Family myth, the symbolic realm and the ancestors

This paper1 takes the shape of a diptych. The first part explores the ancestors as embodied ghosts, internal objects or as mediated through ancestral heritage, as these aspects intertwine in a Mobius strip. The second part looks at ancestral heritage and the different ways in which family myth appears in a Jungian context and in Systemic Psychotherapy (family therapy). Both share an interface through the current paradigm shifts towards mutual reflexivity in patient and therapist and a focus on the interpersonal space. The ancestors give substance to the eternal riddle: from whence do we come, who are we and where do we go, which connects past, present and future. Our ancestors are part of our minds, perhaps in the way Damasio (2010) postulates that ancestral experiences mediated through culture shape our brains. The leitmotiv of individuation through mimesis (sameness) and alterity (difference) runs through both parts.