The collective unconscious !

 

The above photos of different behaviours of flowers in our garden following a downpour caught my attention yesterday.

The first two flowers look soaked with rain drops. The orchid has water drops on the flowers but was not drooping. The last two photos of flowers do not show the effects of rain. 

Each flower responded to rain drops differently.

In a heavy prolonged rain on my way to the air port yesterday, there was a traffic block of at least three kilometres. Most vehicles waited one behind the other patiently. There were few drivers using every opportunity to go ahead, although they blocked the vehicles coming from the opposite direction. They added to the blockage even more. The unmindful way of some of them brought out the habits that we live by under stressful situations! In a traffic congestion, most people behave in an orderly way and some others disregardful of others. 

What is that which helps us to live by a value system? Carl Jung, refers to this phenomenon as the collective unconscious. Each community or society reflects this collective unconscious in its attitude, behaviour and response to stressful situations. 

I came across a Paediatrician working in a town, who devotes one day in a week who gives special attention to developmentally challenged children and their parents.  The few children the Paediatrician welcomes gets special attention on that day. This Paediatrician mentioned of this as an act of supporting the stressed parents with conversation and suggestions to find a pathway for a home based learning plan for the children. This initiative generated interests in the other professionals in the hospital.  There is a new consciousness about creating more facility for such children in the hospital following this.  The decision of a Paediatrician influenced the collective consciousness, which then becomes the 'salt and light' to gradually evolve into the collective unconscious, which provides the moral grounding for people to feel rooted. 

Father Davis Chiramel, a catholic priest from Trichur donated his one kidney to  an electrician, Gopinathan, 48 years, in September 2009, to save his life following the kidney failure. This generous act created the a social initiative through Kidney Federation of India to promote live organ donation and help poor patients who suffer from kidney failure. There are many renal dialysis units which came up in different parts of Kerala, where economically stressed individuals get subsidised renal dialysis. It is one example of how the collective unconscious has been framed and formulated by an exemplary initiative of one person. 

Our behaviour is regulated by the ambience of the collective unconscious and the personal response arising from the awakening the collective unconscious creates within! 

The collective unconscious is an epigenetic influence modulating social behaviour!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)