus 36, 47, 82 historical analysis: of Christian Era 124–126; of Enlightenment 181–186; of Hellenistic Age 118–120; of Islam 143–145; of mental illness 207–221; of Renaissance 156–161; of scientific revolution 169–172 historically based best practices (HBBPs) 222 Histories (Herodotus) 169 History (Polybius) 124 history and active engagement 1 Hobbes, Thomas 155, 170, 179–180 Hogarth, William 219–220 Hollingshead, August 212 Holy Grail 137–138 Holy Trinity 142 Homer 83 Homeric Greeks, imperialistic 87

Homo homini lupus 179 hot air balloon 159 How the Irish Saved Civilization (Cahill) 141 human body 87 humanism 87, 163–167 humanistic-existential psychology 4, 93 humanistic psychology 102 humanistic science symbol 6 human potential 164 human rights 186 Hume, David 191 Hundred Schools of Thought 54 The Hundred Years War 156–157, 159 hydrotherapy 229 Hypatia 154 id 105 Idols of Marketplace 177 Idols of the Cave 177 Idols of the Theater 177 Idols of the Tribe 177 If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him (Kopp) 47 Iliad (Homer) 83 The Iliad and the Odyssey (Homer) 169 illusionary representations of world 106 immortality of the soul 88 imperialism 159 incarceration 211 India: Buddhism (see Buddhism); caste system 33–34; cultural systems 34–35, 43; Hinduism (see Hinduism); political system 33, 41–42; socioeconomic systems 34, 42–43 inferior life 86 informed consent 239, 241 inner owl 92 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Smith) 11, 170 Inquisition 138 Institute of Social Research 2 insulin coma shock therapy 236–237 International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) 13 International Congress of Psychiatry 228 International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) 11 interpersonal rituals 56–57 In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Nietzsche) 30 intuitive cognition 162 intuitive methods 109 involuntary care 215, 261 Iran: cultural systems 28; political systems 27–28; socioeconomic systems 28; Zoroastrianism (see Zoroastrianism) Islam 26, 33, 117, 118; cultural systems 143–145; emancipatory opportunities in 149; Five

280  Index Pillars of Islam 146–147; historical analysis of 143–145; mosque and Call to Prayer 147–148; Muhammad and Quran 145; Muslims and Western philosophy 145–146; pilgrimage 149; pilgrimage to Mecca 148–149; political systems 143; psychological and spiritual renewal 149; psychology of Islam 145–149; Quran 149; socioeconomic systems 143 Islamic Golden Age 112, 145 Islamic Modernism 144 Jaspers, Karl 2, 5, 7, 23, 24, 26, 81 Jesus 128 Jews 82, 147 jilbab 144–145 Joan of Arc 157 Johnson, Lyndon 11–12 Johnson, Robert 3 Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers (Flowers) 112 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 13 Judaism 15, 23, 69–77, 132, 143; emancipatory opportunities in 76–77; historical analysis of 69–72; psychology of 72–76 Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life (Kaplan) 72 Jung, Carl 4, 5–6, 8, 93, 95, 99 Jungian analysis 248 junzi 59 Jupiter (Roman god) 29 Justinian 134 Kalf, Dora 3 Kallipolis 86 Kant, Immanuel 156, 190–192 Kantian Revolution 191 Kaplan, Mordeal 72 karma 35, 39, 40, 47; good 41; negative 39; positive 39 Kennedy, John F. 242, 250–251, 258 Kennedy, Rosemary 242 Kepler, Johannes 175, 178 Kesey, Ken 220 Keyes, John Maynard 12 King, Martin Luther, Jr. 11 King Cyrus of Persia 73 Kirk, Stuart 256 Kirkbride, Thomas 232–233 Klu Klux Klan 185 knowledge: posteriori 191; priori 191–192; relativity of 99; self-knowledge 181; spiritual 41 Kopp, Sheldon 47 Krammer, Heinrich 138 Krishna 35

