Fanaticism and Possession

By Richard Reeve

The constellation of the “zealot” and/or “martyr” archetype is clearly an aspect of the collective shadow being constellated in American society this century.  The extremism in political ideologies, the war on terror, even the cyberpolarization we’ve discussed, all resonate with a force that wants to tear down.  Much of this collective  energy gets channeled into the fanaticism that surrounds professional sports.  On a daily basis the most outrageous dialogues get spun on sports talk radio which acts as a container for our collective need to “be on top,” “to destroy our opponent,” “to conquer and defeat.”

“People who are possessed and spun up in a cocoon about the people they ought to relate to are caught up in the most amazing assumptions, which they neither doubt nor make quite clear to themselves because they seem to be completely evident.  They are sure of everything and never say, “why do I assume such a thing?” The obsession becomes a complete semi-conscious conviction.  That happens when fantasy material has found a wrong mode of expression, e.g., in accusations against neighbors and friends, and it is never checked.  It skulks at the back of the mind of such a person and amplifies itself.  Little irrelevant instances are picked up and built into a paranoic system and every idea adds a bit more.”  Marie-Louise Von Franz, The Psychological Meaning of Redemption Motifs in Fairytales, pg. 103.

Partially this tendency to rely on assumptions is exacerbated by the flood of information that has dominated society with the advent of the internet.  How do we learn to appropriately filter the mountains of information at our disposal?  How can we find firm footing without relying on assumptions?  While the answers are not easy, the challenge faces all of us, especially those of us that work with troubled teen girls and boys whose adolescent development gets off track.