BOOK REVIEWS

SCIENCE CATCHES UP

Archetype, Attachment, Analysis: JungianPsychology and the Emergent Mind.By Jean Knox. Hove and New York:Brunner-Routledge, 2003; xviii+230pp.£17.99pb.

In his foreword to this groundbreakingbook, Fonagy rightly describes it as ‘thefirst serious attempt to integrate aspects ofJungian psychoanalysis with the explosionof knowledge in neuroscience and psychol-ogy’ (p. xiv). He describes the book as ‘pio-neering and revolutionary’ (p. xv) in that itwill not only stimulate Jungians to think ina fresh way about archetypal theory but willalso be a vehicle for developing greaterunderstanding between the followers of thetwo founders of depth psychology. Freudand Jung both rooted their theories of mindin the best available science of their day; inthis book Knox follows in the very best ofthat tradition as she explores Jung’s muchmisunderstood concept of the archetype inthe light of the research findings that areemerging from the work of the attachmenttheorists and the work of those who focuson cognitive neuroscience.

Developments in contemporary neuro-science and attachment theory have broughtrenewed interest in subjective experienceamongst those who study the brain. It isclear to many of us that the days of dualismwhereby mind and brain could be dealt with

as entirely separate have gone. Yet somewho practise psychoanalysis and analyticalpsychology still choose to shut themselvesoff from the world of empirical science. Ifapproached open mindedly this is a bookthat might lead the reader to reconsider thisposition. Those in the analytic communitywho, with Knox, are motivated by the con-viction that clinical work as well as requir-ing a most highly developed sensitivity andresponsiveness to a patient’s inner worldalso benefits from a ‘reasonable grasp ofthe current scientif ic evidence about theinformation-processing mechanisms thatunderpin subjective experience andmeaning’ (p. 1) will welcome this book.

In the second chapter, after noting thegeneral neglect of Jung’s model of themind, Knox draws our attention to RichardLazarus’s work on emotional appraisal withits acknowledgement of Jung’s work onsymbolism and unconscious meaning(1991: 295) and Paul Gilbert’s exploration(1995: 142) of the ‘links between Jung’sconcept of archetypes and the emergingideas in evolutionary psychology aboutinnate mental structures’ (p. 6). Next Knoxoffers a concise yet comprehensive surveyof earlier Jungian thought concerningJung’s theory of archetypes of value to anyscholar of the subject. After examining thecomplex and varied ways that Jung wroteabout the archetypes, she identif ies fourmain strands that repeatedly emerge in the

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debate about nature of archetypes. Theymay be understood as, I quote:

• biological entities in the form of infor-mation which is hard-wired in thegenes, providing a set of instructions tothe mind as well as to the body

• organising mental frameworks of an abstract nature, a set of rules orinstructions but with no symbolic or representational content, so that theyare never directly experienced

• core meanings which do contain repre-sentational content and which thereforeprovide a central symbolic significanceto our experience

• metaphysical entities which are eternaland are therefore independent of thebody

Knox points out the ambiguity that arises inJung’s writing when the same term is usedwith a multiplicity of meanings; forexample, when genetic instructions are alsothought of as having core symbolicmeaning. She stresses (p. 32) that elsewhereJung was at pains to point out that ‘It shouldon no account be imagined that there aresuch things as inherited ideas. Of that therecan be no question’ (Jung 1964; para. 4).She emphasizes her understanding drawnfrom modern empirical science that wemust distinguish between ‘implicit memory,that stores learnt information in an uncon-scious schematic format that provides uswith core meanings, and innate inheritedstructures, which are hard-wired in thegenes but which contain no symboliccontent’ (p. 29). Knox’s exploration of thesubject is at once scientific and philosophi-cal, in the tradition of Jung, and as such is ademanding but rewarding read. She under-stands the development of the mind in termsof a complex interaction between inner andouter, between the subjective and the inter-

subjective, and conceives of the complexarchetypal imagery of the mind as emergingfrom the internalization of day-to-day expe-rience that becomes structured into coremeanings. Knox concludes this chapter byemphasizing that a choice must be madebetween a biological and metaphysical viewof archetypes and offering her own conclu-sion that the archetype may be understoodas ‘a psychological feature arising out of thedevelopment of the human brain’ (p. 39).

