Description

A new theoretical paradigm that goes beyond the limitations of the Freudian and Jungian psychological models

As I brought the newly created theoretical whole of my first book C. G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity precisely to bear on Jung’s theoretical and clinical model, I found myself being carried into territory I did not anticipate entering. Firstly, it became apparent to me exactly why Jungian psychology had from the beginning failed to accommodate the synchronicity theory and its implications. Secondly, it became apparent to me that the very theoretical limitations that had obstructed the further development of the synchronicity concept by Jungians were no less obstructing the advancement of the Jungian theoretical model in its entirety. Although, therefore, this, my most recent work, certainly could be conceived of as an extension of my first book, that extension necessarily proceeds by way of that which is the most thorough criticism of the Jungian theoretical model to date. The Jungian Paradigm, it is carefully argued, not only is a deeply flawed theoretical model, but it is a model, moreover, that falls far short of that which it holds out to the world as its promise. I offer in its stead what I have termed the Syndetic Paradigm.

In contradistinction to the term synchronicity whose etymology and Jungian usage relate to the idea of connectedness through time, the etymology of the term syndetic — Greek syndetikos from syndetos from syndein — simply denotes a state of being bound together. The Syndetic Paradigm, in this regard, holds that all of life, that is to say, nature in its entirety is bound together in a highly complex whole through an on-going process of spontaneous self-organization. In contrast, then, to the core assumptions of the Jungian Paradigm, with the Syndetic Paradigm, we take the critical theoretical step of moving from a closed-system model of a self-regulatory psyche to an open-system model of a psyche in a self-organizing totality. The Syndetic Paradigm, in this regard, holds that all of life is bound together in a highly complex whole through an on-going process of spontaneous self-organization. The new theoretical model that emerges in The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung, while taking up the fundamental psychological, ethical, spiritual, political and cultural concerns of the Freudian and Jungian Paradigms, conducts us to an experience of meaning that altogether exceeds their respective bounds.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction

1. Self-Organizing Nature
2. Nature’s Intrinsic Morality
3. Sexual Alchemy
4. The Empty Mandala

• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Excerpts

"For many years I wondered why Jung and Jungians had not drawn out the theoretical implications of synchronicity for Jungian psychology as a whole. How could Jung and Jungians, I questioned, purport to work analytically with instances of these phenomena, yet so completely ignore their broader implications? The answer, I can now understand, is that the assumptions of the belief system within which they were working prevented them from doing so. Their fundamental paradigmatic assumptions kept them from grasping the import of what was before them, much as Freudian paradigmatic assumptions had precluded within that community any receptivity whatsoever to comparably significant Jungian findings." (p. 10)

"I have chosen to designate the psychodynamic model that is to follow the Syndetic Paradigm. In contrast to the term synchronicity whose etymology and Jungian usage relate to the idea of connectedness through time, the etymology of the term syndetic—Greek syndetikos from syndetos from syndein—simply denotes a state of being bound together. The Syndetic Paradigm, in this regard, holds that all of life, that is to say, nature in its entirety is bound together in a highly complex whole through an on-going process of spontaneous self-organization. In very great contrast, then, to the core assumptions of the Jungian Paradigm, with the Syndetic Paradigm, we take the critical theoretical step of moving from a closed-system model of a self-regulatory psyche to an open-system model of a psyche in a self-organizing totality. The implications of such a step, as we will see, are enormous." (p. 19)

"I will close my introductory reflections by saying that although I have no need to defend my indebtedness to the great works of Jung and Freud, we are nevertheless left with the cruel certainty that when a paradigmatic shift genuinely occurs those theoretical constructs in which all the facts of the former system have been held will necessarily and suddenly collapse. There can be, therefore, no gentle way forward when it comes to paradigmatic shift, there can only be a conscious one." (p. 21)

"The theoretical progression from a conflict model of the psyche to a self-regulatory model is that which most significantly distinguishes the Jungian Paradigm from its Freudian predecessor. What distinguishes the Syndetic Paradigm from the Jungian Paradigm, on the other hand, is its operationalization of a self-regulatory model that extends beyond the intrapsychic to encompass nature in its entirety." (p. 35)

