What does it mean when an enormous freeway bridge collapses into the Mississippi River on a hot summer day? The author describes her experience of that shocking event in her community, putting it in the psychological context suggested by Edward Edinger's work on the archetype of the apocalypse, as well as mythology and astrology. Edinger argues that apocalyptic imagery in the dreams and visions of individuals describes a catastrophic (for the ego) intrusion of the Self into conscious realization, offering the individual an opportunity to enlarge the personality and develop a relationship to the transpersonal level of the psyche. But he seems not to envision such a possibility for the collective when world-changing apocalyptic events take place. The author urges the Jungian community to expand ideas of individuation to include collective individuation.