This developmental perspective is furtherexplored by reference to research concern-ing the way in which innate structuresinteract with the environment. Innateprocesses in animals are examined withreference to the classic work by Lorenz, thegreater complexity of such processes in theinteractive, intersubjective development ofthe human is stressed. Knox refutes theview that ‘innate’ implies ‘informationstored in a genetic code waiting, like a bio-logical Sleeping beauty, to be awakened bythe kiss of an environmental Prince’ (p. 48). Rather, she understands the gene toact as a catalyst. She illustrates this byreferring to the human infant’s geneticinstruction to pay attention preferentially toa face pattern, which is demonstrable frombirth. Later this develops, with the individ-ual baby’s interaction with the mother, intothe ability to recognize mother’s face fromothers. Thus the self-organizing emergentproperty of the human mind is stressed andthe research supporting this view is cited.Chapter 4 explores the archetype as imageschema that is the initial scaffolding for theinternalization of day-to-day experienceand its internalization into core-meanings.Chapter 5 is entitled ‘Trauma and defences,their roots in relationship.’ I welcomeKnox’s exploration here of the clinicalimplications of the emergent, developmen-tal view of archetype with a description ofan attachment model theory of unconscious

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defences. It emphasizes unconsciousfantasy as truly psychological and Iapplaud its understanding of the developingchild’s way of protecting the self fromunbearable reality that will determine thepatterns of being and behaving that presentin the adult in the consulting room. For mea weakness of the book is that the clinicalimplications of these vital insights areimplicit rather than explicit and illustrativecase material is sadly lacking. It is left tothe clinician to make the links. This isredressed to a certain extent in the penulti-mate chapter where the process of changein analysis is addressed.

I would like to conclude by quoting Knoxwho says ‘the developmental model of themind that runs like a thread through thisbook is that emergence provides the key toreconcile biology with psyche’ (p. 205).This thread is indeed the creative heart ofthis book. It enriches and clarifies Jungianarchetypal theory in a way that is congruentwith empirical science but more impor-tantly enriches the understanding of allpractitioners concerning the emergent,developmental, intersubjective process ofcoming into mind.

Gilbert P. ‘Biophysical approaches and evolution-ary theory as aids to integration in clinical psy-chology and psychotherapy’. ClinicalPsychology and Psychotherapy 1995; 2 (3):135–56.

Jung CG. ‘The role of the unconscious’, CollectedWorks, vol.10. London: Routledge & KeganPaul, 1964.

Lazarus R. Emotion and Adaptation. New York andOxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Margaret Wilkinson5 Edge Mount View, Bar Road

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ANOTHER EVOCATIVE OBJECT

Dark at the End of the Tunnel. ByChristopher Bollas. London: FreeAssociation Books, 2004. £16.99 pb.

What can psychoanalysis offer in the wakeof 11 September 2001? Some answers areperhaps offered in Christopher Bollas’srecent Dark at the End of the Tunnel, apolitically daring, complex, and affectingnovella focusing on the character of anunnamed psychoanalyst with more than apassing resemblance to Bollas, coming toterms with his own mortality and life moregenerally in a fictional world similar to ourown. This is a world in which there hasbeen a significant terrorist attack upon thedeveloped world, in which much of thecountry seems to be under water, in whichthere is a nightmarish level of extinction, in which people are too busy to be ill, and inwhich religious fundamentalists areincreasingly homicidal, if not genocidal. Ifall of this sounds too depressing to contem-plate, Dark at the End of the Tunnel is actu-ally that rare thing: a genuinely funnycomedy with a credible happy ending. Forexample, the novel provides a wittydescription of a certain kind of metropoli-tan middle-class life where Osama dineswith Mirabel at the Café on the Green, andwhere characters discuss the meaning oflife over a new recording of the GoldbergVariations or a fashionably adjective-ladensupper of ‘wild sturgeon with honey-roasted horseradish sauce on a bed ofwilted lettuce’; a dinner that, not inciden-tally, nearly kills one of the characters. I say‘not incidentally’ because the pressingreality of death is at the heart of this novel.This is both as a consequence of the psychoanalyst’s ruminations on the bigquestions of life and because of the psychicimpact of the ‘Catastrophe’ on the vastmajority of the novel’s characters. As a

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