Arcane Series PT4: Depth Psychology

Among the major breakthroughs in psychology in the last century - now supported by neuroscience - is that we are indeed not "one thing" and what is apparent is not all that is. We are each a multiplicity with inner contradictions, nor do we have full dominion over that self. And it seems this is natural, as we have many diverse inner systems/perspectives in order to properly manage the difficult task of being alive.

Auburn
"C /// If you're a very self-disciplined FeNi-Fe, and believe very much in moral virtue and order... there will be a spirit in you (Ver) that is more devious and wishes to break free from your over-imposed order (J). And this spirit may find an occasion to be a trickster and come out of you in an unexpected way. You may find yourself thirsting for an adrenaline rush, taking things too far at the party, letting loose and being overtaken by the sensory.. because Ver wanted too badly to be expressed and your relationship to it had become so damaged."

I'm going to be stubborn once again regarding the consensus on my type (TiSe), and go with my alternative proposal (FeNi) by agreeing with you on this one. For example, when I go skiing, I am competent enough to ski at a moderate pace, but instead I tend to go downwards at the fastest (and perhaps highly uncontrolled) speed that I can to enjoy myself. (And I'm consciously aware each time I do this that a slight mistake could have horrible results.) Similarly, I have a habit of biking faster when on downwards slants, and have often gone to the top of hills to bike downwards (once when I was younger I tried this with no hands). I've run until I could no longer, and walked for hours until my whole body hurt, simply for that extreme. And there's also this fascination with fire. My brother, whom I think is SeTi, does not seem to feel a need for this; in fact, he increasingly seems to need to control his environment, which might be that neglected Fe coming to have its say.
Anyway, I wanted to post a poem I wrote over a year ago which might accidentally show what a repressed Ti and Se as one, repressed sub-personality could look like (I certainly did not write it with CT or this thread in mind!). They come in near the end of the poem, but I think it makes sense when taken as a whole, because the rest of the poem is pretty much Fe+Ni. I showed it to one of my friends, and the first thing she said was "It sounds really tortured". This is a highly private poem, but I'm sharing it in good faith.

The Human and the Sun God
We once entered a tunnel
And have since gone ever further in
Entombed for millennia in darkness - 
Our existence, a tale of sin.
My heart throbs to return
But none know the way.
How can we find home
If we've forgotten the day?

But our memory cannot be robbed:
A light still shines for home.
Do not let it die out
And be buried in darkness, alone.
I do not wish to weep
And flood the grave with tears;
I understand the morning dawns
And my heart is filled with fear.

So I begin my quest
To become the Sun for all - 
A guide out of darkness
By setting on fire my soul.
To burn until I am ashes - 
What pain it will be!
Yet suffering is a blessing
If I can shine the path brightly.

As blood, tissue, and nerve ignite
Within me resounds a whimper.
A tear is set loose
And with it a whisper - 
A memory from my soul,
The wishes of my human heart,
A man in a home by a river
With his love and his art.

Originally, the human was "the farmer", and both the human/farmer and the Sun god represent different parts of my person (or different persons in my personality). The human/farmer wishes for the peace to not do anything (Ti) and simply enjoy the moment (Se) - note that he's very much situated within a physical environment, while the Sun god isn't. Meanwhile, the Sun god is "imperial", expansive and ultimately desiring to encompass all. (I was about to go on a rant about how they've been relating lately, but I don't think that's relevant here.)

viremic
"I still hold to the view that we are indeed one true self, which undergoes modifications only in terms of what it is experiencing - to use the Schopenhauerian terminology (although not necessarily holding true to what he meant), that there is one subject which wills, but it may be placed in any number of representations."

I would argue that this one true self is a phantasm: where does it exist apart from its "representations"?

"I highly suspect that the neuroscience backing up this not-one-thing view, is actually the result of some not-supported philosophical view, that is subtly leading to a begging of the question."

Sure, but doesn't that apply to other views also? For example, Schopenhauer takes the subject-object difference for granted in The World as Will and Representation; what follows in that work is an elaboration from that point, at least while representation is concerned.

Linus - How telling! eerie, ominous/devastating... yet serene
I resonate very much with the themes of it; with the darkness/tunnel.. and the tumultuous desire to illuminate it all by one's sheer will/force. It reminds me very much of what TiNe-Fe bellabellas86 wrote about her myth, here. This juxtaposition seems an essential element of the Ti/Fe experience. It's a desire to overcome the void ..entropy, meaninglessness and mortality... by heroically burning brightly and feeling Alive through passion, purpose, intimacy and love. To be a God of Light. And so the soul is found, a hot flame emerging from the surrounding vacuum..

I think I agree with what you're saying here viremic . No matter the particular organization or expression at the time, we each are made up of certain specific data and themes. Although complicated, the psyche doesn't seem to be random, and always there is a singular point of consciousness; the ego. You mentioned lucid dreaming, that's actually been something I've found to be an interesting example of the 'one subject which wills', because the conscious experience in the dream comes from the dreamer's point of view. If different characters in the dream represented the self in different forms, it would be expected for the point of view to be multiple. But from the accounts I've read, and what I've experienced myself, there is always one 'self' experiencing consciousness in lucid dreams. I wonder if you've had similar experiences, or if you know more about lucid dreaming?

It's really interesting to see other's views on the multifaceted nature of the psyche. It's quite undeniable to me at this point that we're made up of different layers/elements/sub-personalities, each a fundamental aspect of our nature which contributes to the overall personality. Active imagination has provided an opportunity for me to really see this over the last several years. I kinda went all out with characterizing the different elements of my psyche As far as I've come to quantify these different aspects in myself, there are at least 19 different functional complexes/characters, existing in this structure:

Archetypes are fascinating to engage with as characters, from what I've experienced. They are seemingly autonomously-formed characters which seem to possess knowledge and thought processes differing from my own. I think perhaps this is what Jung meant when he spoke of them as a continuum between individual and trans-personal content. It seems to me that they come into character as representations of our psychological orientations when our own nature and experiences evoke them in a certain way. I'm still not sure whether the functions arise from the archetypes, or vice-versa, but it seems that they at least tend to correlate. This Arcane series does a great job of describing those correlations, I think :3