Old Testament Essays (Aug 2016)

The Memory of Original Wholeness and Conscious Differentiation in Genesis 1:1-2:4a

  • Helen Keith-van Wyk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2017/v30n2a6.
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 30, no. 2
pp. 283 – 299

Abstract

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Sakkie Spangenberg has written a number of articles dealing with Gen 1-3 in terms of its place in traditional Christian dogma and the paradigm shifts he has experienced in his understanding of this text. In this article, I would like to honour Sakkie by providing a Jungian psychoanalytic interpretation of Gen 1:1-2:4a, focusing primarily on the memory of original wholeness and the conscious differentiation that are reflected in this text. I conclude that the psyche that produced this creation story had stalled at the third stage of individuation as a result of a traumatic experience which caused it to long for its erstwhile memory of original wholeness.

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