Bush Is Certifiable
George W. Bush is suffering from a peculiar but not that
uncommon form of madness in which a pathological part of his
psyche has co-opted all of the healthy parts into its service.
See also The Madness
Of George W. Bush
By Paul Levy
05/18/06 "Information
Clearing House" -- --
Speaking about such a pathological condition, Jung commented
that “…an unknown ‘something’ has taken possession of a smaller
or greater portion of the psyche and asserts its hateful and
harmful existence undeterred by all our insight, reason, and
energy, thereby proclaiming the power of the unconscious over
the conscious mind, the sovereign power of possession.”
Bush has been taken over by an unconscious complex of the
collective unconscious. We speak of a mother complex, or a
father complex, but Bush has what we could call a savior
complex. Jung said, “The savior complex is an archetypal image
of the collective unconscious, and it quite naturally becomes
activated in an epoch so full of trouble and disorientation as
ours.” The archetypal figure of savior is literally dreamed up
into incarnation by the field to be both a compensation for and
an expression of the disorientation and dissociation in the
field.
Being a reflection of the greater underlying unified field, this
figure will embody the unconsciousness of the time. Because of
the unconsciousness in the field, the person playing the
archetypal role of savior will reflect this unconsciousness and
become inflated, blown up out of human proportion by the power
of the archetype. He will then, of necessity, be compelled to
act out his hubris in a way that is destructive for all who are
under his dominion.
Inflated by the power of the underlying archetype, Bush is
suffering from delusions of grandeur, and has become
megalomaniacal. He is unconsciously identified with the
archetype of the Messiah. Bush told an Amish group in 2004 that
“God speaks through me.” Bush imagines that God actually speaks
to him as well; in 2003 he told Palestinian ministers that God
told him to invade Iraq. Jung commented, “One should listen to
the inner voice attentively, intelligently and critically,
(Probate spiritus!) [test the spirits], because the voice one
hears is the influxus divinus consisting, as the Acts of John
aptly state, of “right” and “left” streams, i.e., of opposites.
They have to be clearly separated so that their positive and
negative aspects become visible.” John 4:1 says, “Do not believe
every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God.”
Just because one hears an inner voice doesn’t necessarily mean
it is the voice of God. Listened to uncritically, we could just
as easily be seduced by the Devil. Bush has become inflated with
an archetype of the collective unconscious, which is an
expression of madness. He has become identified with one side,
the light, of an inherently two-sided polarity, and projects out
the other, dark side, which he then tries to destroy. By shadow
projecting in this manner, Bush has become possessed by the very
evil he is projecting outside of himself.
This is to fall under the spell of the Devil, who is rightly
called “the deceiver.” A clearer case of madness is hard to
imagine. Jung describes such a situation by saying it is an
“…overwhelming manifestation of the “blond beast” [of prey, a
figure popularized by Nietzsche], which seizes the unsuspecting
soul with nameless shudderings. The seizure transforms him into
a hero or godlike being, a superhuman entity. He rightly feels
himself “six thousand feet beyond good and evil.”
Because of his inflation, Bush literally feels himself above
human morality, as he is under the self-generating delusion that
he is the supreme moral arbiter, not realizing in the slightest
that he has fallen into his unconscious, whose dark side he is
acting out. Because of his pathological condition, he is the
last person who should be the judge of morality, the very last
person on earth choosing justices for the Supreme Court. Jung
continued by saying, “The psychological observer knows this
state of ‘identification with the shadow,’ a phenomenon which
occurs with great regularity at such moments of collision with
the unconscious.” Paradoxically, by dissociating and projecting
out our shadow, we become unconsciously identified with it,
possessed by it, and unconsciously act it out.
Speaking about becoming taken over by a complex of the
collective unconscious, Jung elaborates by saying, “As a rule
there is a marked unconsciousness of any complexes, and this
naturally guarantees them all the more freedom of action. In
such cases their powers of assimilation become especially
pronounced, since unconsciousness helps the complex to
assimilate even the ego, the result being a momentary and
unconscious alteration of personality known as identification
with the complex.
