THE TRANSCENDENT FUNCTION

      He is trying to resolve this inner conflict between two major and differing aspects of his consciousness. The image of his ex-wife Pamela represents his connection to the inner world of imagination and magic. The image of Karen, his present lover and future wife, represents his growing connection to the outer world of body and life.

      This conflict has other images too - the Jungian as opposed to the acid hippie and the red stone as opposed to the yellow dog. All these seemingly disparate images are saying basically the same thing, saying that he's not unified and whole but is split into two opposing and seemingly irreconcilable ways. One way leads inwards, to his soul. The other leads outwards, into his life.


      He knows of no sure way of putting these two ways together, of ever becoming whole. Sometimes he worries that medicines will prevent the necessary transformation from ever taking place, will do so by not letting the psychic energy inherent in this conflict ever to build sufficiently to induce change. Other times though, he thinks that medicines are the only way he'll ever be able to heal this seemingly insoluble conflict.

      He remembers Jung calling the solution to such an insoluble conflict "the transcendent function," one that can bridge and bring together two separate and seemingly disconnected realities. Jung noticed too, as he has, that this term is also used in higher mathematics, there to denote the sum of a real and an imaginary number.


     This transcendent function certainly seems relevant and meaningful for his apparently insoluble conflict. Following the metaphor, the solution to his conflict will involve the union of his inner, imaginary world of soul with his outer, real world of life. It will involve him being both a Jungian hippie and a hippie Jungian. It will involve his inner Pamela and Karen growing together and becoming one. It will involve the mysterious alchemical union of the red stone and the yellow dog. It will involve his soul entering his life and his life entering his soul.

      The term itself, transcendent function, also suggests the intervention of Spirit in the resolution of this conflict. No ego can ever be large enough to contain the opposites necessary for healing such a split. Only Spirit is inclusive enough to contain these opposites and allow them to come together into a meaningful whole.