In my experience, most of what goes by the name of political discourse today is very rarely about tax policy, foreign policy, or any policy. Much more often what we call “politics” seems to be a seething cauldron of projected personal and archetypal psychology, a projection screen on which we experience and defend our deepest values and hopes – and defend against our deepest fears – a story of saviors and devils, good and evil, often told as if these qualities exist on only one side of the political aisle. The good ones, of course, are our group; the bad ones are the other group(s). ~Jungian Analyst Tom Elsner

In last week’s post I said this one would be about contributions we can make to healing misogyny. But I soon realized I had more to say about the roots of the disease before I address its antidotes. So here goes.

The following story by Hans Christian Anderson was first published in Denmark 197 years ago:

The tale concerns an emperor who is obsessed with fancy new clothes, and spends lavishly on them, at the expense of state matters. One day, two con men visit the emperor’s capital. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work.

A succession of officials, starting with the emperor’s wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever. ~Wikipedia.

While this tale does not directly address misogyny, it is a strikingly accurate commentary on its source. Political leaders like the emperor aspire to rise to the top of a logically devised hierarchical structure of governance. To do so they must specialize in developing their Logos qualities. Jung associated Logos with the father world and the God-image. The emperor represents an inflated ego that identifies with Logos and lacks a firm foundation in its opposite:  Eros, the feminine. For Jung Eros meant connectedness and interactions with others, and a sense of interdependence in work and the community. The emperor is so identified with his idealized God-image that he has no capacity for psychic relatedness.

When Eros is repressed, an inflated ego’s interactions with others, including loved ones, are marked by empty words and meaningless acts devoid of love, intimacy, and integrity. If the emperor has a wife, we feel sorry for her, for she is valued only for her ability to satisfy the needs of his ego. Eros repression—demeaning women and the feminine in our inner and outer worlds—wounds us. (For those interested in pursuing this topic, I highly recommend Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the Death Mother Archetype to Reclaim Love, Strength, and Vitality by Jungian analysts, Drs. Massimilla and Bud Harris.)

In dreams, clothes symbolize our persona: the image we present to the world. In this story, the emperor’s persona of fancy clothes covers up a shadow of pride, vanity, greed, pretentiousness, the need to be admired, the desire to impress, and utter disregard for the affairs of state or welfare of his subjects. This obsession with one’s image instead of character, this lack of humility and refusal to admit failure, this profound need for control and power, this utter disregard for the lives of others, is rampant in today’s world. We see the exact same symptoms in every dictator who ever ruled, and the exact same results: millions of disenfranchised people living in poverty or near poverty. Women and minorities being persecuted and deprived of their rights. Millions of innocent lives lost. All for the sake of one seriously wounded and inflated ego that lacks the capacity for care, kindness, connection, and love.

A second theme of our parable is collective ignorance and conformity. The officials and townspeople ignore reality and delude themselves into believing what the emperor wants them to believe because they’re afraid to lose status by being different. Two other themes are the importance of mindful living, and the value of truth, an essential element of a virtuous character. This is symbolized by the instinctively innocent child.

Our society, like the emperor’s, is sick. Our illness is caused by a collective psychological imbalance that favors the masculine principle. Misogyny is just one example of the poison this breeds. If we were imbalanced in favor of the feminine principle we would still be sick, but in other ways. Examples of our ailment are playing out today in the political arena. In the U.S.A. 2024 election, candidates are frantically demonizing the opposing party’s positions on issues like women’s rights, the economy, poverty, immigration, religious, racial, and other forms of discrimination.

We can help reduce misogyny and other social maladies by voting, donating to candidates who support women’s rights, participating in political activism, and making our voices heard in mutually respectful dialogues. But there are psychological solutions too. I hope you’ll provide your own examples next week when I’ll share some of your previous responses in my final installment of this series.

Image source: Alamy

Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications, Inc. Jean’s new Nautilus Award-winning The Soul’s Twins, is at  Amazon and Schiffer’s Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit. Subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.