Moons and Junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel
as every fairy tale comes real; I've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show. You leave 'em laughing when you go
and if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.
I've looked at love from both sides now,
from give and take, and still somehow
it's love's illusions I recall.
I really don't know love at all.
Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say "I love you" right out loud,
dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads,
they say I've changed.
Something's lost but something's gained in living every day.
I've looked at life from both sides now,
from win and lose, and still somehow
it's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life at all." Joni Mitchell
I am reading this great book from the library on the "The Medical Model" of psychiatry and "The Psychoanalytical Model." It is entitled Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain, and was written in 2001 by Elio Frattaroli. M.D.
A few years ago, I read where neuroscientists are finding that the brain is wired much as Freud described in his final years. His initial theories, which we hear the most about, he himself rejected, and went on to attempt to formulate a unified theory of psychology---kind like they are just now attempting to do in physics. As one family medicine program director I know once said, "Physicists think that biologists are too 'fuzzy.' Biologists think that sociologists are too 'fuzzy.' Sociologists think that psychologists are too 'fuzzy.' It's really that we are just talking about degrees of complexities." So if Einstein was a genius, what does that make Freud? He almost came up with the necessary theory--but subsequently it was dissected by the analytic types who currently rule the world of science.
My approach is integrative, and hence I believe that we need the integrative approach, especially now that we have dissected the human genome--how can we integrate that information?
The first point I will make from this book is to repeat an analogy that he uses to describe two approaches to life: The lap swimming approach versus The Hero's Quest approach. When we make a choice which approach do we choose? Is there a difference and is one better than the other?
The first approach he describes as like swimming laps in a pool. We occasionally come up for air, but mostly just put our heads down and swim in our lane, trying not to bump anyone else. Much of life is like this, and it is a good way to accomplish "life fitness," mostly building endurance.
The second approach he describes in Jungian terms: The Hero's Quest. The analogy is that we view our life as a quest for a prize of great value. We then expect to bump into others, to have failure as well as victory. We expect to fall down and have to pick ourselves up. Or as one of my friends, Walter H. Hunt, who wrote the excellent series of sci fi books, "The Dark Wing" Series, describes in his books, one must "Break the Ice Wall" You have to read the books to really understand that reference. For me, it describes my experience of resolving the Electra Complex, then having my mother die, and surviving the aftermath. In the books, the hero then finds him/herself in the Valley of the Lost Souls--yup, recognize it! Then must cross that to achieve his/her goal. There are of course, Dark Forces, other players, the hero's companion and assistant. In life, we usually don't have just one who play this role--in fact, Walter has played some of those roles in my own life. One reason I consider him such a good friend.
Obviously, the Hero's Quest is more exciting, the rewards more valuable, the challenges greater. Yet, there is value in endurance--in fact without it, the Hero could never accomplish his quest. Just as light is sometimes a particle and sometimes a wave, we must accept both ways of looking at life, and use both according to the time. He who only swims laps becomes limited in his outlook. He who only searches, if he has not endurance, will fail and wander in the desert.
Yet, even after looking at both sides, we find ourselves not knowing life--because it is the most complex issue of all--with integration of the two viewpoints we know much more about light than we used to, yet as my husband informed me this am, we cannot, looking back along the history of the universe using light-years, see The Big Bang--if there was one. Only The Light knows for sure.
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