The Longing for Paradise: Psychological Perspectives on an Archetype

A Jungian analyst from Zurich discusses the archetype of paradise. He summarizes the book as follows: "Ultimately, then, every form of longing is for the experience of one's own fulfillment, salvation, harmony—whatever you choose to call it—even though the manifest object of the longing may be the mother, the loved one, a tropical landscape, Holy India, bygone days, or what-have-you. In the best sense, the longing expresses a desire to overcome one's own self-alienation, to achieve consonance with one's own wholeness.

The phenomenon of nostalgia is initially regressive, of course, and remains so as long as its deeper meaning does not cross the threshold of awareness. Even regression, however, can mean a return to certain primal experiences, a retreat from the crotchety constraints and one-sidedness of rationality back to one's ‘own nature.’"

"Part Three, which deals with ideas of Paradise as expectations of future salvation, will show that this idea of the Return bespeaks a psychic experience of great depth, including religious dimensions. Part Two attempts a psychological interpretation of the biblical myth of man's Fall and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, with special attention to the psychological meaning of the loss of Paradise and thus to the problem of the origins and meaning of man's sense of guilt. Part One deals primarily with the regressive longing for security in unity with the Maternal, and its many psychological consequences."