Kshatriyas 34 Kumbh Mela 224 labor movement 186 Laing, R. D. 84, 248–249 laissez-faire approach 170 Lamb, Richard 215 Laozi 61–63 Lasswell, Harold 10 Last Supper 166 learning theory 112 legacy of neglect of mental health 210 Leucippus of Miletus 100–101 Leviathan (Hobbes) 179 li 56–57 liberation theology 253 Life Lessons from the Great Myths (Fears) 112 Lincoln, Abraham 7 lived history 6 lobotomies 240–242; see also transorbital lobotomy Locke, John 155, 156, 180–181, 187–188 logic, defined 100 looney paupers 209 Lord Chancellor of England 167 The Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations 131; see also Didache loving community 224 lunacy reform movement 209–211 lunatic 216–217 Luther, Martin 168, 169–170, 174 Lutheranism theology 168 Lyceum 107 lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 248 Madison, James 184 magnetic compass 159 Mahabodhi Temple, India 224 Mahayana Buddhism 42 Maimonides 146 Malleus Maleficarum (Krammer) 138 Man in History 10 manorialism 136 Mao Zedong 10, 64 Marx, Karl 171 Mary Magdalene (Donatello) 169 Maslow, Abraham 4 massive redistribution of wealth 213 material dialectic 195 May, Rollo 93, 250 maya 40 McGovern, George 207 McMurphy, Randall Patrick 220 Medicaid 12 Medicaid system 266 Medical Inquiries and Observations (Rush) 208 medical model 225

Index  281 medieval Christianity 109 Meehl, Paul 249 Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts (Dix) 209 Menninger, Karl 74 mental defectives 235, 236 mental illness 16, 205–267; 1968 Proclamation of Teheran 243; belief 218; best practices 221–232; community revolution 250– 260; community vision 206; consumer revolution 260–267; cultural systems 214– 217; defined 205–206; electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) 238–240; existential and transpersonal psychology 248–250; family member revolution 260–267; historical analysis of 207–221; insulin coma shock therapy 236–237; legacy of neglect of 210; lobotomies 240–242; Metrazol convulsion shock therapy 238; political systems 207; proliferation of state mental health hospitals 233–234; psychiatric pharmaceutical revolution 243–247; psychological revolution in 247–250; scourge of eugenics 234–237; shame of states 242–243; shock therapy in psychiatry 236; socioeconomic systems 212–214 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice 4 Metaphysics (Aristotle) 109 metaphysics/metaphysical 104; education 104; philosophy 106; psychology 104–105 method of induction 176 Metrazol convulsion shock therapy 238 Michelangelo 155, 163–165, 169 Middle Ages 107, 109, 117, 132, 136, 139, 141 Middle Way 45, 51, 52 mindfulness meditation 45, 52 A Mind That Found Itself (Beers) 260 Mirsky, Yehudah 76 Mithraic Cult 129–130 mob psychology 184 modern Allegory of the Cave 106 modern empirical science 155 modern medicine 145 moksha 40, 51, 81, 105 Mona Lisa 165 monistic metaphysics 189 Moniz, Egas 240–241 monotheism 26, 29, 35, 82 monotheistic rationalism 96 moral character 60 moral community 194 moral treatment 228, 229, 230; end of 233–243; in United States 232 More, Thomas 167 Morning Prayer 147–148 Moses 69, 72

