The Queen of Wonderland

Because this book project is different from anything that has ever been published about self-harming behaviour, I would have to describe what it is about in greater detail than I am willing to do at this time. Essentially, the book is about a modern style of fantasy whose seductive themes could be interpreted as metaphors for the inspirations behind self-harming behaviour. Because this topic can get very complicated, I will leave it at that for the time being. I will post a long and detailed explanation of the problem when the book is ready for publishing.

In the mean time, the project is coming together very well at this point, so that I can confidently say that I should have volume one completed sometimes in October. I decided to published the project in two volumes because it has grown too large for one book. Besides, by publishing it in two volumes means that I can get volume one out soon rather than waiting until next summer for the entire production to be completed. Volume one will contain the most important information as far as gaining an understanding of the material. Volume two will contain more examples from modern mythology that will be needed to complete the montage of fantasies that illustrate the nature of self-harming behaviour.

The project will serve two very different functions. The main purpose of the book is to illustrate the nature of self-harm behaviour by way of analogies that can be found hidden right in plain sight within popular cultural media. The second function is a spinoff of the purpose of the book, which explains the deeper meaning hidden within this popular form of modern fiction. This project illustrates how this fantasy material can be interpreted in a way other than those commonly employed by the sociological and psychological disciplines.

I have been very busy constructing the database of self-harm over the winter and I am now busy working on the book. I have arrived at a point where it is impossible to work on the book without the aid of the database because of the complexity of this phenomenon.

It was necessary to get very complex with the database in order to produce the book on self-harm in an easy to understand form. Without a good understanding of the paridoxical nature of self-harm it would be impossible to explain this phenomenon in a way that can be clearly understood by others. The database is used to create links that premit one to understand what is going on in the psychic background of an individual who is given to self-harm. The book itself will describe the phenomenon of self-harm in the form of analogies involving popular ancient and modern mythology rather than in terms of psychology.

A proper psychological explanation would be far too enigmatic even for conventional psychlogists themselves to comprehend. This is because, as I mentioned in my last post, there exists a mental block that prevents rational people from undrestanding the paradox of self-harm. Consequently, theorists are wont to make up explanations that fit cultural expectations that are nothing more than fantasies, which gives rise to a “professional” attitude that in effect says, “My fantasies are okay; your fantasies are delusions.”

Self-harm is a symptom that suggests that it is a dream-like quest that transcends conscious understanding, and concerns about one’s personal safety.

Method of Research

A Database of Self-Harming Behaviour

Malcolm Timbers

23 November 2009

 After having discovered the mythological theme that sets the psychic background mood that gives rise to phenomena like anorexia nervosa and cutting I decided to embark upon writing a book about the mythology behind anorexia nervosa and cutting. This proved to be a much more difficult that I originally envisioned the project to be because I was having difficult finding enough to write about this one theme without having to get too deeply involved in writing about the psychology of anorexia nervosa. I am aware that most people do not like reading serious psychological literature, so I wanted to keep away from delving into that aspect of self-harming behaviour. After finding the subject to be more complex than I had envisioned it to be, I decided to revise and expand upon a database that I created on Jungian psychology about 25 years ago.

 The database gave me the ability to make connection between seemingly unrelated phenomena for the purpose of understanding the fantasy thinking that transpires whenever an individual has difficulty adapting to his or her environment. These fantasies generally involve mythological themes that can form a creative, i.e., symbolic, image of the underlying cause of the self-harming behaviour without having to involve the sort of messy psychological explanations that most people resent having to deal with. In order to formulate a clear and unambiguous picture of self-harming behaviour, I needed to put the mass of information that I gathered on self-harming behaviour into a database that included various psychological theories, case studies, fantasies, mythology, and relevant historical precedencies for self-harming behaviour. The database allowed me to identify and formulate concepts related to self-harm. Each of these concepts is tagged with a unique acronym that could be placed in those database records that related to the concept.

 I spent almost an entire year reworking the records from my old database of Jungian psychology and added information relating to self-harm into records in this new database. The database is primarily focussed upon the phenomenon of self-harming behaviour such as anorexia nervosa and cutting. The database is not simply composed of a bunch of facts thrown together, but involves a complicated process of preparing each record with acronyms that stand for the concepts related to each record. This is going to be an ongoing project that will be continually expanded upon as time permits. The database of self-harming behaviour required an extensive process of developing new concepts in order to be able to create a clear picture of self-harming behaviour. Working with the database can help one realize concepts that one would never be able to discover without this information being made accessible in this format.

 My style of database searches is based upon searching on concepts rather than keywords. Each of these concepts is represented by a unique acronym because most of these concepts cannot be described by a few keywords. The problem with searches on the Internet is that they rely on keywords that result in the retrieval of a lot of useless information that wastes time, creates confusion, and leads one down a blind alley most of the time.

