Please note - the following is an in depth film analysis and reveals film plot... I could anticipate the reactions of fellow moviegoers to The Black Swan as I walked out of the theater. Those who were vocal about it thought it preposterous and laughable. I found it to be a wonderful depiction of a young woman integrating her shadow and ultimately being destroyed by it within a psychologically intense battle ground of the theatre of the ballet. The external manifestations of Nina's delusions, hallucinations were violent and disturbing but I believe to be a perfect mirror into the inner violence, drama, that this type of person might experience in real life. So one has to step back from the imagery and not take it too literally to appreciate the psychology of the film. Is this woman in need of therapy? Of course, but pathologizing her problem will only distance her struggle from our own. And is not some of the world’s greatest art drawn from this very beautiful and brutal mosaic. The Black Swan is directed by Darren Aronofsky who also directed Requiem for a Dream and Pi, both of which explored the darker aspects of human nature. He continues that journey with The Black Swan but in this film the beauty of the ballet is contrasted with the stark brutal realities of the day to day rituals of the ballerina. We are confronted immediately with a world of bodily destruction from the daily exercise routines to the purging required to maintain a cachectic frame. In an interview by George Stephanopolous Natalie Portman chides a reviewer who called a ballerina “fat” in a production of the Nutcracker (retrieved from http://www.blogher.com/fat-ballerinas-black-swan-diet-dont-let-tiimes-set-tone) reheating the controversy behind the shadow realm of this beautiful art form. We have the tension of the opposites in the form of the extreme discipline of one’s body and the need for control and its opposite the need to abandon the ego and lose one self. The character of Nina embodies this tension and the risk of going to far in abandoning the ego. But before we discuss the end we must go to the beginning. The story of swan lake must be appreciated as this is the psychological backdrop of the film. Odette is a beautiful woman by night and by day a white swan, the result of a spell placed on her by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart. The only way to lift the spell is by her falling in love with a prince. Prince Seigfried out hunting one evening witnesses the beautiful swan queen who is a swan wearing a crown and her transformation from swan to woman and falls in love with her and they spend the night together. The next day she becomes a swan again and he plans to marry her but the sorcerer anticipates this and brings his daughter Odile to meet him making her look like Odette. The prince marries her thinking it is Odette and Odette discovers the betrayal and returns to the lake. The prince discovers what he has done and goes to Odette and asks for forgiveness which she gives him but it is too late. The spell can now never be broken and she decides death is her only escape. In some versions the prince follows Odette to her death by drowning in the lake and in other versions she acts alone. The ballet Swan Lake becomes for Nina the perfect vas hermeticum within which she will be transformed. Being a swan half the time and a beautiful woman the other half, Nina (Odette) is under a spell cast by the evil sorcerer (Von Rothbart) who originally turned her into a swan. In order for Odette to be freed from the spell (become a whole person) she must fall in love with a prince (Seigfried). Nina's mother is the sorcerer who keeps Nina in the mother realm (swan realm). One is reminded of Rapunzel and the sorceress who keeps Rapunzel in the tower until the prince comes to rescue her. Nina's desire for ballet is the mechanism to work through this enchantment and disengage from this realm and from her mother in the process. Seigfried is the Director who, in his desire for a perfect ballet, tries to push Nina into herself to explore her shadow which is her sexuality, her ambitiousness, her jealousy, anger, rage, all of which is represented by Lilly (Odile) (sounds similar). The name Nina means "little girl" in Spanish and the meaning beind the name Lilly as the Black Swan, I suspect, it is taken from Odile the name for the Black Swan in the fairy tale and Lilly rhymes with Odile (short i and long e). Also it is the familiar form of Lillith the first woman who rejected Adam because she would not submit to a man. Lillith was considered evil because she was uninhibited and unrestrained so she was banished (to shadow). This is a perfect description of Lilly who is all that Nina is not. It is not surprising that Nina fantasizes making love with Lilly. Nina as a little girl can only grow up when she is able to confront her shadow. Her death is the price we pay when we give ourselves over to the archetypal completely without maintaining hold on the totality of our personality and its roots in the outer world. I love the fact that the movie begins with the emergence of this "other" that resembles Nina but is in the shadows. Nina sees her in glances at the train station, in the mirror, and it is Nina being pursued by her shadow from the very beginning. So the shadow is her and Lilly interposed and this is done visually throughout the movie. As this shadow self emerges it is sexual, confident, enraged at her mother, jealous, ruthless, and all what Nina is not. The stealing of Beth's (the old ballerina who Nina has replaced) possessions is very interesting. She wanted to be perfect and the stealing of these things, a nail file, and lipstick were a ritualization of acquiring the perfection that she saw in Beth. On a psychological level the scratching at her self was like cutting which is a way to ward of anxiety and more symbolically a way to get at the self lying beneath the surface only taking it to a literal extreme. It is also a way to feel as though one is regaining control over one's self, just as bolemia and anorexia are similar attempts to hold on to control. But the Director (therapist) is encouraging Nina to let go. This is not something she will accomplish by controlling herself but only by letting go of herself. So the Director, as the hero, must pull Nina out of the mother realm (the tower) and away from the literal mother. Nina (Odette) must die so the merging of the black swan and white swan can create the transcendent third. The integration of the shadow must result in the death of the ego, the old self, the staus quo. When Nina offers her final words that she is now perfect she has gone from one extreme to another. To be perfect she would need to be the Black Swan and she becomes so. The risk in integration of the shadow is one can be consumed by it and overidentify with it and become psychotic. So Nina goes from one Swan to another but remains a swan, inflated, disconnected from the outer world, relationships, and in the end dies. We may also see Nina as the puella capitvated by this archetype. As a swan she is in the realm of sublimatio flying high in the sky. The swan is connected to the sky and to water As a woman she is shackled to a brutal discipline The swan is connected to the sky and the water (unconscious) but in order for Nina to become a whole person she must come down to earth (coagulatio). The tension between these two realms will create a third called circulatio, the merging of these two realms. "It ascends to the heavens and descends to the earth and receives the power of above and below. Then you will have the glory of the whole world. Therefore all darkness will flee from you” (Edinger). But she is overtaken by the darkness; darkness did not flee her. She was unable to keep the two realms in tension, the swan realm and the human realm. When she fell to earth it was as a wounded swan as if she had been shot by Seigfried from the very beginning. It is a perfect image at the very end of the ballet and the movie in which Nina falls to the earth-her swan nature must become personalized, so she can become a person she is intended to be. Flying high above the earth she was ambitious and fantasy-bound so the fall on stage was both the death of the puella, the swan nature, the death of Nina and the integration of the black swan Lilly, who she killed psychologically. In the audience we see the mother who seems to need Nina to complete this transformation, as much as she resisted it in life and perhaps a transformation her mother was never able to complete. We do inherit our parents’ shadow content and Nina seems to sacrifice herself for this transformation. - Dan Ross, RN