mosque and Call to Prayer 147–148 Mother Earth 90 Mount Olympus 89 Muhammad 143–149 music 13, 55, 58, 98, 165 musical numbers 98 Muslims 147; faith 143–145, 147, 149; fundamentalism 144; and Western philosophy 145–146; see also Islam mutual support groups (MSGs) 260 myth: of Gaia 83; Greek Era 82–83; personal 112; poem 218; primordial 89; of rugged individualism 93 The Myth of Mental Illness (Szasz) 211–212 mythology: and Greek Era 83–84; and philosophy 83–84 Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Hamilton) 112 mythos 83 Myths and Legends: An Illustrated Guide to their Meanings (Wilkinson) 112 Myths to Live By (Campbell) 112 naïve empiricism 99 Nash, Alicia 220 Nash, John 220 National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 261–264 National Health Care 259–260 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 225 natural philosophy 84, 95–96, 176 natural sciences 6 natural theology 178–179 Nazism 8, 13, 86 Neith (Egyptian goddess) 91 Nelson, Geoffrey 260 Neoplatonism 131–132 neo-Pythagorean number theory 175 Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS) 244 New Atlantis (Bacon) 155 New England Journal of Medicine 236 New Organon (Bacon) 175–176 Newton, Isaac 155, 177, 187 Newtonian psychological dependency 177 Newtonian science 177–179 New York Times 236, 241 Nicholson, Jack 220 Nietzsche, Friedrich 2, 30 A Night at the Forest (Cochran) 47 Night Prayer 148 Nike of Samothrace 117–118, 118 niqab 145 nirodha 49 nirvana 45, 49, 51 Nixey, Catherine 135 Noble Eightfold Path 49–50 noble savages 156

282  Index nontheistic religion 71–72 Noon Prayer 148 noumenal self 192 nous 101 Oaks, David 261 observational astronomy 174 occupational therapy 231 Ockham Razor 162, 169, 178, 179 Odyssey (Homer) 83 Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) 169 Olympian gods 83, 87, 89–90, 98 One Belt, One Road 160 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Kesey) 220, 242 On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System (Chamberlin) 260 On the Harmony of the World (Kepler) 175 On the Republic (Cicero) 125 On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Rights (Rousseau) 183 ontological security 249 open dialogue 257–258 oppression, defined 215 Organon (Aristotle) 175 The Origin and Goal of History (Jaspers) 2, 24 Orthodox Judaism 70 outpatient treatment services 266 Owl of Minerva 194 Paine, Thomas 170 Palestine: cultural systems 71–72; political systems 69; socioeconomic systems 69–71 pantheism 189 paper-making loom 159 Paradox of the Basins 181 para vidya 40 Parigot, John 228 parinirvana 51 Paris Commune 10 parkinsonism 244 Parmenides 95, 108, 110, 154 participant observation field research 252 passive emotions 189 passive reason 88, 111–112 Patres Sacrorum 131 patron saint of mentally ill 224 Paul II, John, Pope 167, 175 Peloponnesian War 85, 118, 120 Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane 232 Perceval, John 256 perennial philosophy 109 Perese, E. F. 213 Pericles 84 Peripatetics 108 peripatetikos 108

Perry, John Weir 248 Persian Empire 118 personal: existence 165; identity 180–181; myth 112; religion 164 person-centered: psychological approach 257; psychotherapy 102 Petrarch, Francesco 164 Phaedrus (Plato) 104 phenomenal self 192 Phillip II, the king of Macedonia 108, 118, 122 Phillips, Christopher 113 Philo of Alexandria 127 philosopher kings 86 philosophia Christi 168 philosophical Daoism 61 Photogenes 154 physiocrats 170 Pieta (Michelangelo) 169 pilgrimage 149; to Mecca 148–149 Pinel, Philippe 227–228 Plato 10, 16, 81, 154, 162, 194; Allegory of the Cave 105–106; metaphysical and transpersonal psychology 104–105 Platonic thought 167 Plotinus 131–132, 154 Poli Canon 42 police violence 215 polis 10, 84 political: advocacy 209–211; pluralism 28; psychology 10; revolutionaries 169; theology 170 political systems: China 52–53, 61–62; Christian Era 124–125; Greek Era 84–86; Hellenistic Age 118–119; India 33, 41–42; Iran 27–28; Islam 143; Palestine 69; psychological history in 10–11 Politics (Aristotle) 169 The Politics of Experience: The Bird of Paradise (Laing) 250 Polo, Marco 171 Polster, Erving 3 Polster, Mariam 3 Polybius 124 positive transference 262 possible intellect 141–142 posteriori knowledge 191 postmodernism 101 The Praise of Folly (Erasmus) 167 predestination 133 prefrontal lobotomy 240 premarital sex 87 pre-Socrates 101–102 pre-Socratic philosophers 84 pre-Socratic Revolution 95–101; Anaxagoras of Clazomanae and transcendent 101; Anaximander 96; Anaximenes 96; atomism 100–101; Democritus 100–101;

