Alice’s Rabbit Hole into Wonderland & Carl Jung’s Abyss into the Unconscious: an absurd inquiry into the absurd source of creativity
Alice is in the Wonderland of Carl Jung’s unconscious (#BringBackOurGirl)
This gonzo philosopher would like to make an absurd argument in this absurd essay:
Lewis Carrol’s rabbit hole into Wonderland is Carl Jung’s Abyss into the unconscious and the adventure itself is what Carl Jung calls the individuation process.
The same psychological concepts but expressed through Lewis Carroll’s literary perspective and brilliantly using Alice as an avatar (an archetype) representing a human ego’s conscious exploration into the abysmal unconscious realm of unfettered human creativity on a mission to realize the potential of becoming a whole person — complete personhood– which is, incidentally, Baruch Spinoza’s Divine Madness (but I better stop here before the momentum becomes unstoppable).
Furthermore, I’d like to posit that the zany creatures that Alice encounters in Wonderland are literary manifestations of what Carl Jung calls complexes– which according to him, resemble sub-personalities.
Unbelievably intriguing ideas, right? Welcome to Gonzo Philosophy.
On this mildly cold, yet, sunny, mid-October Saturday afternoon in Ottawa, Ontario, I am writing this essay sitting on the floor carpet of my living room in order to comfortably type away at coffee table height — as the orange, the yellow, and the red of autumn leaves outside of my living room window seem to shimmer in the wind like jingle bells hanging on to branches for dear life, not ready to succumb to the natural progression of the seasons…just die already leaves, don’t you know you’ll be reincarnated come spring? only humans get to fear death you silly leaves…But I digress.
I am writing this essay not because I want to, but because I am compelled to chase this intriguing idea like it’s a taunting white rabbit — honestly, my original plans for what I had in store to do today have been completely derailed by this white rabbit.
In this foolish pursuit, I am audaciously hoping to present a minimum amount of viable evidence enough to open the case in front of a judge in a court of law…or at least to stir an online conversation around this audacious idea — so blame Obama for the audacity of hope, not me, thanks, Obama.
I’ll leave you with the following…
Consider the following quote from Carl Jung’s The Red Book. Read it. Then read it again. And Again. Let it steep until it becomes clear how this is represented by Alice (representing the conscious ego who hasn’t accepted her madness) her relationship with the Mad Hatter’s unconventional wisdom.
“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead, you should give it life…If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature…Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
What do you think?
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