This is the first of an occasional series on the relationship between archetypes and the obsessive-compulsive personality (OCP). Given the adamant nature of those with OCP, terrific or terrible things can happen when the two collide. OCP infuses just about any archetype with steroids. Such is the case with the archetype of the saint.
Contents
What is an Archetype?
Archetypes are deep instinctual patterns of behavior that have been cultivated over millennia by both nature and society. Archetypes can shape our actions, drawing us into patterns without our awareness. They produce tendencies that have served adaptive and social purposes.
In the same way that a woman who has just given birth experiences the archetype of the mother and falls into patterns of nurturance, we can fall into many other patterns: the hero, the judge, the trickster, the artist, the warrior, the caregiver, the innocent, or the victim.
These archetypal patterns can begin to feel like an essential part of our character, part of our identity, as we ride them through life, alternately buoyed and banged up in our attempts to live them out.
While they may give us direction and energy, archetypes can also drive us to behavior that’s too extreme or inappropriate to the situation.
Archetype of the Saint
In this post I’ll explore the archetype of the saint, some version of which is found in virtually all religious traditions, though they might use different names. The saint is characterized by virtue, purity and selflessness. They’re considered holy and exemplary.
Here are some more of their characteristics:
- Endure persecution with patience
- Courageous
- Devoted
- Heroically virtuous
- Humble and modest
- Mortify the senses
Not the Saintly Type?
It might seem to you that this is the last thing you’re trying to be. But even if you define virtue in a very different, or even opposite, fashion, the saint may still have an effect on you. The archetype of the saint can result in different emphases. Compare St. Joan of Arc with St. Frances of Assisi. War and peace.
You might define virtue as directness rather than kindness, personal responsibility rather than generosity, and realism rather than idealism, but still bring the same intense devotion to that way of behaving, because it seems like the right thing to do.
The Role of The Saint
The aspirational quality of the saint, their tendency to reach for higher levels of being, has had benefits for both the societies they served and the individuals themselves.
They’re held in high esteem to inspire the rest of us to live altruistically and heroically. According to The Lives of the Saints, the classic work considered by some to be a supplement to the old and new testaments, the saints are “exhibiting to the faithful reader models for his imitation, and saying to him, in a voice which he cannot fail to understand, ‘Go thou and do likewise.’”
They can inspire us to grow personally and psychologically.
The stories and images of the saints are compelling. They work more effectively than moralistic teachings because they bypass the rational brain and make an imprint on its older regions, creating a powerful, emotional stamp that stays with us for life.
Ideally, they activate goals deep within us that we naturally aspire to.
Dangers of Archetypal Identification
But the examples of the saints can be deflating as well. Most of us don’t have the psychological resources to live such virtuous lives, and efforts to do so may leave us feeling depleted and guilty. Theologically, saints are gifted. Their special powers are given to them. Yes, they worked hard, sacrificed and all that, but they started out the race way ahead of most of us.
As much as I would like to, I will never have the generosity, serenity and grace of St. Francis of Assisi. To expect it of myself would be torture.
This painful comparison between ourselves and the saints doesn’t necessarily happen consciously. Often there is a vague but prominent sense in the back of our mind that we’re supposed to live lives of surrender, charity, perfection, and purity, and it exerts a constant pressure that’s hard to escape. For some it’s so like the air they breathe, any other way of feeling doesn’t even enter their mind.
As with all archetypes, we may experience the sway of the saint in a natural, positive and genuine way. It may simply inspire us to live better lives without the downside, and without negative motivation.
But it’s also possible that our motivation to be saintly is to override feelings of insecurity, imagining that if we were to live as virtuously as St. Francis, we’d finally be able to dismiss those negative feelings about ourselves we’ve been haunted by for so long.
Compulsives and the Saint
Let’s look at just two of the DSM-5 criteria for OCPD (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder) and see how they match up with the saint:
• “Excessively devoted to work and productivity.”
Devoted is the operative word here. The etymology of devotion can be traced to “an act of religious worship, a religious exercise.” A compulsive person may not be religious in the conventional sense, but his or her devotion to not only work and productivity, but also to order, perfection and goodness, are just as adamant. It is a religion of sorts.
• “Is overconscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values.”
Compulsives can become rigid about doing things the “right” way. Here too, there’s more than a whiff of the saintly in their insistence on morality—whatever that means to them.
As a result of the aspiration to purity, things can get very black and white. You’re either good or bad.
Motivations for Saintliness and Compulsivity
If the compulsive adopts the archetype of the saint as a strategy for dealing with insecurity, any hint that they have not been absolutely precise in their execution of their saintly duties can begin to make them feel very uncomfortable. And defensive.
This can happen in therapy if the therapist points out behavior that hasn’t served them well. They may take it as an indication that they’ve failed to be perfect, a criticism, rather than as an opportunity for understanding and empathy.
Let’s be clear, I’m not saying that compulsives are saints. I’m saying that they might feel like they are supposed to be saints. Things gets worse when they sense a discrepancy between who they feel they should be and who they actually are, and in order to compensate they lurch into the unhealthy compulsive behavior they’re infamous for.
Perhaps worse, they might feel like they’re supposed to get everyone else to be saints. And if, in their effort to right the world, they lose jobs and relationships, all the better because that might assure them that they’re on the right path, since they’re sacrificing to do the right thing.
The saint and the martyr are inseparable roommates, and they can take up residence together in your psyche.
Saints of Conscious Compulsion
As with all other aspects of the obsessive-compulsive personality, saintly ambitions can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the level of consciousness brought to the combination. Bringing the tendencies of an obsessive-compulsive personality to the saint energizes the archetype, giving it that steroidal boost I mentioned earlier.
But it may not give it proper guard rails or direction.
For this we need to know where the energy comes from, its motivation, and where it’s going, its direction.
There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to goodness, but when the motivation is to remedy insecurity, we feel the necessity to achieve perfection rather than the desire to do so, and we’re in dangerous territory. If we can distinguish healthy aspirations from unhealthy ones, to know clearly our motivation for being good, then we can skillfully use the energy to our benefit and those around us.
And consciously choosing the right direction for saintly energy is essential as well. Saints have a specific goal in mind, typically connection to the divine, though I’m sure we could find variations on that theme. If the saint is going to be part of your identity, you’ll need to remain guided by whatever you find divine, whatever you find most meaningful and sustaining. Otherwise it’s going to be a very long slog.
2 Comments
Leave your reply.