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Plato and the Psychology of Love: Phaedrus 252c-253c

Author(s): Hazel E. BarnesSource: The Classical Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 5 (Nov. 18, 1946), pp. 34-35Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic StatesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4342266.

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T C L SSIC L KILYPublished weekly (on Monday) except in weeks in which there is an academic vacation or Armistice Day, Thanksgiving Day,Christmas, New Year's Day, Washington's Birthday, Easter, or Memorial Day. A volume contains approximately twenty-two issues.Owner and Publisher: The Classical Association of the Atlantic States. Place of Publication: Bennett Hall, Universityl ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pennsylvania. Printed by The Beaver Printing Company, Greenville, Pennsylvania.Edward H. Heffner, Editor, Bennett Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pennsylvania.Franklin B. Krauss, Secretary and Treasurer, The Pennsylvania State College, Box 339, State College, Pennsylvania.Associate Editor, Wm. C. McDermott; Contributing Editors: Charles T. Murphy, J. C. Plumpe, Lionel Casson.Price, 2.00 per volume in the Western Hemisphere; elsewhere 2.50. All subscriptions run by the volume. Single numbers:to subscribers 15 cents, to others 25 cents prepaid (otherwise 25 cents and 35 cents). If affidavit to invoice is required, sixty centsmust be added to the subscription price. For residents of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, or the Districtof Columbia, a subscription to THE CLASSICAL WgZKLY (or, alternatively, to The Classical Journal) is included in the membership feeof The Classical Association of the Atlantic States, whose members are also entitled to The Classical Outlook and The ClassicalTournal at special prices in combinations available from the Secretary.Entered as second-class matter November 7, 1945, at the Post Office at Philadelphia, Pa., under the Act of March 3, 1879.Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in the Act of February 28, 1925, authorized October 14, 1938.Volume 40 contains issues dated: October 14, 21, 28; November 4, 18; December 2, 9, 16 (1946); January 6, 13, 20, 27;February 3, 10, 24; March 3, 10, 24; April 14, 21; May 5, 12, (1947).

PLATO AND THE PSYCHOLOGYOF LOVEPHAEDRUS 252C-253C

Plato's statement in the Phaedrus that the loverbearswithin him the imageof a particular od whosefollowerhe was in anotherworld and that he seeks abelovedwho may resemble hat image, has generallybeen taken as mere elaborationof the allegory, atmost a recognitionof variationof personalitiesnd ofthe fact that one tends to fall in love with someonepossessing haracter raitssimilar o his own. Withoutattemptingto decide the question of the degree ofliteralnesswith which we should view Plato'sdescrip-tion of the vision of the gods in a previous xistence,shouldlike to point out that a moresignificant nter-pretationof the innerimagewouldnot be out of har-mony with modem psychology.Plato says that each man choosesto love someonewho potentially,at least, is like the god to whom hehimself was originallydevoted.The lover s able to seethe natureof the god withinhimself XVVOVTovaETrap'EaIITTv and recalling the deity by memory then strivesto make the beloved like the image, so that he mayworship him. We have, then, a divine image withinthe lover. Guided by it he first seeks a beloved capableof receiving its qualities, then remakes and perfects thebeloved in the likeness (TEKTaiVTat TE Kai KaTaKOCIEL),then worships the beloved because of the divine re-semblance. The divine image is presumably somewhatalike in all men in so far as it is divine, but there isevidently individual variation as well, a variation whichseems to allow for human weakness as well as divinestrength.

That one, as a rule, falls in love with a person of atleast somewhat similar tastes is a truism. That love andits nature are due more to the activity of the lover thanto objective qualities in the beloved may likewise beaccepted as psychological truth. Marcel Proust, for ex-ample, makes it a fundamental principle in the infinitely

detailedself-analysis f Remembrance f Things Past.But that the inner mage s divine n originor even thatit hasany existencemorethan asthe sumof personalitytraitsor ideals s a far different hing. It has not beentaken seriously by modem scholars,and they havescarcelyallowedPlato to do so. Nevertheless, here isoneimportantontemporarychoolof psychologywhichcomessurprisingly lose to upholding he realityof thePlatonic mage.Karl GustavJung holds that there are certain un-dying symbols-he calls them 'soul images'-whichappearand reappear n the dreamsand minds of allindividuals, ometimesconsciously,sometimesuncon-sciously. One of these is the anima,a feminine figurewhichappearsn variousguises n a man'sdreams forwomen it is the animus and masculine), and whichrepresents he subordinated eminine elements of aman'spersonality.t has a less individualizedspectaswell, representing the precipitate of mankind's experi-ence of the feminine sex. And it is autonomous,animage coming to man from beyond his conscious self.When a man falls in love, according to this view, hechooses someone suitable to bear the projected qualitiesfrom within himself. If these are weaknesses, he mayblame the other person for faults which in reality arein his own character. Or, if the person successfullyportrays those ideals which he particularly cherishes,whether or not he realizes it, he may be bound by abond inexplicable to others. In either case, it is thequalities of his own soul image which he seeks to find,and the intensity of his later adoration depends on themeasure of success in his finding them.The difference between this psychological theory andthe Platonic idea, of course, lies both in the fact thatJung seeks the anima or animus as a contrasexualimageand in that the anima, unlike the Platonic image, is nota reflection of divine perfection which one should striveto copy. Nevertheless, three strong similarities are tobe noted. In each case the lover chooses as his belovedone who can serve as the recipient of an inner pattem.

