King Lear, Answer to Job: The Archetypes of Godhead
What if Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy holds the key to understanding Western consciousness itself? Shakespearean scholar and Jungian theorist James Driscoll reveals how King Lear and Jung’s Answer to Job chart the same journey — the transformation of the God-image from unconscious tyrant to suffering servant to defiant rebel.
Through Lear’s descent into madness and nothingness, we witness what Driscoll calls “the crucifixion of the ego,” where pride strips away to reveal authentic self-knowledge and compassion. Based on his article in Psychological Perspectives, Volume 66, Issue 3 (2023).