The unconscious can talk right past our ego and persona, sometimes to perfectly contradict what our false personality is saying. Freud wrote about this in 1900, and such moments came to be called “Freudian slips.” If you watch last week’s Meet the Press http://www.nbc.com/meet-the-press/video/meet-the-press-nov-29-2015/2940190?onid=210121#vc210121=1 and listen carefully, ( move the slider to 12 minutes and 30 seconds) you will hear Donald Trump say, “I really have no opinion, I just know that I’m weak—-uh, that I’m winning by a lot. I really have no opinion, but I know that I’m winning by a lot.” You will hear him catch himself, a moment in which he is clearly startled when he realizes that he said “weak” and then he overcompensates, as usual, with another of his winner phrases which he repeats a moment later. Jung pointed out that both dreams and slips of the tongue tend to compensate for defects in the waking attitude, especially any sort of one-sidedness. As in the yin-yang symbol, Trump tries to portray himself as all white/yang/masculine power, but the “I’m weak” slip, like the black dot in the white yang, shows his unconscious peaking through and tweaking his own nose. The most stunning and hilarious slips of the tongue I’ve ever heard have come from another man that many thought would never become president—W. See Exploring the Unconscious—a Zap Oracle card that quotes some of W’s most amazing slips. Here’s an example:
“The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off.”
— George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004
This might seem amusing till you remember the high body count associated with political leaders who have unintegrated shadows. As Jung said, “There is no such thing in nature as an H-Bomb, that is all man’s doing. We are the great danger. The psyche is the great danger.” A corollary to that insight is that the psyche of political leaders and of the people who vote for them is also a great danger. As we should have learned from recent presidential history— a clown emerging from the Republican clown car nomination process, a weak clown who wants to show the world how strong he is, might turn into the killer clown of your nightmares.
“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” —Stephen Dedalus (James Joyce)
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
— George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
“Who could have possibly envisioned an erection — an election in Iraq at this point in history?”
— George W. Bush, at the White House, Washington, D.C., Jan. 10, 2005
“The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case.”
— George W. Bush, Pella, Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000
“I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. You’re doing a heck of a job. You cut your teeth here, right? That’s where you started practicing? That’s good. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.”
— George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004
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