Daimonic

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"If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well." - Rilke
"If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well." - Rilke

dai·mon·ic, also dae·mon·ic (dî-mòn´îk) adjective, noun.

As an adjective the word typically means:

  1. Befitting a demon; fiendish.
  2. Motivated by a spiritual force or genius; inspired.

But as a noun the word represents a literary term:

  1. The unrest that exists in us all which forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.
  2. The journey and transition from innocence to experience.
  3. The place where light and dark meet.


Contents

[edit] Etymology

The term proper is thought to have originated with the Greeks, originally from Latin -- dæmon: "spirit", then from Greek -- daimon (gen. daimonos): "lesser god, guiding spirit, tutelary deity". [1]

[edit] Psychological Meaning

As Rollo May writes, "The daimonic is any natural function which has the power to take over the whole person.... The daimonic refers to the power of nature rather than the superego, and is beyond good and evil. Nor is it man's 'recall to himself' as Heidegger and later Fromm have argued, for its source lies in those realms where the self is rooted in natural forces which go beyond the self and are felt as the grasp of fate upon us. The daimonic arises from the ground of being rather than the self as such." [2]

If each Self possesses a process of individuation, an involuntary and natural development towards individual maturity and harmony with collective human nature, then its driver is the daimonic, the force which seeks to overcome the obstacles to development, whatever the cost, both guide and guardian.

The demands of the daimonic force upon the individual can be frightening, contemporarily unorthodox, and even overwhelming. With its obligation to protect the complete maturation of the individual and the unification of opposing forces within the Self, the inner urge can come in the form of a sudden journey (either intentional or serendipitous), a psychological illness, or simply neurotic and off-center behavior. Jung writes, "The daimon throws us down, makes us traitors to our ideals and cherished convictions — traitors to the selves we thought we were." [3] It is no wonder Yeats described it as that "other Will", the incorrigible will of man to achieve his humanity.

[edit] The Hero Journey

The journey from innocence to experience is not an idea that originated with this term; rather the Hero's Journey is a topic older than literature itself. But the "daimonic" subsequently became a focus of the English Romantic movement in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the diagram below, we see the common threads of the daimonic notion. Typically, the daimonic tale centers around the Solitary, the central character of the story, who usually is introduced in innocence, wealth, and often arrogance, but under the masks of control and order lies a corruption and unconscious desire towards disintegration. Some event, either external or internal, leads the character towards some type of isolation where he is forced to confront his daimons.

Image:DaimonicCircle.gif

The fall or the descent (from hubris) into the world where light and dark meet is usually very dramatic and often torturing for the hero and the audience alike, and comes in a myriad forms. In the depths, in hitting bottom, he ultimately discovers his own fate and tragedy (catharsis) and in a final climax is either broken or driven towards rebirth and self-knowledge. The glory of the daimonic is in the humble resurrection, though it claims more than it sets free, as many a foolish men are drawn into its vacuum never to return. As Stefan Zweig writes, the hero is unique for "he becomes the daimon's master instead of the daimon's thrall".

The daimonic has always been, and continues to be, a great source of creativity, inspiration, and fascination in all forms of art.

[edit] Quotes Referencing The Daimonic

  • "The Greek words daimon and daimonion express a determining power which comes upon man from outside, like providence or fate, though the ethical decision is left to man."
  • "The organizing center from which the regulatory effect stems seems to be a sort of 'nuclear atom' in our psychic system. One could also call it the inventor, organizer, and source of dream images. Jung called this center the 'Self' and described it as the totality of the whole psyche, in order to distinguish it from the 'ego', which constitutes only a small part of the total psyche. Throughout the ages men have been intuitively aware of the existence of such an inner center. The Greeks called it man's inner daimon."
  • "The daimonic (unlike the demonic, which is merely destructive) is as much concerned with creativity as with negative reactions. A special characteristic of the daimonic model is that it considers both creativity on one side, and anger and rage on the other side, as coming from the same source. That is, constructiveness and destructiveness have the same source in human personality. The source is simply human potential."
  • "The daimonic needs to be directed and channeled.... Our age is one of transition, in which the normal channels for utilizing the daimonic are denied; and such ages tend to be times when the daimonic is expressed in its most destructive form."
  • "Who wouldn't be a little neurotic having that kind of responsibility? But, as Freud recognized, we're all neurotic to some degree. And as Jung once said, we all have complexes. That is not the question. The only question is whether we have complexes or they have us."
    • Stephen A. Diamond [8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Etymology Online. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=demon
  2. ^ Rollo May, Love and Will, ISBN 393-01080-5. p. 123-124.
  3. ^ C.G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation (New York: Pantheon, 1956), p. 357.
  4. ^ C.G. Jung, Aion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 27.
  5. ^ C.G. Jung, Man and his Symbols, ISBN 0-385-05221-9, p. 161
  6. ^ Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. "Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity". Foreword.
  7. ^ Rollo May, 1969, Love and Will, p. 126-130.
  8. ^ Interview with Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. by Douglas Eby. http://www.talentdevelop.com/interviews/psychcreat.html

[edit] See Also

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