Index  283 Empedocles and evolution 101; empirical and rational synthesis 96; Heraclitus of Ephesus 99; Leucippus of Miletus 100–101; monotheistic rationalism 96; Parmenides of Elea and logic 100; Protagoras of Abdera 101; Pythagoras 98; rationalism 96; relativism 101; relativity of knowledge 99; religious and scientific synthesis 98; sophists 101; Thales and natural philosophy 95–96; Xenophanes 96 pre-Socratics 83–84, 95, 99 primary care 266–267 primary quality of sensations 181 printing press 158 Printing Revolution 159 priori knowledge 191–192 professional advocacy 214 profound re-balancing 6 Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) 255–256 Promised Land 72 prophets 69 Protagoras of Abdera 84, 101 psyche 84 psychiatric: pharmaceutical revolution 243–247; and psychosocial rehabilitation 256–257; survivors antipsychiatry movement 260–261 psychoanalysis 10 psychological: escapism 136–138; perfection 167; renewal 149; shock 173 psychological history: in cultural systems 13; in political systems 10–11; in socioeconomic systems 11–13 psychological transformation 23–77; Buddhism 41–52; Confucianism 52–60; Daoism 61–68; Hinduism 33–41; Judaism 69–77; overview 23–27; Zoroastrianism 27–32 psychology: beyond Greeks 23; Buddhist 45–51, 46; Confucian 55–60; cross-cultural 13; cultural 13; Daoist 63–67; embrace soul as root of 112; Enlightenment 186–198; folk 13; Hindu 35–40; historic developments in 14; of Islam 145–149; of Judaism 72–76; political 10; Renaissance 161–169; and scientific revolution 173–181; Zoroastrian 28–32 Psychopathology and Politics (Lasswell) 10 psychotropic medication 213, 239, 243 Ptolemaic Egypt 124 Ptolemy, Claudius 173 Ptolemy model 173 public policy 258–259 public safety 266 public sphere 113 Pulitzer, Joseph 185 Purusartha 40

Pussin, Jean-Baptiste 229 Puusepp, Ludwig 240 Pyrrho of Elis 122 Pythagoras 98, 105, 154; religious and scientific synthesis 98 Pythagorean Theorem 98 Pythagorean triangle 105 Qin Dynasty 54 Qin Wars of Conquest 53 Quakers 228–229 Quaker theology 229 quantum physics 24 quiet sitting meditation 57 Quran 143–144, 145, 149 radical empiricism 156, 176, 180–181 A Rakes’ Progress (Hogarth) 219–220 Rakewell, Tom 219 Ramadan 145 Raphael 153–154, 165, 169 rationalism 96, 145; Anaximander and 96; monotheistic 96 rationalistic dualism 186–189 rationalists 96, 100 rational soul 111 Read mythology 112 Reagan, Ronald 12 realigned community mental health system 254 Reclining Buddha 51 Record of Ritual 60 Redlich, Fredrick 212 Reform Judaism 70–71 relativism 101, 104 relativity 99; of knowledge 99 religion 89; pilgrimage 224; religious cult 98; and scientific synthesis 98 ren 57 Renaissance 126, 153–155; Christian empiricism 161–163; Christian humanism 167–168; cultural systems 160–161; emancipatory opportunities of 169; historical analysis of 156–161; humanism 163–167; political systems 156–158; psychology 161–169; to Reformation 168–169; socioeconomic systems 158–160 The Republic (Plato) 86, 119, 169 The Retreat 229–232 revelation theology 178–179 The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Copernicus) 173–174 Rig Veda 28 Ring Around the Rosy 160 Robespierre, Maximilien 183–184 Roe, David 257 Rogers, Carl 3, 4, 102 Roman Catholic Church 117, 125, 130, 134, 138

