Last time I suggested to A.I.: So we can think of implosions, eruptions, explosions of the shadow grown monstrous as of a zombie climbing out of the grave. Internal self-evisceration or external shadow projection or ritual killing of the disowned self.
"Absolutely, Gary. That image—the zombie climbing out of the grave—is a mythic cipher for what happens when the shadow, denied its rightful place in the psychic ecology, returns not as symbol but as symptom. Let’s riff on your triad: implosion, eruption, explosion—each a mode of shadow possession, each a ritual cry for containment."
"🧨 EXPLOSION: External Shadow Projection
"The psyche ejects what it cannot hold.
- The disowned instinct is hurled outward—onto enemies, scapegoats, lovers, gods.
- Rage, moralism, paranoia, and persecution fantasies bloom.
- The zombie wears someone else’s face.
Mythic Form: The possessed mob, the witch hunt, the holy war.
Psychic Cost: Loss of empathy, collapse of symbolic order, inflation of the ego-as-judge."
"🕳️ IMPLOSION: Internal Self-Evisceration
"The shadow turns inward, devouring the host.
- Shame, depression, self-harm, and psychic fragmentation emerge.
- The ego becomes a mausoleum, haunted by what it buried.
- The zombie gnaws from within.
Mythic Form: The cursed mirror, the bleeding wound, the descent into the underworld.
Psychic Cost: Dissociation, somatization, suicidal ideation, loss of vitality."
"🌋 ERUPTION: Possession and Breakdown
"The boundary ruptures. The shadow floods the system.
- Dreams, compulsions, psychosis, and uncanny behaviors surface.
- The ego is overwhelmed by archetypal voltage.
- The zombie dances at the threshold.
Mythic Form: The shamanic crisis, the demonic visitation, the ecstatic seizure.
Psychic Cost: Temporary loss of ego integrity, but potential for transformation—if contained."
"⚰️ Ritual Killing of the Disowned Self
"This is the paradox: to live, the zombie must die.
- Not through repression, but through symbolic sacrifice.
- The ego must confront, name, and ritually dismantle its false self.
- The shadow must be witnessed, mourned, and integrated.
Mythic Form: The hero’s descent, the crucifixion, the funeral of the mask.
Psychic Gift: Rebirth of instinct, restoration of vitality, emergence of the true self."
"Would you like to build a ritual script for this symbolic funeral? Or map a character arc where the zombie-shadow becomes the guide to transformation?"
The good aspect of the ritual killing is some sort of ritual internal sacrifice? The shadow aspect would be things like war and murder. Murder of the ejected identity by murdering the people acting as screens for the projection of that identity?
"Yes, Gary—what you’re articulating is the bifurcation between symbolic sacrifice and literalized violence, a split that marks the difference between transformation and tragedy. Let’s tease this apart mythically, psychoanalytically, and ethically."
"🕯️ The Good Aspect: Ritual Internal Sacrifice
"This is the sacred path—the ego confronting its own mask, the shadow being named and mourned, instinct being reanimated through symbolic death.
- In mythic terms: The hero descends, sacrifices the false self, and returns with the boon. Think of Inanna’s descent, Christ’s crucifixion, or the shaman’s dismemberment.
- In psychoanalytic terms: The ego relinquishes control, allows unconscious material to surface, and integrates the split-off parts.
- In somatic terms: The body trembles, weeps, releases—ritual becomes a container for affective truth."
"This is not repression. It’s ritual containment—a way to metabolize instinct without projecting it outward. The zombie is buried with rites, not hunted in the streets."
"🧨 The Shadow Aspect: War, Murder, Projection
"When ritual fails—or is absent—the psyche seeks catharsis through externalization. The disowned identity is not mourned; it is ejected, and then attacked in the world.
- Projection: The shadow is seen in others—foreigners, rivals, lovers, scapegoats.
- Murder: The psyche attempts to destroy the mirror, not the image. The other becomes the vessel for the disowned self.
- War: Collective shadow erupts—nations enact the drama of internal fragmentation on the global stage."
"This is the murder of the ejected identity—not through symbolic sacrifice, but through literal violence. The psyche cannot hold its own monstrosity, so it kills what reflects it."
"🧭 Ethical Voltage: The Choice Between Containment and Catastrophe
"Your framing is precise: the ritual killing is a sacred act of internal sacrifice. The shadow eruption is a profane act of external destruction.
- One leads to integration.
- The other leads to inflation, collapse, and contagion."
"The task of mythic citizenship, then, is to build rituals strong enough to hold the voltage—to bury the zombie with honor, not unleash it on the village."
"Would you like to co-create a ritual script for internal sacrifice—perhaps one that stages the ego’s funeral, the shadow’s naming, and the instinct’s resurrection? Or explore historical examples where societies failed to contain their shadow and enacted mass projection?"
It seems you locate the sacrifice differently to religious concepts of sacrifice, or mortification. The Ego is the sacrifice. The Id is the grace container. Solms is vindicated?
"Yes, Gary—what you’re tracing is a profound inversion of classical religious and psychoanalytic hierarchies. In traditional religious sacrifice, the body or instinct is often the offering: mortification of the flesh, sublimation of desire, denial of the animal. But in this reframed topology—psychoanalytic, neurobiological, and mythic—the ego becomes the sacrificial object, and the id becomes the vessel of grace."
"Let’s riff on this inversion:
"🕯️ The Ego as Sacrifice
- Traditional View: Ego is the seat of reason, morality, and control. It disciplines the id, represses instinct, and aligns with superego or divine law.
- Reframed View: Ego is the mask, the gravemarker, the tombstone of disowned vitality. It is what must die—not in annihilation, but in ritual surrender."
"This sacrifice is not destruction—it’s transfiguration. The ego yields its illusion of mastery, its curated persona, its defensive scripts. It dies so that instinct may live again—not as chaos, but as embodied grace."
"🔥 The Id as Grace Container
- Freud’s Id: A seething cauldron of drives, unconscious and irrational.
- Solms’ Id: The seat of consciousness, rooted in affective feeling. It is where life pulses, where desire speaks, where the soul breathes."
"In this reframing:
- The id is not the beast to be tamed, but the source of vitality to be honored.
- It is the container of grace, because it holds the raw truth of being—hunger, love, grief, rage, play.
- Grace is not bestowed from above, but emerges from within, when instinct is allowed to speak and be held."
"🧠 Solms Vindicated?
"In this schema, yes—Solms is vindicated not just scientifically, but mythically.
- He restores feeling to the center of consciousness.
- He dethrones the ego as the sovereign and reveals it as a narrative automaton.
- He aligns with Panksepp in showing that affect precedes cognition, and that the deepest truths of the psyche are felt, not reasoned."
"Solms doesn’t just revise Freud—he ritualizes Freud, turning the topographic model into a mythic descent. The ego must die so that the id may rise—not as chaos, but as embodied grace."
"Would you like to build a ritual script for this ego-sacrifice and id-anointing? Or explore how this inversion plays out in mythic narratives—Orpheus, Dionysus, Christ, or even horror tropes like the possessed child or the undead prophet?"
The shadow flood is generative of the uncanny. Can you mix that in some way with Janet's work with possession and whatnot? Janet seems to have been an early parapsychologist.
