The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness

About this episode

The episode explores the dual aspects of the mother archetype, focusing on the devouring mother and its manifestations in culture and personal experiences.

Every archetype has a dual aspect: light and dark, and ‘mother’ as devouring and destructive is the dark side of this ever-present, over-arching archetype. The mother’s life-giving, bright aspect is counterbalanced by her engulfing, attacking aspect. The devouring mother is present across cultures in myth, fairy tale, religion, and literature, and most of us have at least had glimpses of her in our experiences as children or later, as parents. In this episode Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore Erich Neumann’s The Great Mother and his and Jung’s concept of the unconscious as devouring mother. Drawing on myths of the Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli, the Hindu goddess Kali, the tale of Snow White, and the film Black Swan, we examine the archetypal image of the mother who nourishes and devours, protects and possesses. We also look at how the devouring mother shows up in ourselves and in our own parents. This dynamic can present as enmeshment, helicopter parenting, fear-based control, or an inability to allow our children to separate and become fully themselves. Read the dream we analyze in full on our website . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re analyzing your…

People in this episode

Hosts: Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart

Topics covered

• archetypes
• devouring mother
• psychology
• parenting
• mythology
• Jungian analysis

Keywords

• archetype
• devouring mother
• Jungian analysis
• parenting
• myth
• psychology

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Great Mother, Snow White, Black Swan

Places: Aztec, Hindu

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