3.2 Carbon seriesIndividual Person IThe most important theme of this series is the individual. The first distinction a child learns to make is that between himself and the rest of the world. His mother helps him confirm this fact. Children gradually learn to trust in themselves, they learn that the ‘I’ is strong enough to tackle the world. Jung has called this process ‘individuation’.
If the development of the ‘I’ is hampered or disturbed in any way they will develop all sorts of fears and questions about whether they are allowed to exist in this world. They will get stuck in questions like: ‘Who am I?’ ‘Do I have the right to be here?’ etc.
Another aspect of the theme regarding personality is the Persona, the mask, the part we show to the outside world. This still leaves the question of who this person really is. This question plays a role in the whole theme of ‘I’ or ‘
Self’, because everybody experiences an ‘I’, but doesn’t find it easy to define what that really is.
Body Vitality LustThe main identification in the
Carbon series is with the body. They can think they are their body. The boundary of the body is the skin, a very important organ for the
Carbon series. Anyone and anything outside the body can be dangerous, a threat, and can easily be seen as an enemy. So there are many fears in the
Carbon series: fear of infections, diseases, cancer, dangerous animals, lions, crocodiles, other people, and crowds.
Vitality, life force, vital force is prominent and very present in young children. The instinctive energies are very important. The primary instinctive drive is to survive, linked to the fear of death.
Food is another important issue. A good appetite is a sign of health and vitality. Sexuality is yet another lust, which signifies the enjoyment of the body. The ‘I’ feeling is being enormously stimulated.
Worth Self-worthThe quest to find the ‘I’ leads to the question of self-worth. Children want to know what is good or bad and can be educated about good and bad. They measure everything in terms of good and bad. They search for the meaning of life, the essence of things, the core of their existence.
Possessions Giving TakingPossessions and money are important. They are a means to survival. I, body, value and possessions are linked in a psychological sense.
Child childishThe age of the
Carbon series corresponds with that of the little child. A child is learning to differentiate. The most important differentiation is between himself and the other. These people are often childish in their behaviour, as if they haven’t properly completed the childhood state of life.
MindTheme: individual, person, personality, I, ego.
Psychiatric disturbances: depression, suicidal, borderline, neurosis, hysteria, schizophrenia, masochism, narcissism, dependent and antisocial personalities, promiscuity, sadism.
Child, naive, childish.
Birth process.
Theme: worth, self-worth, value, good and bad, ethics, meaning.
Theme: hero, conquering evil.
Magical mythical thinking, fairy tales.
Theme: family, parents, father, protection.
Theme: body, lust, vital, food, sex, money, possessions.
Causes: loss of family or relations, neglect in childhood, abuse, incest, absent parents, orphans, being beaten, violated, emotional violence, too much praise, being spoiled.
Sense: touch.
Fears: vague, the unknown, strangers, disease, or death of a family member or friends, loss of family and friends.
Lack of trust in the world.
Mood: timid, unsure, doubting, indecisive, controlling, obsessive, depressed, listless, apathetic, useless, suicidal, worse from thinking he is bad.
Aggression: over-assertive, fundamentalism with violence, the ’violence of purity’.
Contacts: pseudo relationships, dependent, aversion to discussion and compromise.
Learning from damage, loss of possessions.
Mental: disturbances in consciousness, dissociating, forgetful, lack of concentration, chaotic, psychosis, mania; better at home, being with with family, support of father figure, worse from trifles, frustrations and challenges.
BodyProblems in the development: late dentition, learning to walk and talk, late sexual development. Or early sexual development.
Vertigo, lightheaded.
Hyperventilation.