Saturday's Child: Encounters With the Dark Gods

Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts #51

by Janet O. Dallett

What and where is evil? Does it reside in nuclear weapons, cults, earthquakes, cancer? Your boss? Your mate? And what of you yourself? Weaving a singular tapestry of dreams, personal experience and world events, Dallet makes the reality of evil immediate and inescapably personal.

Genres: Psychology

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

Reviews

[Matthew Conquergood · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Evil" is a personal thing.

Quote from the book: "If walls keep coming down and we can no longer find others upon whom we can comfortably project the evil in our own souls, it will have to come home. An integrated world demands that we accept full responsibility for our unconscious selves. Is it really possible to live as rounded, whole human beings? How many are up to this monumental task?"

Nuff said.

[Rjyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I'll definitely read another book by Janet Dallett. There's a lot to like about her voice; the writing is clear and fluid and personable. This book, though, seems a lot more like a memoir than I expected. Of course, the dark gods and a committed and informed Jungian approach to turmoil are there throughout, but all focused on a string of dramatic episodes in her personal life. Since the book isn't organized around presenting the personal events chronologically, or with some other obvious driving arc (like a consciously-memoir would be) there's a little bit of a "sweet drama-loving elderly relative who compulsively brings up conflicts with people you've never met" vibe, if you know what I mean? I mean, it's not inappropriate in the context of this book, but ends up tilting the whole endeavor more towards her-working-her-own-shit-out than a dive-into-the-dark-gods. Saturn barely comes up; Satan is mentioned but not really excavated; Wotan gets real attention, but not until the very last chapter. But like I said, I'm interested in her and want to read more.

[Steve Ellerhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Only by accepting the unacceptable, by facing ourselves as we really are instead of as we wish and pretend to be, can we carry evil as well as good within ourselves and help heal the split in the contemporary psyche." (p108)

I love reading these essay collections where Jungian analysts reflect on their practice, their own lives, and great big issues -- in this case evil. Dallett scratches all these itches, which is probably why I inhaled this book so rapidly. There's reassurance in her own struggle to understand evil and position herself in relation to it. She meditates on a series of tragedies close to home for her, from the murder of a friend's daughter by her boyfriend to a woman who grew up with a narcissistic father and suffered from denying how hard things had been.

And there's constructive hope. As Dallett sees it, getting to know the evil in ourselves keeps evil from running amok: "my willingness to crucify myself on dark impulses and emotions distinguishes me from the criminal, who merely acts on them" (p11). Jung said "to act unconsciously is evil" (Answer to Job, par696). So it's not all gloom and doom. Striving to grapple with your personal evil is where it's at. And if someone close is trampling, controlling, or coercing us (with money, illusions of security, endless apologies, the list goes on and on), the thing to do -- if we can -- is get away.