Hellooo volcano people! Here is my paper, finally, called "Volcanoes and the Unconscious Mind: A Case Study." In it I discuss general psychological theories of Freud and Jung, volcanic behaviours, volcanoes as metaphors in mythology, volcanoes as formless non-metaphors of existence, artists, and alchemy. I also apologize to Katey, Elise, and Artemis for not including your volcanoes in the Rorschach studies; it's nothing personal, it's just that in the interest of time and space I had to keep my paper from growing exponentially into a formless mass of insanity.
Have a great summer!
-Justine
volcanoes and the unconscious mind.pdf
Posted at May 21/2010 04:09PM:
kholmber: Your project showed super use of class readings like Frierson and Freud’s Delusion and Dream/Gradiva and concepts we explored such as the rhizome. You then took the topics much further and I enjoyed your discussion of the many things that the volcano can simultaneously ‘be’. The Jung quote you used (p 5) from Symbolic Life was apt and I like the discussion of ‘natural symbols’. When you are arguing (p 5, via Jung) that we are ‘after’ nature this would be a logical place to segue into or at least made nods to theorists such as Marilyn Strathern, Bruno Latour, or Philippe Descola. You do address the problematic definition of what exactly ‘nature’ is in your footnote 1 but were you to further this paper I would ask you to draw in some of the anthropological/sociological discussions that are frequently cited in archaeological work.
Brava, btw, for the effort to ‘heal the split’ and bring the relevance of psychology to the forefront of the study of volcanoes; why indeed should geophysicists, geologists, and volcanologists get all the fun! I might note that it isn’t just the primitivists (per your p 7) who would call the volcano a living thing that is linked into the rest of life on the planet; Latour and his discussions of our positioning as ‘earthlings’ and the way he draws on the Gaia concept would very much play into this too (I know you were again drawing on Jung’s conceptions of ‘primitives’ here). I love the parallel of xenoliths to dreams (p 8-9)! Very original and unique. I also like the Appignanesi 2008 reference to hysteria in Victorian Europe. I haven’t read that book and will take a peek at it. The volcano as portal to the cosmos (p 17) is fun and interesting as of course is any discussion that can bring in the word ‘uroboric’; I think that the description of a volcano of being such is really fascinating and appropriate. It was also great to get a further discussion of the ‘Precise and Tolerant’ piece that we viewed in class. I liked the Anaïs Nin bits (p 20) and appreciate that you directly grappled with how art, mythology, and psychology relate to the physical sciences (p 23) by using the NSF study of ‘alchemy’ in Tanzania and solidification of gases at the Oldoinyo Lengai volcano.
It was fascinating that you wanted to create a ‘psychological language’ of the volcano by turning satellite imagery into Rorschach inkblots; ‘creative deviations’ (p 26) are always appreciated! (PS – I would have said ‘vase of flowers in sunlight’; per the ‘Count Basie’ answer, ‘huh?’; like the two female respondents I saw a mammal but would have called it a running wolf; I saw a map of the isthmus of Panama for the first Tungurahua and a plume of smoke for the second).
