America’s Declaration of Independence has profoundly influenced the development of democracy and democratic movements all over the world, with its bold assertion:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This week Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano for a psychological exploration of the Declaration of Independence, marking its 250th anniversary this Fourth of July.
The Declaration of Independence grew from a need to separate from an authority that once provided structure and strength, but no longer served. Psychologically, this reflects an archetypal pattern: the movement away from external authority and toward a deeper source of inner authority.
Jung wrote, “In the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual”. His work shares the same sacred idea that we find in the Declaration: that the individual holds his or her own dignity, sovereignty and uniqueness. We are not granted rights by external authorities, these are innate to our humanity.
Of course, the nation built around the Declaration of Independence failed to live up to its ideals. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author, enslaved hundreds of people throughout his lifetime. At the heart of Independence Day celebrations lies a split, with noble principles dissociated from lived reality.
The Declaration of Independence’s centering of the individual, however, reinforces the Jungian idea that we can only solve crises in the collective if we each find the strength to withdraw our shadow projections. Cultural transformation begins with the difficult inner work we must find the courage to take on, working toward wholeness at the personal level.
Here’s the dream we analyze
“Long lost child given up for adoption”: My wife and I are staying at this resort, but it’s not very luxurious and feels a little bit like a hospital. It’s very cramped and we have a room that’s connected to a bigger room with tons of people staying in it, so you feel like you don’t really have any privacy. I have to go to my tiny room to take calls for work on my computer. We all walk down to the cafeteria and there are kids running around. One is a toddler that looks like my niece when she was a toddler. She grabs my leg and hugs me. I immediately realize that this is the child that my wife and I gave up for adoption before we had our first child. And it seems like the kid knows it as well and is crying and holding me very tightly and it’s very emotional for me as well and I look back to yell to my wife that this is our child we gave up. Then the toddler runs up the ramp ahead of us and I run up the ramp after her and I’m trying to find someone to talk to at the staff to let them know that that’s actually our kid, but I can’t find anyone at the front desk. Then I wake up but I’m actually still in the dream and I’m telling the people in our crowded room about the dream I had with this baby hugging me. In the dream my wife explains that it was impossible since that child is so young, not to mention that we never had a child we gave up for adoption. I laughed and realized that it couldn’t have happened. Then I wake up from that dream into actual reality.
Our guest – Robert Sheavly
Robert Sheavly, LICSW, DCSW is a Jungian Analyst located in Washington, D.C., a senior training analyst with the Philadelphia Jung Institute and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (I-RSJA) and the Director of the Central Washington Psychotherapy Associates. He is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds a diploma in Analytical Psychology from the I-RSJA. Bob is Treasurer of the Philadelphia Association and the Jungian Analysts and of the Jungian Analysts of Washington Association (JAWA) and the former Director of Training for the Philadelphia Jung Institute. He is a former church organist and an avid choral singer performing regularly with the National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the author of Ensouling AIDS: The Archetypal Dimension of the LGBT Choral Experience.
Resources discussed in this episode
- Read the full text of The Declaration of Independence in the U.S. National Archives.
- Edward Edinger, Ego and Archetype.
- Volodymyr Walter Odajnyk, Jung and Politics: The Political and Social Ideas of C. G. Jung (with foreword by Marie-Louise von Franz).
- Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation.
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