XPost: us.politics, alt.politics.england.misc, alt.christnet.theology   
   XPost: alt.sci.sociology   
   From: mlwi@swipnet.se   
      
   The definition of the word 'individuation' implies a process of   
   "othering", that is, to differentiate out of group identity. To see   
   the "Other" is necessary for a true relationship to develop, so it is   
   not anti-social. But the notion of "othering" has also been used to   
   denote  a political agenda of domination and oppression. Individuation   
   has both light and dark consequences, but it is a force that cannot be   
   stopped. There is only a choice to articulate it through the lens of   
   the individual or the collective. Webster's Dictionary gives:   
      
   Individuation.   
   (1) : the development of the individual from the universal.   
   (2) : the determination of the individual in the general.   
    b : the process by which individuals in society become differentiated   
   from one another.   
      
   Individuation is experienced as a painful process. We are averse to   
   being existentially alone, disconnected from everything else in the   
   universe. The self as a goal of individuation is a 'complexio   
   oppositorum'. It seems contradictory that utmost individuation, which   
   leads to a distinctive character and consciousness, is also the   
   archetype of totality. I think it has to do with the fact that   
   individuation is a necessary prerequisite for attaining that divine   
   form of unconsciousness which, in Christian history, has been denoted   
   the mystical union with God. Individuation implies that consciousness   
   is extended, as you more and more stand out from collective   
   unconsciousness through disidentification, thus gaining a perspective.   
   But at a point in time one must allow oneself to sink back into the   
   'darkness of God'. Unpolluted by collective identification and   
   unconsciousness one may descend into that other form of   
   unconsciousness, the dark night of the soul, as into a bath. Hence the   
   disidentified and differentiated individual returns to the all-   
   encompassing Oneness, which is God. C.G. Jung often cited Empedocles   
   (c.490-430 B.C.) who said that "God is a circle whose centre is   
   everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere." It means that the centre   
   of God is the differentiated individual. So a human being can only   
   attain wholeness by becoming an individual, i.e. differentiating   
   himself out of unconscious wholeness and collective identity.   
      
   Individuation is coupled with great difficulties. When the children   
   grow out of Kindergarten, they begin to lose their group identity,   
   when all children exist in naive togetherness - Blacks and Whites,   
   too. A complication of the first phase in natural individuation is   
   'shadow-projection'. (The 'shadow' is the hidden or unconscious   
   aspects of oneself, which the ego has either repressed or never   
   recognized.) But an important step is when the individual realizes   
   that something has emerged out of his own unconscious as a projection.   
   The shadow is only integrated after having been projected.   
      
   However, the term "othering" cannot simplistically be equated with   
   shadow-projection. The process of othering is discussed by many   
   philosophers and psychoanalysts. The notion of the "Other" does not   
   simply denote "the scapegoat". In fact, according to Levinas, God is   
   "The Infinite Other". The notion of the Other is relevant in   
   individuation. If one fails to distinguish otherness, it only means   
   that one has failed to differentiate out of collective identity.   
   According to Freudians and Lacanians, if the individual fails to   
   distinguish between self and other, identification and desire, he/she   
   is bound to develop some form of narcissistic pathology.   
      
   The ideal of "sameness" today dominates the discourse. The purport of   
   politically correct thinking is that we must stay put in Kindergarten,   
   when One is All and All is One. This merely serves to curb   
   individuation. We won't prevent the phase of shadow-projection by   
   prolonging the immature phase of collective mass-psychology. In fact,   
   it gets even worse, because the force of individuation will break out   
   of its prison and create a massive collective shadow-projection. We   
   cannot prevent individuation. We can only further a sophisticated   
   process of othering on individual basis, known as 'individuation'.   
   Alternatively, we can curb this process by building a collective   
   ideology of "sameness", thus paving the way for primitive collective   
   shadow-projection. In the end, sameness cannot be maintained without   
   otherness. There are still those people who cannot be fitted into   
   sameness. These are the "others" who must be destroyed, so that we can   
   maintain sameness. This means that the ideology of sameness is bound   
   to shoot itself in the foot and destroy itself. In Mao's China the   
   authorities launched campaigns against the capitalist traitors who had   
   infiltrated society. The people who suffer persecution are typically   
   intellectuals and successful people. In Kampuchea they went as far as   
   shooting every intellectual. If you have developed your intellect, it   
   means that you are a traitor in that you have begun to differentiate   
   out of group identity.   
      
   I think that the evidence is mounting that if individuation is impeded   
   (i.e. if the "immature phase of collective mass-psychology" is   
   prolonged), then the collective must retain internal sameness by a   
   process of othering that points out the Jews (e.g.) as the arch-fiend.   
   This is evident in case of Nazi-Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao's   
   China, Islamism, nationalism during WWI. Either the individual   
   individuates, i.e. separates himself from the collective, or the   
   collective will individuate, by separating itself from humanity,   
   rejecting the others as "slave natures". This individuating force is   
   immense, e.g., to attain the superior Aryan man, the exemplary   
   socialist citizen, the heroic soldier of the Holy War who single-   
   handedly blows the arch-fiend to pieces. This is the perverted form of   
   individuation which will seize control of the population if   
   individuation is impeded through the ideology of sameness.   
      
   Mats Winther   
   http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)