A Reflection on the Process of Individuality in Shafi'i Kadkani's Poems

According to Jung, the process of self-discovery or the process of individuality begins with a spiritual need or inner conflict in the person; in this process, organizing among archetypes is the task of the archetype of the “self”. If it can create unity and oneness among other archetypes, one will reach psychological growth and finally recognize the hidden angles within, to self-awareness and wholeness. Individual leads, with the growth of individuality, the person from individual integrity to connection with the world, and in the next stage, unity with the universe and becoming the owner of universal thought. In this research, the poems of Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kadkani have been studied from the perspective of self-discovery stages, according to Jung's theory. The result of the research shows that the archetypes of anima, shadow, old wise man, death and rebirth, and the hero are in stages of self-discovery in their thought and are coordinated with the "conscious self". They are all compatible. Shafi'i Kadkani has gone through the inner layers of himself, the path of individuality and psychological growth, and has reached oneness with the universe after self-awareness and connection with the world. Keywords: Jung, Archetype, Individualization Process, Shafi'i Kadkani, Hero.1.IntroductionOne of the important approaches to criticizing literary works that emerged from the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is archetypal criticism.By presenting fundamental concepts such as the collective unconscious, the archetype, and the process of individuality, Jung established a hypothesis that left a great impact on the knowledge of mythology and literary criticism. He considered the human psyche to include two conscious and unconscious parts. He also divided the unconscious into two parts: personal and collective. The personal unconscious is made up of the individual's experiences and is unique to everyone, but the collective unconscious, beyond personal experiences, is the strongest and most influential reservoir of the mental system, and the archetypes, which are exemplary and universal phenomena, are hidden in it and can manifest themselves at any time and place (Jung, 1352: 96). All the archetypes exist within each person in a potential form, and they actually appear in the right conditions and opportunities and cause a behavioral reaction in humans, but what is important is the harmony between the archetypes. In order for a person to achieve psychological integrity, there must be harmony and coherence between archetypes so that they can achieve psychological growth. Jung introduced this process of psychological growth as the "individuation process". This is the ultimate goal of Jung's psychology, which leads to self-knowledge.The discussion of the process of individuality in writing poetry, which is a kind of unconscious manifestation of the poet in his conscious, can be investigated because the poet uses his imagination and mental images in writing poetry, and by giving life to these exemplary images and expanding them, he creates his work. In fact, the author of the literary work is the translator of the collective unconscious and exemplary images for ordinary people (Rashidian, 1370: 76).In the present research, two collections of Shafi'i Kadkani's poems, "Mirror for Voices" and "The Second Millennium of the Mountain Deer" have been examined to understand the layers of the poet's personality from the point of view of the process of individuality. Shafi'i Kadkani is one of the most successful contemporary poets who has been a poet for several periods, as if he has gone through different stages of the process of individuality. Lyrical, mystical, social, moral, and philosophical issues, the fate of people in society and the world, and the fate of man in the material world are of interest in his thought, and such cases are in internal coherence, which shows that we are facing a poet who started poetry with individual romances and reached universal thoughts. His poetry is a retelling of the moments of unconsciousness that reached oneness with the universe by passing from individuality.2.Literature ReviewShafi'i Kadkani's poems are of great interest in research, but so far no research has been done on the process of individuality in his poetry. In the field of analyzing the archetypes of his poems, researchers have often examined one or more archetypes without considering the course of individuality. For example, Hassanzadeh-Niri and Jamshidi (2014) in the article " The Archetype of Sacrifice with Look to Hallaj in Poems of Shafi'i Kadkani and Adonis" concluded that their poems have an archetype of sacrifice. Soleimaninejad Mehrabadi (2017) in the article "Positive and negative aspects of the ancient model of anima in the poetry of Shafi'i Kadkani" has examined the ancient model of anima. Pirouz and Bagheri (2019) in the article "The archetypes of death and rebirth in the works of Shafi'i Kadkani and Badie Saqour" (2019) discussed the archetypes of death and rebirth in the collection "Praise of Pigeons" by Shafi'i Kadkani. In