Psyche (psychology)
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The Psyche was the Greek concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind. The Greeks believed that the soul or "psyche" was responsible for behaviour.
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[edit] In legend
The most well-known legend of the mythological character Psyche is given by Apuleius's Metamorphosis (commonly known as The Golden Ass). She was the youngest and loveliest of King Anatolia's three daughters. Aphrodite, jealous of her beauty, sent her son, Eros (Cupid) to strike her with a rusty golden arrow, which would make her fall in love with the worst man and ruin her.
Instead, Eros fell in love with her and shot the arrow into the sea. When she fell asleep, Eros took her to his palace. Aphrodite, irritated, allowed Eros to visit her every night, but would not let her see his face.
One night, Psyche was told by her sisters to light a lamp. A drop of hot oil from this lamp fell on Eros, who was dozing nearby. He woke up and fled. Aphrodite made Psyche complete a number of almost impossible tasks, then made her immortal and allowed her to live forever with her love, Eros.
[edit] Etymology of the word 'psyche'
The verb 'psycho' meant 'to blow', and psyche is the last breath before death. This has come to signify the part of life that escapes a corpse upon death.[citation needed]
[edit] Jung's definitions of “psyche” and "soul"
Carl Jung wrote much of his work in German. Difficulties for translation arise because the German word Seele means both psyche and soul. Jung was careful to define what he meant by psyche and by soul.
I have been compelled, in my investigations into the structure of the unconscious, to make a conceptual distinction between soul and psyche. By psyche, I understand the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a "personality". (Jung, 1971: Def. 48 par. 797)
[The translation of the German word Seele presents almost insuperable difficulties on account of the lack of a single English equivalent and because it combines the two words "psyche" and "soul" in a way not altogether familiar to the English reader. For this reason some comment by the Editors will not be out of place.
[In previous translations, and in this one as well, psyche– for which Jung in the German original uses either Psyche or Seele– has been used with reference to the totality of all psychic processes (cf. Jung, Psychological Types, Def. 48); i.e., it is a comprehensive term. Soul, on the other hand, as used in the technical terminology of analytical psychology, is more restricted in meaning and refers to a "function complex" or partial personality and never to the whole psyche. It is often applied specifically to "anima" and "animus"; e.g., in this connection it is used in the composite word "soul-image" (Seelenbild). This conception of the soul is more primitive than the Christian one with which the reader is likely to be more familiar. In its Christian context it refers to "the transcendental energy in man" and "the spiritual part of man considered in its moral aspect or in relation to God." . . . –Editors.] (Jung, 1968: note 2 par. 9)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Jung, C.G. (1968). Psychology and Alchemy, Collected Works, Volume 12, Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691018316 OCLC 219856.
- Jung, C.G. (1971). Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01813-8.
