The Unbearable Weight of Truth: Carrie in Homeland. (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Williams, Susan
• Is Part Of: Jung journal. Volume 11:Number 3(2017)
• Page Start: 26
• Page End: 42
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: barriers -- Bion -- bipolar disorder -- Bohm -- Bromberg -- Homeland, -- Carrie Mathieson -- Cassandra -- dissociation -- dreams -- extensive self -- genius -- Iron Curtain -- Kalsched -- labyrinth -- luminous blackness -- minotaur -- "O" -- Prometheus -- quantum mechanics -- The Red Book, -- shamanic -- terrorism -- The Lives of Others, -- trauma -- truth -- wounded healer; Psychoanalysis and culture -- Periodicals; Jungian psychology -- Periodicals; Jungian psychology; Psychoanalysis and culture; Periodicals; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 150.195405
• DOI: 10.1080/19342039.2017.1331698
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1934-2039

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The pursuit of hidden truth and the subtle lies we tell ourselves, the barriers or iron curtains erected that impede a deeper connection to ourselves, others, and the ineffable world of spirit, are themes addressed in this article through the character Carrie Mathieson (Claire Danes), a CIA operative in the Showtime series Homeland . Carrie, who suffers from a bipolar disorder, has the gift of uncanny knowing. She is a "shamanic-like" figure who is able to allow for the disintegration of ego boundaries in the service of a higher aim. The author explores the price of maintaining a protective cloak of "normality" and contends that Carrie's sacred wound takes her behind her defensive structure, opening her to deep truths and transformative love, while also cracking open her psyche into what the physicist David Bohm describes as the Implicate Order —a fundamental order of reality where space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationship between elements. Also drawing on a personal experience of living in the Eastern Block and a series of dreams of going behind the Iron Curtain, the author explores the disruption to the old personality that occurs when moving beyond barriers or defenses. She asks, "Does living on the 'frontier of your identity' mean disassembling the personality as we know it?"