Archive for the ‘The Da Vinci Code’ tag
The Transparent Self
The subject line for this post is called “The Transparent Self.” In a way, they share more in common that would originally be noted. The Transparent Self is a book I picked up a long time ago, a book that sits on my book shelf back in my home in Canada. The author of the book is Sidney Jourard. Since my copy of the book is thousands of kilometres from where I sit as I compose this post, I will have to make do with what I found doing e-searches on the computer.
Jourard’s book as I remember it, is about man learning to disclose his “self” in order to become whole, more capable of a healthy relationship with “self” and “other.”
“We begin life with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Someone – our parents, teachers, analysts – hypnotizes us to ‘see’ the world and construe it in the ‘right’ way. These others label the world, attach names and give voices to the beings and events in it, so that thereafter, we cannot read the world in any other language or hear it saying other things to us. The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we become undeaf, unblind, and multilingual, thereby letting the world speak to us in new voices and write all its possible meaning in the new book of our existence.”
“We camouflage our true being before others to protect ourselves against criticism or rejection. This protection comes at a steep price. When we are not truly known by the other people in our lives, we are misunderstood. When we are misunderstood, especially by family and friends, we join the “lonely crowd.” Worse, when we succeed in hiding our being from others, we tend to lose touch with our real selves. This loss of self contributes to illness in its myriad forms.” (courtesy of Coyote Prime)
This agrees well with a lot of what Jung says as well. Becoming transparent, allowing the unconscious contents to inform consciousness so that we have the courage to cease being desperately straight-jacketed by our personae, is almost another word for “individuation.”
The image of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci is all about wholeness. The use of both circle and square honours the notion of quaternity and the wholeness of the mandala. The presentation of the Vitruvian Man as a nude is all about transparency, about the stripping away of masks and being able to see the true man, vulnerable and yet powerful for all that vulnerability.
A question for you, my readers: “To what extent is being transparent acceptable in a public forum such as this? What comprises the line of unacceptability?” I wait for your ideas, your thoughts.
