The Psychology of Witches

In modern U.S. usage a witch is either a liberal's term for the quarry of a Congressman or a ladylike term for an untamed shrew; oldtime witches seem to have disappeared. Not so in the eyes of Jungian psychologists, to many of whom the whole world of demons, myth and fable is every bit as vivid as it is to poets and children. For Jungians believe that certain kinds of myths are repeated over and over again in all eras and societies, thus furnishing clues to the universal unconscious, just as an individual's dreams may give clues to his individual unconscious. Taking off from that theory, a London Jungian named Leopold Stein has started a major psychological witch hunt. Dr. Stein believes that witch types (he calls them "loathsome women") can be found just about anywhere in modern life.

In the first issue of the Journal of Analytical Psychology, published by British followers of famed old (81) Analyst Carl Jung, Dr. Stein set out to analyze loathsome women as a distinctive psychiatric category. He bases his observations on six young women patients, all of whom "were 'loathed' by everybody, including the analyst. What set them apart, according to Stein, is a "changeable, nebulous, ambiguous, enigmatic attitude [and an] alluring charm sharply contrasting with their sarcastic, cruel reasonableness . . ." They projected "a vivid image of the evil temptress, from whom it is no far cry to the 'witch' or 'hag.'"

Charming Yet Tortuous. Stein's half-dozen "witches in modern dress" were all youthfully slender, lively of expression, some of them bucktoothed and "prancing" of gait. Although they were married and active sexually, they secretly dreaded the sex act and remained "psychically virgins." They had a "miniminy mouth"; that is, they were " 'mim,' prim, reticent, shy, affected." They tended to be frigid, attract weak, boyish men, hated kissing on the mouth (a witch's kiss was believed to draw out the soul). Often they had affairs, mainly with married men. They hated and hurt men, yet believed they were of loving disposition; they were charming, and yet tortured men.

"Some of them are particularly ardent dancers and even become professional dancers, despite or perhaps owing to their frigidity. Others are sculptors, potters, nurses or thieves. If they are not doctors or dentists themselves, they 'happen' to attract their dentist, whose advances then fill them with horror. Some have an affair with a spy or have in some way been associated with espionage . . ."

Because the hag type successfully uses sex as a weapon, they are "loathed by other women, who attribute all sorts of bad qualities to them." Moreover, "men loathe them . . . because they squash any talent the male partner may have." Yet "if they present themselves [as] helpless 'little girls.' men fall for it . . ."

Possessed Psychologist. Dr. Stein confesses that when first confronted by such a formidable patient, the analyst himself "is liable to become possessed of his own witchlike soul." If hag and analyst survive this initial stage, they will eventually come cordially to loathe each other. At this point the patient begins to look "old, hard, spiteful and evil" and uses every instrument in her power short of tears to establish dominion over the analyst. (True to the medieval belief that witches cannot weep, Stein has never seen the loathsome woman shed a tear.) Alternately sadistic and seductive, Dr. Stein's hag patients sometimes invited him to manhandle them, and sometimes circled his chair in "increasingly narrow circles," reminiscent of the legendary tracks dancing hags described on the grass. One disturbing result, Dr. Stein found, was that the hags began to occupy a place in his dreams. "The analyst is in danger of succumbing to the patient's fascination, so bringing about his own downfall," writes Dr. Stein somewhat nervously. "That witches possess the power to emasculate men, or to cause the death of a person as well as to cause a person to fall in love, is well known. The analyst should take heed of this."

What Women Want. What did his loathsome patients expect of him? Dr. Stein points to the young knight's experiences in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:

"My liege and lady, most of all," said he,

"Women desire to have the sovereignty

And sit in rule and government above

Their husbands, and to have their way in love.

This is what most you want . . ."

When Chaucer's young knight acts on this conviction and, in effect, gives her freedom to the old hag he has been trapped into marrying, she is promptly transformed into a beautiful and faithful young woman. The analyst, says Dr. Stein, must symbolically grant "sovereignty" to his hag patients by freely accepting "the negative destructive aspect of [his patients'] feminine nature" and casting aside his own "inquisitorial attitude." This, the doctor adds, "is the key to the secret which the analyst must discover if he is to deal successfully with 'loathsome women.' " How well does the key work? Dr. Stein noted with satisfaction last week that all but one of his six hag patients had left his office noticeably less loathsome than when they came in. He added: "I love these women that others find loathsome. I understand them. I'm trained to." But his account of the analytic sessions nevertheless leaves readers with the feeling that he must often have longed for a good old medieval rack or a bundle of faggots.

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