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THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY 35Second,he either unconsciously rojectsupon the in-dividualthese hidden qualitiesor consciously eeks tobring them into being. Third, the pattem on whichthe lover seeks to modelthe beloved s individualbutat the sametime in its origin ranscendshe individual'sown immediate experience.The two views, I think, are interestingly lose psy-chologically. In their philosophical mplications heyarenot as far removedas one might expect.It is truethat the Platonic overconsciouslymodels the belovedafterhis innerpattem and loves as he is successfulnso doing. Jung, on the other hand, sees danger n thisunconsciousprojectionand counsels the necessity ofrecognizingt as such and withdrawing t. So far theyare different. ung,however, tates that true love comeswhen one learnsto understand he psychologicalraitswithin himself. Thus, instead of projecting hem onsomeone else he will voluntarilyoffer his devotiontoone who possesses raits which he admiresbut whichare no longera mystery.Similarly he Platonic over,ashe increases n understandingwill no longer love themystery of beauty as he sees it in one person, butrather the newly apprehendedprinciples of beautywherevermade manifest.

HAZEL E. BARNESPIERCE COLLEGE

REVIEWSOvid: A Poet between Two Worlds. By

HERMANN FRANKEL. Vii, 282 pages. Sather Class-ical Lectures. Volume I8. Universityof CaliforniaPress,Berkeleyand Los Angeles, California. I945.Rhetorician,pornographer, aconteur, mythologist,voluptuary,wit-these have beenfor the life and writ-ings of Ovid traditional ey words.They find a degreeof support n Ovid'sopinionof himself,in the criticalcomments of classicalauthors,and in the yield ofartistsand observers f a laterday. (cf. cw 35.20.231-233) Not all men,however, ee the samesubject n thesame light. ProfessorHermannFrankel,whose themeis the dual nfluence f Ovidon the ancientand modernworld,has producedan unconventionalnterpretationof the Poet's efforts.

For Frankel here lie in Ovid'spoetryvalues whichtranscend he customaryremarkson rhetoric, porno-graphy,andmythology. He believes p. 3) that 'Ovid'swritings contain elements ndicatingthe emergenceofa new world'; hat Ovid 'was born a true child of anage of transition',who could not help 'betraying he

forcesthat wereat work.' He supportshis theme byanalyzingselectedpassages nd by ponderingheirsig-nificance. On the basisof his studieshe makesdeduc-tionswhichaspire o establish he truenatureof Ovid'sconnectionbetweenthe ancientand modernworld.In-to his analysesFrankelweavesa literaryand personalbiography f the Poet. He furthermplements is studyby exhaustivenotes;by an elaborate utline of Ovid'slife, literature,and philosophywith references o afullerdiscussionof these problems n the text; by anindex to the citedworksandpassages; ndby a generalindexfor the entirevolume.

Frankel'sapproach o Ovid as a poet betweentwoworlds s largelya study in mentalprojection nd in apsychologicalnterpretationf attitudesand ideas. Forexample,Ovid as a man suffered n the ancientworldsocialand civil death;but in his capacityas a poet heearnedwith his verse a measureof immortalityn theChristianworld. Thus it appears hat Ovid'sdeath isa symbol of antiquityand that the survival f his fameand genius is a symbol of an historicalpoint slightlybeyond. One aspect of this ancientand modem phe-nomenon s the Poet'shabit of moving on morethanone plane of reality. Dido's lamentto Aeneas (Hero-ides 8) could be quoted as a logicalexample of thistendency. When she addressesher loverwho is nowbeyondherreach,she complains f life as it is. At thesametimeshe seesnothingin life as it used to be. Theundesirableealityof the pastmingleswith the unde-sirablereality of the present.Again, FrankelnotesOvid's curiouspracticeof dealingwith the problemofidentityandits various ttributes: luid dentity,doubleidentity, interplay of sameness, lost identity, andmergedidentity.A lover (Amores 1.7) who had re-buked his sweetheart uddenlyrealized hat her griefwashis own and that 'sanguis rat acrimae, uasdabatilla, metis.'At the momentwhen the impetuouswooerfelt the pangs of remorse, he identitiesof the twoloversweremagicallyweldedinto a single unit.One of the most unusualobservations hich Frankelmakesaboutthe unionof ancientandmodern houghtin Ovid'spoetryis the Christianprincipleof mutualcarryingof crosses (p. 22). The willing lover (ArsAmatoria ) is a logicalprop orthis kind of argument.He will shade his sweetheart rom the sun. He willwarmher handsin his bosom, and if need be, he willhold her mirror or her. Obviouslyhe will carry hercross.In a similarfashion the author treats the Poet'scapacity for contritionand mortification.Ovid con-siders n a spirit of self-punishmentTristia I.7) thatthe Metamorphoseswere flesh of his flesh and weredestined to perishwith him in the flamesbecauseofhis errors.