Link to Map: Survival Complex Map on Miro
The Survival Complex begins in the darkness of primal unconsciousness. This is the completely unconscious and undivided beginning of the world and the mind.
“…the primal unitary reality in which the partial worlds of outside and inside, objective world and psyche do not exist.” - Erich Neumann, The Child
Primal unconsciousness is synonymous with the Jungian uroboros and the gnostic pleroma.
The uroboros is symbolic image of a dragon eating its own tail. For Jungians it symbolizes the state in which all opposites like good and evil, light and dark, are united in a single, undifferentiated mass.
[The uroboros] “slays, weds, and impregnates itself. It is man and woman, begetting and conceiving, devouring and giving birth, active and passive, above and below, at once.” - Erich Neumann, The History of Consciousness
Out of primal unconsciousness emerges unconscious matter. The stars, planets, rocks and trees. Unconscious matter, like primal unconsciousness, exists in an unreflecting procession of chaotic, instinctual, consumptive, imperfect being. It turns and churns thoughtlessly through dark eons unaware of itself, its beginnings and its ends.
From the undifferentiated mass of unconscious matter consciousness emerges in the forms of animals and humans.
“I understood that within the soul from its primordial beginnings there has been a desire for light and an irrepressible urge to rise out of the primal darkness.” - Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections
As consciousness continues to emerge from unconsciousness it becomes aware of this separation and completes it be abjecting the unconscious.
“Ab-ject” means “away-throw” or to throw something away from oneself, to reject it.
This division and rejection is an essential part of consciousness and is necessary for its survival. Consciousness is defined by division and its differentiation from other things.
“...the division into I and thou, subject and object, is a characteristic of consciousness.” - Erich Neumann, The Great Mother
In order to continue dividing, defining and making more things conscious, the separation from unconsciousness needs to be maintained.
“Only in the light of consciousness can man know. And this act of cognition, of conscious discrimination, sunders the world into opposites, for experience of the world is only possible through opposites.” - Erich Neumann, The History of Consciousness
Definition depends on division and so definition also depends on opposition. Consciousness begins to think of itself as a subject that is opposed to objects. Consciousness divides the world into Me and Not-Me.
Me is defined by what is Not-Me. Everything that is not Me defines Not-Me. The survival of Me depends on its division from, and abjection of, Not-Me. If Me were to remerge with Not-Me it would cease to exist. This makes Not-Me a threat to Me.
“‘Not-me’ elements of experience must be distinguished from ‘me’ elements and must be rejected aggressively (outwardly) and repressed firmly (inwardly).” - Donald Kalsched, The Inner World of Trauma
This division and definition also tears the world apart into the sounds and symbols of language. Language allows consciousness to name the fragments it creates, define them and record them.
“...division...the condition of the processes that underpin symbolicity.” - Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror
With the separation of consciousness from unconsciousness, Me from Not-Me, and the invention of language, further divisions are made. Consciousness separates the body from the world and the mind from the body. The mind can now reflect on itself, its body and the world.
“...discrimination, divides the world into subject and object...the ego, having now opposed itself to the nonego...begins...to constellate its independence of nature as independence of the body.” - Erich Neumann, The History of Consciousness
As the mind reflects on the world it evaluates it and divides it into implements and impediments.
Implement: A tool for executing any piece of work. Something necessary to make a thing complete; an essential or important constituent part. - OED
Impediment: Something that blocks a person’s physical, psychological or emotional development. Something that blocks the flow of libido.
Implements help Me and impediments hinder Me. Implements are good and impediments are bad. Implements are approached and collected whereas impediments are avoided or destroyed. That which is an impediment is Not-Me, is bad and is rejected. This is moral abjection. This is the beginning of morality.