Hello, All:

My first post here. I spent a bit of time in graduate school writing a Jungian analysis of Prince. I grew up a huge Prince fan, came across Carl Jung in school, and saw a whole lot of connections. I found the paper years later and have posted it on a blog site. You might find it plodding or enlightening or both or neither! I would love any feedback, however, from you. There is a simple upload of just the text and then this one that i've embellished with links and other whatnot, detritus, flotsam and jetsum.

http://ahagiographyofprince.wordpress.com/

Cheers!

Haven't read it all yet.

But I already can tell that I'm surprised.

Surprised that there is no reaction to your post.

I likes..............

This is really great. It seems a good idea to analyze the different moves and themes of Prince in Jungian terms.

And nice with a more intellectual post once in a while. I might not agree with it all, but it is not at all far fetched. Just to raise these thoughts deserves attention on here.

Interesting to read! I like it!

Thanks everyone for your responses! I have to tell you that beyond my professor at the time, I'm guessing that you're the only people who've ever seen it. It wasn't until I came across this site that I figured I'd found anyone who'd find it of much interest.

I do agree to not agree with all of it now either! When I re-read it after all those years, I kind of cringed a bit at not only the quality of the writing but some of the ideas, but I pledged to myself not to change it now and allow it to go up as it was written. This is how I saw it all then.

Graycap23, your question regarding "What part of GAME" escapes me. I may have to re-read it again myself! Actually, when I put it up, I had to type it all in because if it existed on a disk it would have been a 5.5" floppy! So I kind of re-read it, but you know when you're just entering data like that, your mind tends to wander.

lukeS said:

Graycap23, your question regarding "What part of GAME" escapes me.

I guess you misread the "signature" as a part of the content of the post...

Many thanks for the read. Very interesting indeed. Congrats mate.

[Edited 3/31/11 3:52am]

Funny how people change with time.

In the beginning of prince's career people disliked the dirty songs and thought that the songs were evil

and nowadays at the W2A shows, when he let's the people hear the little intro to Darling Nikki, they are begging him for more.

Now Prince is the one who doesn't want to play the dirty songs.

Well C.J. was an alchemist,

And P has the alchemy symbol for soapstone for his shows to this day....

Thanks again for responses. It's sweet to know someone other than me has seen it! I think Bowie got some of this also - his personas (ziggy stardust, thin white duke, etc.) are of course conscious on his part, but I'm certain that a close examination might find some fun stuff. I also wish I had spent more time on Around the World in a Day, which really blew me away at the time but somehow didn't make it into all of this. Cheers!

Hi,

I have studied Jung extensively many years ago (during the sign and lovesexy era's), and as you i saw a great link between Jungs theories and Prince's development especailly during these lovesexy years and afterwards. I liked your article a lot and especially the 'trickster' part was something i myself never thought about. Here some thoughts i had about the Prince/Jung connection;

1. The position of the Ego versus the Shadow. I think it is clear that Prince started struggling with his shadow after the album 1999. But during the Purple Rain era (which in a way is also a important development phase for Prince), so to speak, he doesn't find a resolution, which shows the position of the ego versus the shadow in the song Temptation. You note that correctly. As you point out correctly it dramatically changed during the Lovesexy era, Prince reach there some deep subconscious Archetypical material in my opinion. Yet it is doubtfull if this is real ''individuation'' in the sense that Jung would call it. Jung would no doubt recognize that Prince reaches deeper levels within the unconscious, as many deep artists are able to, yet the ego of Prince is swept away by it or ''blown up'' (inflated). I believe the years after this shows the struggle of the Ego to come to grips with the Lovesexy era archetypes and the integration of all it, or lack of integration. I believe the is the era upto ''emancipation''.

3. Mayte the Anima, Alchemy. All in all i miss the central role of the Anima in your article (Anna Stesia halfway in livesexy). If we look to the symbolism of ''the symbol'' album. We see the picture of Mayte and Prince together in a heavenly golden city, it reminded me of mysterium conniunctonis, (jungs book). Prince ofcourse makes himself clear references to Alchemy, as his symbol is holding the opposites together, and later the Gold album also has clear references to Alchemy. Ofcourse Jung also studied Alchemy extensively and saw the archetypes return in it. In Mysterium coniunctionis the relationship between the Anima and the Ego becomes central in the Alchemy process or individuation as Jung would call it.I always have found it significant that since Mayte clearly portrayed the Anima for Prince, the result of the relationship is so oddly connected with the outcome of the alchemic process/individuation process described in Mysterium Coniunctionis. All in all, it somehow shows that a healthy integration or individuation was not reached.

What a wonderful response, 101, and I know you've drank the kool-aid with phrases such as "you note that correctly" - adding credence to my belief that this theorizing about Jung and Prince is right on! I can't agree more that Mr. P's ego is now and has always been the ruler of Prince the man. I sort of imagined when I wrote this that Prince was growing up a bit and ready to engage the world on a slightly more rational level. That sort of behavior in a young artist can be cool, but as the artist ages, the behavior becomes more sad and tragic, even pathetic. Think J.D. Salinger.

I had also thought about the Anima archetype at the time, and even my professor, who was no real Prince aficionado by any stretch, also brought it up; and it's a rather slam-dunk with Prince - and going way back to Appolonia, Sheila E, and all the others - and Mayte as you point out. But at the time, I honestly just didn't have it in me to get another chapter into this.

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond.