Edipo. Dei ed eroi: pillole archetipiche. Andrea Graglia conversa con Claudio Widmann

The gods and heroes of mythology still offer a key to interpreting the psychological and social phenomena of our time, the external and internal world, in their natural and essential ability to evoke reflections of disconcerting and sometimes brutal relevance. The Jungian cultural center Temenos has dedicated a column to mythology entitled "Archetypal Pills," seeking models within mythological narratives for orienting one's interpretation of contemporary life. As Joseph Campbell reminds us, it is as if the ancients, in their experience of passing through this earth, left us a map of experience, "the experience of being alive," and this plot is a mythologhéin, that is, a narrative, a mythological weaving of models of the internal experience of those who have traveled before us. The myth of Oedipus is probably the most representative myth of Western man, one of the best known thanks also to the interpretations given to it by psychoanalysis. Etymologically, Oedipus is the hero "with swollen feet," so called because, as a newborn, he was exposed and pierced in the feet: this is his original wound, which will accompany him throughout his life and which reveals a fatal destiny. That destiny Oedipus tried to avoid but unknowingly stumbled upon when, in a narrow passage in Phocis, his path crossed that of his father and he killed him in what was apparently a common brawl between travelers. Still unknowingly, he united with his mother and became her husband and king of Thebes, thus falling into the fusional and undifferentiated state of the original unconscious. Oedipus is us: in defining him as "the wisest and the most foolish of kings," Kerényi seems to be speaking of contemporary man, the bearer of a strong and determined conscious attitude, yet profoundly unconscious at the same time. Oedipus was able to solve the Sphinx's riddle, demonstrating intelligence and wit; however, he failed to grasp the deeper meaning of that enigma, which is the mystery of man and his destiny. That mystery from which we too have distanced ourselves and with which, perhaps, we should reconnect. Andrea Graglia, psychologist and Jungian psychotherapist Claudio Widmann, Jungian analyst ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. For information: TEMENOS, Jungian Cultural Center Via Venturi, 20 – 40053 Bazzano Bo Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Phone: 051 830840 – Mobile: 346 0867283 www.temenosjunghiano.com