136 | mup 4|2010|136-144|© Ernst Reinhardt Verlag München Basel, DOI 10.2378/ mup2010.art11e Key terms: Horse-complex, relationship object, projection field and object of identification, transference and counter-transference phenomena, archetypical symbol Michaela Scheidhacker The “horse-complex“ is introduced as a new term and described as a multi-dimensional construct in its meaning for patient and therapist alike in the sense of C. G. Jung‘s analytical psychology. Here, the author falls back on her over 20 years of experience of personal medical-psychotherapy in psychotherapeutic riding at a psychiatricalpsychoterapeutic hospital and as a supervisor of advanced training measures in psychotherapeutic riding. She describes transference and counter-transference phenomena that not only have an impact on the relation between patient and therapist, but also on the relation between the therapist and the therapy horse on the one hand and the patient and the therapy horse on the other hand. This makes psychotherapeutic work with horses extremely multi-façeted and demanding, since the horse acts as a relationship object in the here and now, as a projection field and object of identification, but also as an archetypical symbol in connection with the collective unconscious for patients and therapists alike. The Horse-Complex - about the Psychodynamic Impact of Horses in Therapy Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex mup 4|2010 | 137 Michaela Scheidhacker Over 20 years of experience and observation in psychotherapeutic riding of 350 to 400 patients of a psychiatric-psychotherapeutic hospital per year and of 10 to 20 further education candidates per year and its analytical evaluation has made it necessary to define a new term describing the multi-façeted efficiency of horses in the field of psychotherapy. Introducing the term “horse-complex“ is based on the contentrelated further development of the idea of C. G. Jung‘s analytical psychology and its application in the psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytical work with horses as a medium. In order to make this developmental step clear I have explained a few terms from the field of analytical psychology crucial for understanding the horse-complex by using original quotes from C. G. Jung, his students, and from secondary literature in this article where applicable. Definition of the “horse complex“ My many years of experience and observation in the field of psychotherapeutic riding and their analytical evaluations have shown over and over again that horses mobilise deep feelings, images and ideas in a special way with patients and further education candidates alike, feelings originating from the individual‘s personal life on the one hand, but yet unrealised, but also from the personal unconscious. On the other hand they showed structures reminding of archetypes in the sense of C. G. Jung (Jung 1991a, Jung 1991b, GW 16, 164, § 347), e. g. Anima, Animus or the Great Mother, as I have already described somewhere else with an example taken from the field of psychotherapy with the horse as a medium (Scheidhacker 1998, 60 f). Furthermore, the fact that the horse has been a companion of man for several thousands of years, - latest archaeological findings give hints on the horse‘s domestication in the Eastern- European Asian steppe area at the turn from the 5th to the 4th millennium B. C. (Benecke 1994, 292 f) - , serving him in his development to become a self-determined and individual being, yes, it even was a loyal friend and companion and thus more or less has become part of the human legacy, suggests the assumption that there is a structure “horse“ within the collective unconscious similar to the archetypes. The importance of horses in myths and fairy tales as well as - beginning in pre-history and antiquity up to this day - in the fields of fine arts supports this thesis (Baum 1991). The personal and the collective unconscious: “ We can distinguish a personal unconscious comprising all acquisitions of personal existence, the forgotten, the suppressed, the subconsciously perceived, the things thought and felt. Apart from these The archetype: “The term “archetype“by C. G. Jung is based on many years of experience in the field of dream psychology and on studying mythology. In the many pictures and materials of his patients he was able to recognise basic patterns and structures he called archetypes. With this term it is crucial to distinguish between the non-visible archetype itself and the archetypical image. The first is a structure within the human psyche, the latter is expressed in various archetypical manifestations (such as father, mother, child archetypus, images of God, animus und anima etc.). Archetypes are invisible and non-visual working factors within the unconscious of man. They are the psyche‘s structural dominant by organising the mentally experienced and to arrange the images and motives within the unconscious according to specific basic patterns.“ (Hark 1994, 25) 138 | mup 4|2010 Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex personally unconscious contents there are also other contents not originating from personal acquisitions, but from the inherited possibility of psychical functioning in general, which is the inherited brain structure. These are mythological relations, the motives and images of which reappearing anywhere and anytime without any historical tradition or migration. These contents is what I call collectively unconscious.“ (Jung 1994, GW 6, 519, § 842) The horse, however, is not an archetype per se, but rather an archetypical symbol (Scheidhacker 1998, 55-63), since it meets all qualities of a symbol and is able to stand for the various, also opposing archetypes (Baum 1991). The symbol: “The symbol always is a structure of a highly complex nature, since it is composed of the data of all physical functions. Hence, it is of neither rational nor irrational nature. It has one side complying with reason, but also another side reason has no access to, since it is not only composed of data of rational data, but also from irrational data of the pure inner and outer perception. The symbol, full of inklings and meanings, addresses the thinking as well as the feeling, and its own strange graphic quality, when designed into a sensous shape, arouses emotions as well as intuition.