In the Middle Ages it went by another name: it was called
possession.”
Because of his complete unconsciousness, Bush has unwittingly
allowed himself to become an instrument for evil, the dark half
of the Self, to give shape and form to itself. Speaking about
what the devil symbolizes psychologically, Jung said, “The devil
is a variant of the “shadow” archetype, i.e., of the dangerous
aspect of the unrecognized dark half of the personality.”
Bush has become unconsciously taken over by the shadow side of
the savior archetype, which is to become possessed by the very
thing from which people need to be saved. Becoming inflated and
identifying with an archetype of the collective unconscious is
to step outside ordinary human boundaries, a state in which
genuine humility is impossible. Jung said, “The potentialities
of the archetype, for good and evil alike, transcend our human
capacities many times, and a man can appropriate its power only
by identifying with the daemon, by letting himself be possessed
by it, thus forfeiting his own humanity.”
Any mental health professional would recognize that Bush’s
inflation is an expression of his unconscious identification
with (as compared to conscious realization of) God, which is an
unequivocal form of madness. Lacking self-reflection, Bush is
blissfully unaware of the perverse nature of his situation,
which itself is an expression of the extent of depravity he has
fallen into.
Speaking of a person who has fallen into such a pathological
state, Jung said “…they avoid self-criticism to an amazing
degree, preach to others, and know nothing of themselves. They
are happy to possess no self-knowledge, because then nothing
disturbs the rosy glow of illusions.” By being inflated, Bush is
unconsciously accessing and unleashing the power inherent in the
archetype — this is why he has such an enchanting power over his
followers.
By identifying with the archetype, the archetype acts as an
amplifier, enhancing beyond measure Bush’s hypnotic power over
his followers. Because Bush is so taken over by the unconscious,
he has a compelling and entrancing effect on others’
unconscious. Only one who is seized by an archetype has a
gripping effect on others. To quote Jung, “It is a psychological
fact that an archetype can seize hold of the ego and even compel
it to act as it — the archetype — wills. A man can then take on
archetypal dimensions and exercise corresponding effects.”
By being so seized by an archetype of the collective
unconscious, Bush becomes an agent that has a very powerful
effect on the field around him. He becomes a portal through
which an underlying psychic epidemic which non-locally pervades
the field that I am calling “malignant egophrenia” (see my book
The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective
Psychosis, available on my website www.awakeninthedream.com)
feeds, replicates, and actualizes itself in full-bodied form, in
and over time.
When we become unconsciously gripped by an archetype, we become
pawns in the hand of a deeper power. Succumbing to the
compulsive adrenaline rush of the “will to power” inherent in
the shadow, Bush is, as Jung said in describing Hitler, “…like a
man living in his own biography.” Bush has become arrogant and
full of himself, a legend in his own mind, someone who feels he
is not bound by law, and believes himself entitled to get away
with murder.
Speaking about being unconsciously taken over by an archetype,
Jung commented, “Here we see the characteristic effect of the
archetype: it seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval
force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity.” When
we are gripped by an archetype and forced to unconsciously act
out its effects destructively, we are acting out the dark side
of this greater power.
Etymologically, the word “transgress” is related to the word
“evil.” The world literally shape-shifts around someone who is
inflated and blown up with an archetype, as this inner state of
possession is able to synchronistically express itself through
the medium of the outside world.
To quote Jung, “…archetypes are not found exclusively in the
psychic sphere, but can occur just as much in circumstances that
are not psychic (equivalence of an outward physical process with
a psychic one).” [Emphasis in original] When we become inflated
by an archetype, there is a synchronistic correlation between
the inner experience of being identified with the archetype and
outer events. The inner state of being possessed by the
archetype expresses itself by arranging external events so as to
give shape and form to itself.
