Le Quatrième Pentamètre

How to

* deal with Evil*

Although it is possible for evil to be transformed into good, we must not overlook the fact that this is only a possibility. 

Man's highest virtues are called upon when he is confronted with evil. 

The most subtle problem of the psychology of evil is how one should deal with this adversary—this numinous and dangerous opponent in the psyche—so as not to be destroyed by it. 

One can make a wide circle around evil, and assert that it must be sublimated, or suppressed. On the other hand, as Nietzsche suggested, one can ally oneself with it—with the reverse side of morality—and help the blind will to live to achieve realization. These two attempts at a solution, which are those which occur to one first, have directly opposite goals. 

The psychologist who follows the first method aims at making evil ineffective, by reuniting the individual with the collective morality, or by getting him to limit his own desires for self-development. 

In his later writings, Freud pointed out the curative effect of "education to reality," and the training of the intellect. He attempted to achieve both these ends by strengthening Logos against the powers of Ananke (ominous fate). 

Nietzsche took the opposite position, the second method. In contradistinction to Freud's pessimism, he proclaimed a Dionysian affirmation of the world, and a passionate amor fati. He praised not only the superman but also the evil of the subhuman, of the blond beast. Both these attempted solutions are onesided, and bring about a dissociation between conscious good and unconscious evil. For, as we have tried to demonstrate, "too much morality" strengthens evil in the inner world, and "too little morality" promotes a dissociation between good and evil.

In this connection I should like again to refer to William James, who— consistently following up his insights into the function of evil—saw spiritual health in the completion of human personality to form a harmonious whole. Not moral perfection but the promotion of the rejected complementary attitude is the basis of a religiously stable personality. James saw the deeper secret of the conquest of good and evil in the unconditional acceptance of the dictates of the unconscious self. Although he did not overlook the risk of being placed at the mercy of the inner voice —since one can never be sure whether it is the voice of God or the voice of the Devil—he maintained that the individual's surrender to the transpersonal and the unconscious was the only way to salvation. 

As Jung's investigations show, dealing with evil is in the end an individual secret, which one can only describe in broad outline. Experience constantly demonstrates that there is no guarantee that the individual can meet the challenge and no objective criterion for what is "right" in each situation. The experience of the archetypal shadow leads into the utterly "unknown," where one is exposed to unforeseeable dangers. It is equivalent to an experience of the God-image itself, in all its sublimity and depth, its good and evil. 

Such an event transforms the whole man; not only his ego- personality, but also his inner adversary. Coming to terms with the unconscious always entails the risk that one may give the Devil too much credit. One is indeed trusting him too far, if one overlooks the fact that confrontation with the archetype can result in error and corruption as well as in guidance and truth. 

A message from the unconscious is not eo ipso to be equated with the voice of God. It is always necessary to question whether the author of the message is God or the Devil. This encounter can just as well result in a dissolution of the personality as in guidance on the path of wisdom. Therefore, mere surrender to, or blind faith in the unconscious powers is no more satisfactory than a stubborn resistance to the "unknown." 

Just as an attitude of complete trust can be the expression of childishness, so an attitude of critical resistance can be a measure of self-protection. Not only in the art of medicine, but also in psychology, caution is important in the "dosage" of poison. 

Everything depends upon "how" one deals with the adversary. 

Too close an approach to the numinous—no matter whether it appears as good or evil—inevitably carries with it the danger of an inflation, and the danger of being overwhelmed by the powers of light or of darkness. 

We can see in The Devil's Elixir, by E. T. W. Hofmann what being overcome by the demonic can lead to. The author describes how the monk Medardus became possessed by the "mana personality" of Saint Anthony, and then in compensation fell victim to the unholy Antichrist. Intoxicated by his own eloquence and seduced by his lust for power, he was tempted to increase his effectiveness by taking a drink out of the Devil's bottle. By drinking the Devil's elixir he gained the secret of rejuvenation, but at the same time he fell into the Devil's power. His greed for love and the things of this world overpowered him and lured him to his destruction. As a result of this entanglement with the other side of his personality, his soul split into two autonomous systems, the body soul, and the spirit soul. Hofmann goes on to develop in a most impressive way the problem of what he calls the "double"—that is, the part of the soul which, though dissociated from the ego, nevertheless is its close companion. 

Equally impressive is the method he suggests for bringing the two parts of the soul together. It begins with Medardus' return to the loneliness of the monastery. There penance, insight, and remorse clear his beclouded senses, and for the first time, by realizing that moral goodness in nature is dependent on evil, he finds peace and release from his compulsive drives. This relativization of good and evil, which depended upon a partial acceptance of the heathen adversary, also meant a change in his Christian consciousness. The body-soul, however, understands only slowly what the spirit-soul already comprehends, so that the problem arises again with the greatest intensity. 

As with Faust, so also with Medardus: it is only in the twilight zone between life and death that he finds the longed-for reconciliation of spirit and nature; then he experiences the reconciliation as the pure beam of eternal love.