Dismemberment
Sparagmos
Torn apart, to be put together anew.
Dismemberment: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In the visions of the alchemist Zosimos, which Jung studied closely, a priest is cut to pieces and boiled at an altar and becomes spirit. Jung read dismemberment as the dissolution of an old, too-unified attitude into its parts, painful and necessary, so that it can be put together as a whole of another kind.
Dismemberment: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Osiris cut into pieces by Set and gathered by Isis, Dionysus Zagreus torn by the Titans, Orpheus by the maenads, and the dismemberment dreamed in the initiation of shamans.
From the Sources
Jung finds the same motive in Siegmund's broken sword, reforged for Siegfried: from dismemberment, he writes, life is pieced together again, as a smith forges the pieces together.
“The motive of dismemberment is found again in the broken sword of Siegmund, which was kept for Siegfried. From the dismemberment life is pieced together again. (The Medea wonder.) Just as a smith forges the pieces together, so is the dismembered dead again put together.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, ch. VII, "The Dual Mother Rôle". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Frazer retells how Anubis, with Isis, Nephthys, Thoth and Horus, pieced together the broken body of the murdered Osiris, and how Osiris revived when Isis fanned the cold clay with her wings.
“…the jackal-headed god Anubis, who, with the aid of Isis and Nephthys, of Thoth and Horus, pieced together the broken body of the murdered god, swathed it in linen bandages, and observed all the other rites which the Egyptians were wont to perform over the bodies of the departed. Then Isis fanned the cold clay with her wings: Osiris revived”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Ch. XXXVIII, "The Myth of Osiris". Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. The text, read in part
Writing of Osiris, whose corpse Typhon dismembers, Jung notes that Isis collects the pieces with Anubis' help, so that the devourers of bodies, the dogs and jackals, become helpers in putting the body together again.
“In fact, the mother Isis collects the pieces of the body with the help of the jackal-headed Anubis. (She finds the corpse with the help of dogs.) Here the nocturnal devourers of bodies, the dogs and jackals, become the assistants of the composition, of the reproduction.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, ch. V, "Symbolism of the Mother and of Rebirth". Authorized translation, with introduction, by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1916. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “The Visions of Zosimos” (1938/1954), CW 13
- Mircea Eliade, Shamanism (1951)
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Death and Birth
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Dismemberment.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/dismemberment.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Dew: Grace falling in silence from above. Dionysus: Ecstasy, intoxication, and the dissolving of every boundary. Distillatio: Rising and falling again, until only the essence is left. The Divine Child: The future, not yet born into the world.