Psychological Significance of Man-Child Initiation in Modern Cultures

Introduction:

Nowadays, in this era, Modern Cultures have wiped out a significant number of rituals & themes of primitives' tribes, that were used to initiate the transformation of the psyche, but lucky for us it has not been forgotten, as it has merely been connected with our conscious. Based on Carl Jung it has been stored in the collective unconscious and is represented to us in our dreams. Anthropologists claim that the disappearance of primitive society and the exposing of its soul to modern society, makes its people lose their meaning in life and they decay morally.

The importance of this topic is to highlight the significant change of our Modern culture onto our basic instinct to transform into a higher order of conscious. The fact that Modern Man painfully aware of the fact that the philosophies and religious wisdom do not give him enough power to face the present condition of the world as being claimed by Carl Jung. The initiation of an individual into adulthood has become a common problem in our modern society, an in-Depth psychology analysis is made of the eternal child “puer aeternus” to try and make an antidote for this kind of problem.

Explanation of the journey of the initiation:

Joseph L. Henderson indicated that the myth of the hero is the most common myth around the world. It can be found in many cultures Rome, Greece and among primitive’s tribes and can vary enormously in details. those myths appear in our dreams and have great dramatic appeal, and these myths have profound psychological importance. Furthermore, these stories present an early weakened individual whose path is guided by tutelary figures, who enables him to path superhuman tasks that cannot be accomplished alone or self-help, Example of famous myths: Greeks Theseus had Poseidon, the god of the sea, as his deity; Perseus had Athena.

Dr.Radin said that the hero myth contains four distinct cycles which are: Trickster Cycle, The Hare cycle, The Red Horn cycle & The Twin cycle. The Trickster Cycle represents the earliest and least developed period in life, he has the mentality of an infinite. The Hare cycle it’s also known as the transformer, does not appear to have achieved human stature but appear as the founder of human culture, he is becoming a socialized being, correcting the instinctual. The Red Horn cycle meets the requirements of an archetypal hero bypassing the battles, in Red Horn Cycle we have reached the world of Man, it's a more of a question as for how long can human beings be successful without falling victims to their pride? The Twin cycle in these two children we see the two sides of man's nature. One of them. Flesh, is acquiescent, mild, and without initiative; the other, Stump, is dynamic and rebellious.

Primitives societies had a wealthy material of myths & rites, as being claimed by Joseph Campbell, they were the reason behind our understanding of the initiation process. Where young men and women are brought away forcibly from their parents to kill the parental archetype, so forth breaking with the childhood world. But it leaves a great wound in parental archetype and a good healing process is being provided by assimilation process into the life of the group. In other words, these rituals present a symbolic death for the Mother-child identity, this temporary identity is dissolved into the collective unconscious. He is then rescued by the rites of the tribe symbolizing a new birth.

These rituals whether it was found in primitive societies or more complex societies, it’s main aim is to provide a novice or a beginner individual with a “Rite of Passage” from one stage of life to another, from early childhood to late childhood or from early adolescence to later adolescence and from then to maturity. All of these can be done only by the rite of death and rebirth.

There is one striking difference between the hero myth and Novice initiation. The hero myth dictates his whole effort in achieving a certain goal he wants to attain, even if they were killed or murdered because of their pride they are still successful. On the other hand, the novice is forced to give up his ambition and desires for an ordeal. The output of this ritual is more of experience more than being successful, he must be prepaid to die, the ordeal experience can mild between long fasting, tattooing or break of a tooth to an agonizing experience such as the infliction of the wounds of circumcision, subincision, or other mutilations. The purpose by the end of the day remains the same, a symbolic death followed by rites of rebirth.

Mother-Child, Father-Child, Parents archetype:

We have to analysis the effects that gave rise to the social problem, which means we must discuss how strong mother complex stunts the maturation for many people today. as von Franz notes: “A man who has a mother complex will always have to contend with his tendencies toward becoming a puer aeternus.”

Throughout the history parental rules were different for the mother's rule and the father's rule. This means the child had a different experience of emotion between both parents. The child is interacted more to his mother more than the father, as the mother and child develop more physical contact, understanding of physical and emotional pain and the needs of a child. This creates a significantly close relationship between a Mother figure and child, psychologist call this bond "Mother complex".

Fathers do not create the same bond between Their children, but their rule is significant in a child's life as the father is the one who provides protection and resources for their children. And the most important rule is gaudiness, which means that a father has to provide the path for the child do break their dependent bond between him and his mother, to help him emerge into the world as an independent and functional adult.

The rites path was performed throughout history through different cultures to help in the transition from childhood or adolescence to adulthood. In other words, the goal was to separate the youth from his mother once he hits puberty. These rites were performed by the elder males in the tribe "culture Fathers". Needless to say, that the mother cannot join or participate in these rituals.

