“Soap bubbles”. Vera Nilsson
(1927).
Abstract: The puer aeternus (eternal youth) is an
archetypal image found in mythology that also denotes a neurotic
condition in which the maturational process becomes arrested.
This condition depends on an inability to take root in life. In
the present era, this condition has reached epidemic proportions.
To understand contemporary societal and political changes, it is
necessary to grasp the “Peter Pan syndrome,”
which is well-known to psychotherapists. Not only does this
represent a tragedy for individuals who risk wasting their
lives — this psychological rootlessness poses
a threat to our civilization. Christianity’s influence on
Western humanity’s ethos is analyzed.
Keywords: Peter Pan, The Little Prince, infantilism,
cultural dissolution, Mel Faber, M-L von
Franz, St. Augustine, Christianity.
Introduction
Puer Aeternus first appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a
reference to Iacchus, the child-god of the Eleusinian mysteries.
This divine figure, later associated with Dionysus and Eros,
emerges from ancient mother-goddess cults and represents cycles
of death and rebirth. Like similar deities across ancient
cultures — Tammuz, Attis, and
Adonis — Iacchus embodies themes of
regeneration, resurrection, and perpetual youth. The term has
since evolved beyond its mythological origins to describe a
psychological pattern in men characterized by a pronounced
maternal complex, serving both as an ancient archetype and a
modern psychological concept. A lexicon defines the term
according to psychological terminology:
Puer aeternus. Latin for ‘eternal child,’ used in mythology to designate a child-god who is forever young; psychologically it refers to an older man whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level, usually coupled with too great a dependence on the mother. [The term puella is used when referring to a woman, though one might also speak of a puer animus — or a puella anima.]
The puer typically leads a provisional life, due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. His lot is seldom what he really wants and one day he will do something about it — but not just yet. Plans for the future slip away in fantasies of what will be, what could be, while no decisive action is taken to change. He covets independence and freedom, chafes at boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable […] Common symptoms of puer psychology are dreams of imprisonment and similar imagery: chains, bars, cages, entrapment, bondage. Life itself, existential reality, is experienced as a prison. The bars are unconscious ties to the unfettered world of early life. (Sharp, 1991)
This feeling of being fettered characterizes today’s
ideological mindset. It is now typical among leftist, feminist,
and black “liberation” groups to claim that they are
constrained by societal structures created by the oppressive
White Patriarchy (symbolic of the demanding father figure). The
demands of adult life can indeed be difficult to endure,
especially during times of economic hardship. However, when an
ideology is created from this youthful concept, society becomes
bound to produce a multitude of alienated people each year. It is
imperative that this ongoing epidemic be better understood.
Freudians call it the ‘Peter Pan syndrome,’ which is
the title of Dan Kiley’s book from 1983. (However, he
provides no references to Jungian authors who had already
researched the problem.)
The puerile form of narcissism has not yet received full
attention from the psychological community. In comparison, there
exists a vast amount of literature on the Oedipal form of
narcissism, which is connected with narcissistic personality
disorder. Whereas Oedipal narcissism is the specialty of
Freudians, the puer aeternus is the specialty of Jungians.
Marie-Louise von Franz analyzes a figure
corresponding to Peter Pan, namely “The Little
Prince” by Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry. As an archetype, the puer aeternus
represents something valuable and wonderful, although
identification with it leads to tragic consequences. An important
difference is that the puerile narcissist is decidedly more
sociable than the Oedipal type. The latter becomes a nuisance in
workplaces because the little King Oedipus has no notion
that he can be wrong, which causes problems when deciding how to
resolve matters. Yet such persons can be quite industrious. The
puer aeternus is different. I once knew a handsome and friendly
puer who, although he was an adult man, genuinely believed that
he could live without money. What need did he have for the facts
of reality? He could just as well settle on asteroid B-612, like
the Little Prince. M-L von Franz
characterizes the puer aeternus:
Precisely because the puer entertains false pretensions, he becomes collectivized from within, with the result that none of his reactions are really very personal or very special. He becomes a type, the type of the puer aeternus. He becomes an archetype, and if you become that, you are not at all original, not at all yourself and something special, but just an archetype […] One can foretell what a puer aeternus will look like and how he will feel. He is merely the archetype of the eternal youth god, and therefore he has all the features of the god: he has a nostalgic longing for death, he thinks of himself as being something special, he is the one sensitive being among all the other tough sheep. He will have a problem with an aggressive, destructive shadow which he will not want to live and generally projects, and so on. There is nothing special whatsoever. The greater the identification with the youthful god, the less individual the person although he himself feels so special. (von Franz, 2000, p. 121)
A teenage boy who refuses to accept responsibility might
become a grown man who refuses to accept responsibility. Yet not
all of them will become vagrants or alcoholics. Rather, their
irresponsibility is typically hidden behind a respectable façade.
