The Witch and the Clown: Two Archetypes of Human Sexuality by Ann & Barry Ulanov

Author:Ann & Barry Ulanov [Ulanov, Barry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chiron Publications
Published: 2014-11-16T08:00:00+00:00

“He projects onto women in general the menacing power to reduce him to parts, to stun his ego, to leave him defenseless.” (Goya)

In some fairy tales, the power of the hag-witch to attack a man’s ego through his value system is also dramatized. A witch becomes a man’s spiritual connection, his tie to life. In “Melilot,” for example, the witch wants controlling power for herself over the life-giving water that irrigates a whole valley. Three brothers refuse to yield to her. She turns them into squishy, slimy frogs. The battle is over values. All the water for me, to do homage to my omnipotence, or water shared with everybody. The witch’s aim is clear; she aims to separate the brothers from their feeling for what matters.

A crisis in values is a witch’s happy hunting ground. If a man has projected onto the woman he loves and admires large pieces of ideals he holds dear, and the woman, insisting on expressing her own reality in her own way, shows that she differs from his image of her and cannot or will not carry his values for him exactly as he expects her to do, the bewitched man will become as angry now as he was loving before. He will turn upon her in rage, only to discover how his unthinking anger has hurt her and himself. What goes on here is the loosening of both ideal and identification. The man cannot lodge either in his chosen woman. He must strike out not at the woman or at himself, but at the bewitchment in which he has ensnared both of them. He must take up the task of relating to his values one way in himself, and another way out of himself. All his rage shows an unbounded aggression that needs to be struggled with, an aggression that must lead him to confront his values directly and no longer depend upon their mediation by the female.

At the opposite end of the value spectrum, when a man is still struggling between hedonistic self-gratification and loving others, the witch appears as a temptress promising her male votaries a fine, easy life. In “Peter and the Witch in the Wood,” the witch’s taste is for lazy, handsome lads. She draws them to her by shrewdly chosen criminal acts in which they must betray what they most value. Then she rewards them with an easy life of honor and riches that they can never earn for themselves. There is only one drawback. It is clear that they have done some evil thing, for the men can never again look up into anyone’s face comfortably, frankly. They must hide behind shaded glasses. The witch tempts Peter by her own disguise. She passes herself off as a beautiful maiden held under chains, her face hidden behind a veil. She sets Peter a pseudo-problem and a bogus sacrifice. Only something immensely precious to its owner will cut the chains loose. The witch lures Peter to try to steal what

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.