 By searching on concepts, every record retrieved is relevant because each record is tagged with the acronyms that are relevant to the contents of the record. In my preset database of concepts there are about 1,800 concepts that are also seeded with relevant acronyms of related concepts, so a search on a basic concept will bring up a list of related concepts. Narrowing down a search is made easy by selecting a more specific concept from the results of a search on a general concept. Each search brings up two databases. The first list is the list of concepts. The second list is the list of actual records of general and specific psychology; mythology; and the aetiology and symptomology of self-harming behaviour. The purpose of including mythology and other fantasy themes in the database is based upon the fact that anorexia, bulimia, obesity, and cutting are fantasy constructs that contain themes that are symbolically represented in some types of mythology and fairytales. By linking psychological concept to mythological themes, one can discover the meaning of the themes and how they relate to self-harming behaviour. The entire database can be searched for specific keywords as an alternative method of searching.

 I decided to spend a year creating this database because my research into self-harming behaviour was turning out to be much more complicated than I had originally anticipated. Consequently, I needed an efficient way to access an extensive database of Jungian psychology because it is the only form of psychology that can effectively explain the aetiology of anorexia nervosa. Many of the records in the Jungian database represent years of accumulating data going back as far as 1985. 

 When I began the present book project, I was working with a few major concepts about self- harming behaviour that have never been explored by anyone else. So I had the makings of a unique project in mind. However, I lacked sufficient mythological material to produce a book as I originally envisioned it to be. I wanted the book to be mainly based upon the modern mythology behind self-harming behaviour. Unfortunately the book project started to turn into a book about the psychology of self-harming behaviour because of the difficulty in recognizing the themes and concepts in mythological material that are related to self-harming behaviour. I am aware of the fact that most people do not like reading serious psychological literature, so I decided to put the project on a shelf while I developed the concepts necessary to gain a better understanding of the mythological themes that symbolically represent the psychological processes behind self-harm.

 Although there is plenty of modern mythology available that is symbolically related to self-harm, trying to make sense of it is very difficult in the same way that it is difficult to make any sense out of anorexia nervosa itself. The concepts that mythological themes represent are rather complex, and not very well defined in any of the relevant literature. Hence, the need to invest time to put together a database. Jungian psychology in order to understand the psychological meaning behind fantasies and mythology, which generally represent moods, attitudes, and psychological developmental processes. Conventional psychology, on the other hand, simply relates these fantasy themes to regressive infantile sexuality, and, consequently, winds up getting bogged down in unhelpful demoralizing and asinine interpretations.

 Although Jungian psychology does not deal directly with eating disorders, the entire aetiology of eating disorders is explained in a non-specific way in Jung’s works; It just isn’t explained in a straightforward manner because of all the complicated concepts involved relate to various aspects of other disorders as well. In order to create a clear image of the aetiology of self-harming behaviour it was necessary to create a database to bring a large quantity of information together. With the help of the database a clear picture of the aetiology of anorexia nervosa can be created by connecting the dots between the various concepts involved in self-harming behaviour. The resulting picture creates an unambiguous description of the aetiology of anorexia nervosa as well as the meaning of the mythology behind anorexia nervosa, and other forms of self-harming behaviour. 

 Although the Queen of Wonderland will not be about the complicated psychology behind anorexia nervosa, it was necessary for me to get a clear psychological understanding about the disorder in order to understand the fantasy and mythological aspect of self-harming behaviour in order to write a book that would appeal to the sensibilities of most people. 

 I discovered years ago that, not only anorexics, but most people have a tendency to block out any serious understanding of the disorders like anorexia nervosa and cutting. Consequently, a serious book on the psychology of self-harming behaviour would not be well received. All the published books about the psychology of anorexia nervosa and cutting that are aimed at the general public are based upon what I call “feel good psychology,” which is an attempt to make a very complex problem appear in an appealing simplistic form. Feel-good-psychology more or less places the blame for the disorder upon a confusing array of factors that are inherent to our complicated modern technological environment. Feel-good-psychology is nothing more than poppycock that follows the typical pattern of presenting the problem in a naive optimistic tone while confusing the issue and thereby relieving everybody of any responsibility. Then it purports to offer some rational solutions to the problem that, unfortunately in reality, turn out to be a very drawn out and expensive undertaking because everybody involved has no real understanding of what anorexia nervosa is actually about.

 When The Queen of Wonderland is finally published it will present a picture of self-harming behaviour in a way that will not cause the mind to throw up a mental block, as it so often dose when an individual’s mind is confronted with a depressing description of the problem in stark psychological terms.

