Guest post by Jenny Montgomery
February 9, 2023
Guest post by Jenny Montgomery
My son Heath and I were eagerly browsing cheese at a local grocery store when a young man noticed him ambulating in his spiffy four-wheeled walker. The gentleman approached and asked Heath politely whether he could pray for him.
“Sure!” he said. I could tell Heath wanted to see where this was leading. The earnest man put his hand on Heath’s head and asked God to help him overcome all his challenges. Heath caught my eye ironically. As we both know, his biggest challenge is dealing with others’ projections onto his body and his life.
Heath giggled after saying goodbye to the kind yet inappropriate interventionist. He wasn’t laughing at the man’s religion, but at his obvious blunder in assuming he was in a terrible plight. Heath embraces his moderate physical disability (cerebral palsy) and cure is the least of his concerns. He may contend with the dragon of being different, but he has learned to live beautifully in its embrace. I tell this story not to mock the man personally—Heath accepted his offer, after all—but in order to highlight the prevalence of projection in the lives of disabled individuals and their families, as well as the complexities and paradoxes we encounter in the wild territory of disability.
As a caregiver, C.G. Jung’s concepts and topographies of psyche have been invaluable to me. Jungian analysis has helped me delve into the history of disability in my family, to grapple with the animus-driven medical model of disability we all internalize, and to examine my own inner limitations and constraints. Jung’s ideas (and those of James Hillman, Marion Woodman, Barbara Hannah, Murray Stein and others) have also provided frameworks I can discuss with my now-teenaged son as he grows toward a mature self-concept as a disabled individual.
Traveling in the caravan of disability culture has awakened me to Jung's view of the “vulnerable” nature of the human psyche. “It is frail, menaced by specific dangers, and easily injured,” he wrote in Man and His Symbols. Illusions about normality, wholeness, or the capacity to control our lives may not be ones we wish to examine. Yet limitation, fragmentation, and fate all stand resolutely in our shadows, so close we can feel their breath. Are they worth confronting? Can they add depth and treasure to our lives, if we are open to integrating them? In my experience, they are and they do.
I look forward to sharing time with Satya, my friend Charlie Hall, and those of you who plan to participate in the upcoming Salome salon, “Disability as the Human Condition.” We will share stories, stretch our imaginations, listen deeply, laugh loudly, and consider Jung’s legacy in the light of disability—an experience that touches us all.
Guest post by Jenny Montgomery