"Reality, I wish to say at this point by way of summation, reveals itself to us through the compensatory meanings of the self-organizing activities of nature. If, therefore, our encounter with unfolding Reality is reduced to something less than an experience of the self-organizing whole that nature is, Reality-based functioning will most certainly be lost to us. If, through Freudian reductionism, our experience of self-organizing life is ultimately reduced to complex-driven power drives, Reality will most certainly be lost to us. If, through Jungian reductionism, our experience of self-organizing life is ultimately reduced to an archetype, no matter how cleverly, the same will no less be true. Yes, anyone can pull an archetype out of any given situation, but simply doing so has nothing whatsoever to do with the compensatory dynamics of unfolding Reality. Reality, to be sure, is not to be found exclusively in either the dynamics of personal or transpersonal psychology. Reality, rather, presents in nature’s dynamic and purposive compensatory blending of the two. It is where the personal and transpersonal entwine in the unfolding dynamics of the spontaneously self-organizing whole." (p. 61)

"The Romantic mind, as previously explained, is inclined to slice Reality along subjectivist lines. Delusion, in this regard, supplants Reality when as if becomes is. Indeed much of what we describe as psychopathology has to do with this type of unholy alchemy, that is to say, the unwarranted and unnatural transmutation of as if to is. There is a very big difference between the two. There is a very big difference between thinking ‘it is as if everyone is against me’ and thinking ‘everyone is against me.’ Unfortunately for the Jungian readership, the Romantic leanings of the Jungian Paradigm preclude such distinctions, especially when it comes to the problem of evil. As well evidenced above, when it comes to the problem of evil, as if becomes is. The purely subjective experience ‘it is as if God is evil’ becomes by way of Jungian Romanticism ‘God is evil.’ " (p. 97)

"Very much in contrast to the standards of spiritual and depth meaning that have served humanity in centuries past, today, in accordance with the evolving unfoldment of self-organizing nature, it is incumbent on us to encounter consciously the sexual instinct in its own right. Regardless of whether people choose to accept this directive, or even know of its existence, it nevertheless remains, by way of self-organizing nature, an ethical imperative with which we must all come to terms. It is the case, accordingly, today, and most probably from this time forward, that no spiritual experience, no experience of depth meaning will be complete in the absence of its attainment." (p. 151)

"When Jung wrote beneath his mandalic-painting of the golden, well-fortified castle: ‘ecclessia catholica et protestantes et seclusi in secreto. Aeon finitus,’ he couldn’t have been more right about the spiritual turning point humanity had reached. The spiritual age in which humanity had been living had indeed ended. What Jung, however, did not understand, and what Jungians following after him have failed to understand is that the ‘solution’ to the spiritual problem Jung single-handedly so directly brought to consciousness in our culture was already taking shape in the work of Freud prior to Jung’s own initiative. And what Jung and Jungians further failed to understand, even more importantly, is that no solution would ever come from a paradigm that could not consolidate those essential Freudian pieces in a single theoretical model. Under the auspices of self-organizing nature, in the specific forms of their respective methodologies, both the Freudian and Jungian Paradigms came to hold key pieces of the theoretical puzzle. The insurmountable problem to date, however, has been that neither paradigm is sufficiently progressed to assimilate the critical pieces held by the other. Neither, to put it differently, has been able to provide a table of sufficient size upon which the theoretical pieces of the puzzle held by each of them, not to speak of the pieces which we are now about to add, might be placed and assembled." (p. 219)

"The history of the secular and religious ideologies of humanity, I will extend a previous statement in saying, is a legacy of having imposed on life, through fixed or concretized form, false absolutes and false certainties; and the imposition on life, through fixed or concretized form, of false absolutes and false certainties is always an act of violation of the soul. Perhaps even up to one hundred years ago, this formula could have been believed in and lived with relative authenticity, in spite of its ultimate destructiveness. Today, however, it cannot. There truly is an evolution of consciousness and thus what falls within the range of acceptability in one age becomes, or is on its way to becoming, a virtually intolerable condition in the next." (pp. 292-293)

Reviews

Back Cover Reviews

"Grounded in both theory and practice, Aziz offers a solid critique of both Freud and Jung and presents a model that goes beyond them. The Syndetic Paradigm will creatively challenge Freudian and Jungian theorists of all kinds, including cultural theorists. The critique and correction that Aziz offers is of fundamental importance."