The most characteristic trait of the puer is that he will
refrain from taking root in the present, instead continuing to
hover like a helium balloon through his life. Although the puer
is often capable of maintaining employment, he is incapable of
taking a passionate interest in his work. For example, a puer
working as a software developer will take no genuine interest in
algorithmic techniques or the advanced features of programming
languages.
Instead, he is likely to adopt a strangely indifferent attitude,
as if he were floating in the air, even when the company risks
bankruptcy. It is merely a provisional job, after all. If he is
married, that too is a provisional arrangement. The prevalence of
the puerile syndrome explains why people in the present era
change partners so frequently. Several authors have noted their
proclivity for short-lived romantic attachments (cf. Yeoman,
1998, p. 28). Neither the puer nor the puella possesses the
capacity for genuine emotional attachment. They have no strong
passion for anything or anyone, but remain dissolute and
unfaithful in the general sense — a moral
incapacity characteristic of the pueri aeterni.
The puerile society
I maintain that the puer aeternus syndrome has emerged as an
enormous problem of our time and even poses a threat to Western
civilization. It underlies the prevailing cultural and moral
relativism in the Western world. The puer aeternus refuses to
take root in our common heritage. He has no love for our great
cathedrals or for our intellectual tradition. Cultural
unfaithfulness, combined with the refusal to mature, has given
rise to an ideology of multiculturalism according to which
“anything goes.” There exists a belief that all
cultures, theories, religions, personalities, and ethnic groups
are interchangeable because they are not essentially different.
The “ideology of sameness” impedes individuation,
keeping people trapped in the kindergarten of uniformity.
Yet the current ideology of sameness builds upon a puerile form
of indifference towards culture and ethnicity. The puer aeternus,
since he lacks enthusiasm for learning, never develops a proper
understanding of anything. Among the pueri aeterni are many
politicians and journalists who remain indifferent to our
Christian legacy. Nor have they investigated Islamic culture or
delved into anthropology and psychology. It is only in their
capacity as “empty balloons,” floating above reality,
that they are able to claim that “anything goes.” Had
they acquired proper understanding, they would realize that many
differences of culture and human nature are
fundamental — contradictions and incongruities
that inevitably lead to destructive consequences.
But the puer aeternus is not troubled by such concerns. He has no
passion for our civilization, since he is essentially loveless.
Behind the façade, he feels no responsibility whatsoever for our
cultural heritage. Relativism means that there really is no such
thing as right or wrong. Conservative philosopher
Roger Scruton employs the term ‘oikophobia’
(’ecophobia’) and defines it as “the
repudiation of inheritance and home.” He argues that it is
“a stage through which the adolescent mind normally
passes.” In adulthood, it is a feature of certain,
typically leftist, political impulses and ideologies that espouse
xenophilia (preference for alien cultures) (cf. Wiki:
‘Oikophobia’).
Former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in a recent
interview (Dec 24, 2014) that “Sweden belongs to the
immigrants — not the Swedes.” When
flying over Sweden, he could see that there is plenty of space
for new inhabitants (the puer aeternus is fond of airplanes, says
M-L von Franz). In a speech in Södertälje
in November 2006, he claimed that “only barbarism is
domestic” and that “all advancement derives from
abroad” (something that earned him the nickname
“Freddy the Barbarian”).
