ABSTRACT
Psychosis is paradoxical, as Gregory Bateson demonstrated with his double bind theory; but long before that, Jung had already noted that the archetype is psychotic. An archetype can be viewed as ignoring its objective reality, and on the other, it can be regarded as being permanently in a double bind with its object, arising out of creativity and out of destructiveness, which gives the impression at once of love and of hate and so it appears to be in perpetual paradox. It is well known that Jung began his psychiatric practice at the Burgholzli Hospital whose then director was Eugen Bleuler. In those days the choice of interventions for psychotic patients was pretty modest. Thus, one of the components of treatment was the rhythm of a very well-ordered existence, one we could today consider stereotypical, where work activity formed an important aspect: the patients were put to work on a farm which produced most of their food.
