The golden ass of Apuleius: psychological meaning of fairy tale symbols in clinical practice

History Of Urban Planning

The Golden ass

Jungian psychologists, and those who have followed them and constitute the much more loosely defined group of post-Jungian psychologists, have long found a rich source for clinical interventions in the realm of myth and fairy tale. Rather than dismissing these texts as childish, archaic, and irrelevant, post-Jungian psychologists like Marie-Louise von Franz have used the imagery and dynamics in these stories to help clients come to terms with the conflicts (tacit and overt) in their own lives and to move forward to more authentic, integrated selves. This paper examines the potential use of one classical story, the ass of Apuleius.

Analytical psychological schools such as post-Jungian practices, which include both depth psychology and archetypal psychology, are centered on an examination and liberation of the unconscious mind. This school of therapy posits that the unconscious mind has within it the power to heal whatever is wounded in the individual. However, while the power of the unconscious mind is essentially unlimited, it is also obscured by both individual defenses and by the fact that the unconscious mind speaks in symbols that require decryption

Archetypes, when considered in concert with a skilled therapist, can help the client to decipher the dynamics and messages of the unconscious mind. Archetypes are enduring images and characters that recur again and again in the literature, songs, and art of cultures across time and space. Their commonality in cultures that share little else, Jung and his followers argue, is a sign of their basis in the human psyche, the children of a shared collective unconscious (Mayes, 2005, p. 27).

The story of the Golden ass by Apuleius of Madaura is a story of men's liberation. According to von Franz, men need to participate in the liberation of women and therefore of society as a whole through the process of identifying and valuing the feminine qualities of their own nature. (Post-Jungian psychology follows Jung in dividing male and female attribute into a traditional Western dichotomy of animus and anima.) This story recounts the lengthy quests and adventure of a Roman youth who is transformed into an ass, through which he loses access to an uncomplicated relationship to his own humanity. He is only able to reclaim his humanity when he recognizes that he must release traditional virtues and strengths, an accomplishment that he obtains through acceptance into the mysteries of Isis.