Now, arguably the insecurity of both human males and females can be directed toward pro-social endeavors -- but it can be directed toward anti-social endeavors.
As I promised above, I now want to discuss Griffith's characterization of Trump as representing "a worldview shaped by fear of women's empowerment" (page 318). But what kind of psycho-dynamism is at work in people who "fear women's empowerment"?
Basically, Ong's entire line of argument in his 1981 book is psychoanalytic in spirit. For example, in Ong's 1981 book (pages 18-19, 25, 92, 100, 111, 115, and 148), he often refers to the Jungian psychological theorist Erich Neumann's book The Origins and History of Consciousness, translated by R. F. C. Hull, with a foreword by C. G. Jung (Pantheon Books, 1954). In the terminology of Jungian theory, the mother archetype looms large in the psyches of all human babies. Consequently, when adults "fear women's empowerment," their fear is related to the mother archetype in their psyches and to their experiences of their own mothers -- starting when they were babies.
In plain English, when adults "fear women's empowerment," their fear means that they feel threatened. To them, the sense of feeling threatened is real -- as real as any threat feels. Once again, these are my extrapolations, not Griffith's. If my extrapolations here are correct, then we can expect that "fear of women's empowerment" will not subside anytime soon and that what Griffith refers to as moral combat will continue in the future.
In effect, Ong discusses the mother archetype in his widely reprinted polemical article "The Lady and the Issue" in The Month (London), volume 192 (December 1951): pages 17-26; reprinted in Ong's book In the Human Grain: Further Explorations in Contemporary Culture (Macmillan, 1967, pages 188-202).
Now, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), refers to a certain aspect of human psyche as the shadow. In terms of our personal psychology, we relegate proscribed tendencies and behaviors to the shadow aspect of our psyches. As part of our own personal psychological development in the second half of life, Jung claimed that we need to somehow integrate the shadow aspects of our psyches into our everyday ego-consciousness. This process does not necessarily mean that we start acting out tendencies or behavior that we previously relegated to the shadow aspect of our psyches.
For those of us raised in a Christian tradition of thought, our religious tradition undoubtedly influenced the tendencies and behaviors that we relegated to the shadow aspect of our psyches. Griffith reminds us how key public developments challenge certain trends in Christian traditions of thought. Consequently, the ensuing public debates involve various Christians in reconsidering certain tendencies and behaviors that they have previously relegated to the shadow aspect of their psyches.
In conclusion, Griffith has written a readable survey of key examples of moral combat in the United States over the last century or so. You might want to take a look at her well-informed and well-written new book. The Christian traditions of thought that she discusses emerged over time. They are not going away anytime soon. But they may slowly but surely undergo certain changes and modifications.
(Article changed on May 17, 2018 at 00:11)
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