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Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-88) has usually been described as a solipsist. However, the American science fiction writer's central 'solipsistic' motif is the self-begetting and self-devouring ourobouros serpent which, according to the individuation theory of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), represents symbolic incest. Jung argues that incest could be understood in terms of the ego's desire for union with the unconscious which, feminine in a man and masculine in a woman, is personified by the contrasexual component (anima in man; animus in woman). As men are drawn to women by their contrasexual component and vice versa, all male-female relationships are characterized by anima-animus interactions, that is, projected variants of the endogamous urge, so the goal of the individuation process is recognition of the projection and introjection, that is, a self-union or self-hood characterized by an individual relationship between a man and a woman, rather than a relationship between anima and animus. The symbol of the self-begetting (projecting) and self-devouring (introjecting) ourobouros serpent symbolizes this process.
About the author
As a member of the American Fellowship Church (AFC), the Universal Life Church (ULC), and the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International (FGBMFI), Dr Robin Bright has been bringing the light of Christianity to the world since he was a bulb.
