What if the theme of Harry Potter were -- we are our own worst enemy? (long)

[mclellyn]

No: HPFGUIDX 123941


Gadfly McLellyn wrote in #123800:
This past summer I happened to come across the book MAN AND HIS
SYMBOLS by Carl Gustav Jung. From that book I postulated the 
theory that the ending of the Harry Potter books would be that 
Harry Potter and Voldemort had to merge into one being (post 
110941).  <snip>
 
Bethany wrote:
 I think your theory looks quite sound.  I guess the only question I 
have for you would be.. what happens to Harry when/if he defeats 
Voldemort?  Are you saying the "good" in their split would take over 
and Harry would be as he has always been?  Vice versa if Voldemort 
were to defeat Harry would the "evil" in their split take over and 
Voldemort would be as he has always been?
snip

Gadfly McLellyn writes:
I'm hoping there are some Jung experts out there who will make this
clearer than I can.  I just stumbled onto this book.  I'm a very
analytical person not an analyst, but I will try to explain as best I
can.  

I think that Harry will assimilate Voldemort's power and qualities. 
According to Jung, this will promote growth and creativity -- think
Dumbledore and the Weasley twins.  In my other long, hard-to-read post
110941 it goes into this a bit.  I believe what Jung is saying is if
you do not know yourself then you act out in self-defeating ways.  I
think most us have seen this in other people.  As much as we would
like to think we do not have Voldemort/or Harry (depending on your
point of view) qualities, we do and in order to be mentally healthy we
have to acknowledge them to be able to focus them creatively.  Some
quotes about the forces of opposites from MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS:

"(Greek thinkers) postulated the existence of a sort of life-giving
"tension" (tonos), which supports and moves all things."  p306  .

"for Jung saw that the relationship between the conscious and
unconscious mind also forms a complementary pair of opposites." pg 308

"This is that every personification of the unconscious--the
shadow......, and the Self -- has both a light and a dark aspect.  We
saw before that the shadow may be base or evil, an instinctive drive
that one ought to overcome.  It may, however, be an impulse toward
growth that one should cultivate and follow.  In the same way the
anima and animus have dual aspects:  they can bring life-giving
development and creativeness to the personality, or they can cause
petrification and physical death."  page 216.

"We can also see that the arrangement of archetypal symbols follows a
pattern of wholeness in the individual, and that an appropriate
understanding of the symbols can have a healing effect.  And we can
see that the archetypes can act as creative or destructive forces in
our mind; creative when they inspire new ideas, destructive when these
same ideas stiffen into conscious prejudices that inhibit further
discoveries."  pg 304.

I believe both Dumbledore and the Weasley twins exhibit the
creativeness in the last two quotes, and I believe that is the journey
Harry is heading for.  In the Weasley twins, the pair of opposites
leading to creativity is shown in GOBLET OF FIRE p566 when they are
arguing about blackmailing Ludo Bagman for not paying them in real
gold.  This is  "....when the conscious and unconscious have learned
to live at peace and to complement one another."  p14 Introduction MAN
AND HIS SYMBOLS.  The twins are mischievous like their hero
Dumbledore, but they know where that line is.   Their joke shop
creativity is also an example of when the dual aspects of the
personality that brings "life-giving development and creativeness to
the personality". p216  The Weasley twins consciousness and
unconsciouness are in balance and it has brought them success.  That
is what will happen to Harry when he acknowledges/assimilates
Voldemort.  

Does that help?

Gadfly McLellyn