none of these studies, the relationship between the archetype and the process of individuality in Shafi'i Kadkani's poetry is the concern of the author, but in the present article, emphasizing the types of archetypes, the three stages of the process of individuality in his poetry are examined.3.MethodologyThe writing of this article is done with an analytical and descriptive method; information collection is in the form of library study and taking notes. The statistical population is composed of two collections of poems by Shafi'i Kadkani, "A Mirror for Voices" and "The Second Millennium of the Mountain Deer". In the analysis of the sheets, the individual and global thoughts of the poet have been examined in line with the three stages of the process of individuality.DiscussionThe three stages of individuality (self-discovery)According to Jung's psychology, during the process of individuation, the "ego" as the center of self- awareness, is transferred to the "self" as the innermost part of the unconscious. In the exchange between ego and self, "ego" forms the core of self-consciousness and expresses our sense of identity. A strong ego has a balancing aspect and can balance the conscious and unconscious aspects of the personality, but a false ego causes the formation of an autocratic and inconsistent personality.On the other hand, the "self" is the regulating center that causes the personality to mature. This aspect is almost comprehensive of the psyche; at first, it manifests itself only as an inherent possibility, and its growth rate depends on how much the "ego" wants to listen to its messages and achieve self-awareness and realization (Jung, 2012: 250-251). This process is actually moving from detail (ego) to totality (self). "The process of individuation, with the centrality of a significant number of Jungian archetypes, enables the unity of the two core layers of the psyche – self-awareness and unconsciousness – in the form of symbolic acts and during a ritual journey for the hero" (Hosseini and Shakibi-Momtaz, 2014: 19). This causes the emergence of a psychological totality that covers all layers of the psyche (conscious and unconscious) like a big circle.In passing this path, according to Jung's analytical psychology, there are three stages, which are:A) From psychological fragmentation to individual wholenessb) From individual wholeness to unification with the worldc) From the unification with the world to unity with cosmic forces (Yavari, 1396: 112).At each stage, the reaction of "self" to archetypes creates the character of "ego", and a person can proceed to the next stage or stop there according to the internal reaction. Shafi'I Kadkani is one of the poets who has passed through three stages according to his intellectual content, has perfected individuality by putting aside the old negative archetypes, has cultivated his soul and spirit, and has been able to reach the stage of unity with the world. In the following, this speech is analyzed by giving examples of his poems.At the beginning of the path of individuality, a person suffers from several psychological ruptures, faces new dimensions of his personality, and is affected. At this stage, if the archetype of "self" can compromise with other archetypes and transfer its positive aspects to the self-conscious "ego", personality balance will be established, and the person will reach wholeness from psychological fragmentation. The most important archetypes of this section in Shafi'I's poetry are Anima, shadow, and wise old man.Anima: Shafi'I Kadkani has started the poem with a lyrical thought; on this basis, according to his poetry era, the poet's first connection in the process of individuality was formed with the archetype of "anima". The anima is the potential woman inside every man in Jung's school (Modaresi, 2015: 391). In the ancient model of Anima, he mentions the mental lover with romantic descriptions; he brought the term "hidden half-born" with influence from the language of the people of Khorasan. "In Khorasan, the bridegroom is called "Nim-Zad" and "Nim-Zi" fits the theory that man and woman are two lost halves of each other" (Shafi'I Kadkani, 1376: 501-500). The mastery of the poet's "self" over the anima can be seen. According to Jung, the formation of the "self" depends on knowing the anima and controlling it.Shadow: the dark, hidden, repressed aspects of a person. "Shadow embodies things that a person does not accept about himself, such as low personality traits and other incompatible desires" (Jung, 1371: 182). Shafi'I Kadkani is running away from his shadow and has not surrendered to its desires. Of course, the positive anima helps the poet cross the shadow; it is stated in his poem that the dragon is a symbol of the shadow, and the green speech of the anima repels the dragon.The wise old man: The archetype of the wise old man appears during the process of individuality when a person needs insight, understanding, and decision-making and is unable to meet this need alone. The wise old man, in this case, compensates for the lack of spirituality. The wise old man knows the ways to reach the goal and the dangers ahead and shows them to the hero (Jung, 1368: 