Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) January 29, 2025: In recent weeks I have been reflecting on what it means to be a fan of a particular person such as a certain actress. However, in addition to being the fans of particular persons, we may be fans of certain television shows or of certain movies or of certain sports teams and the like. As a result, being a fan is common experience. However, being a fan involves being in love with someone or something, which involves projecting something in our psyches onto a certain someone or something. We may think of what we are projecting from our psyches onto a certain someone or something as libido. The Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) referred to libido in the title of his important 1912 book in German Transformations and Symbolisms of Libido - which Jung revised extensively and re-titled in 1952 as Symbols of Transformation. The word "Libido" disappeared from the title of the 1952 edition, but not from the book. In both the 1912 version and the 1952 version, Jung devotes an entire chapter to differentiating what he refers to as fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking, on the one hand, from directed thinking involving logic, on the other hand. When we become a fan of a certain someone or something, we are thereby engaging in fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking, and we are thereby projecting libido onto a certain someone or something - because we especially love that certain someone or something.
In any event, Jung undertook that extensive revision of his important 1912 book after he read and wrote the "Foreword" to the Jungian psychoanalyst Erich Neumann's grand synthesis of Jung's work in the 1949 book in German The Origins and History of Consciousness, which R. F. C. Hull translated into English in 1954 (Pantheon Books) - who also translated Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1952; 1967 second edition, Princeton University Press).
Consequently, my reflections in recent weeks on what it means to be a fan of a particular person such as a favorite actress prompted me this week to construct the present document to record the DVDs that I own of TV series that I like. I watch the DVD versions of these TV series on the big-screen television in the living room of my home in Duluth, Minnesota. My extended reflections on what it means to be a fan of a particular person such as a favorite actress were prompted by my enthusiasm for the actress Lynda Carter's performance as Wonder Woman in the 1970s Wonder Woman television series, the DVD version of which I watched enthusiastically on the big-screen television in the living room of my home in late August 2024 into September 2024. As I enthusiastically watched the busty young Lynda Carter perform in her wonderfully revealing Wonder Woman costume, I frequently expressed my enthusiasm for her performance by exclaiming aloud to myself, "My God, she is beautiful!" whenever she emerged in her wonderfully revealing Wonder Woman costume. No, I do not recall ever before exclaiming anything aloud as I watched the DVD version of any other TV series on the big-screen television in the living room of my home. I loved the busty young Lynda Carter's spectacularly beautiful body in her wonderfully revealing costume far more intensely than I had ever before loved the beautiful body of any other actress. That intense experience of love for the spectacularly beautiful body of the busty young Lynda Carter prompted me to reflect in subsequent weeks on what it means to be a fan of a favorite actress and more generally on what it means to become infatuated with a certain someone or something. Because I was infatuated with her image on the big-screen television in my living room, I clearly was engaged in what Jung refers to as fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking. No doubt the busty young Lynda Carter was a wonderful fantasy for me to dream about as I projected libido from my psyche onto her image of the big-screen television in my living room.
Now, I divide the present document into two sections. Section II is devoted to my wide-ranging and deeply personal and extremely associative commentary about the busty young Lynda Carter and certain other women - most of whom are actresses that I like. But one of the other women that I discuss in Section II is a real woman with whom I had a short but intense affair in late February 1974 into early March 1974, which she ended before the end of March 1974: my friend Sue. In late February 1974, I had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized until early March 1974. My mental breakdown was diagnosed as a hypomanic episode - in short, a certain kind of psychotic episode. In a psychotic episode, unconscious contents in one's psyche overwhelm and overthrow one's ego-consciousness. After I got out of the hospital in early March 1974, my friend Sue renewed our friendship. Good for her!
At that time, I was grumbling about the prospect of having monthly appointments with the psychiatrist I had met with during my hospitalization. Now, in response to my grumbling, and to encourage me in her own way to take a more positive attitude about undergoing psychoanalysis once a month with my psychiatrist, my friend Sue came up to my apartment one evening and told me the difficult story of her years of sexual promiscuity as a girl and about her gang rape as a pregnant teenager by her boyfriend and his buddies. I had not heard anything like that ever before. At the time, I felt enormous empathy for my friend Sue. In deeply personal commentary in Section II of the present document, I mention my friend Sue extensively.
But why? Let me explain. As a result of my watching the DVD version of the 1970s Wonder Woman television series, I became infatuated with the image of the busty young Lynda Carter on the big-screen television in my living room. My infatuation with the image of her spectacularly beautiful body was accompanied by mild euphoria. I felt mildly euphoric for about ten weeks (it ended shortly before the election on November 5, 2024). But feeling mildly euphoric in the fall of 2024 called to mind my hypomanic episode in late February 1974 - more than 50 years ago.
Now, after I published my 660th OEN article titled "About Pope Francis' New 2025 300-Page Autobiography" (dated January 25, 2025), I had a new insight regarding the work of Walter Ong --- which insight I highlight in the present OEN article:
Now, this morning, when I was working on this "Headnote" for the present document, I read Christina Caron's article titled "4 Things Therapists Want You to Know Before You Start Therapy: Here's how to make the most of your visits" (dated January 24, 2025) in The New York Times:
Reading this article prompted me to reflect further about my grumbling in early March 1974 about the prospect of meeting monthly with my psychiatrist for psychoanalysis. At this remove in time, I have no specific recollection about what all may have prompted my grumbling in early March 1974. Up to that time, my only experience of talking with a psychiatrist was during my hospitalization in late February 1974 and early March 1974. From that limited experience, I knew that I was not good at remembering my childhood experiences - such as the childhood memories in the "Appendix" of my 660th OEN article (dated January 25, 2025), mentioned above, which memories I wrote out in June 2006 - more than 30 years after my hospitalization in late February 1974. Since my hospitalization in late February 1974 to today, I have met with about 20 different psychotherapists (with various credentials). In addition, during my years in the Jesuit order (1979-1987), I met with about 20 different Jesuits as spiritual directors. Through those various person-to-person meetings in which I was expected to do most of the talking, I have learned how to talk about myself more openly, and more fluently, than I knew how to in late February 1974 and early March 1974.
Now, in Section II of the present document, I mention video interviews involving Bree Olson, Molly Jane and Cory Chase. In those various video interviews, each of them speaks quite candidly and openly. In the present document, I try to write candidly and openly in my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal reflections in the lengthy commentary Section II. For me, writing the lengthy commentary in Section II was primarily a way for me to further process certain events in my life in the fall of 2024 - just as Jung further processed certain events in his life when he moved from recording those events in his Black Books to making works of art and drawings about those events in his Red Book.
Now, I have previously published my reflections about certain events in my life in the fall of 2024 in my various OEN articles that I published in the fall of 2024 through early 2025. Those OEN articles of mine are the equivalent, in this analogy with Jung's practice, to Jung publishing his Black Books shortly after he wrote them. In this analogy with Jung's practice, my publishing my deeply personal reflections in the commentary of Section II in the present OEN article is the equivalent of Jung publishing his Red Book.
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