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I just finished viewing the film We Have to Talk About Kevin. I watched the film primarily out of obligation as we are about to host a seminar on it. I knew nothing about it, other than Dan Ross was moved by it and wanted to lead a seminar about “the Predator.” I was absolutely blown away by the film and sit here in a stunned state. I don’t write many blog’s for the Asheville Jung Center. In fact I haven’t written any prior to this; but I sit here so stunned that I feel I have no choice. I’m a psychiatrist and have been practicing some 20 years now. I’ve seen many wonderful patients over the years and been delighted by their dreams and stories. I’ve also, however, had a handful of patients that make my hair stand on end and keep me up at night. I’ve run into patients that seem to have no conscious at all; that have no remorse for any act. I’ve had rageful patients, incredibly abusive spouses and even one that shot his wife and his two children execution style. I’ve been haunted by these encounters and never truly known what to do with them. This film brought these feelings and memories into Technicolor and left me stranded on a desolate reef. What is a sociopath? How are they formed? Is it nature, nurture, or a cruel act of fate? How can anyone sink to the level of random murder? Anyone who has been horrified by Columbine or any mass killing or even the sociopathic car salesman talking you into the wrong vehicle must see this film. Be prepared to lose your grounding of what you thought was typical humanity and be left in a disturbing paralysis. Regardless of whether you can make our seminar next week or not, do see this movie. It hits the absolute bowels of our society, but you will not regret it. Steven Buser, MD Founder, Asheville Jung Center

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It’s been 11 years since 9-11 and in that period of time it seems there has been little progress made toward bridging the enormous divides that existed and possibly contributed to the iconic images the world recorded on that fateful Tuesday. If some of those responsible for flying airplanes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center imagined they were redressing a wrong committed when infidels occupied holy lands to Muslims in the first Gulf War, their dramatic action led to an even larger presence of Westerners throughout the Middle East. Westerners watched the carnage of 9-11 and the United States briefly received the heartfelt empathy from people around the world but within months our military might was acting with a sort of collective bravado that made President Bush's premature declaration of victory not only wrong but absurd. Coming September 20, 2012 "Bridging West and East: C. G. Jung and richard Wilhelm, a Fateful Relationship" Within 7 years of 9-11 the world witnessed the United States of America elect its first Black President, surely a sign of hope that differences were being overcome. However, bridging the divide between Islam and the West, between the poor and the rich, or even between blacks and whites in America has proven difficult. Eleven years after the world witnessed nearly 3000 people consumed in a blaze fueled by hatred as much as unspent jet fuel, the lessons that might have been learned go unrecognized. Jung and analytical psychology have had answers to some of these most vexing problems. That the psyche may dichotomize the world of its impressions, that enantiodromia is as fundamental a feature of psychological function as the wave/particle duality is a fundamental feature of an electron, and that there are paths that allow a person to transcend such dichotomies are well established after nearly a century of Analytical Psychology. In fact, those avenues explored by Jung to contend with the divides of our psychological life have much earlier roots. When Richard Wilhelm set out as a Christian Missionary to China he left behind the conventional practice of Western Missionaries that begins and ends in the goal of conversion. Instead, he entered his mission field with deep respect and reverence for a culture and its people with thousands of years of collective history. While he served he also listened and opened himself to the wisdom that was before him. Because of that attitude, he was able to notice the jewel of the The Secret of the Golden Flower when he came upon it. He applied himself to translating it into German and thereby broadened that avenue by which Westerners might seek to reconcile apparent opposites.   Eleven years has been accompanied by dramatic changes. Here are some examples of things the world witnessed since the collapse of two towering and iconic images of Western capitalism.

