Eros and psyche: A reading of Neumann and Merleau-Ponty

In the second century, Apuleius, Roman poet, turned the echoes of ancient Greek myth into the legendary story of Cupid and Psyche (Hamilton 1942: 100). This recollection of Eros and Psyche, this repetition of their story, successfully civilized the myth. Many centuries later, Erich Neumann (1973) repeats this charming story; but he also deepens it, in doing so, by reading into it an underlying story of archetypal significance. As a Jungian, Neumann sought to articulate love's transformation of the human psyche. According to Neumann, the human personality undergoes a transformation of the most fundamental significance when it remembers the wisdom and beauty of love. But, he argues, the nature of love itself is changed when the psyche meets it in a spirit of acceptance. Thus, when Psyche and Eros come together, the feminine character of Eros, its hitherto undeveloped aspect, is finally brought to realization. And Psyche, of course, is fulfilled through love, and made whole.