"This book is an absolute must for readers of Jungian and Freudian literature. It is one of the rare works that takes a brand new look at the whole landscape of depth psychology and has the courage to say that each of the two established paradigms has important shortcomings, blind spots, and outright contradictions."

"Lucidly written and richly illustrated with clinical material, Aziz’s book goes beyond highlighting problems in Jungian and Freudian theory to propose a cogent new model that resolves them. The result is a profound and captivating work that is infused with spiritual wisdom as well as psychological insight. It is a book that deserves to be seriously pondered not only by psychotherapists but by all those seeking a coherent and dignifying new paradigm of our human being in the world."

"When such a process-based life orientation is applied to daily life and work, the search for meaning and the need to have a purpose becomes critically evident. It then becomes much simpler to explain why profit must have a purpose, why an individual's passion must emanate out of a search for meaning, why genuine meaning must have an ethical basis and why people should behave ethically –because all of us are bound and connected and interconnected to the universe and its totality. We cannot, therefore, manipulate or subvert the system, the idea of being selfish is illusionary and the totality in which we all exist cannot be divided. Leadership will have to incorporate in daily 'work-situations' a much higher purpose for itself, its co-workers and their organizations, which is to say, become more inclusive, sustainable and personally be at peace with oneself. Just as there is evolution of the self, it would reflect on the evolution and behaviour of Capital. The Syndetic Paradigm explains lucidly how the untrodden path, if taken, may disclose an altogether new point of access to the pressing problem of our search for personal peace and social harmony."

Amazon Reviews

"This work is a closely argued explication of a set of ideas with which the author has been concerned both theoretically and practically for the last twenty plus years. As such, it is impossible within the space of a short review to do justice to the range of ideas and experiences synthesized therein, (e.g. complexity theory, dream interpretation, natural morality, religious symbolism, sex, spiritual experience). And while it remains to be seen as to whether or not the author's ambition to foster a new paradigm comes to fruition, I can say unequivocally that he has produced a work not only of exceptional rigor and clarity, but also of passionate faith.
"Building on the ideas of Freud and Jung and his own work as a practicing psychotherapist, Aziz goes beyond merely arguing for an expanded model of analytical theory and practice, i.e. "for paradigmatic shift from a closed-system model of a self-regulating psyche to an open-system model of psyche in a self-regulating totality," (page 36), to call for a fundamental change in our perspective of the nature of reality and our place in it - "From it's very depths the collective soul of our psyche cries out to be released from its entrapment in that which has been the legacy of humanity's secular and religious ideologies,"(page 293). This book should be inspirational not only to practicing therapists but to us ordinary mortals struggling with what it means to be fully human. "

"In C. G. Jung's final work, the Mysterium Coniunctionis - a book which many Jungians have not even bothered to read - we find the following in graph 675: "If the demand for self-knowledge is willed by fate and is refused, this negative attitude may end in real death. The demand would not have come to this person had he still been able to strike out on some promising by-path. But he is caught in a blind alley from which only self-knowledge can extricate him. If he refuses this then no other way is open to him. Usually he is not conscious of his situation, either, and the more unconscious he is the more he is at the mercy of unforeseen dangers: he cannot get out of the way of a car quickly enough, in climbing a mountain he misses his foothold somewhere, out skiing he thinks he can just negotiate a tricky slope, and in an illness he suddenly loses the courage to live. The unconscious has a thousand ways of snuffing out a meaningless existence with surprising swiftness. The connection of the unio mentalis with the death-motif is therefore obvious, even when death consists only in the cessation of spiritual process."
"This demand for self-knowledge, as Jung puts it, unfolds in a process Jung calls "Individuation." The call to individuation, if willed by fate, as Jung says, begins sometime in the early thirties and can escalate from there, becoming acute as one enters one's final third of life. This path can be a ferocious one, bewildering in its complexity and compulsion, and usually it is heralded by a flurry of synchronicities that intensify with time. To negotiate the subtleties of this path successfully, one needs a guide, and in this regard, the work of Robert Aziz is indispensable. His two books - The Syndetic Paradigm and Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity - are the preeminent works in the field - the most practically useful, bar none - since Jung first disclosed his synchronicity theory to intimates on November 28, 1928. If you are someone who is struggling at the edge, bewildered yet compelled, you may find precisely the sustenance you need in these two potent works. I can't recommend them highly enough. "