Many people like to amuse themselves with the idea that we live in an enlightened age where all the superstitious beliefs and unfounded fears of bygone days have been explained away as being nothing more than meaningless products of imagination. Our secret fears, however, betray a lingering darkness still clinging to the mind that is reminiscent of the Dark Ages for which our almighty science is useless to either explain or banish. One of the most perplexing manifestations of this mysterious darkness took the form of an epidemic of eating disorders and compulsive blood letting in some otherwise normal individuals. Psychiatrists have not been able to find any rational way to adequately explain these strange occurrences that does not come up against contradictions. Every officially recognized explanation devised to explain self-harming behaviour was so full of contradictions that it became necessary to save face by confusing the issue with suggestions that imply that “many things” contribute to causing self-harming behaviour. The authorities have no worthwhile answers for this curious epidemic because our cultural belief system has no suitable context in which to comprehend what they are trying to deal with.

When viewed from a scientific standpoint, this epidemic of self-harm should not be happening in our enlightened age. Common sense, on the other hand, would suggest that the mind-bending inspiration that leads to self-harming behaviour is coming from a dark corner of the psyche that is beyond the reach of scientific understanding because modern science — in deference to sociological engineering – is encouraged to ignore the very existence of the psyche. Consequently, modern psychology is based upon a psychology of the ego that only knows about self-harming symptoms, and nothing about the nature of psychic background that produced the symptoms.

Psyche is the ancient Greek word for the soul, which is the enigmatic spiritual aspect of the mind that governs life itself. Self-harm suggests that the individual developed a cynical attitude toward life as a result of some sort of duress, or having conformed to some cultural influence that is contrary to the principle of life. Although a self-harming complex can cause an individual to experience strange beliefs, the self-harming individual is not insane because most of the individual’s conscious thinking remains connected to reality. The bizarre thinking behind this mysterious anomaly appears to be expressed in the same style of fantasy that is found in fairytales, mythology and dreams. Autonomous fantasy thinking and feeling of this sort is a product of the psychic realm, which is beyond the boundaries of rational understanding, or conventional scientific investigation.

Because conventional science ignores the psychic factor in its investigation of anorexia nervosa and cutting, all they have left to work with is a curious collection of symptoms that are based upon fantasy, or what they call “delusions.” While the scientific authorities take the standpoint that phenomena like anorexia nervosa are nothing but meaningless delusions, I am taking the standpoint that a self-harming individual’s bizarre symptoms and irrational fantasies possess a symbolic meaning. The strange phantasmagoria that is behind anorexia nervosa and cutting appear to originate in a nether realm of the psychic background where nothing obeys the laws that apply to matter, or the will of the ego. In this sense it could possible be that this bizarre phantasmagoria was created by the psyche for the purpose of resisting the soulless dictates of our culture of scientific realism that is busy wrecking the world’s ecology, and running roughshod over psychic sensibilities that took eons to develop in harmony with nature. In other words, the greed that promotes this kind of “science” may very well have an interest in avoiding wanting to understand the underlying nature of eating disorders and all the other forms of self-harming behaviour.

This web site gives positive support for understanding the meaning behind compulsive disorders like cutting and eating disorders because this is the only way to cure the destructive aspects of the psychic process without belittling a patient’s quest for understanding.

You can post comments on this web site that express how you feel about things that might not be understood elsewhere. For example many people who are anorexic have an uncanny feeling that their condition possesses a positive meaning and purpose but the psychological authority discourages any understanding of these feelings. Therapists may be skilled professionals at expressing compassion for your feelings, but definitely not any sincere understanding because they are not taught genuine understanding. Professional therapists are taught theories that are nothing more than canned explanations that dictate how things should be understood. That is, Freudian therapists interpret a patient’s convictions according to Freud’s theory on infantile sexuality. But anorexia nervosa and cutting are not about infantile sexuality. However, since a phenomenon of regression occurs in every psychic process that comes to a developmental standstill, Freudians assume that they are dealing with a case of infantilism rather than a psychic process that is transpiring in the psychic background of the mind that went awry because it was misunderstood.

Our Alice theme character represents a confusing mix of two separate personalities that are separated by a curious looking-glass mystique that exists between consciousness and the unconscious psychic background. The psychic background is where dreams and fantasies originate and take place. Eating disorders also originate in this psychic background owing to a conflict between an individual’s conscious attitude and an archetypal factor that was provoked by the conscious’ attitude.

Our Alice character has two very different dimensions. In her conscious dimension she is a child, or a young lady who is suffering from anorexia nervosa. In her other dimension, the Alice character is the soul or the dream-personality who exists partly in the psychic background and partly in the conscious dimension in the form of inspirations and various other intuitive factors. When this dream-complex is influencing her consciousness, it put Alice in a trance-like state like a kind of fantasy realm. The dream-like complex involves more than Alice’s soul. It also involves, among other things, the archetype behind the voice that tells Alice that she is fat and ugly.

