As human beings we have an intrinsic need of certainty, a feeling that asks to know what is the case. In the complexity of out psychology we encounter ourselfs asking many questions and trying to process all the perception our senses gives us. As a result ,under the lenses of Freud and Jung, all and more that we cannot process in the conscious mind is absorbed by the subconscious.And so, it is here in the unknown part of our psyche were all of our deepest desires and fears reside, and so out of a need to communicate and express all of this sometimes our consciousness mind is able to interpret aspects of this side. And so, in mixed form of creativity mixed with reality, we express the ideas of supernatural beings. Also, the idea of the non known aspect of our self ,resembles the unknown or strange form and traits of supernatural beings some amazing, some scary, some mysterious.
As I have seen in James and the Giant Peach the insects that live in the giant peach are seven , just as how old James is and they integrate into James life and pro-pulsate to do things he does not normally do. This can be seen as the mind(the giant peach) ,and the giant insects are psychological aspects of James that are trying to express themselves or more specifically on the aspect that the author Roald Dahl named weather consciously or not to James Henry Trotter was trying to express as an orphan. Interestingly enough Roald Dahl was an orphan, but to have feeling of being an orphan and resemble an archetype does not necessarily required to be an orphan.
So as we can see our perception of the subconscious can only be attained in a very creative and emotional way,yes a form of neurosis very contrary to the logic mind but nonetheless process by it to make sense out of it. But its more than just a form of neurosis its form of understanding.When I see a monster, I see a fear or aspect that creates us great anxiety and affects our instinct of self preservation. However , in stories like the one of Spirited away we see how the main character Chihiro at first is terrified of the monsters and ghosts but as the film goes on she then starts to adapt and transcend that fear and is able to look them face to face.It is an exploration of our fears and how to find ways to integrate them and see their positive side in order to transcended them.Other examples could be zombies, supernatural beings like zombies in games such as resident evil or T.V series as The walking dead could be symbols from ourselves that we are becoming dead alive or loosing consciousnesses and eating each other with our actions or not actions that are damaging society and the planet, they can also resemble fear of dieying. I believe there are several patterns that fit in the collective as Jung would suggest but I also believe that we create special monsters based on our special deep emotions, just examining Spirited Away I could see so much different monsters, some good, some bad, some with out apparent gender, others male or female,some happy or sad and so on , all with special traits that are not of "common" superntarual beings such as barewolfs , vampires or else.
More over, this need of expression can also be analyzed by philosophy, more exactly by existentialism among the many concepts that it can be applied to.In the case of Friedric Nietzche on his book Beyond good and evil(1886), explains how there is not a real good or an real evil but a judgment of it and so that by somehow changing our judgment into something bad and seing its positive side we can integrate and at the same time trascend this fear a pretty clear example of Chihiro and her fears. More else, beyond fear, we have more desires, for example we all want to "shine" and be the hero and be like gods and so we express it in forms of superheros, like Sea men resembling his need to coexist with his emotions (water) and be respected. The giant baby in spirited away for example is a fear of growing up, giant and becoming independent, and having more desires (sexual organs) but then Chihiro the hero , somehow with Haku the spirt of the river help him get out of his limbo, and grow up. So Chihiro with Haku are heros in the sense that they are critical keys to safe and help some of our instincts. Also adolecents today seem obsessed with vampires and blood an touch and bare wolfs, clearly an expression of their hormones and revelious feelings and actions in order to differentiate themselves from their parents.
Other reasons could involve that these creatures exist in parallels universes, that they have existed and are saved in the hard drive of our collective memory and also that they are way to have fun and we create them to entertain us....in any case they deeply impact our lifes. All and all, supernatural creatures resemble deeply hidden aspects of oursefs and are key to understand what lies behind the curtain. Honestly , by exploring ,Campell, Pearson, Freud and Jung this semester and all the supernatural creatures and archetypes and the mono myth and symbolism I have came to understand my self better. This class have been quite a journey since it has been a literally a form of psychotherapy that has helped me transcend many fears that brought me pain, and understand and accept other aspects of myself.More else, it involved philosophy and psychology which was amazing. In conclusion ,one way to look at supernatural beings is that they are an efluct of our subconsciousness teaching us what aspects of our lifes we have to work and on most importantly how.
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