ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a myth of human growth in order to elaborate and demonstrates the significance of the cardinal notions of splitting in the ego (self), the depressive position, and forgiveness. It presents a more adequate myth for comprehending the two (psychical) and three-dimensional (spiritual) faces of sorrow. The myth, “Felix culpa”, the happy fault, starts with a Kiergegaardian self-search or psychological autopsy. The psychoanalytic tradition uses “position” to indicate meanings that are more than a one-shot happening, especially within a relationship. Any attempt to comprehend sorrow and its derangement remains shallow insofar as it fails to address the various offshoots of splitting. The elemental drama shifts because of another anthropological fact: the smiling response. At approximately three months of age, the infant reaches a new level. The phenomenon that indexes the change is “the social smile”. However, the existential-phenomenological-hermeneutic tradition is suited to comprehend forgiveness.
