Puer aeternus
Puer aeternus in mythology is a child-god who is eternally young.
In the analytical psychology of Carl Jung, the term is used to describe an older person whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level, which is also known as "Peter Pan syndrome", a more recent pop-psychology label. In Jung's conception, the puer typically leads a "provisional life" due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. The puer covets independence and freedom, opposes boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable.
In mythology
The puer is a god of vegetation and resurrection; the god of divine youth, such as Tammuz, Attis, and Adonis.In Jungian psychology
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung developed a school of thought called analytical psychology, distinguishing it from the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. In analytical psychology, the puer aeternus is an example of what Jung considered an archetype, one of the "primordial, structural elements of the human psyche".The shadow of the puer is the senex, associated with the god Apollo—disciplined, controlled, responsible, rational, ordered. Conversely, the shadow of the senex is the puer, related to Hermes or Dionysus—unbounded instinct, disorder, intoxication, whimsy.
Like all archetypes, the puer is bipolar, exhibiting both a "positive" and a "negative" aspect. The "positive" side of the puer appears as the Divine Child who symbolizes newness, potential for growth, hope for the future. He also foreshadows the hero that he sometimes becomes. The "negative" side is the child-man who refuses to grow up and meet the challenges of life head-on, waiting instead for his ship to come in and solve all his problems.
When the subject is a female, the Latin term is puella aeterna, imaged in mythology as the Kore. One might also speak of a puer anima and animus when describing the masculine side of the female psyche, or a puella anima and animus when speaking of a man's inner feminine component.
Jung's works
wrote a paper on the puer aeternus, titled "The Psychology of the Child Archetype", contained in Part IV of Archetypes and [the Collective Unconscious|The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious]. The hero-child aspect and his relationship to the Great Mother is dealt with in chapters 4 and 5 of Part Two of Symbols of Transformation.In his essay "Answer to Job" Jung refers to the puer aeternus as a figure representing the future psychological development of human beings.
The Problem of the Puer Aeternus is a book based on a series of lectures that Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz gave at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, during the Winter Semester, 1959–1960. In the first eight of twelve lectures, von Franz illustrates the theme of the puer aeternus by examining the book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The remaining four lectures are devoted to a study of a German novel by Bruno Goetz, Das Reich ohne Raum, first published in 1919. Of this novel von Franz says:
Now or Neverland is a 1998 book written by Jungian analyst Ann Yeoman dealing with the puer aeternus in the form of Peter Pan, one of the most well-known examples of the concept in the modern era. The book is a psychological overview of the eternal boy archetype, from its ancient roots to contemporary experience, including a detailed interpretation of J. M. Barrie's popular 1904 play and 1911 novel.
Peter Pan syndrome
Peter Pan syndrome is the popular psychology concept of an adult who is socially immature. The category is an informal one invoked by laypeople and some psychology professionals in popular psychology. It is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as a specific mental disorder.Psychologist Dan Kiley popularized the Peter Pan syndrome in his 1983 book, The Peter Pan Syndrome: Men Who Have Never Grown Up. His next book, The Wendy Dilemma, advises women romantically involved with "Peter Pans" how to improve their relationships.