The Exploding Self

There may be in each of us an impulse, however fleeting, to destroy the world with its evil, its problems and conflicts, either in momentary anger or in the hope of starting afresh. Now that we have the technical means to make this fantasy come true, it behooves us to explore its sources in a very serious way.
It is obvious that groups, like individuals, sometimes enact the dark part of their nature in mass movements or "accidental" events, even when this dark part is only a small part of a whole with the best intentions and genuine ideals.
In spite of detente, therefore, the destruction of the world by nuclear means, massive pollution, or political explosion remains a distinct possibility unless our hidden destructiveness is better understood.
Creative regression, living closer to one's fun­damental nature, is what we are learning about today. But how to apply our knowledge on a world scale so as collectively to avoid violent swings and explosions is., of course, the unsolved problem of our era of massive blindness and consequent mass behaviors.
Joseph Redfearn, M.D., was born in 1921 in a Yorkshire mining town and educated at John Hopkins, Baltimore, and Maudsley Hospital, London. Since 1968 he has been a training ana­lyst for the Society of Analytical Psychology in London. He is a past chair and was its director of training for many years. He continues to practice in London.
Table of Contents
Introduction

The Bomb in Dreams: Unfaceable

Aspects of the Self

From Concrete Behaviour to the Ability to Use Metaphors and Symbols in Therapy

The Interdependence of Our

Outer and Inner Worlds

The Explosive Self and the Maternal Container

Trees, Fountains, Eggs, Volcanoes, and Bombs: Symbols of Renewal or Breakthrough of Varying Degrees of Violence

Atom Bomb and Divine Child: Regression and Responsibility

History Seen Partly as Concretized Mythology: The Interaction of the Subpersonalities

of the Self

Human Sacrifice

The Rise of the Male Gods and the Separation of the Opposites

Pavlov, Freud, and Jung on the Meeting of Opposites

he Democratization of the Divine Self

The Healing Apocalypse

The Task of Healin

Summary and Conclusions