Archetypes have tremendous power over a person.
Don’t believe it? Watch the Netflix documentary Tyson.
You will learn how a childhood trauma grows into the Warrior’s sword that strikes everyone around, including its owner. Until he meets the figure he lacked — the Mentor, the Father, the King.
But that isn’t enough. If the mentorship was brief, his own King simply doesn’t have enough time to mature and take the throne within. Alas, the samurai then becomes a ronin, a “lost one” without a suzerain.
Imagine what would happen if a trained-to-kill Belgian Malinois suddenly lost its owner and became a stray. You wouldn’t be thrilled to meet this “cutie” on an empty lot, would you?
A person possessed by an archetype poses the same danger to others and to himself. He begins to think he is a god. Invulnerable. Omnipotent. Grandiose, in other words.
Looking back on that period of his life, Tyson says: "This is what I learned from Cus D'Amato: “Human beings are not to be humble. They're made to be humbled”.
In Greek tragedy, the hero (and the audience) moves through a sequence:
Hubris → Nemesis → Catharsis.
In other words, pride leads to retribution from above and, ultimately, purification.
An archetype can give a person a great deal, but he must not forget that he is not the archetype. Their interests intersect, but do not coincide. At best, a partnership emerges. At worst, a conflict.
Such a conflict is destructive both when the archetype is driven underground and when, as in Tyson’s case, it takes over the personality. Sometimes understanding the right distance comes at a high price.
Having lived through many twists and turns and grown wiser, Tyson concludes: “I am a big believer everybody gets what they deserve to make them who they are”.
The question is: are we ready to accept gifts that don’t look like gifts?
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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