Addiction (of all kinds) has been described as everything from frustrating to “hell” to “possession,” and worse. The pattern of addiction is an archetype that has been around for millennia, but it certainly seems like our current culture is more and more conducive to the iron grip of addiction in a multitude of ways–including everything from the more traditional issues with alcohol, drugs, gambling, cigarettes, sex, food, or work, to new and emerging culturally supported issues like television, shopping, Internet, email, texting, social media, mobile gadgets, video gaming, and more.
Often, particularly in the case of the latter group, we don’t even realize the extent of our addiction to these categories which might simply be labeled “entertainment.” Indeed there thousands of messages vying for our attention via media on any given day seducing us with their siren song of escape from our everyday lives.
Are our “everyday lives” so distressing that we must seek escape? It seems that things are moving faster than ever before and the container that used to exist for earth-based, indigenous cultures who had options to deal with their troubles (i.e. to go to the “earth,” the shaman, or the community) is no longer an obvious option to deal with our distress. More, as activist and Buddhist scholar points out, we are collectively aware, perhaps for the first time in history, that humanity has the capacity to literally destroy ourselves.
Add to that the many and varied challenges of childhood and early experiences that may have engendered disorientation, distress, or trauma–and the lack of initiation, an archetypal concept that provides a container for us (very human) individuals to move through life experiences in stages that offer learning and growth, we have fewer and fewer tools to deal with the challenging issues that bleed into our sometimes fragile egos.
Rahman Hak-Hagir – DESTROMANCE (2017)
„When Culture Battles Spirit.“
– An Artistic View at the Nature of Addiction.“
Performer:
Valentin HEIDEN
Concept & Photography:
Rahman HAK-HAGIR
Set Assistant:
Sonja PAINSIPP
Limited (3+2AP+1MP), signed, numbered, dated and artist certified framed photo print on alu dubond.
THE OTHER SOCIETY (founded in may 2013) is an INTERNATIONAL ARTIST COLLECTIVE and ARTISTIC UTOPIA that sends out clues and messages to the real world to prosper.
Philip Cushman, in Constructing The Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History Of Psychotherapy insists we suffer from what he terms the calls the “empty self,” in which the individual in modern culture is driven by a felt sense of hollowness, a lack of meaning by which, yearning for something it can’t quite identity, desperately seeks to fill itself up through increasing compulsive consumption of goods, services, technology, peak experiences, entertainment, celebrity and even psychotherapy.
To alleviate the anxiety, depression, isolation, and suffering, psychosomatic disorders, or addiction, we turn to consumerism, increasing the demand for more and new products that require increasing amounts of natural resources, fossil fuels, and rare metals and minerals and leading to ever greater deposits of refuse, non-recycled materials, and other consumer waste.
In a similar vein, Jungian analyst David Schoen explores the archetypal aspects of addiction in “The War of the Gods in Addiction: C.G. Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Archetypal Evil” emphasizing the crucial process of neutralizing the Archetypal Shadow (also called Archetypal Evil), an aspect of addiction. Schoen explores this concept extensively through a core Jungian approach including theoretical and clinical material, modern and ancient myths, and fairy tales. He also references the significance of using dreams for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of addiction. Few of us escape the grips of addictive patterns and their underlying fields and forces in some form or another. Even if we manage to repress the symptoms of addiction by turning the urge into some kind of positive action, or to somehow refrain from acting them out, there are often core issues in our lives that compel us to turn to addiction to release other stress and deal with emotions that may otherwise overwhelm us.
Rahman Hak-Hagir – DESTROMANCE (2017)
„When Culture Battles Spirit.“
– An Artistic View at the Nature of Addiction.“
Performer:
Valentin HEIDEN
Concept & Photography:
Rahman HAK-HAGIR
Set Assistant:
Sonja PAINSIPP
Limited (3+2AP+1MP), signed, numbered, dated and artist certified framed photo print on alu dubond.
THE OTHER SOCIETY (founded in may 2013) is an INTERNATIONAL ARTIST COLLECTIVE and ARTISTIC UTOPIA that sends out clues and messages to the real world to prosper.
Rahman Hak-Hagir – DESTROMANCE (2017)
„When Culture Battles Spirit.“
– An Artistic View at the Nature of Addiction.“
Performer:
Valentin HEIDEN
Concept & Photography:
Rahman HAK-HAGIR
Set Assistant:
Sonja PAINSIPP
Limited (3+2AP+1MP), signed, numbered, dated and artist certified framed photo print on alu dubond.
THE OTHER SOCIETY (founded in may 2013) is an INTERNATIONAL ARTIST COLLECTIVE and ARTISTIC UTOPIA that sends out clues and messages to the real world to prosper.