The Seba library treats Octopus in 7 passages, across 5 authors (including Kalsched, Donald, Jung, Carl Gustav, Hesiod).
in the octopus dream (also occasioned by a new, hoped-for relationship) the undefended, archaic, ‘disgusting’ trash-can part of the self reaches out ‘kitten-like’ to make contact.
Kalsched identifies the octopus as a symbol of the traumatized self’s most primitive relational reaching, destroyed by an internal persecutory figure representing an anti-consciousness force in the psyche.
, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit, 1996thesis
a previous year who had ruthlessly killed a primitive octopus-like creature that was also trying to make contact.
The octopus-like creature in the patient’s earlier dream is presented as an archaic psychic element attempting vulnerable connection, annihilated by a sadistic inner masculine figure.
, The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit, 1996thesis
An octopus, a dragon, a snake, or a fish would have served as well.
Jung places the octopus within a class of symbolically equivalent chthonic creatures capable of representing the devouring or engulfing maternal dimension of the unconscious.
, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1953supporting
Boneless One, the- (octopus), 41
The ancient epithet ‘the Boneless One’ for the octopus, preserved in Hesiod’s index apparatus, foregrounds the creature’s association with formlessness and structural absence, resonant with pre-ego unconscious states.
, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, -700supporting
octopus, 66
Neumann’s Great Mother index places the octopus within the symbolic register of the Great Mother archetype, associating it with the nourishing and devouring maternal matrix.
, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, 1955aside
octopus, 230-231 (207, 208)
Campbell catalogues the octopus as a mythic image within ancient symbolic programs, situating it alongside other creatures of the watery, generative-destructive cosmic order.
, The Mythic Image, 1974aside
talking, 215; see also bear; bees; beetle; birds; bull; butterfly; cat; cow; coyote; crab, crayfish, crocodile; crow; dog; dolphin; dove; eagle; elephant; elk; falcon; fish; goat; goose; hare; hawk; horse; lamb; leopard; lion; magpie; monkey; octopus; peacock; pig; raven; sea-horse; serpent; sheep; snake; spider; swan; tiger; tortoise; vertebrates; vulture; wolf; worm
Jung’s index to The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious includes the octopus within a catalogue of symbolic animals, affirming its status as a carrier of archetypal meaning within the collective unconscious.
, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959aside