Menetekel

Counted, weighed, and found wanting – it is too late. The writing on the wall says that King Belshazzar has gambled away his life. The same may apply to us today if we seriously consider the self-inflicted destruction of our living conditions, the ecocide. The Corona pandemic and the war are like symptoms of a great, inescapable doom. What does this do to us, how does it feel? Hardly anyone can confront the guilt and fear of extinction, and the danger of psychological derailment, even leading to collective psychoses, is significant. This essay presents ancient stories and new imaginations that do not deny the horror but can lead us toward a hopeful future. After all, a prophet named Jonah managed to save the doomed city of Nineveh. The mythologies surrounding the Babylonian kings Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar illustrate the connections between human-caused ecological disasters and the cultural patterns of their management. The legends of the Golem or Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" also deal with the relationship between politics and the unconscious in culture. The Jewish psychoanalyst Ernst Bernhard dreamed in 1933, shortly before his emigration, of the "Great Solution" of a reconciliation between Pilate and Jesus. Ultimately, it is a book of hope. Jörg Rasche, MD, specialist, psychotherapist, and Jungian psychoanalyst, guides readers into a world of symbols and mythologies that contribute to illuminating our apocalyptic times. What we make of it is (still?) up to us.