A person inflated by an archetype, such as Bush, literally
becomes the channel through which transpersonal, mythic forces
become materialized into our third-dimension, which just
reinforces his inflation in a diabolical fee dback loop. By
identifying with the archetype, Bush becomes seized by the
archetype’s irresistible field of force and unwittingly becomes
the agent who does the archetype’s bidding. By being so taken
over by an impersonal force, Bush has become a “magnet” which
torques the field around him so as to insatiably feed his own
pathology, while simultaneously wreaking havoc on the field.
Taken over by the archetype’s magnetic power, Bush achieves a
certain magnetism, which polarizes the field around it. Like a
magnet, archetypes are bi-polar, having a negative and a
positive aspect. On the one hand, the power of the archetype
coming through Bush attracts people to support him in his
delusion who are suggestible to the overwhelming unconscious
power inherent in the archetype. In a co-dependent relationship,
Bush’s followers feed his identification with the archetype,
which simultaneously nourishes their own bewitchment, in a
perverse, self-perpetuating feedback loop which develops an
autonomous life of its own.
At the same time, Bush’s identification with the archetype
repels other people, who react against the one-sidedness and
perversity of his inflation. By being so unconsciously
identified with the archetype, Bush will literally attract to
himself, like a lightning rod attracts lightning, other people’s
negative, shadow projections. These people will strongly condemn
Bush, and see him as being evil. And yet, people who react
against Bush in this way are unwittingly feeding the
polarization in the field, perpetuating the very diabolical
energy they are reacting against. If we concretize Bush as being
evil, we are projecting our own shadow onto him and are then
guilty of the very evil of which we are accusing Bush.
Interestingly, another inner meaning of the word Devil is “the
accuser.” If we are accusing Bush of being evil, we are guilty
of the very evil of which we are accusing Bush. Bush is merely
an ignorant human being who, due to his unrestrained greed,
desire, and lust for power is unwittingly allowing himself to be
used as an instrument of evil.
Evil itself is a power, or principality that transcends the
merely human dimension, as it is archetypal in nature and
thereby is a content belonging to the collective unconscious.
Bush is simply a deluded human being who is dangerous because of
his position of power, which allows him to act out his
pathological process on the world stage. We do not want to make
the mistake of attributing evil — an archetypal content of the
collective unconscious — to Bush as a person.
Becoming possessed by an archetype of the collective unconscious
is an expression of not only forfeiting our humanity, but of
abdicating our personal responsibility as well. A true Faustian
pact with the Devil, we discover too late that what we have lost
in the bargain is our soul. As in any such bargain, we are
ultimately responsible and accountable for our choices.
Identifying with the archetype of the savior is a compensation
for a deep inferiority, fear, and weakness. We become absorbed
into the archetype due to our inability and unwillingness to
deal with the darker part of ourselves that needs saving.
Though describing Hitler, Jung just as easily could have been
describing Bush when he said that he had a “…conceit that
bordered on madness, a very mediocre intelligence combined with
the hysteric’s cunning and the power fantasies of an
adolescent.” Bush is acting out the adolescent fantasies of a
war of good versus evil with our living sons and daughters as
his toy soldiers.
Being inflated, Bush doesn’t relate to other human beings as
being autonomous or independent, but as pawns to serve his own
narcissistic blindness and masturbatory fantasies.
Jung pointed out that “Inflation magnifies the blind spot of the
eye…. A clear symptom of this is our growing disinclination to
take note of the reactions of the environment and pay heed to
them.” When we are inflated, we don’t accept any reflection or
feedback from the outer universe that contradicts our puffed up
image of ourselves. Instead of being open, receptive, and
learning from the outer world, we continually interpret
everything to support our delusory self-image. When we become
inflated, we become closed to any information or in-forming
influence from the outside world, which is a form of psychic
blindness.
Instead of being in genuine relationship to the world, a person
who is inflated relates to the world through their own
narcissistically self-serving, grandiose self-image. Speaking
about madness, Jung said that it “…consists essentially in the
fact that the unconscious in large measure ousts and supplants
the function of the conscious mind. The unconscious usurps the
reality function and substitutes its own reality.”