A Prime Minister who says such things about his own country and
people cannot be of sound mind. There is a complete lack of
objectivity, monumental naïveté, as well as the
characteristically puerile lack of grounding in culture. Yet
Reinfeldt, as the self-professed quisling of the modern era, is
not an uncommon example, because politics is replete with pueri
aeterni. This inevitably leads to the disintegration of culture.
The following prescient excerpt was written more than 70 years
ago by sociology professor Pitirim Sorokin
(1889 – 1968). Sorokin says that when any
socio-cultural system enters the stage of its disintegration, it
first enters a phase of inner self-contradiction in the form of
irreconcilable dualism. It soon becomes formless as it develops a
chaotic syncretism of undigested elements taken from
different cultures:
An emergence of a chaotic syncretism in a given integrated culture is another general symptom of its disintegration. The classical example is given by the overripe sensate culture of Greece and Rome. In that stage it became, in the words of Tacitus, “the common sink into which everything infamous and abominable flows like a torrent from all quarters of the world” […]
This all-pervading syncretism is reflected in our mentality, in our beliefs, ideas, tastes, aspirations, and convictions. The mind of contemporary man is likewise a dumping place of the most fantastic and diverse bits of the most fragmentary ideas, beliefs, tastes, and scraps of information. From Communism to Catholicism, from Beethoven or Bach to the most peppy jazz and the cat-calls of crooning; from the fashion of the latest movie or best-seller to the most opposite fashion of another movie or best-seller — all coexist somehow in it, jumbled side by side, without any consistency of ideas, or beliefs, or tastes, or styles […]
Viewed from this standpoint, our intellectual life is but an incessant dance of jitterbugs. Its spineless and disjointed syncretism pervades all our social and mental life. Our education consists mainly in pumping into the mind-area of students the most heterogeneous bits of information about everything […] Our ethics is a jungle of discordant norms and opposite values. Our religious belief is a wild concoction of a dozen various “Social Gospels,” diversified by several beliefs of Christianity diluted by those of Marxianism, Democracy, and Theosophy, enriched by a dozen vulgarized philosophical ideas, corrected by several scientific theories, peacefully squatting side by side with the most atrocious magical superstitions […]
This jumble of diverse elements means that the soul of our sensate culture is broken down. It appears to have lost its self-confidence. It begins to doubt its own superiority and primogeniture. It ceases to be loyal to itself. It progressively fails to continue to be its own sculptor, to keep unimpaired the integrity and sameness of its style, that takes in only what agrees with it and rejects all that impairs it. Such a culture loses its individuality. It becomes formless, shapeless, styleless. (Sorokin, 1957, pp. 241-54.)
Due to ongoing cultural dissolution, the pueri aeterni are growing in numbers. The ISIS warriors who travel from Europe to join the Islamists are mostly recruited from the puer group. They are typically portrayed as “lost youth” who have suddenly found a passionate connection with life, namely becoming part of the murderous machine. It was found that one traveler had purchased the book “Islam for Dummies” before departing, which is very telling. Probably Adolf Hitler, before he fell prey to his obnoxious shadow — during which time he lived as a vagrant and also maintained good relations with Jews(!) — can be diagnosed with the puer aeternus syndrome. The characteristic neurotic solution of the puer consists in a compulsive descent from an aeronautical lifestyle:
The strange thing is that it is mainly the pueri aeterni who are the torturers and establish tyrannical and murderous police systems. So the puer and the police-state have a secret connection with each other; the one constellates the other. Nazism and Communism have been created by men of this type. The real tyrant and the real organizer of torture and of suppression of the individual are therefore revealed as originating in the not-worked out mother complex of such men. (von Franz, 2000, p. 164)
This phenomenon explains why the pueri aeterni so commonly defame people as “Fascists” and reactionary “hardasses” — it is because they are projecting their own shadow. [1] Nazism, Communism, Islamism, and Fascism belong to the authoritarian shadow of the puer aeternus. This is the megalomaniacal phantasmagoria that serves as a new foundation when the puer attempts to leave behind his “pluralistic,” acultural, and rootless condition. Von Franz explains:
In the practical life of the puer aeternus, that is, of the man who has not disentangled himself from the eternal youth archetype, one sees the same thing: a tendency to be believing and naive and idealistic, and therefore automatically to attract people who will deceive and cheat such a man […]
As you know, Christ is the shepherd and we are the sheep. This is a paramount image in our religious tradition and one which has created something very destructive, namely, that because Christ is the shepherd and we the sheep, we have been taught by the Church that we should not think or have our own opinions, but just believe. If we cannot believe in the resurrection of the body — such a mystery that nobody can understand it — then one must just accept it. Our whole religious tradition has worked in that direction, with the result that if now another system comes, say Communism or Nazism, we are taught that we should shut our eyes and not think for ourselves, that we should just believe the Führer or Kruschev. We are really trained to be sheep!
