Possession
Being seized
An archetype taking hold of the whole person.
Possession: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
An archetype can do more than appear: it can seize the ego and speak through it. Jung called the individual form of this inflation, and warned that the one possessed takes the archetype’s power for his own.
In “Wotan” (1936) he described a whole people seized by the old storm-god, and he read Nietzsche’s identification with Zarathustra as a case of the same danger.
Possession: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The demoniacs of the Gospels; the maenads; the berserkers of the North; the trance of the shaman and the oracle.
In the Press’s Books
Jung’s reading of Nietzsche and Zarathustra, above all in his seminar on Thus Spake Zarathustra, turns on this danger.
From the Sources
Frazer records the belief that certain persons are possessed from time to time by a spirit or deity, their own personality lying in abeyance while the spirit's presence shows in convulsive shakings of the whole body.
“Certain persons are supposed to be possessed from time to time by a spirit or deity; while the possession lasts, their own personality lies in abeyance, the presence of the spirit is revealed by convulsive shiverings and shakings of the man's whole body”
Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: a study of magic and religion, Ch. VII, "Incarnate Human Gods". Abridged edition (preface dated June 1922), Project Gutenberg eBook #3623. The text, read in part
Reading Job's lament, Jung speaks of the soul's torment under the onslaught of unconscious desires, as if a cruel god had taken possession of the man and pierced him with thoughts that overwhelmingly pass through him.
“Now we understand this symbolism as an expression for the soul torment caused by the onslaught of the unconscious desires. The libido festers in his flesh, a cruel god has taken possession of him and pierced him with his painful libidian projectiles, with thoughts, which overwhelmingly pass through him.”
Dr. C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, Part II, ch. VI, "The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother" (on Job 16). 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
- “Wotan” (1936), CW 10
- “The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious,” CW 7
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
Also among Unions, Spells, and Changes
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Possession.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/possession.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Phoenix: Burned, and risen from its own ashes. The Planets: The seven wanderers, each ruling a metal, a day, and a temper. The Prima Materia: The chaos from which the work begins: despised, everywhere, and everything. The Prison: Bound in the dark, awaiting release.