Sometimes this essay refers to “Alice” as a person with anorexia nervosa, and sometimes “Alice” refers to Alice as the dream-like personality in the fantasy-like psychic background, aka, Wonderland. Wonderland is a metaphor for the psychic background where dreams and fantasies originate. Alice as a person is almost completely unaware of “Alice” as a dream-like complex/personality who can also control Alice’s conscious thinking.

The confusing paradox of two Alice personalities can be clearly seen by the fact that when confronted with the facts about their medical condition, most anorexics will admit that they know they are dangerously underweight. Although Alice admits that her body is dangerously underweight, some overriding psyche factor compelled to her say that she sees herself as being healthy but overweight. This makes anorexia nervosa appear as if it were nothing more than a charade, but it isn’t, at least not from a proper understanding of the unconscious aspect of the psyche. Unfortunately, conventional psychology avoids understanding anything about the psyche background because this sort of understanding would conflict with the objectives of modern realism.

Alice hasn’t got a clue why she is compelled to believe something that she knows is obviously wrong except that some uncanny power seizes her with an overriding compulsion to identify with an anorectic persona. Because Alice is under the influence of an overriding unconscious factor, she will compulsively deny that she is underweight, thus undoing her conscious insight into her condition.

It is necessary to keep this paradoxical duality of the anorexic in mind, otherwise it is impossible to understand the psychological nature of eating disorders and cutting. It should also be noted that the model for the mind that I am using is based upon Jungian psychology, which is a very different view of the mind than that which is generally taught by conventional psychology. Although Jung’s concept of archetypes may be unfamiliar to some readers, I have carefully avoided using psychobabble in my writing. Very simply put, an archetype is like an instinct except that, while instincts are mainly concerned about biological factors, archetypes are mainly concerned about maintaining psychic equilibrium vis-…-vis the inherited nature of the being. That is, whenever the individual or some environment factor attempts to upset her psychic equilibrium, an unpleasant psychic reaction occurs. 
 

Please note: this was also published as the Introduction on: thequeenofwonderland.com

This is the reason why I have chosen the Adventure in Wonderland theme to illustrate the nature of anorexia nervosa:

Like the anorexic, Lewis Carroll’s Alice was quite clueless about why she felt compelled to follow the white rabbit down the hole into a maddening underworld adventure. Alice’s story isn’t one of those ancient myths that some analysts like to use as an example of how archetypal symbolism can appear in mental disorders. One of the most popular myths that Jungian theorists like to use to illustrate the fate of the anorexic is the abduction of Persephone into the underworld. Although I could have based the theme of my book upon the Persephone myth, I personally prefer Alice’s style of curious serendipity to Persephone’s style of surrendering to fate. Nonetheless, I also use the Persephone myth in my book to illustrate some archetypal concepts because it introduces important characters such as the archetypal mother, Hecate the Wise Woman, and the Demon Lover. The Demon Lover in a prominent figure in many anorexic’s fantasies, and he is also behind the omnipotent voice that told Alice that she was fat and ugly.

The ancient Greek story of Persephone was one of the original myths that personify the archetypal quest to become a Queen of the Underworld. For Persephone, becoming the Queen of the Underworld was a matter of fate because she had no choice in the matter. Alice, on the other hand, was quite determined to become the Queen of her Wonderland. Wonderland symbolizes the unconscious realm of the psyche where dreams and fantasies originate. It is also that dark realm where superstitions, delusions, compulsions and madness originate whenever the ego is not in harmony with one’s inner being.

Most of what I have written in the introduction to my yet unpublished book has to do with what is wrong with the theories produced by modern feel-good-psychology on the problem of self-harming behaviour. Anyone who has anything to do with the problem of self-harm can’t help becoming involved in this Mad Tea Party because the psychological authority is acting like the Mad Hatter with its psychobabbling in silly riddles about the nature of anorexia nervosa.

In her adventure into the Wonderland realm, Alice has become quite frustrated with the proceedings at the Mad Tea Party and gets up and leaves. She doesn’t have a clue that what is actually going on in her dream-like adventure is purely symbolic. This situation got carried over into her real-life experience in therapy, because her therapist does not have any more of an understanding about the nature of her malady than she does. Consequently, like the Mad Hatter, her therapist can only repeat   in his silly style of psychobabble   what Alice already told him in plain language.

It must be understood that Alice’s anorectic adventures do not represent the conscious experience of her personality, but the dream adventures of her dream-personality or soul.
 

 Alice and the Queen/Witch/Sphinx are off on another spiritual adventure in Wonderland.

This web site serves as an introduction for my book project about the spiritual nature of self-harming behaviour. The main emphasis of this work is on the problem of understanding the enigmatic nature of anorexia nervosa and cutting.

Click on the link to the right titled The Queen of Wonderland to read the Introduction to the proposed book as it was put together from various chapters as they stood in August 2007

 Please note that this web-blog is new as of 30 May 2008