114). Shafi'I Kadkani has paid special attention to the wise old man in his poems, and it is seen in various manifestations such as Khizr, the inner self (the call of the heart), and Pir Muabar.Individual Wholeness: At this stage, the individual is called to the unconscious realm of the psyche in harmony with the positive anima, subduing subduing the shadow with the companionship of the wise old man. The archetypes that can be seen at this stage are "hero", "journey", and finally "death and rebirth" which a person can successfully pass through to reach his/her individual wholeness so that "ego" can discover "self".In the journey, the wise old man is with the hero to be his guide in handling the obstacles and in the process of individuation to elevate the personality of the individual. These archetypes are present in Shafi'I Kadkani's poetry; he is always thinking of passing from darkness to light, and as a hero, he has repeatedly repeated his victory over darkness and blackness, which is a symbol of the suffocation and tyranny of society, and has given the audience hope for victory and well-being. In his poem, he talks about the victory over the night (which is the shadow of darkness and suffocation) and breaking the magic fence and the devilish shadow and the Tatar army, which are the manifestations of the shadow, and he wants to be his own sun and invites the audience to break the magic fence.Death and rebirth: at this stage, a person is reborn with a symbolic death to experience the sublime life. In Shafi'I Kadkani's poetry, the symbols of spring, phoenix, tree, and love are the symbols of rebirth, which the poet emphasized in many poems. After experiencing the archetype of death and rebirth, the hero is on the verge of discovering "himself".Self-discovery: In self-discovery, after rebirth, the conscious "ego" is placed against the unconscious "self". In the poem "The One Who Recites", the poet clearly introduces two egos in himself. That ego that sits and walks and... is self-aware, and that "conscious ego" that recites is equivalent to the term "self".He attributes all the daily and physical behaviors to "ego", but he attributes reciting, which is one of the most subtle human actions and an internal matter, to "conscious self" or "self" and this is the union of conscious and unconscious.Fication with the worldAccording to Jung, the events of the outside world are, in many cases, a reflection of the human psyche. Jung proposes the idea of non-causal parallelism and calls it "symmetry". At this stage of the process of individuality, not only is unity established between consciousness and unconsciousness, but the person also feels unified with the world. Shafi'I Kadkani has reached a higher level than individual wholeness to unify with the world, as he considers the world to be the result of his thoughts and expression of existence:What is the world other than the expression of our existence? (Shafi'I Kadkani, 1376: 130).In poems that have a philosophical and mystical nature, the poet tends to see his existence as one with the world and to be a part of the world. An example of that is the poem "Zandeh-ye Bidar" in which he moves away from his poem and like a song from outside the curtain in the circle of restlessness (several psychological ruptures), loses himself (individual wholeness), tries a new order in the field of faith (unification with the world), and sees himself as a galaxy or particles of objects. He sees (unification with cosmic forces). They are there and he congratulates salvation to himself.ConclusionThe present study was a reflection on Shafi'i Kadkani's poetry concerning the three stages of the process of individuality, according to Jung's theory. What is obtained from the analysis of his poems is that the evolution of Shafi'i Kadkani's personality is consistent with the process of self-discovery in the three stages of Jung's analytical psychology. By benefiting from mystical-philosophical, social, and lyrical thoughts, the poet has been able to recite different themes with the nature of his time, and in different poetic eras, he has been successful as a poet who had a correct understanding of his time and thought. His poetic works, in connection with Jung's psychology, show the harmony between archetypes in such a way that the poet's unconscious "self" is reconciled with the conscious "ego".During the process of individuation, the poet's "self" has been freed from "psychological fragmentation" by reaching his "anima" and subduing the "shadow" under the guidance of the "old wise man". In the next stage, with the beginning of the "archetype of the journey" and the transformation of "ego" into "hero" with the experience of "death and rebirth", "individual wholeness" has been achieved. After individual wholeness, by "recovering from everything and seeing oneself as the world", he has reached "unification with the world". Until he reached the last stage in his spiritual quest, which is "unification with cosmos" and described himself as "a particle in the galaxy". Shafi'i Kadkani is the hero of the process of individuality in his poems and congratulates his salvation in this way - he says congratulations on your salvation.