As long as the leader is a responsible person, or the leading ideal is something good, then it is okay. But the drawback of this religious education is now coming out very badly, for Western individuals of the Christian civilization are much more easily infected by mass beliefs than the Eastern. They are predisposed to believe in slogans, having always been told that there are many things they cannot understand and must just believe in order to be saved. So we are trained to be like sheep. That is a terrific shadow of the Christian education for which we are now paying. (ibid. pp. 42-43)
Mel Faber (2010) criticizes religion from a similar perspective and alleges that “the doctrinal, ritualistic core of Christianity harbors a magical process of infantilization” (Faber, 2010, p. 19).
There is just too much supportive material [to] miss the overwhelming emphasis upon infantilizing the worshiper, upon transforming him or her into an utterly dependent, utterly submissive, utterly obedient “little child” following after the explicitly parental figures of the Almighty Lord and His pastoral Son from Whom he or she continuously seeks provision and protection through prayer. (ibid. p. 12)
Allegedly, Christian religion exploits our early experience of
being a helpless, dependent little child in the care and
protection of an all-powerful parent. The religious feeling stems
especially from the early period that is lost to our explicit
recollection. The unconscious longing for the parental figure is
projected onto the religious narrative, which acquires divine
dimensions. Thus, spiritual awareness is predicated upon
infantile attachment to an internalized, all-powerful parental
presence. Faber maintains that “it is precisely the
‘engram’ of the first relationship [at which]
Christianity aims its traditional or sacred ‘cues,’
the substance of its doctrinal and ritualistic enactments”
(ibid. p. 57). The devotee can feel the connection
within, and thus the unconscious associations have a seductive
effect, which leads to blind faith in religious narrative. The
result, Faber explains, is collective infantilization, because we
are required to adhere to the rules and dutifully propitiate the
Parental God. To be saved, Christian style, is to become innocent
as a child and to surrender wholly to authority.
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Modern Christianity, as a secular misinterpretation of historical
faith, may indeed have contributed to this trend. However, I
suggest that both von Franz and Faber misinterpret
Christianity’s historical function and role. If it has had
such an infantilizing effect, then it is difficult to explain why
Christian civilization rose to power and came to outshine all
other civilizations. Christian faith answered an inner thirst for
fellowship with the divine while also providing a predominantly
transcendental view of the sacred. St. Augustine
(354 – 430) renounces the antique ideal of
divine orderliness in the earthly realm and instead elevates the
City of God as the ideal (Augustine, 2015). He contrasts worldly
striving after power and glory, the pursuit of earthly joys, and
the grasping after transitory things with the eternal City of
God, whose citizens live according to the spirit, not according
to the flesh. The City of God, which can be acquired through
faith, “has lived alongside the kingdoms of this world and
their glory, and has been silently increasing” (Augustine,
Kindle Loc. 135).
The Earthly City, on the other hand, is divided against itself.
It is characterized by conflict, vice, and pride, and the
relentless search for terrestrial and temporal benefits. In
contrast, Augustine emphasizes ideals that transcend the worldly,
connected with the rational soul. What gives peace to the soul is
the “well-ordered harmony of knowledge and actions”
(cf. Augustine, Kindle Loc. 15769-71). Central is the
investigation or discovery of truth so that we may arrive
at useful knowledge by which we may regulate life and conduct.
The invisible spirit — which encompasses
truth, morality, and inner harmony — takes
precedence over outer societal orderliness and worldly success.
