Narcissism, God, and the Shadow: Carl Jung’s Answer to Job Lecture 1 - an Introduction
Hi, I am Harry Venice, an Attachment, Trauma, and Jungian Therapist who is also certified to score the Adult Attachment Interview for Reflective Function.
If you want to do Shadow Work, Jungian Analysis, trauma healing, or repair insecure attachment, book a Free 1:1 Discovery Call today: https://calendly.com/harryvenicepsychology/30min
Narcissism, God, and the Shadow: Carl Jung’s Answer to Job Lecture 1 - an Introduction
Lecture 1: An introduction to Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’
Today I will cover two things in my lecture on Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’ as explained in Season 2, Episode 1 of the Harry Venice Psychology Podcast. For my newsletter followers, I condense my lecture below into a blog post for your convenience.
In today’s lecture I will cover two main topics:
Why ‘Answer to Job’ is arguably Carl Jung’s most important book
I will explore who wrote ‘The Book of Job’?
1. This is arguably Carl Jung’s most important book.
Answer to Job was published in 1952. It is arguably Carl Jung’s most important book and the only book he said he would not change a single word.
1.1 Some background to Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’
In a letter to German Psychologist Erich Neumann, Carl Jung discussed his writing of Answer to Job. Jung said that he can no longer write in a less complicated way for readers to understand him, but rather, he must write at his own level. He explicitly said that for this book, the common reader can try to understand what he is writing, not the other way around. In a polite way, he was saying that he was not going to dumb down his work to be understood by the public and instead he wanted to express his truth and beliefs even if they were not understood or read by the masses.
Jung’s book is a direct ‘answer’ to the biblical story ‘The Book of Job’. This biblical story involves a man named ‘Job’, who was unfairly tortured by the Old Testament God (Yahweh). I will provide a summary of the ‘Book of Job’ in the next blog post and podcast episode.
1.2 Why is it an important book?
From a Jungian and psychological perspective, the main takeaway is that this biblical story shows us the human capacity to not only endure unfair suffering but to also stand up for oneself despite everyone else gaslighting you. In the Book of Job, the man named Job sticks to his truth and literally stands up to God. Even his friends turn on him and attack him, but Job remains steadfast in his truth. He knows he has been unfairly abused and he will not back down or make himself small when he knows an injustice has occurred.
These themes are very relevant for scapegoat family dynamics, narcissistic abuse, parental abuse, parental neglect of a child, and unmitigated gaslighting which often occurs when parents engage in ‘role reversals’ with their children. Namely, when the needs of the parent are met at the cost of the child, but when the child speaks up they are dismissed, invalidated, and their valid ‘truth’, is twisted into a lie (to suit the parent’s agenda).
That is why I believe the Book of Job, and Carl Jung’s ‘Answer to Job’ have tremendous practical impact when we get through the abstractions and complicated analysis required to understand what is going on.
1.3 The God-image and Christ are symbols of the Self
On a final note, the book is important because it discusses the ‘God-image’ in psychology. I will dedicate an entire blog post and podcast episode to this soon. This is where things get tricky and many people get ‘lost’ in Jung’s psychology. I will do my best to keep it as simple as possible. One way that I can make it really simple is to say that: the God-image or Christ can be seen as a symbol of the Self. So when you think of God, Christ or a God-image, you can often substitute the word the Self or Jung’s concept of the Self. Edward Edinger went as far as to say that the word ‘God-image’ and ‘Christ’ are interchangeable with the ‘Self’.
2. Who wrote ‘The Book of Job’?
The Book of Job can unofficially be divided into three sections.
First is the prologue, which is the beginning of the story where we are told briefly who Job was and what happened to him, included how he suffered as a result of a bet God (Yahweh) made with Satan.
Then we have the body of story which is a string of monologues between Job and his friends and ultimately God himself, Yahweh.
The third and final part is a brief epilogue, where we hear what happened to Job and the result of his confrontation with God.
We cannot categorically state who the author was but “there are three possible hypotheses”.[1] The main stem or body of the poem is not the main area of dispute between the theories. The issue centers are the introduction and conclusion of the story.
The first theory is that one person wrote the main body of the story and then added the introduction and conclusion. Specifically, that first they wrote the body of the text (e.g. the monologues) and using that as a stem, they then wrote the introduction (Prologue) and the conclusion (Epilogue).
The second theory is that the author took the introduction (prologue) and conclusion (epilogue) from another already existing source and used them as a frame for his own story.
The third theory is the introduction (prologue) and conclusion (prologue) were added at a later date by somebody else. Professor Duncan Macdonald says that in regard to this third possibility “very little can be said” and we do not have a “fragment of proof” to rely on.[2] It has been theorized that the ending was changed to make Yahweh (the Old Testament God) look better. Because the way he treats Job is atrocious. Job is essentially mistreated and abused.
I also feel that the sudden ending of the story and the abrupt switch in tone from Yahweh to Job felt somewhat unnatural to me. When I heard that there was a theory that it was perhaps added at a later date, something in my gut believed it because it makes sense to me. The ending is quite a switch and reversal of Yahweh’s attitude and there is some contradiction in the ending if we analyze the Book of Job more deeply.
[1] “The Original Form of the Legend of Job” by Professor Duncan B. Macdonald (Published in the ‘Journal of Biblical Literature’, Vol. 14, No. 1/2 (1895), pages 63-71).
[2] Ibid.
If you want to explore individuation, Jungian Analysis, Shadow Work, trauma healing or to repair insecure attachment, book a Free 1:1 Discovery Call with me today: https://calendly.com/harryvenicepsychology/30min
Always Believe. Stay Brave. Never Give Up.
Harry Venice
Attachment, Trauma, and Jungian Therapist
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