Wounded healer is an archetypal

Archetype

An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...

 dynamic that psychologist Carl Jung

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...

 used to describe a phenomenon that may take place in the relationship between analyst and analysand: 'Jung...warned of its dangers as well as its necessity'.

For Jung, 'a good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's examining himself...it is his own hurt that gives a measure of his power to heal. This, and nothing else, is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician'.

Mythological origins

In Greek mythology, the centaur 'Chiron

Chiron

In Greek mythology, Chiron was held to be the superlative centaur among his brethren.-History:Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents...

 was known as the "Wounded Healer" because he was poisoned by one of Hercules

Hercules

Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

's arrows' by dropping it on himself. Unfortunately, 'Chiron was unable to heal himself and so suffered the pain of an incurable wound'.

It is also possible that Jung derives the term "wounded healer" from the ancient Greek legend of Asclepius

Asclepius

Asclepius is the God of Medicine and Healing in ancient Greek religion. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia , Iaso , Aceso , Aglæa/Ægle , and Panacea...

, a physician who in identification of his own wounds creates a sanctuary at Epidaurus

Epidaurus

Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros : Palaia Epidavros and Nea Epidavros. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of Epidavros, part of the peripheral unit of Argolis...

 in order to treat others. By contrast, the figure of 'Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 Medicus could be said to subvert the ancient folkloric motif known in Jungian discourse as the "wounded healer": the physician whose "own suffering and vulnerability...contribute crucially to the capacity to heal"'.

Jung's wound

It has been suggested that 'because of his "wounded" childhood, Jung was to embark, even as a child, on ways to integrate his life'. He certainly made early use of the Chiron myth in this connection, claiming that 'wounding by one's own arrow means, first of all, the state of introversion'; and fully recognised that 'certain psychic disturbances can be extremely infectious if the doctor himself has a latent predisposition in that direction...For this reason he runs a risk - and must run it'.

Gradually the positive aspects of the wounded physician archetype came more to the fore, with Jung emphasising that 'it is no loss, either, if he feels that the patient is hitting him, or even scoring off him: it is his own hurt that gives the measure of his power to heal'.

Jungians however would probably acknowledge as well that 'Jung was a wounded healer who sometimes wounded those he healed'.

Practical example

The following is an example of the "wounded healer

Healer (role variant)

The Healer Idealist is one of the 16 role variants of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves. David Keirsey originally described the Healer role variant; however, a brief summary of the personality types...

 phenomena" between an analyst and his/her analysand:

• The analyst, through the nature of his profession is consciously aware of his own personal wounds. However, these wounds may be activated in certain situations, especially if his analysand's wounds are similar to his own. (This can be the basis of countertransference
  Countertransference
  Countertransferenceis defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.-Early formulations:...
  
  ).
• In the meantime, the wounded analysand "inner healer" is unconscious to him, but potentially available.
• The analysand's wounds activate those of the analyst. The analyst realizes what is taking place, and either consciously or unconsciously passes this awareness back to his analysand.
• In this way, an unconscious relationship takes place between analyst and analysand.

Jung felt that this type of depth psychology

Depth psychology

Historically, depth psychology, from a German term , was coined by Eugen Bleuler to refer to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account. The term has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William...

 can be potentially dangerous, because the analyst is vulnerable to being infected by his analysand's wounds, or having his or her wounds reopened. Also, the analyst must have an ongoing relationship with the unconscious

Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...

, otherwise he or she could identify with the "healer archetype", and create an inflated ego.

Problematics

'Guggenbühl-Craig warns of the dangers of inflation and splitting

Splitting (psychology)

Splitting may mean two things: splitting of the mind, and splitting of mental concepts . The latter is thinking purely in extremes Splitting (also called all-or-nothing thinking in cognitive distortion) may mean two things: splitting of the mind, and splitting of mental concepts (or black and...

 in members of the helping professions, whereby the "wounded" pole of the archetypal image gets projected onto and left with the patient, who in turn projects the "healer" pole onto the analyst'.

As a result, 'both analyst and patient need to withdraw these projection

Projection

Projection, projector, or projective may refer to:* The display of an image by devices such as:** Movie projector** Video projector** Overhead projector** Slide projector** Camera obscura** Projection screen...

s so that the inner healer is activated in the patient'.

Cultural analogues

The character "House

Gregory House

Gregory House, M.D., or simply referred to as House, is a fictional antihero and title character of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. He is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where he leads a team of diagnosticians...

", from the television series of the same name, can be considered as an example of this archetype in modern pop culture; his physical and emotional scars are both a burden and a driving force in his need to fix the problems of others while destroying himself.

T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

wrote: 'The wounded surgeon plies the steel/That questions the distempered part;/beneath the bleeding hands we feel/The sharp compassion of the healer's art'.

Further reading

• Claire Dunn, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul (2000)
• J. Halifax, Shaman: The Wounded Healer (1982)
• Daryl Sharp, The Jung Lexicon (Toronto)
• David Sedgwick, The Wounded Healer: Countertransference from a Jungian Perspective (1994)