SATANIC PANIC: The Archetypal Slanderer and False Memory Syndrome

What drives us to seek meaning in the shadows, and how do we discern the real from the imagined when fear and faith converge?

The rise of the Satanic Panic in the 1980s drew upon ancient archetypal fears of evil embedded in the collective unconscious, merging with societal stressors like the emergence of fundamentalist Christianity in American politics and women’s increased participation in the workforce with the resultant rise of daycare use. The archetype of the Devil as slanderer can capture a community. Even as they are prompted to accuse others of devilish behavior, they themselves are controlled by the slandering spirit. Accusing is a defense that expiates one’s guilt and places it in another. Potentiated by a blend of projection and literalization, mass hysteria around claims of ritual abuse was spurred on by poorly trained therapists and law enforcement. Anecdotal reports of hypnotized adults and children were taken as factual and later discovered to be suggestions presented by authority figures. Later, researchers found that people in trance states would testify to experiences they had never experienced if it was merely suggested to them. False Memory Syndrome ruined the lives of many innocent workers. The resistance to reflection and self-confrontation makes us vulnerable to externalizing our shadow, and others usually pay the price.

Prepare to discover what shapes our collective fears and how they influence our perception of reality; how suggestive authority, societal narratives, and memory contribute to the formation of belief; which psychological mechanisms can lead individuals to deeply believe in events that have not occurred; whether we can truly trust recovered memories or if they are manufactured by cultural and therapeutic biases; why archetypal themes resurface throughout history in cycles of moral panic…and so much more.

Find a copy of the dream we analyze HERE: https://thisjungianlife.com/satanic-panic

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