Examples of Ancient Primitives initiation:

Mircea Eliade narrated that one of the primitive tribes in the middle of the night, the “cultural fathers” of the tribe, dressed as gods or demons, would snatch the youth from his bed. This was the last time the youth would see his mother, sometimes for months. The youth would be taken to a deep cave, buried alive, or else plunged into some other sort of literal, or symbolic darkness. This stage represented the symbolic death of the youth’s childhood: the loss of paradise and the joys of irresponsibility Following the symbolic death of childhood, a ceremony of rebirth would be performed, marking the young adult’s transformation to a more mature state of being.

Spartans story One of the interesting rites of passages, the child had to be taken from his mother at the age of seven and trained in a place named krypteia, to be trained as a warrior until reaching the age of 17. By the age of 18, he is sent off on a mission to kill as many of Helotes (owned slaves) while trying to get back to the krypteia in one piece. If he succeeded in this mission he would be considered as a man, get married and continue his life as a warrior serving the state.

Bullet Ant Glove of Brazil. In the Amazons, satire-Mawe People perform an initiation ritual. The rituals are about young men forced to put their hand in mittens filled with hundreds of bullet ants for about 10 minutes. The bite of a bullet ant is approximately 20 times more painful than a stun from a wasp. The ant’s sting prevents the body from protecting itself from pain. One bite causes the body to convulse, and the pain can last for 24 hours.

Examples of initiation in Modern era:

In my point of view, there is a lack of the meaning of the initiation process unlike what did exist at our ancestors. But we still have our rites of passage in this era. Needless to say, it's different from culture to another. Not only that but also cultures became more complex in its way and when it’s merged with the political, economic system it becomes more complicated. In other words, in modern cultures we don’t have one rite of passage, but a multiple rites of passages for each stage, mostly the primitive tribes few rites of passage, which was from the adolescences to manhood and the girl when she gives birth to a new infant, she becomes a mother responsible for this new creature between them.

Anthropologists and sociologists came down to express manhood in our modern culture that “Men are made not born”, and we can stop and think for a while at this statement. Manhood cannot be manifested from our DNA, or it’s a feature that will pop up from our biological essence, but it’s something that is attained from our culture. There are many ways to reach manhood in this era, for example:

Marriage's one of the famous rites of passage, it’s the submission for greater responsibility protect family, take a bigger responsibility for not only taking care of your wife and children but also sometimes for your older parents, so basically taking care of 2 families. And that’s a huge weight on anyone’s shoulder to bear, the mental pain, and biological pain due to hard work for having a stable life.

Education is one of the rites of passage, where 4 stages occur early & late childhood, early & late adolescence. The students have a higher responsibility at each level of the educational system. Like in the early childhood he gets separated from his mother away from home for a couple of hours, in a classroom full of other children.

Mob it can be described as the modern reflection for the primitive rites of passage, it has mental and biological pain that each has to bear to join the mob, and fill in the lost gab he felt from the breakage of the mother complex. It can be beaten to death from the strongest men in the mob, see how much he can take. Or can be a difficult task for a teenager to kill someone. The member gets to pass through three stages Separation, Transition and cooperation these are the stages he has to pass to join the mafia.

The military is one of the ways that contains one of the harsh rites of passage like primitive tribes. You get to stay away, isolated from your family and females for months, you have no choice but to train, adapt and overcome challenges, as most military exercise is located within harsh environments, either with extreme temperatures in both ways or dangerous environment containing wild poisonous creatures. Examples of countries for today Military rites of passage, Palestine, Syrian and other African countries because of their harsh situation, the child has no other way to become a man expect by joining the army, and that’s his rites of passage to become a man, capable of making adult decisions to protect his family.

Defining the Problem:

One of the interesting stories is peter pan, the eternal child, king of lost boys (loser boys), and pan means the God of everything. Peter pan who is afraid to grow up, and that’s a reflection image for captain hook who is an adult tyrant, he has a hook because the dragon with a clock in his stomach ate his hands. The dragon represents chaos and time. well, that's reasonable as when people get older time has already got a piece for them, and got a taste for them & so time will eat them eventually. And so, peter pan gets to decide he will never grow up, and he has this imaginary Tinkerbelle that acts as the fairy of porn, she substitutes for the real thing.

As Marie-Louis von Franz noticed in mid-20th century many adults between the age of 20 and 30 proclaimed the body of the adults, but mentally they were still in maturation phase, in other words, there has been a delay between their biological growth and mentality growth to catch up with each other. She through many lectures explaining the "eternal child", it's a term that was used in mythology to refer to a child-god who remains forever young. As Dr von Franz puts it "…remains too long in adolescent psychology; that is, all those characteristics that are normal in a youth of seventeen or eighteen are continued into later life, coupled in most cases with too great a dependence on the mother.”

Von Franz predicted that in the upcoming decades his problem will spread to every individual. Affecting the male population more than females, so far, her claims were very accurate until today. Many young men are struggling academically, socially, spiritually, financially, and sexually. They prefer to stay with their families at home rather than facing the inevitable of independence creating something for their selves, and so forth many prefer to live of internet, pornography, and video games. It’s not far to claim that the roots of this problem rise from the neurosis of the Modern era.

