Copyright (c) 2009 Dave Smart
Many people, having listened to the ads of pharmaceutical companies and how caring they are for people in their efforts to cure or eliminate diseases, are horrified to hear that all these awful rumors about health care reform, are coming from them. The thought that from these executive board rooms they are cooking up these rumors, dirty tricks and false information, to stand in the way of ANY health care reform, is unimaginable to them.
To those of us experienced in Jungian psychology, it is not surprising at all. When your work causes you to strive in a particular direction and rely on archetypal energies in that striving, the psyche will tend to seek and accumulate energies of opposite archetypes in an effort to maintain a balance. So for instance a jeweler, whose work requires close concentration on very small if not microscopic components and systems, may revel in expansive activities like mountain climbing, boating or expansive sports in his recreation and vacation times.
So even as priests in their efforts to develop the priest/shaman archetype have to contend with that opposite, sometimes called the 'beast' archetype, which is enterprising, opportunistic, and can be aggressively sexual; so the insurance/pharmaceutical company executive in doing his/her job will sooner or later have to contend with his opposite archetype.
What would that opposite look like? An opposite is first of all a subjective thing - whatever is opposite for each of us. But as a general rule, the opposite of caring, of holding a vision of good health and release from disease, freedom from disease; would be to close doors, even as disease tends to close doors; indifference to suffering if not a sadistic attitude to it, and a pedantic attention to the present issues rather than visions for the future.
It is no surprise therefore, when board room inhabitants get the message: 'protect the company! Maintain its profits!' that they can readily come up with all the dirty tricks, rumors and false information that we have seen. And with over a million dollars a day to spend, they have no trouble finding people to do their dirty work, including running TV ads with misinformation, and heckling and disrupting town hall meetings.
But what if my opposite would interfere with doing my job?
This is the problem most of us have. Very few of us get the opportunity to put their opposites to the job as the health insurance/pharmaceutical executives have recently. For us, we must: First, look at the striving, the visioning that we bring to our job, the nature of that energy; Second, reason what would be, for us, the opposite energy; Third, find and identify where in our life we are honoring and using it.
The last step may be very easy or very hard. We may or may not even be consciously aware of the existence of the opposite. Oftentimes, the opposite shows up in what we hate. If so it is because it is disowned. Reconnecting to a disowned opposite can be a difficult and painful process. It is what shadow work is all about.
But beyond it all, the existence of opposites in ourselves express themselves in many diverse ways, ranging from the surprising effectiveness of insurance/pharmaceutical company executives of doing things most unlike what they normally do, or at least are known to do; to the priests who find themselves accused, if not convicted, of child molestation. We need not be ashamed of the existence of our opposites; they are inevitable. It's up to us to come to know, and honor them. That process is in part what coaching is all about.
------
Dave Smart, the lead coach of Transcendence Coaching and Mentoring, has had extensive education and experience in co-active coaching and Jungian psychology. He helps clients recognize and accept the opposites developing in themselves as they strive in their work and cope with situations. If you find yourself perplexed by urges and tendencies to undo your life's work, coaching is for you. Visit TCM's website:
http://www.transcendencecoach.com .