In his masterpiece, St. Augustine manages to refute the
notion of the earthly Utopia, which had become an ideal in the
Roman epoch. This change of perspective that emphasizes the
transcendent had already begun with St. Paul. It laid the
foundation for modern civilization and is also the psychological
basis for the scientific mindset.
Faber contends that becoming a child of God, subordinating
oneself to the transcendental Godhead, is the same as becoming a
naive and credulous lackey of societal authority. But the
Christian message of faith and the ideal of becoming an obedient
“little child” of God does not imply credulousness in
worldly matters. Accordingly, Jesus says: “Behold, I send
you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise
as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16). In fact,
acquiring a foothold in the transcendental
realm — the City of
God — is a requirement for authentic
psychological detachment and autonomy. The early Christians
rejected many demands of earthly authorities. Thus, it is hardly
Christian religion that has given birth to the puer aeternus.
Faber claims that Christianity represents “a magical,
prescientific mode of discourse” that serves to infantilize
its followers, “urging them to rely for security and
behavioural guidance on faith, on the existence and the
perfection of overarching parental spirits from the beyond, as
opposed to their own human reason and good sense” (Faber,
2010, p. 291). As a matter of fact, as the
“childlike” side of personality is provided for by
the church, it allows the pragmatic side of personality free rein
in the material world, precisely because the latter is being
deflated as a goal of personality. It is pointless and vain to
quest after worldly perfection in the form of an orderly earthly
paradise. Since Christianity endeavored to separate the
transcendental domain from the immanent, the gods and spirits
that dwelt in temporality, and all sorts of superstitions,
persistently dwindled in parallel with the advance of
Christianity.
Yet with the advent of modern times, people began to leave the
embrace of the church. For this reason, we have seen an enormous
upsurge in idealistic beliefs projected onto the earthly
condition. Communism and Fascism stand out as the most
destructive worldly belief systems, but the plague continues in
our current era in the form of multitudinous infantile
“-isms.” In a way, it represents a regression to
pre-Christian mentality, although pagan religious creed is now
called “ideology.” The ideologists all inhabit the
Earthly City, whose mythic founder was Cain. According to
Augustine, it is equivalent to Babylon and Confusion. Thus,
Christian faith has served as a bulwark against pagan and naive
mentality, which conflates the spiritual with the worldly. To
become a child of the Savior was the recipe for civilizational
and scientific success, as rationality, morality, and
interiority rose as guiding stars (cf. Winther, 2011).
Critics of Christianity, such as Faber, do not recognize that
tenets of faith (virgin birth, resurrection, etc.) refer not to
the earthly condition but to the City of God. Nor are critics
aware of the separate ideals of the spiritual and the transitory.
The religious message is seen as “the veiling, or the
denying, of the inescapable biological realities that not only
mark us but define us as natural creatures in the world”
(Faber, 2010, p. 193). Allegedly, it would be better to see
things as they really are rather than live a lifetime of
comforting illusions. But this is a caricature of Christian
religion, which does not consign the believer to a life of
reverie. On the contrary, human nature is seen as flawed, stained
by original sin. Worldly existence, although tolerable, is
permeated by strife, suffering, and decay. Augustine explains
that it is actually the citizens of the Earthly City who are in
pursuit of an illusion.
As for those who have supposed that the sovereign good and evil are to be found in this life, and have placed it either in the soul or the body, or in both, or, to speak more explicitly, either in pleasure or in virtue, or in both; […] — all these have, with a marvellous shallowness, sought to find their blessedness in this life and in themselves. Contempt has been poured upon such ideas by the Truth, saying by the prophet, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men” […] “that they are vain.”
For what flood of eloquence can suffice to detail the miseries of this life? […] For when, where, how, in this life can these primary objects of nature be possessed so that they may not be assailed by unforeseen accidents? Is the body of the wise man exempt from any pain which may dispel pleasure, from any disquietude which may banish repose? The amputation or decay of the members of the body puts an end to its integrity, deformity blights its beauty, weakness its health, lassitude its vigour, sleepiness or sluggishness its activity, — and which of these is it that may not assail the flesh of the wise man? Comely and fitting attitudes and movements of the body are numbered among the prime natural blessings; but what if some sickness makes the members tremble? […] What shall I say of the fundamental blessings of the soul, sense and intellect, of which the one is given for the perception, and the other for the comprehension of truth? But what kind of sense is it that remains when a man becomes deaf and blind? where are reason and intellect when disease makes a man delirious? […] And what shall I say of those who suffer from demoniacal possession? (Augustine, Kindle Loc. 15409-29)
Modern infantilism does not stem from Christianity. Rather, I
theorize that many pueri aeterni are essentially different from
the mature Western personality. They live in a radically
different conceptual universe, as if floating around in a bubble.
