Abstract
Issues of cultural morality and health in a mediated reality of simulated illusion may be addressed with Jungian principles. The psychological dynamics of interactive images projected as media images correspond with psychological dream images as defined by Carl G. Jung. Therefore, images in the media mirror patterns of energy and information in what Jung called the collective unconscious. Dream dynamics may be used to address global political hacking, cyber warfare, and neuromarketing with ICTs.
TopIntroduction
As we experience a paradigm shift into a media age, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are altering the psychological parameters of human reality. Ongoing exposures relative to global political hacking, cyber warfare, neuromarketing, and consequences of mediated lies have made it abundantly clear that issues of cultural morality and health in a mediated reality of simulated illusion must be vigorously addressed and researched for years to come. The psychological dynamics of interactive images projected as media images correspond with the psychological and structural dynamics of dream images as defined by Carl G. Jung. If this is true, images in the media—media dreams or Archetypal Representations (AR)—mirror patterns of energy and information in what Jung called the collective unconscious.
Jung called dream images archetypal representations (AR) because they are relatively conscious projections of unconscious quantum/archetypal energy patterns that he called “archetypes”. Long before scientists began the study of quantum electrodynamics (QED), Jung discovered that these archetypes of the unconscious as well as their projections into “conscious” dimensions as AR have dramatic structure. Current cognitive research verifies that—indeed—the cognitive unconscious has the framework of metaphorical drama and that these story patterns may be correlated with energy patterns in the nervous system. (Lakoff, George, 2008, p. 23) Jung pioneered research on the healing dynamics of dreams. In doing so, he discovered the “moral” dynamics of illusion. This is highly significant relative to human navigation of the mediated age of illusion with which humanity is presently faced. Such verification suggests that Jungian genius may be effectively applied to the illusions of the Media-sphere which have suddenly manifested as cyber-warfare and political hacking. Unfortunately, Jung’s genius has not been appreciated. Instead, if media morality is considered at all, Sigmund Freud’s faulty model has been exalted. (Curtis, Adam, 2009)
Yes. Quantum, neurobiological, and media dimensions can be correlated. Therefore, human cognitive structure is susceptible to healing with the use of media biofeedback. Fundamental to Jungian healing with dream analysis is the principle that dreams “have a purpose,” and that the dream purpose is the discovery of meaning—with the help of biofeedback provided by a psychiatrist—through “compensation” or harmonization of conscious and unconscious psyche. Jungian compensation is a process (the Amplification Method) that defines an essentially coherent psychic state. Recent research on coherence confirms that coherent states “heal” and such harmonious states can be evoked with specific feedback technologies. Abundant research confirms that coherent psychological states increase emotional and perceptual stability as well as alignment among the physical, cognitive, and emotional systems. (McCraty & Childre, 2010) Our hypothesis is that the images projected by information and communication technologies (ICTs)—the media dreams of a population—are subject to psychological analysis and compensation in-order to disclose and address unconscious sources of psychological stress in contextual collectives. In other words, computational biofeedback that creates coherent states of being becomes the measurable quintessence not only of healthcare management but of generating and maintaining a global culture of conscience. (Schafer, Stephen Brock, 2018; Schafer, Stephen Ed. 2017; Schafer, Stephen, 2012)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Media Sphere: Has been defined by the author as the collective ecology of the world's media including newspapers, journals, television, radio, books, novels, advertising, press releases, publicity, and the blogosphere; any and all media both broadcast and published.
Contextuality: Jung’s principle of compensation demands that dream interpretation must incorporate significant familiarity and understanding of the individual or patient who is doing the dreaming. In order for ICT software to provide authentic compensation, the game must be specifically programmed to the psychological profile or “context” of the player.
Media Dream: The symbolic, semiotic, metaphorical map projected by a culture’s visual media—particularly film, television, the internet, and video games—that afford insight as to psychic harmony or imbalance of a culture.
Psychological Immersion: As applied in the dramatic arts, psychological immersion is known as suspension of disbelief. In current cognitive research, it applies mostly to the psychic function called emotion and is defined mostly in terms of feeling associations. The author uses the term relative to the infinite field of the unconscious—including elements of all the Jungian functions—not just the emotions. Precisely, immersion is the process of being submerged in the cognitive unconscious but retaining a degree of consciousness as one does in lucid dreaming states.