DIALOGUE

How has our perception of the "Other" changed in 70 years?

Posted by Bonnie Bright on November 16, 2010 at 1:14am in Depth Psychology General
I just noted that on this day in 1940, the Nazis imprisoned 380,000 people in the Warsaw ghetto (see a photo here: http://chronita.com/images/Warsaw_Ghetto_Josef_Bloesche.jpg). It was still the beginning of what we now know were much worse horrors to come. We can still point to similar horrors occurring in some parts of the world, even in the current era. 

However, when we get a glimpse of the rage and opposition between political parties in the U.S., the question arises: are the current symptoms of alienation, hatred, scapegoating, and finger-pointing just one end of a continuum that could spiral into even deeper shadow? Has anything really evolved in the way we tend to look at the archetypal "Other"? Owning the darker parts of ourselves, even when it comes to politics, is not always easy--especially when the topic carries so much energy and most of us have strong opinions about it. Anyone have ideas on how to own the shadow better in ourselves on this particular topic?

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Tags: Nazi, Other, Warsaw, politics, shadow
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  • Ed Koffenberger November 16, 2010 at 7:24am
    This may sound simplistic but how about actually going "out" (I hear this is where the Other resides.) and meeting the Other in the flesh? Yes, there will always be the archetypal Other as an "psychic energy node" around which images will constellate for all of us BUT what if we are allowing the various forms of media and technology to define those constellated images? Instead of the uncomfortable, initial unknown of meeting and witnessing to another's perceptions of life, we ask (by omission as much as anything) the media to tell us who the dangerous people are and who are our friends. Although this may seem somehwat "exterior" to the initial question, I'm thinking one of the better mirrors that reflects the Other-in-ourselves is the Other-before-us.
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