284  Index Roman Catholicism 143 Roman Empire 124, 125, 130, 132 Roman Republic 125 Romantic movement 156 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 11 Rosh Hashanah 74 Rousseau, Jean Jacques 156, 196–198 Rudrick, Abraham 257 rujia 59–60 Rush, Benjamin 208 Sabbath 74 Saguna Brahman 35 Sakel, Manfred 236 samana 42–43 samsara 39, 41, 57 samudaya 48 sangha 43 Santa Maria 172 saoshyant 32 Sartre, Jean-Paul 248 Scala Naturae 109 schizophrenogenic mother 261–262 Schneider, Kurt 243 Scholasticism 112, 139, 155, 160, 163, 168, 173, 187 The School of Athens (Raphael) 153–154, 165 school services 266 scientific dogma 180 scientific method 156, 174 scientific research 107–112 scientific revolution 155; cultural systems 171–172; emancipatory opportunities of 181; historical analysis of 169–172; political systems 169–170; and psychology 173–181; socioeconomic systems 170–171 Scientific Revolution 155, 159, 182–183 Scipionic Circle 126 seashell 224 Sea voyages 171 secondary quality of sensations 181 second-generation antipsychotics 245–247 Seikkula, Jaakko 257–258 seismograph 159 self-compassion 60 self-help organizations (SHOs) 260 self-hypnosis 132 self-knowledge 181 severe poverty 212 sexual orientation 87 shadow 8–10; Axial Age 27; as part of personality 8; of religious fanaticism 8; societal and symbol 9 shadow of Sophism 87 Shang Dynasty 52 sharia law 144 Shetier, Harriet 262

“Ship of Fools” 218–219 Shiva (Hindu god) 37 shock therapy: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) 238–240; insulin coma shock therapy 236–237; Metrazol convulsion shock therapy 238; in psychiatry 236 Shudras 34 Siger of Brabant 156 Silk Road 158–159, 171 Silk Road Economic Belt 159 skepticism 119, 120, 122 Skinner, B. F. 3, 4, 177, 247 Smith, Adam 12, 170–171 Social Class and Mental Illness (Hollingshead and Redlich) 212 social contract 183 social darwinism 234 Social Security Income (SSI) system 214, 266 Society of Community Research and Action: Division of Community Psychology 254 socioeconomic inequality 266 socioeconomic systems: China 53–54, 62; Christian Era 125; Greek Era 86–87; Hellenistic Age 119; India 34, 42–43; Iran 28; Islam 143; Palestine 69–71; psychological history in 11–13 Socrates 16, 55, 81, 84, 154; humanistic psychology 102 Socrates Café (Phillips) 113 Socratic Method 105 solar eclipse 95, 95 Solomon, Jewish King 177 Solomon, the son of David 69 Song Dynasty 159 Sophism 87, 101; shadow of 87 Sophists 85, 102, 104, 105 soul 84; embrace as root of psychology 112 spinning therapy 208 Spinoza, Baruch 189–190 spiritual component 224 spiritual knowledge 41 Spring and Autumn Annals 60 The Spring and Autumn Annals (Confucius) 53 Stamp Act of 1765 177 standing armies 157–158, 159 standpoint theory 214 The Star of David 73–74 Starry Night (Van Gogh) 206–207 State Psychiatric Care Center 225 Statue of Liberty 185, 199 STE(A)M movement 9 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) 9–10 Stevenson, Robert Louis 9 Stoa Poikile 122 stoicism 120 Stoicism 119, 122–123, 126, 132