Psychoanalysis has always underestimated the constitutional
differences among human beings. I believe that
“patriarchal” personality, denoting the
individuating personality, is essentially different from
“matriarchal” (mother-bound) personality. The
principle of individuation takes root in early childhood and only
in certain individuals. So the matriarchal personality does not
‘evolve’ into the patriarchal because it represents a
different branch of the human tree. The two human branches
correspond to the City of God and the Earthly City.
I would characterize many adult men in the Western world as
‘dorks’ or ‘drones.’ In my country, they
have ascended to power in government and institutions. As
criminal psychopaths ruled Germany in the thirties, so do the
drones rule much of the Western world in the present era. They
are like little twigs, little phalluses, on the trunk of the
Mother tree. Their personality resembles that of a
twelve-year-old who will never truly adapt to reality, mentally
remaining in his boyhood room. Such people are
“playing” a boyhood game in which the world is
Mama’s paradise, where motherliness and multiculturalism
prevail. The drones are almost like a different species that the
church managed to enclose in its garden but which is now
ascending to power. Arguably, they have always been present. It
is just that they have, through societal changes, become more
conspicuous in modern times. Immigration contributes to a
considerable increase in their numbers.
Oscillation between dependence and
independence
Drawing on anthropologist Victor Turner’s work on ritual
and social structure, Bruce Reed (1970) identifies two
contrasting social models: the differentiated and structured
relationships of everyday life, and the undifferentiated and
homogeneous relationships found in ritual activity. Societies
oscillate between these states, with religion serving as the
vehicle for temporary regression to dependence that subsequently
enables renewed engagement with structured social life. This
observation appears to corroborate the preceding analysis.
Individuals naturally transition between states of dependence
(where they can recuperate and regain strength) and independence
(where they actively engage with the world). Reed contends that
this cyclical pattern is essential for psychological health.
Religious gatherings create environments that express dependence
(as demonstrated by von Franz and Faber) while
simultaneously providing frameworks for evoking, expressing, and
regulating emotions.
Reed conceptualizes this oscillation as movement between chaos
and cosmos, emphasizing that authentic faith can guide
congregations towards controlled regression, thereby enabling
their return to structured society with enhanced autonomy and
moral authority. He argues that the Church’s function in
society is to address people’s dependency needs. While many
contemporary thinkers advocate for humanity “coming of
age” and outgrowing dependence on God, psychological
research suggests that genuine independence and maturity actually
depend upon underlying security and dependence. A
“childlike” dependence on God enables autonomous
functioning within society.
The puerile ideal of pluralism
The theory around the puer aeternus can also help us understand
why Jungian psychology has difficulties advancing to a
respectable academic level. By all evidence, psychology, much
like politics and journalism, is being swamped by pueri aeterni,
or at least people poisoned by the “pluralistic
relativism” of our times. Thus, a well-known Jungian
analyst and author can say:
For me, Jung has left behind a number of wonderful toys which I can carry into my playground. This Jungian inheritance is mixed together with toys left behind by Freud, Klein, Bion, Winnicott, Kohut and many others. My “Jung” wanted us to play with these toys, mix them up, make new things with them, and invent new games. My “Jung” did not want us to mummify, safeguard, or enshrine his ideas — but I believe he did want us to embrace the spirit of inquiry that all of his ideas emerged from. (Winborn, 2015)
Moreover, a well-known Jungian analyst has proclaimed
“the diversity of psychology and the psychology of
diversity” (Samuels, 1989, ch. 12). Yet he has
effectively refuted the idea of theoretical pluralism because it
is somehow obvious that it cannot work. The scientific community
would dismiss it as whimsy since it flies in the face of the
empirical paradigm. However, the puer aeternus has no problem
with this because he has no passion for science or for the
Platonic and Aristotelian pursuit of truth. Science is merely a
way of “toying” with the plurality of theories while
traveling in one’s balloon. It requires a superficial
attitude, which means that theories are not properly understood.
