Re-embodied by the Rhythm: A Jungian Understanding of a Woman’s Experience of Birth Trauma and Its Transformation Through a Spiritual Dance Practice

Abstract

C. G. Jung, and those who followed in his footsteps to shape Depth Psychology, gave us the words to understand the complexes that develop after someone has experienced trauma. In particular when a woman experiences birth trauma, she can become gripped by the victim complex, feeling trapped by the feeling-toned archetypal core that affects how she interacts with the world. But what is the remedy to heal this? In the mire of my own turmoil, after the terrifying medicalized birth of my son, a chance encounter with a spiritual dance practice on the cliffs of the California coast was the only thing that helped. Curious to determine what was happening within me, I discovered that the ancient practice of dance actually engages the Transcendent Function. Miller (The transcendent function: Jung’s model of psychological growth through dialogue with the unconscious, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2004) offers a beautiful description of this Jungian concept, “The transcendent function is the tissue between consciousness and the unconscious; it is the expression of the space or field that mediates between the two” (p. 126). This connective tissue had been broken during my traumatic experience and it was only when my consciousness could once again successfully communicate with my unconscious that I began to become restored. Thus, my research examines how a complex can develop as a result of trauma, the way in which dance activates the transcendent function, and how these two things worked together to help me align with the complex to work towards individuation after tribulations.