Peripeteia

The Seba library treats Peripeteia in 6 passages, across 4 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Berry, Patricia, Jung, C.G.).

In the library

a peripeteia charged with affect, without which no higher level of consciousness can be reached.

Jung applies peripeteia as the psycho-theological condition of transformation, asserting that consciousness cannot advance without a crisis-reversal laden with affective intensity.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

It was to this aspect of the dream that Jung referred when he spoke of its dramatic structure: setting, development, peripeteia, lysis (CW 8, §506 ff.).

Berry identifies peripeteia as the third structural element of Jung's four-phase dramatic model of the dream, situating it within a framework of narrative rather than image.

Berry, Patricia, Echo's Subtle Body: Contributions to an Archetypal Psychology, 1982thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

In the second phase comes the DEVELOPMENT of the plot... I call this phase of the dream the EXPOSITION. It indicates the scene of action, the people involved, and often the initial situation of the dreamer.

Jung elaborates the dramatic structure of dreams, providing the architectonic context within which peripeteia functions as the crisis-phase following exposition and development.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Jung twice breaks chronology... by advancing the peripeteia (the ninth dream) heuristically from chronological seventh place into pedagogic ninth position.

In his dream seminar, Jung deliberately repositions the peripeteia within a dream series for pedagogical clarity, demonstrating that the term functions as a dynamic structural marker rather than a fixed sequential slot.

Jung, C.G., Dream Interpretation Ancient and Modern: Notes from the Seminar Given in 1936-1941, 2014supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

then new Agon with a reconciliation (886 ff.) and Peripeteia; then great Procession of gods... Agon (short but involving Anagnorisis and Peripeteia) between Oedipus and the Herdsman 1123–1185.

Harrison traces peripeteia as a formal ritual-dramatic unit within Greek tragedy, co-occurring with anagnorisis and theophany in the Oresteia and Oedipus Rex, revealing its roots in enacted religious transformation.

Harrison, Jane Ellen, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the immediate cause of the Incarnation lies in Job's elevation, and its purpose is the differentiation of Yahweh's consciousness.

This index entry from Answer to Job contextualizes the theological stakes of the peripeteia argument, pointing to the Incarnation as the mythological enactment of consciousness-elevation through crisis.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Answer to Job, 1952aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →