Metaphors of Transformation

One of my favorite stories about C.G. Jung is a reported dream where he was drowning in a vat of human waste and calling "Help me out!" to his therapist, who stood on the rim of the vat. Instead of taking his outstretched hand the therapist pushed Jung's head down into the liquid, saying, "Through, not out."

Isn't that exactly what it feels like when you commit yourself to greater self-awareness and then see what you've gotten yourself into? "Get me out!" 

This metaphor works extremely well for those of us in transit.  No matter how innovative our efforts, there is a quality of struggling in, yes, a vat of shit.

The psychologist Karen Horney described how – because children are not permitted to grow according to their unique needs and potentials – a basic insecurity leads to anxiety which prevents us from true spontaneity and creates an idealized image. "Self-idealization," she wrote, "entails a general self-glorification and thereby gives the individual the much-needed feeling of significance." 

The resulting "Idealized Self" alienates us from our real selves as it increasingly filters how we see ourselves and seek to be seen by others. According to Horney it's a natural and constructive urge to realize our potential, but we can only do this by being truthful to our real selves. Ah, there's the rub. Because once we commit to self-actualization, we have to turn and face those aspects of ourselves that don't fit the idealized image.

Furthermore, it's not possible to access those discarded parts of ourselves through intellectual understanding alone. One of the best ways to discover what's buried in each of us is by exploring symbols and metaphors: they cut past our linear, left-brain mode of analysis – through dreams, fantasies, projections, or any method that works with images.