Many of the qualities of a human being can be attributed to groups of people, like churches, corporations, cities, and even countries. Such bodies, have physical aspects. They have emotional and psychological traits. They have spiritual qualities. Like an individual, a nation can have physical problems (environmental degradation), mental problems, financial problems, emotional problems, and spiritual problems. Nations have self-images. The people of the US have very strong feelings about their nation and what it stands for.
Any organization can exhibit many of the qualities of a human being. I wish to speak about the United States of America. I want to examine this nation, as if it were an individual, and try to understand its psychological and spiritual state in order to better understand the troubling things that are happening in the US and being perpetrated by the US around the world.
As a spiritual counselor for over 35 years, I have worked with many different people, presenting with a great array of issues. I have worked with mentally ill adults in residential settings and they taught me a lot about myself. I have worked on myself, psychologically and spiritually, for a very long time with mixed results. (I am not enlightened yet.)
I do not want to oversimplify the complexities of psychology or spirituality, but it seems to me that many of the issues people struggle with on a daily basis have a lot to do with self-image. First of all, we do not see the world as it is but as we are. We live according to our perceptions, not according to what is "true." We are successful in life to the extent that our perceptions approximate reality. Most of us do not see ourselves accurately, nor do we see the world accurately.
The self that we believe in is a combination of ideas we have about ourselves. Those ideas begin to intrude in our lives from the day we are born. Many of our ideas about ourselves come from our parents and early childhood experiences. The same can be said about the US. Much of the self-image of the US comes from our pride in the warriors of the American Revolution and in the almost mythical wisdom of our founding fathers.
Self-images are complex but, aside from those that might be fairly accurate, our self-image generally errs on the side of being overly negative, so that we perceive ourselves as being less than we are, or overly positive, so that we see ourselves as much better than we are.
I believe that the US has a greatly inflated self-image. The farther away a self-image gets from reality, the closer an individual or a nation comes to being seriously mentally ill. As with any individual, the more inflated the self-image, the more unrealistic that image becomes and the more out of touch with reality a nation becomes.
What are the consequences of this gap between self-image and reality? Is it really a big problem? An individual with an inflated ego might be a blowhard and really full of herself or himself, but are they a danger to themselves or others? Serious disconnects between reality and self-image can lead to paranoia and even schizophrenia, but even a schizophrenic is likely to do more harm to himself than to anyone else. A nation with such a gap is another matter.
My understanding of the harm that can be done by this gap, in terms of the United States, is to use the Jungian concept of the archetype known as the Shadow. Simply put, when there are aspects of a human being that are denied or rejected, they are pushed down into the basement of the psyche. Were this repression the only thing that occurred, it might not be a problem. There are two things that make the action of the shadow a problem. One is that we will project our shadow aspects onto other nations. We will judge that other nation as being wrong or even evil, depending on the strength of our shadow. Even worse, our shadow will act through us, unconsciously, even while we think we are successfully repressing it.
I will talk about how the shadow aspects of the US are acted out through projection and through unconscious behavior but I first want to say a few words about self-image as it is expressed in this country.
The Self-Image of the United States of America
I think it is safe to say that there is no nation on the planet today that is more image-conscious than the US and the American people. Perhaps there is deep-seated pride in the fact that a bunch of frontier colonists kicked the butt of one of the greatest nations on earth (with a lot of help from the French). I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that the US is the movie capital of the world. With movies came the importance of image. And then advertising jumped onto the bandwagon and learned the importance of selling images and not products. More recently, over at least the past few decades, our politicians have been packaged and sold like toothpaste.
In America, image is everything. We are the plastic surgery capital of the world. We are the dieting and exercise champions. Everywhere you turn, you will find the victory of image over substance. We follow our superstars around like they were little gods and goddesses. Appearance is everything. Young and beautiful is good. Old and less beautiful is not as good. Age is shunned and feared rather than revered. The most recent evidence of this distortion of self-image is the proliferation of so-called "reality" shows. What characterizes all of these shows is that none of them are real. All are fabricated. One of the symptoms of a self-image out of control is the inability to tell what is real. There is a narrowing of vision and perception so that only certain things are allowed into consciousness, those things that support our self-image.
The US is the greatest country on the earth. We have the best government, the best military, the most money, the most toys, and the most of everything. We are number one and being number one is very important. As with any individual with an inflated self-image, many of the things that Americans take for granted about our country are simply not true. And we are number one in a lot of things that we have no reason to be proud of.
Symptoms of the Action of the Shadow
The presidency of Ronal Reagan was a perfect metaphor for our inflated self-image and the action of the shadow. How perfect was it to have a man in the White House who was an actor? In my humble opinion, Ronny was a far better actor as president than he ever was in the movies. His own self-image was that of a small town sheriff come to clean up the town and drive out the bad guys. He was all white hat and white horse and the bad guys (communists, especially the Soviets) were very very bad.
Bob Trowbridge is a former Presbyterian minister with 40 years experience as a spiritual counselor. He has also been a counselor and assistant manager in residential facilities for mentally ill adults. Bob is a spiritual teacher with dozens of articles mostly on spiritual topics. His first book is "The Hidden Meaning of Illness" from the A.R.E. Press.
Agreed, if any generalization can he held true it is that Americans conflate image with substance.
It is high time we stopped with the politician's "This Great Nation ..." preface to public statements and the mindless applause that seems to punctuate it. It's pure cheerleader shtick, and it nurtures shadows over substance.
by
cam (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 54 comments)
on Monday, January 29, 2007 at 12:30:20 PM
Thank you for your thoughtful piece on reality versus myths! It is difficult for me to articulate what your article means to me. I for one think that not only Americans but many peoples all over the world want to believe the U.S. myth of "Greatness" in all its meanings. It is comforting to know that there is a great, good honest protector out there keeping everyone safe. However, if that myth is untrue and in fact if the U.S. is not the unselfish protector of the poor and weak of the world then the total hypocrisy of its position becomes apparent and true hatred arises against it, because lies and hypocrisy first create disbelief then betrayal and finally hatred and I'm afraid that's where we are today.
by
Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 973 comments)
on Monday, January 29, 2007 at 7:24:37 PM
Thank you for your kind words, Archie. The reality is that most of the rest of the world sees our flaws better than we do and most of the world doesn't hate us. Many of our allies and former allies think we're way off track, but they don't hate us. The real danger, if Americans are ever able to actually see and accept our "sins of the past," is that we will have to confront self-hatred.
by
Bob (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 35 comments)
on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 11:53:17 AM
Thank you for your thoughtful piece on reality versus myths! It is difficult for me to articulate what your article means to me. I for one think that not only Americans but many peoples all over the world want to believe the U.S. myth of "Greatness" in all its meanings. It is comforting to know that there is a great, good honest protector out there keeping everyone safe. However, if that myth is untrue and in fact if the U.S. is not the unselfish protector of the poor and weak of the world then the total hypocrisy of its position becomes apparent and true hatred arises against it, because lies and hypocrisy first create disbelief then betrayal and finally hatred and I'm afraid that's where we are today.
by
Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 973 comments)
on Monday, January 29, 2007 at 7:24:49 PM
