The Alice effect

Tom wrote an awesome post last week about the evanescent value of wow. The goal of marketing is to generate expectations and expectations take us to the heights. This reminds me the particular simbolism of the sky in dream analysis.

In dreams, the images express a particular state of the soul, a soul that is ever changing, in perpetual movement. One of the recurring images is that of the sky, of flying and of the heights. Heinz Kohut for instance, identified these images or symbols with states of the psyche, of the soul. It is when our souls feel empowered that we feel we see things from the heights, as if we were flying.

"The dreamer is inside a rocket, turning around the earth, far from the ground. Nonetheless, he is protected and cannot be thrown to space without control for there´s the powerful attraction of the earth from the middle of it´s orbit".

and also,

"The dreamer is in a hammock, balancing from one side to the other, every time in a higher level than the previous, though there´s neither risk of being shot by the hammock nor of the hammock making a complete circle".

Heinz Kohut, Analysis of the self, pag. 20

So the symbolism of the heights is linked to the sensation of power, of having the doors open, of one´s omnipotence. This involves that the soul has a vertical axis and that an imagination of verticality is an essential dimension of the soul.

James Hillman has seen this in a very clear way. For him, "the fantasy of depth encourages us to look at the world again, to read each event for "something deeper", to insearch, rather than to research, for yet further significance below what seems merely evident and natural".

"That is why, because of the vertical direction of depth psychology, it is obliged to be concerned with deppression and with the reduction of phenomena to their deadly pressence, their pathologized extremity, where we experience them as both materially destructive and negative and yet as the ground of support".

I think this is important for the heights symbolisms reveal the pressence of verticality in our lifes, and verticality means the journey from the heights to the underground.

Following with Tom´s article, Troy also made an interesting interpretation of the post. Wow is dead, says Troy, and satisfaction is transactional. This means nothing has a definite value, value is created in the relationship, in the transaction, from one touchpoint with the customer to the next. Our souls are a wishing muscle, in permanent pursuit of the treasure, a treasure that is ever changing at the same time.

The treasure is the Mc Guffin. The Mc Guffin is a trick classic movie Directors used to make their characters follow something very valuable. But that valuable thing was never shown to the spectators. It is what makes the action move, though it has no pressence, not even any materiality.

This ever changing treasure is the other axis of the soul, the dimension that defines the Alice effect. Lewis Carrol had in mind to title his best seller "The underground adventures of Alice". The verticality of experience was very pressent in Carrol´s work too. And even in the first part of "Alice in wonderland", our bold girl tries to find the secret of things and of the changing events in the depths of the earth, in wells and caves. But as the action goes on, the deepening movements are replaced by lateral displacements, from the right to the left, from the left to the right.

This is a new way of transition, a new kind of soul motion. It is the perpetual search of the edges. It´s the circulation without depth, the abolition of the gravitation that impels us to fall.

It´s the Alice effect.

Comments

[Troy Worman]

If WOW is dead then what am I left to say of this post? "Awesome" seems a bit juvenile. "Excellent" seems a bit of an understatement. What if I say nothing? Would that be enough said?

Felix! I am glad to see you back in the saddle. I hope your holiday was extraordinary!

[Felix Gerena]

Thanks for your kind words, Troy. I´m back and ready for the new season. I think it will be exciting.