Index  285 Stoics 126 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) 9 sulfur 159 Sullivan, Henry Stack 247 superego 105 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) 259 support services 266 Suttas 42 symbolic allegory 127 symbolism 15, 63, 72, 127, 129–131, 172, 239; Christian 129–131 symbols: of Axial Age 23–77; of Greek Era 81–114; and history 1; humanistic science 6; natural science 6; overview 5; and universalistic vision 26–27; as universal teacher 4–7, 5, 6, 7 Symbols of the Idols of Grave Errors 176 Symposium (Plato) 88 syncretic philosophy 126 Szasz, Thomas 211–212, 248 tabula rasa psychology 181 Tai Chi Chuan 67 tardive dyskinesia 244 Tebes, Jacob 254 teleology 112 telescope 174–175, 181 Temple of Apollo 88, 102 Ten Commandments 71 Tetzel, Johann 168 Thales 95–96 Theogony (Hesiod) 6, 83 therapeutic philosophies 117, 120–122 Theravada 42 Thirty Tyrants 120 Thomism 141–142 Tikkun Olam: Basic Questions and Policy Directions (Mirsky) 76 Tillich, Paul 191 Timaeus 104 Timaeus (Plato) 154 Titans 89 token economy 247 Torrey, E. Fuller 261 tranquilizing treatment techniques 208 transcendent 101 transcendental: consciousness 191–192; experiences 104 transorbital lobotomy 242 transpersonal psychology 13, 93, 104–105, 248–250 A Treatise of Human Nature (Hume) 191 tripartite psychological personality 104 true self 40, 41 Truth and Symbol (Jaspers) 5, 26 Tuke, William 228

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 160 universalistic vision 26–27 universal principles 87 universal truths 84, 102 Upanishads 35 Upon the Diseases of the Mind (Rush) 208 Urban VIII, Pope 175 U.S. Department of Community Mental Health (CMH) 265 Utopia 167 Vaishyas 34 Vajrayana Buddhism 42 Van Gogh, Vincent 206 Vedas 34 Vedic system 34 Venerated Documents 59 Vespucci, Amerigo 171 vidya 40; apara 40; para 40 Vindication of the Rights of Women (Wollstonecraft) 186 Virgin Mary 165 Vishnu (Hindu god) 37, 37–38, 47 visual metaphor 1 Vitruvian Man 167 Vitruvius 167 Voltaire 197 von Bora, Katharina 170 Walden Two (Skinner) 177 War on Poverty 12 Warring States Period 53–54 Washington, George 208 Watts, James 241, 242 Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) 256 Wellstone, Paul 258 Western: Christianity 133; civilization 126, 134, 153, 158, 163, 169, 174, 212; culture 125; ethnocentrism 27; philosophy and Muslims 145–146; psychology 81–114; science 82, 107 wheelbarrow 159 Whitaker, Robert 244 White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) 234 white horse 104, 104–105 William of Ockham 161 Wollstonecraft, Mary 186 World Health Organization (WHO) 222 worship science 177 Writs of Assistance 177 wuji 65, 65–66 Wundt, Wilhelm 13 wu-wei 66

286  Index Xenophanes 96 Xenophon 154 Xi Jinping 159 Yom Kippur 74 Young, Sarah 219 Yung, Beverly 262 Zarathustra 30 Zealot (Aslan) 128 Zeno of Citium 122–123, 154

Zeus (Greek god) 29 Zhou Dynasty 52–53 Zhuangzi (Zhuangzi) 63–64, 66 Zoroaster 29, 154 Zoroastrianism 15, 23, 27–32; emancipatory opportunities in 32; Faravahar 29–30; historical analysis of 27–28; prayer and ritual 32; rituals 32; Zoroastrian psychology 28–32 Zoroastrians 82; psychology 28–32