The Double
Doppelgänger
Oneself met as another.
The Double: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
From boyhood Jung felt himself to be two people, whom he called personality No. 1, the schoolboy of his time, and personality No. 2, an old man belonging to the centuries. The double is the self met outside oneself: the shadow’s uncanny twin, or the other, larger personality that one also is.
The Double: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The Egyptian ka, Hoffmann’s The Devil’s Elixirs, Poe’s “William Wilson,” Dostoevsky’s The Double (1846), and the folk belief that to meet one’s double is to meet one’s death.
From the Sources
In Ovid, Narcissus perceives that the one he loves is himself: he burns with love of himself, and both raises the flames and endures them.
“In thee ’tis I, I now perceive; nor does my form deceive me. I burn with the love of myself, and both raise the flames and endure them.”
Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Vol. I, Books I-VII, Book III, the fable of Echo and Narcissus. Literally translated with notes and explanations by Henry T. Riley, M.A.; with an introduction by Edward Brooks, Jr.; Copyright, 1899, by David McKay; Press of Sherman & Co., Philadelphia. The text, read in part
Frazer writes of the fear that water-spirits would drag a person's reflection, or soul, under water, leaving him to perish, and suggests that this was probably the origin of the story of Narcissus.
“They feared that the water-spirits would drag the person's reflection or soul under water, leaving him soulless to perish. This was probably the origin of the classical story of the beautiful Narcissus, who languished and died through seeing his reflection in the water.”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Chapter XVIII, 'The Perils of the Soul', section 3, 'The Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection'. Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. 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
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), “School Years”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among The Persons of the Psyche
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Double.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/double.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Dog: Guardian of the threshold, and faithful guide. The Door: The threshold between one state and another. The Dove: Peace, spirit, and the white light after the dark. The Dragon: The guardian who must be faced.