ABSTRACT
This chapter proceeds from Carl Jung’s idea that consciousness makes us into solitary beings (hence ‘orphans’) and describes how the shaman was the first to apprehend that particular solitary consciousness equivalent to discovering the inner world. Such awareness is today shown to be unique to each creative personality, in which the shaman archetype is active. Ways of living with this activated archetype are described in this chapter, along with the dangers (for therapists) of identifying with the image. Examples from literature and fairytales are provided toward the crucial role of solitude and the inevitable ‘torment of loneliness’ in all creative activity. Freud and Jung’s experience as ‘alienists,’ as well as the author’s solitude and its role in the initiatory ordeal of psychoanalytic training, are described, as are two major dreams that herald the author’s emergence from solitude into relationship and eventually back into life, with a renewed capacity to love.
