As long-time readers of mine will doubtless know, I have a vexatious relationship with the Superhero genre. On the one hand, I find the whole phenomenon fascinating; each individual character represents something archetypal, not just visually (their spandex outfits a throwback to nude sculptures of the ideal human form, as well as evocative of powerful emotions through the bright primary colours with which they are painted), but also emotionally. Each represents a certain aspect of the moral question: Spiderman must balance great power with great responsibility, in Superman we have the ideal immigrant who exemplifies the ideals of his new, and with Batman we have the responsible feudal lord, who dedicates his wealth to defending his subjects; et cetera.

At the same time I find them endlessly frustrating in their current manifestation: no longer tales for children, they’ve become silver-screen blockbusters set in gritty, realistic worlds which reflect the geo-politics of our time; and yet despite this, they manage to find morally trite solutions to it all, while serving as escapist, magical power fantasies despite an audience who ought to be old enough to know that magic doesn’t exist.

Explaining Jungian Dream Analysis

I recently started reading Dreams by Carl Jung, and upon reading his descriptions of the different functions which dreams might serve, a couple of nodes connected in my mind: the correlation between Superhero movies, and the growing anger and bitterness we see amongst so many people today. Before I describe this in detail, however, I should elaborate on the details of Jung’s theory.

Core to Jung’s ideas is the theory of the Unconscious Mind as equal in relevance to the Conscious Mind. For him, the unconscious isn’t merely the reservoir of primitive instincts and repressed sexual urges, as Freud suggested; rather, it’s a fully aware and active participant in one’s life-experience, and comprehending it is just as important as understanding one’s conscious mind. Far too often it goes ignored (though certain people are over-emphasize it). His theories echo our current understanding of the divide between the left and right hemispheres of the brain: the left being the conscious mind which thinks reductively, explicitly, and verbally; the right being the unconscious mind which thinks holistically, metaphorically, and through imagery. Both work in tandem, but are (by all evidence) separate minds, separate people. Like a married couple they are “two made one flesh”, one dominant the other submissive, one logical the other emotional, and so on.

I should note that the neurological differentiation of right brain doesn’t fully encapsulate what Jung means by ‘unconscious’ any more than my description of left brain explains ‘Image/Imago’; his understanding suggests there is far more to the story, but for present purposes if you imagine the unconscious to be ‘right brain’, co-equal but different from the conscious ‘left brain’, we can proceed to the essence of what I’m trying to reach.

If we accept that the unconscious is co-equal to the conscious, then we must conclude that its manifestation of dreams are just as important as our conscious planning. That they are not merely a ‘reaction’ to the events of the previous day (week, month, year), but are also an intentional, proactive action towards tomorrow. Given this, Jung describes three primary functions of dreams (I am, of course, over simplifying):

One, Compensatory: this psychic function is inherently defensive in nature. When one is engaged in a course of action which has some destructive element to it – perhaps you’re lying to get ahead, or ignoring a problem which is slowly turning into a disaster – the unconscious will bring this to your attention.

Two, Prospective: just as the conscious mind plans for the future, so does the unconscious. It is the consensus gentium (a bon mot from Jung himself, which I must incorporate into my vernacular) of all ages that many dreams forecast the future. Is it really all that surprising that our co-equal unconscious mind would be paying just as much attention to warning signs and forecasts as our conscious mind does when reading the news? Or, like a man’s wife warning him that so-and-so isn’t to be trusted? These dreams aren’t prophetic in the mystical sense, they’re merely our unconscious telling us how it would bet on the future.

Three, Reductive: this third function is a variation on the first, and it is the one I wish to focus on in this article. While the compensatory dream is warning you about the external world – the reductive dream is warning you about yourself. Often we’ll find ourselves ‘living a lie’ – when our conscious attitude and behaviour is exceeding our ability. The result is a dream which degrades, dissolves, and destroys the conscious self, as an admonition that one is reaching beyond their grasp.

Jung also mentions a fourth function, repetitive dreams which process PTSD trauma, but it is the third one which interests me today.

(As an aside, I can’t help thinking about how often I hear the term “Imposter Syndrome,” the condition where one feels as if they’re a phony, who doesn’t deserve to be in the position that they’re in, as of late – perhaps this is my own subconscious causing me to notice it, or maybe it’s a common problem throughout our culture? The latter certainly fits with my forthcoming analysis, and of course those two statements aren’t mutually exclusive. After all, isn’t most writing a form of self-therapy?)

  Where was I? Right. I believe the third function of dreams, the reductive, is particularly relevant given the presence of Superhero movies.

Film as Waking Dream

As I have noted before, the modern medium of film is uniquely amongst artistic endeavors, in that it’s interpreted by the mind as a waking dream. A film viewer is not in a hypnagogic state, absorbing images and sounds in the manner of dreams; they are in fact fully alert. And yet brain activity – which is strongly stimulated by music, paintings, video games – more closely resembles that of somebody sleeping. The film world indoctrinates itself into a ‘lived experience’ embedded within your mind. To the unconscious, they are as real as walking down to the corner store, or getting stung by a bee.

There are a myriad of concerns here, of course, television and film offer a propaganda medium like no other. But that isn’t what I want to explore. Instead, I want to ask the question: what happens when you subject yourself to endless ‘real life’ images of perfection? What will the unconscious mind have to say about that?

Jung acknowledges that Freud wasn’t wrong; repressed infantile sexualities make up part of our subconscious. Neither was Adler wrong; that we have infantile power fantasies. Both of these would be spoken to us in dreams. But what happens when we put all of these onto the silver screen, and create a manufactured experience?

I target superhero movies in particular because of how ridiculously over-the-top they have become. Heroes who are immune to bullets, heroes who can fly, heroes who can backflip and have access to unique magical items which nobody else can procure. Action movies of the 80s were equally a power fantasy – Arnold Schwarzenegger walking around, shooting from the hip, with an unending chain of bullets for his machine gun – but the modern iterations have become so exaggerated that it’s impossible not to notice how infantile they all are. Perfect people performing perfect stunts in the silliest outfits and adult could possibly wear.

It is inevitable that the subconscious will react to all of this with the most vicious reductive upbraiding imaginable.

We Hate Ourselves for Failing

Think about the Radical Left, the Woke – a group with two defining factors: weakness and sadism. Spandrell calls it “Biological Leninism” – the tendency of those who are biologically incapable of competing on a level playing field to inevitably seek out political solutions which will place them above others, even if they are materially worse off. Professor Edward Dutton calls them the “Spiteful Mutants” – those who were born with genetic mutations which turn them into freaks, and who resent all of reality for giving them such a condition. There is much to be said for this analysis – a look at the misshapen faces behind every Antifa riot is more than enough to take this seriously – but Wokism is so much more widespread, showing up in the halls of academia, the rhetoric of national politicians, and proliferating throughout those who are succeeding in creative pursuits.

Why are so many signing up for the Hegelian religion of Marxist Wokeness? Why are so many people screeching in anger at the smallest sign of disagreement? Why so much anger, even to the point of feminist self-inserts Mary Sues behaving like villains, and “Kicking the Dog”?

Could all of this be a reaction to the unblemished, impossible heroism we see in Marvel Movies?

It’s not just the Woke who behave thusly; there’s a great deal of resentment seething amongst those on the political right, as well. Just look to the “Internet Bum Fights” of four years ago, and the endless snark and cynicism from those who indulge in these infantile fantasies. You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to your subconscious. If you’re too eager to consciously label yourself the hero…

…you might just become the villain.