It can be simply explained that the cruciality and violence nature found in the primitive tribes had a great effect on this transition needed to break the eternal child inside the individual, but it was necessary in order to break the Mother-child Bond as our ancestors understood that this temporary bond that is hard to break, it needed a Purposefully Trials in order to break it. Moreover, today there is no equivalent trials for these rites’ passages, as Mircea Eliade puts it “It has often been said that one of the characteristics of the modern world is the disappearance of any meaningful rites of initiation.”

In today’s modern era, the father has been absent physically and emotionally. A study made by Sam Osheron reporting only 17% of American men had a positive relationship with their father. Psychiatrist James Hollis wrote on this study saying “If this amazing statistic is even close to the truth, something large and tragic has happened to one of the critical balances of nature”. Young men have to break the mother complex and peruse life worth living without having the support of the father.

The Father’s Absence is a problem with two side effects, not only on the child but also on the mother. As the role of the mother had to be redistributed so she became the mother and the father at the same time. this makes the mother more authoritative to compensate the absence of the masculine side in the child’s life and her hunger for love and support from the absent father, so she fills in the gap with her relationship with the child.

This situation carl Jung called "the devouring Mother". The mother becomes involved in every aspect of the child's life, unconsciously manipulating her child for making him dependent on her even in his adulthood. “Behold the secret conspiracy between mother and son, and how each helps the other to betray life.” Said by carl Jung

Solving the problem:

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide

For an individual to transform into the next stage, he must go through an adventure that he does not want or fear. As Joseph Campbell put it a dragon represents greed, the European dragon appears in stories guarding his cave which contains Gold and Virgins, he just guards them with no experience of the value of Gold or female who is guarding them. Psychologically the dragon is one's binding of oneself to one's ego, meaning you are captured in your own Dragon Cage. The Dragon symbolizes the ego that holds you in. As Freud puts it because human beings have such long dependency it's very hard to grow up and sometimes it might need a shock for that to happen.

Jordan Peterson said that adolescences are nothing but a potential they discover themselves, they have to pick their sacrifice, as a part of maturation they have to pick a sacrificial element for the actuality of a frame. Sacrifice is inevitable so when it hit you by your 30 or 40, and that won’t be a happy day for you because by then you will be an old infant. So, the best thing to do as it's an inescapable path is to pick your sacrifice better than the sacrifice pick you at an old age. "Sacrifice always means the renunciation of a valuable part of oneself, and through it, the sacrificer escapes being devoured.” Said by Carl Jung

Children are nothing but potential, As Jung puts it half the last journey of your life is more about discovering the inner child again, so you can get more creative and be full of potential again so you can be something. Needless to say, people who delay their sacrifice for their inner child, they get into psyche dilemma wherein the time who must search for his inner child for potentials, he is developing to maturity in late age.

In our modern era, it’s very difficult for the child to transform into adulthood responsible for his own decisions without the support from the father. The child has to pick a target and aim for it. Working on his goal is the first step for maturation, taking responsibility to achieve this goal, you get to do the planning and sometimes will fail. Taking one step at a time onto the chaos world is a hell of step into the outer world, maybe applying for an apprenticeship, roughly speaking and then the world will open up with more possibilities.

Conclusion:

The dichotomy of the topic is the death & rebirth of a new personality. So, the approach of self-changing is common between the individuals in the pursuit of personal growth. But it’s not the only way the individual change, and not always suitable for all situations. Most of the individuals hate the sudden change in their life, as we are beings with a limited suffer to endure and limited time. slow change can work well if there was a strong foundation at the beginning. Sometimes the life for an individual is dysfunctional and has descended into his own personal hell. So, changing a habit or two is not enough so the need for significant change is needed for a psychological rebirth rather than gradualist.

It’s common in the themes of mythologies the hero experiences the rebirth stage. The hero faces many challenges and has to overcome them all to experience meaningfully change in the character. A common feature between all these stories is the element of sacrifice. The sacrifice is an important element to abandon a certain aspect of the self to build a path for the new. Sacrifice is enough to cure what ails us, it will give the individual a new set of eyes to move forward with energy and new sense.

As any hero mythology, most stories contain guidance, to direct the hero into a certain path to walk on and help the hero to overcome the challenges faced. The father can play this role, as in some mythologies like Hercules the father was the guidance for the hero to overcome the challenges and chaos. The Father ensures that the hero completes his path, and reach a complete transformation for the character that is mature and responsible for his own decisions.

At the bottom line, it’s very risky to enter the realm of the chaos even if we armed ourselves with tools that can help us in the navigation of the realm easier. So, according to Jung, the gradualist change is an "unmitigated catastrophe", it is more likely to affect negatively resulting in psychological breakdown than a psychological rebirth.