The Better Angels of Our Nature

During the last portion of the seminar on October 13, 2011 titled Energy! The Ecology of the Psyche and the World, Dr. Murray Stein spoke about a book review he had just read on "The Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker. I looked up the source of that title and discovered that it was in the closing lines of President Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address given on March 4, 1861.
Here is an excerpt:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

These words, uttered over seven generations ago as a nation was being torn asunder, remind us that we are not enemies. We are not enemies with each other, with the companion animals who share the earth, nor with the environment; though at times, it seems like we have declared war. Perhaps the day is dawning when again touched by the better angels of our nature, we may be at peace with our world.

Dr. Egger and Dr. Stein imparted so many profoundly important things during last Thursday's seminar that any remarks are likely to detract. Instead, I offer a few quotes I jotted down during the seminar and subsequent question and answer period. Let these remarks, like dew upon a parched land, offer the promise of renewing waters.

"When we face a destructive phenomenon, a symptom, we can take it heuristically, as a solution, we can take it as energy" (that is blocked).

"Everything psychic has a slight asymmetry (between the material world and psyche) in favor of the psyche."

"If libido retreats from the world it goes to the unconscious and there, Jung says, you must follow it."

"Nothing is so dangerous as life energy unable to be expressed honorably."

"When you cannot listen to the other person, you may be under possession, where something is projected."

"...the older the mythology, the clearer."

"...energy is a movement that evens out opposites."

"The archetype behind energy is the capacity for Divine Creation."

"To withdraw a projection is to regain energy."

"Neurosis is always a projection on a stupid thing...the symbolic life is a means to fee energy..."

"Human beings are born with an instinctual appetite ... (and) driven to a spiritual inheritance."

Seminar participants were invited to consider the impact of excessive energy usage and also invited to consider what energy is devoted in our society (both psychic energy and external energy). Strangely, the distinction between the energy of the interior life and the energy of exterior engagement grew less certain but more meaningful.

Dr. Egger recommended cultivating Joy, Hope, and Love. She likened this to the proper tuning of a violin in that proper tuning makes it easier to find the correct note. As she explained, cultivating Joy, Hope, and Love "makes opportunity".

The depth of perspective provided by Drs. Stein and Egger in the handling of their subject is difficult to convey. The work of individuation and the work of conservation in their skillful hands seemed to be different facets of the same jewel. Their teaching was clear, evocative, and nourishing.

Many thanks to those who chose to share something during the past two weeks.

Len Cruz, MD