• Countless lives lost through war, terror, starvation, treatable diseases, senseless gun violence, and downstream health effects of environmental degradation.
• Countless efforts by poor, disenfranchised people around the world to secure basic human rights including the Arab spring, Chinese dissidents, striking South African mine workers, self-immolation by Tibetan Buddhist monks, an indigenous leader delivers a petition with 600,000 signatures to the Brazilian government demanding that construction of a $10 billion dam be halted (Ireo Kayapo), Occupy WalL Street protesters seeking to diminish economic inequalities, women seeking inclusion and seeking basic safety and protection, and much more.
• Repeated instances of threatened economic uncertainty related to a hyperfocus upon principles that are becoming enshrined despite conflicting evidence. When taken to extremes, these ideas contribute to uncertainty and dramatic reversals. They include: the invisible hand made famous by Adam Smith’s infrequent invocation, free trade, globalization, deregulation, high frequency trading (H.F.T.), procurement of natural resources (like rare earth elements), ECB and debtor nations like Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal), and more.
• Developing shifts in power from West to East, from North to south, from mature industrialized to emerging , industrializing nations.
• Countless threats of tipping points being reached in terms of environmental degradation like: the accumulation of toxins in the Pacific garbage patch, global warming accelerating the melting of Arctic ice, Colony Collapse Disorder that is threatening bee populations, food and water supply shortages, debris from the Japanese tsunami washing ashore in the US introducing potentially invasive species, and loss of biodiversity.
• Introduction of potentially disruptive technology like: introduction of genetically modified foods, genomic research (including gene therapy), adoption of WiFi, adoption of Bluetooth standards, the public offering of Google (2004), Facebook is launched (2004), adoption of LED lighting, the opening of GPS (approx. 2004), Twitter is launched (2006)the first release of the iPhone (2007), introduction of the Kindle e-ink reader (2007), the release of the first iPad (2010), wider use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), expansion of deep water oil drilling,

Bridges to connect the vast differences between Islam and the West or the East and the West. There is a tinderbox full of volatile issues that can easily be ignited. On September 20, 2012 The Asheville Jung Center, in conjunction with ISAPZurich, will be presenting “Bridging West and East: C. G. Jung and Richard Wilhelm, a Fateful Relationship”. Dr. Murray Stein, along with Bettina Wilhelm (Richard Wilhelm’s granddaughter, and Shiuya Sara Liuh , a Training Candidate at ISAPZurich, will present the conference. Richard Wilhelm translated the I Ching and The Secret of the Golden Flower , two books that had profound effect upon C. G. Jung.   The polarization between nation states, between cultures, and even between factions with different cultures has become more exaggerated since the collapse of the Twin Towers 11 years ago. Richard Wilhelm devoted himself to bridging the chasm between the cultures of the East and West. Perhaps one way we can honor the 11^th anniversary of 9-11 is to rededicate ourselves to building bridges that transcend the polarizations that continue to reassert themselves. Let us allow the streams from many different traditions to merge into a mighty river whose force can wash away any residue of fear and animosity arising from the illusions about our human condition. Many readers of the AJC are People of the Book. The following words are offered as a sort of meditation, you are invited to approach it as a sort of lectio divina. “You must be free from the pairs of opposites. Poise your mind in tranquility.” (Bhagavad Gita) “And thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way, so that [with your lives] you might bear witness to the truth before all mankind,” (Qur'an al-Baqarah2:143) “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6) Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom]. The Gospel of Thomas (Nag Hammadi Coptic Text) ““Nothing can exist without its opposite; the two were one in the beginning and will be one again in the end.” (C. G. Jung)   "When yang has reached its greatest strength, the dark power of yin is born within its depths. For night begins at midday when yang breaks up and begins to change to yin." (Commentary by C. G. Jung in the Secret of the Golden Flower)   “Thus one can no longer maintain the division between the observer and the observed. (in quantum theory) Rather, observer and observed are merging and interpenetrating aspects of one whole reality… (Wholeness and the Implicate Order 1981, p.9 )   “There were two brothers, the Black Knight and the White Knight, and they set off on a quest, each on his own, one going north and the other one south. After many years they met in a dark wood, and did not know each other. They immediately assumed that they were enemies until, when both were lying bleeding to death on the grass, they undid their helmets and recognized that they were brothers.” (Journey Inward, Journey Outward 1968, p.2)   Len Cruz

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