Reimagining Physical Disability: A Second Look at its Phenomenal and Archetypal Significance

Abstract

This theoretical hermeneutic study engages a Jungian psychological perspective to explore the experience of physical disability within the American cultural context. The ideal of bodily perfection within this cultural context and the resulting psycho-social impact on individuals with physical disability is discussed. It is argued this impact undermines personal validity and generates a perceived failure to meet cultural expectations within the disabled individual, often leading to the development of a bodily perfection complex. This complex involves an irrational expectation for bodily perfection in the face of physical disability and generates a state of emotional duress. The bodily perfection complex produces feelings of fear and anxiety that prevent the individual from looking more deeply into the experience of his or her physical disability for a sense of meaning and self-regard. Examining the psychological repercussions of, and engaging the question of effective psychotherapeutic response to this scenario comprises the core of the study. An archetypal model of disability, rooted in the concepts of C. G. Jung and James Hillman, allows the individual to explore his or her experience and find meaning that gives a sense of personal validity and loosens the bodily perfection complex. The study builds on this model to describe how the development of a personal myth can help the physically disabled person find his or her identity through the processes of soul-making and individuation.