Jung continued that this resulted in “…senseless, unshakable
judgments upheld in the face of reality [for example, Bush
saying, ‘the war in Iraq is going well,’ despite overwhelming
evidence to the contrary].” Being caught up in inflation is like
being sucked up by a cyclone, as there is literally no getting
through to the person who is inflated, who has been taken over
and lifted off the ground by a more powerful energy.
Bush and his supporters feed into and off of and support each
others’ unconscious madness so as to conjure up an impenetrable
field around them that resists consciousness at all costs. It is
only when their world — which in this case is our world, too —
self-destructs that the universe forces them out of their
psychosis.
Just as the unconscious always compensates a one-sidedness,
inflation inevitably results in all of the air (life, breath,
spirit) being taken out of the person who is inflated. Inflation
is ultimately self-destructive and always results in
catastrophe. Talking about inflation, Jung said that it “…can be
damped down only by the most terrible catastrophe to
civilization, another deluge let loose by the gods upon
inhospitable humanity.”
The fact that our government, led by an inflated madman, is
insanely and endlessly investing in and feeding the industry of
creating weapons of mass destruction is an extremely dangerous
situation for all of us. To quote Jung, “Let man but accumulate
sufficient engines of destruction and the devil within him will
soon be unable to resist putting them to their fated use.It is
well known that fire-arms go off of themselves if only enough of
them are together.”
Bush has let the spirit out of the bottle which will undoubtedly
destroy him. Being possessed by the unconscious is a very
dangerous situation, particularly when the person so taken over
is in a position of power where he can act out as well as
activate a virulent madness on the world stage. Bush’s madness
affects all those under his sphere of influence, which in this
case is the entire planet. Jung commented,
“It is abundantly clear that such an abaissement du niveau
mental [lowering of the mental level], i.e., the overpowering of
the ego by unconscious contents and the consequent
identification with a preconscious [as compared to conscious]
wholeness, possesses a prodigious psychic virulence, or power of
contagion, and is capable of the most disastrous results.” When
such a “lowering of the mental level” happens collectively, a
psychic epidemic becomes activated in the field.
The (collective) unconscious goes from being in the background
and comes actively to the foreground, where it makes itself
known by (destructively) giving shape and form to world events.
It is merely a question of mitigating the damage of this
virulent psychic epidemic for the rest of us. Seen as a dreaming
process, we are all complicit in dreaming up Bush to pick up the
archetypal role of savior. Our doing this is clearly a
reflection of the part of ourselves which is disempowered and is
not in touch with the savior within ourselves.
To be in touch with the savior within ourselves is to be in
touch with the wholeness of our true nature, which is to be
truly saved and redeemed. To the extent that any of us get in
touch with the part of ourselves that is a genuine redeemer and
leader, we literally are dis-investing energy from the
archetypal role of leader being dreamed up outside of ourselves
in a pathological way.
When we consciously and collectively access the part of
ourselves that is a leader by our very nature, we become truly
empowered. Being in touch with our God-given power engenders a
situation in which the savior archetype is consciously
distributed throughout the field, rather than being localized
and concentrated in a single figure, which is a set -up for
abuse.
The only way to change the collective nightmare we are sharing
is through inner transformation in the individual, which
collectively gets mobilized on the world stage so that we can
effect genuine change. As each of us wakes up, we discover that
we can reciprocally empower each other so that we can
consciously activate the archetypal figure of the savior in the
collective unconscious itself. Mediating, humanizing and
incarnating this archetypal figure consciously throughout the
field, we connect in lucidity, stepping into being agents of
light who collectively dis-spell the darkness in the field.
See also The Madness
Of George W. Bush
A healer, Paul Levy is a
spiritual and political activist. He is in private practice,
helping other people who are also spiritually awakening to the
dream-like nature of reality. He can be reached at
paul@awakeninthedream.com.
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