Archive for January 27th, 2012
Building Boundaries For Self Identity
Barriers of broken glass
As I walk around the gated community in which I am residing while in Thailand, I noticed this barrier that is meant to separate and to protect the residents of the gated community from the darker forces on the other side of the “wall” that is topped with broken glass. I am on the inside of the community looking out, safe within the community.
But really, is one keeping the riff-raff out, or is one being kept in place by the riff-raff. Who is imprisoned?
The image could well be a representation of the ego building walls to keep out the personal and collective unconscious. This is what the ego does in order to build a sense of self. From the chaos of the whole one needs to carve out a small space in which to have a sense of self as separate from other. When the boundaries fall, the self gets lost in the whole. Yet, paradoxically, the whole is contained within the self – the personal and collective unconscious is within the barricaded protective areas unknown to the ego.