In fact, they are genuinely contradictory. Many are
scientifically obsolete, while others have harmful consequences
for the patient. Of course, thinkers of this ilk do not care
about the future survival of psychology. The puer takes no real
interest in its theses anyway. He has no desire to dig deeper, to
substantiate and develop psychological theory. To the puer, all
things are toys, like pieces on a game board.
Psychologist James Hillman prided himself on being a puer
aeternus, whereas Jungian analyst Daryl Sharp and
psychoanalyst Dan Kiley both claim to have overcome their
condition. It is evident that the puer aeternus problem is
increasing. It is sometimes difficult for immigrants to adapt to
a new culture, which leads to rootlessness. M-L
von Franz criticizes the way in which modern welfare
society infantilizes its members through economic dependency.
Moreover, our culture seems to generate a mentality of fantasy
and ideology. The puerile community is very fond of nebulous
words like ‘multicultural dynamics,’
‘oppressive structures,’ and ‘complex and
multidimensional.’ Society is viewed as a huge multifarious
hodgepodge that cannot be analyzed. In this way, one need not
relate to the facts of reality.
Much of today’s societal problems stem from a psychogenic
incapacity for growing up. Rather than developing realistic
consciousness, many citizens remain idealistic in the naive
sense, retaining the immature and utopian mindset of adolescence.
This implies that consciousness is being infected by the
unconscious fantasy world, as conscious and unconscious are not
sufficiently separated. To subscribe to an ideology and to have
utopian ideals — that is, to live in a fantasy
world — is characteristic of many modern
citizens. It is characteristic of the pueri aeterni who remain
unaffected by the facts of reality. It was this very mindset that
St. Augustine successfully attacked by achieving a
separation of spiritual meaning and worldly existence. This
served to untangle consciousness from the archetypal imaginary
realm.
Could there also be a genetic component to this puerilization?
Historically, women’s economic dependence meant they
typically married ambitious men capable of supporting a family.
With women’s economic independence and the social safety
net, mate selection may now prioritize different traits, such as
physical attractiveness or social charm, rather than traditional
markers of financial stability or ambition. This shift in
selection pressures could theoretically influence population
genetics over time.
The remedy
Carl Jung argued that “hard work” is the remedy. It
does not merely serve the function of societal adaptation. It is
a way of becoming absorbed in something, which means that one
takes root in unexciting existence rather than hovering like a
balloon. Yet Jung and M-L von Franz
question whether hard work is always the right answer. Jung also
had a notion of “going through” the problem rather
than finding a resolution. In this way, one may emerge healed at
the other end, having thoroughly passed through the neurotic
phase. This reminds me of Wim Wenders’s road movies.
Perhaps a puer aeternus should try to immerse himself in the
problem by leading life like a vagrant, moving from motel room to
motel room in a thoroughly provisional existence. During this
phase, he is “totally committed to being a vagrant,”
which creates an interesting oxymoron.
However, I submit that St. Augustine’s time-honored
solution — to acquire a spiritual and
trinitarian passion — remains the foremost
remedy. The movement towards a transcendental ideal, inaugurated
by Christianity, caused the demise of religious worship of the
many immanent divinities of the classical era. It effected the
disentanglement of consciousness from the archetypes of the
unconscious, which was necessary for the advancement of realistic
consciousness. The mother complex implies that the conscious ego
is stuck within the motherly unconscious. My point is that the
separation of spirit and world causes a detachment of conscious
and unconscious. It constitutes a remedy against the mother
complex, of which the puer aeternus and the Oedipus complex are
different forms. The trinitarian form of mysticism requires
renunciation of the worldly and a more or less ascetic lifestyle.
It serves to rise above worldly identification. Arguably,
St. Augustine’s countermeasure against worldliness
remains a workable solution to the problem of the puer
aeternus.
