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The Divergent Uses of Greek Philosophical Terms By Platonic Philosophy and Modern Psychology: Two Illustrations

by Robert K. Clark

From a Platonic perspective the psyche—the soul—is a unity or oneness, ⁽²²⁾ a principle of life, ⁽²³⁾ self-vital, ⁽²⁴⁾ self-motive, ⁽²⁵⁾ immortal, ⁽²⁶⁾ participating in eternity by reason of its being (ousia) and in time by reason of its activity (energeia). ⁽²⁷⁾ Indestructible and imperishable, incorporeal and separable from body, ⁽²⁸⁾ it is soul which makes us what we are—human beings. ⁽²⁹⁾

Thus the meaning of the Delphic maxim "Know Thyself" is know your soul. ⁽³⁰⁾ As souls, we have the capacity to ascend beyond the corporeal and limited to that which is truly spiritual, lasting and real. The vista which unfolds before us is as beautiful as it is real, if we but look. As Plotinus wrote:

"What then is the way? What are the means? How may one behold this ineffable beauty which remains within its holy sanctuaries and does not come without where the profane may see it? Let whoever is able arise and follow within. Close your eyes and exchange this way of seeing for another, and awaken that vision which all possess but few use.

What does this inner vision see? When it is but newly awakened it is not able to look at that which is too bright. So the soul herself must become accustomed first to look at beautiful pursuits, then at beautiful works, not those which the arts produce, but those of men of good repute. Then look at the soul of those who produce the beautiful works. How, then, may one see the beauty of a good soul? Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not yet see yourself as beautiful, just as the maker of a statue which must become beautiful cuts away, smoothes, polishes and cleans until beauty is revealed in the face of the statue, so too must you cut away the excess, straighten the crooked, brighten that which was dark, and never cease working on your statue until the godlike splendor of virtue shines out on you, until you see temperance seated on its stainless throne.

If you have become this, and see it, and dwell within yourself in purity, having no hindrance to becoming one, with nothing else mingled inwardly with yourself, wholly yourself, nothing but true light, not measured by size, nor circumscribed into limitation by shape, nor increased by magnitude into boundlessness, but unmeasured in every way, because greater than all measure and superior to every quantity; if you see that you have become this, then you have now become vision. You may be confident then, for you have already ascended and need a guide no longer. Gaze intently and see!" ⁽³¹⁾

NOTES

(1) In Jungian psychology an archetype is not considered to be an innate idea. "What above all stultifies understanding is the arrant assumption that 'archetype'means an inborn idea." Rather, "archetypes are typical forms of behaviour which, once they become conscious, naturally present themselves as ideas and images." C.G. Jung, Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 2nd edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 226. It has been claimed that "Jung's concept of the archetype is in the tradition of Platonic Ideas." Andrew Samuels, et. Al., A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), p. 27. However Ken Wilber, the well-known author of works on Transpersonal Psychology, concludes that "the Jungian archetypes are not the transcendental archetypes or Forms found in Plato, or Hegel, or Shankara, or Asanga and Vasubandhu. These latter Forms—the true archetypes, the ideal Forms—are the creative patterns said to underlie all manifestation and give pattern to chaos and form to Kosmos. . . .The Jungian archetypes, on the other hand, are for the most part the magico-mythic motifs and 'archaic images'. . .collectively inherited by you and me from past stages of development, archaic holons now forming part of our own compound individuality (they come from below up, not from above down). And coming to terms with these archaic holons—befriending and making conscious and differentiating/integrating these prototypes—is a useful endeavor, not because they are our transrational future, but because they are our prerational past." Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (Boston: Shambhala, 1995), pp. 247-48.
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(2)Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), pp. 180-81.
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(3)C.G. Jung, Aion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 27.
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(5)C.G. Jung, Civilization in Transition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 446.
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(6) Rollo May, Love and Will (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1969), p. 123. See also Stephen A. Diamond, Anger, Madness and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996).
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(7)C.G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation (New York: Pantheon, 1956), p. 357.
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(8)"Spirit guide: A nonphysical entity, usually perceived as the Higher Self, an angel, a highly evolved being or group mind, or a spirit of the dead. The purpose of a spirit guide is to help and protect an individual, assist in spiritual development, or provide a source of inspiration." Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 562.
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