“The psyche is not of today; its ancestry goes back many millions of years. Individual consciousness is only a flower and fruit of a season, sprung from the perennial rhizome beneath the earth.”
– C.G Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 5
Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) described the psyche as millions of years old, and compared it to a rhizome. The subterranean rhizome has extensive underground networks. Jung viewed the rhizome as a matrix, the ‘root’ of the matter so to speak, to which all psyche’s ailments may be traced.
The image of a root structure embedded in soil, first appeared to me in a dream. In it, a solitary root body with outstretched rootlets, lay embedded in a patch of soil. The root looked rich and vibrant, but it had no manifestation on the ground above. Instead, it illuminated the soil in which it was formed, revealing a rich, loamy earth matrix. Although the surface layer and the ground below were linked in the image, the two layers were starkly contrasted. The surface was barren and visible, while the ground beneath was hidden, and held an emergent form. The dream suggested a vital life process under the bare surface, the contrasting soil layers mirroring the duality of the psyche, and its conscious and unconscious parts.
Jung’s description of the psyche as a perennial rhizome from which all consciousness springs, resonates with the image of a root, whose contents although hidden, are filled with an emergent potential. The submerged root body and the contrasting layers of earth signify a duality, that resonate closely with the structure of the psyche. Contemporary visual artist Michel Alexis’ impression of the rhizome as a living entity with fluid and interwoven lines reflects a similar complexity, in the interconnectedness of the root structure, and the fluidity of its lines.
The rhizome calls our attention to the barebones of psychic life, and the particulars of its environment. Rhizomatic structures form extended underground networks. Jung’s relation with India was also shaped from a maze of underlying links and interconnected histories, that could be retrieved decades after his journey. They reveal the cultural and historical climate in which Jung’s ideas were incepted in India. Jung-India platform takes into account this cultural context and delves into the rudiments of the unconscious psyche in its lived context, engaging with Jung’s concepts critically and using trans-disciplinary approaches in understanding the psyche.
Contact: sulagna@jung-india.org