"This remarkable work is first and foremost the establishment of a wholly unique psychological paradigm, and secondarily a critique of its Jungian and Freudian predecessors. Though the Syndetic Paradigm is obviously influenced by the Jungian worldview of the compensatory psyche, it cogently demonstrates that the intrapsychic model is fundamentally flawed and incomplete. Of noteworthy importance, it also asserts that the sexual reductionism of conscious psychological phenomena under the Freudian view, and the myopic rejection of the sexual instinct in its entirety by the Jungian view, is fundamentally incorrect and untenable. Most importantly, both the Jungian and Freudian models have significant shortcomings when applied to real-world case studies and analyses. Further, it asserts that the archetypal reductionism of the Jungian paradigm is antithetical to a proper clinical understanding.
"The Syndetic Paradigm is born out of the need to consolidate the phenomena of synchronicity with the intrapsychic model. In doing so, it critically rejects the intrapsychic model for a model that incorporates the psyche into a "self-organizing whole" that is nature (this point is conclusively explained in the first chapter). Self-organizing nature is a necessary balance to the second law of thermodynamics (the law of entropy); however, it should not be conceived of as a strictly physical law of the universe. It is similar to the concept of Tao. Synchronistic phenomena, then, are not simply fortuitous occurrences (in the Jungian view, synchronicities, although meaningful in themselves, are simply isolated occurrences without any greater import). By moving from a closed-system intrapsychic model to an open-system model of the psyche that incorporates all of Reality, the significance of synchronistic phenomena becomes clear. Jung himself noted that archetypes underlie synchronistic phenomena. He states, "By far the greatest number of spontaneous synchronistic phenomena that I have had occasion to observe and analyze can easily be shown to have a direct connection with an archetype." In conceding as much, Dr. Aziz states, "Jung wished to identify the archetype as a psychophysical factor coextensive with nature in its entirety." Since the archetypes are relegated to the psyche in the Jungian paradigm, there is no basis for integrating synchronistic phenomena into an intrapsychic model; and thus Jung stops short and is unable to understand the wider implications. The Syndetic Paradigm, however, makes the critical step of asserting that "the archetype is not the foundational basis of what is occurring (i.e., synchronicity phenomena)." Rather, Dr. Aziz states that archetypal synchronicities are simply that through which self-organizing nature finds expression. The implications of an open-model of the psyche in a "self-organizing totality" are then immediately apparent. Indeed, the First Principle of the Syndetic Paradigm states:
""The self-regulation of the psyche is a manifestation of the compensatory interaction between, not simply the conscious and unconscious, but rather consciousness and nature in its entirety."
"Under this view, synchronicity is conceived of as a compensatory phenomena present in nature as a whole. However, the Syndetic Paradigm clearly asserts that the compensatory activities of self-organizing nature should not be subject to "archetypal reductionism." Furthermore, the compensatory activity of nature is an expression of its intrinsic morality. As concerns sexuality, the Fifth Principle of the Syndetic Paradigm states, "The ultimate objective of human sexuality, accordingly, is for us to deepen our experience of consciousness and life by aligning ourselves directly with the life-giving energies of the sexual instinct in its own right." In stark contrast to the Jungian paradigm, in the Syndetic Paradigm, the process of individuation is therefore "conceived of as a compensatory interaction between the ego and the complex system of nature in its entirety in a process of unfoldment."
"The Syndetic Paradigm thus establishes an independent psychological worldview that is as unique as it is powerful. The immediate implication is that the life experience as a whole carries with it profound meaning and significance. Meaning is not simply to be found in the inner world, but must actively be sought through engagement with Reality. It is only through this engagement that we achieve a higher level of development, and ultimately happiness.
"I cannot recommend this book more highly. Dr. Aziz, thank you.
"EDIT -
"I've read this brilliant work several times now since I originally wrote this review. The depth of this work is truly awe-inspiring. It demands thoughtful, direct, deep engagement. Each successive reading has provided me with new realizations and understanding. "