“ (Jung 1994, GW 6, 512, § 828) “Symbols are focal points of human development. Within them topics of existential importance are solidified, they address developmental topics and thus inhibition topics always connected with them. This becomes clear when we consider that symbols mirror complexes.“ (Kast 2002, 44) This conceptual background makes psychotherapeutic work with horses extremely demanding and multi-façeted. “For a better understanding one could imaginge archetypes as nuclei or nodes of a multi-dimensional network or field, … however, such a model does not reach far enough since there are no fixed ‘distances‘ between archetypes, since in myths the ‘most distant‘ archetypes such as ‘snake‘ and ‘light‘, ‘mother‘ and ‘phallos‘, ‘beast‘ and ‘spirit‘ appear unexpectedly in an identical fashion or multiple archetypes one usually imagines separated from each other, suddenly melt together“ (von Franz 2005, 229). In every-day experience I can observe over and over again that the encounter with one specific horse evolves a mother complex with one person (longing for emotional security and getting carried), with another person and the same horse a healing complex is triggered (desire for care and a loving touch). Both may change within the scope of a psychotherapeutic process on short notice or also in the long run and thus join with other complexes. When being confronted with a horse various complexes arise, different archetypes standing behind each, triggering inappropriate behaviour in an autonomous fashion as long as they remain unconscious. “Inappropriate behaviour“ such as this towards horses one cannot only observe in therapy but also in any other horse stable. The complex: “A complex (from complexus = enclosure, circumvallation, enlacement) is contents of the unconscious connected through the same emotion and a mutual meaning core (archetype) which can have an interchangeable meaning within certain limits. Each affect-loaded event turns into a complex. It is not only the big traumatic events producing complexes but also recurring little events that hurt us. If these contents of the unconscious are addressed on an emotional or a meaning level, the whole of this unconscious connection is triggered (constellated) along with the respective emotions from the whole life story and the resulting inappropriate behaviour executed in a stereotype manner. These ongoings are executed autonomously as long as this complex is still unconscious.“ (Kast 2002, 45) When further developing the ideas of psychological psychology according to C. G. Jung the horse-complex is a multi-dimensional construct affecting all content related with the Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex mup 4|2010 | 139 horse anchored in our minds. If one gets involved in these thoughts the horse-complex contains memories of one‘s own experiences with horses and memories of horse-related images of any kind, but also memories of things heard and tales of horses; we are aware of some, of others not. In further evolving these ideas the horse-complex additionally comprises collective experiences of man and horse appearing as an archetypical symbol undefined like a touch heavy with meaning as soon as they are activated through an encounter with a horse. Meaning for practical psychotherapeutic work with the horse as a medium The horse as a gregarious animal needs relationships and has expanded its ability to get involved in relationships during its domestication towards man as well. This ability of the horse to get involved in relationships and its own, individual shaping of relationships characterised by its character, the experiences it has made in its basic herd and the experience it has made with humans is a challenge for any human being it encounters. A horse cannot be manipulated in the way it enters a relationship. In over 20 years of psychotherapeutic work with horses as a medium, as a trigger, as a co-therapist and friend, it keeps fascinating me how it is able to make my patients, further education candidates and employees, and last but not least me, leave emotionally all-too familiar paths and touch us anew every day and every hour. Horses live - like all animals - in the here and now and only get involved in our wishes and fantasies if they feel it is appropriate in the current situation and if the relationship is a positive one. They keep us and our patients inside of what‘s currently happening, inside the genuinity of our ability to get involved in relationships, they cannot be bribed. Apart from the special relationship qualities horses have to offer and that can be used within the scope of psychotherapeutic processes, I was able to observe other things as well. It can happen, for instance, that during the encounter of man and horse within the scope of psychotherapeutic riding the very same horse can be experienced in an utterly different way by people who already had experiences with horses before and by people who had never stood in front of a real-life horse before. This can start with that the colour of a horse can trigger totally different emotions with different people. Hence, a white horse can, due to its colour, be experienced as particularly confidence-building, but can also trigger fear. However, the same may also happen with a black, a brown or a red horse, so one may assume that the meaning of the colour of a horse is an individual one and is tied to the personal story and associations of the observer. This is a very simplified example of a comprehensive and multifaçeted psychodynamic happening that can only be broken down in its meaning on an individual basis. Breaking down the meaning of a colour in connection with a horse is not my intention here, however. I simply want to show that even a comparably simple property such as the colour of a horse can touch someone in a unique and foreseeable emotional manner. However, the colour of a horse is only a fraction of what a horse is so one can imagine the manyfold and multifaçeted possibilities an emotional touch by a horse can have (vgl. Bild 1). So, the quality of feelings when encountering a horse can not only have to do with that specific horse - since then white would be the same as black or black would equal white -, but it is based on perceptions that may have only very little to do with the actual horse at hand, but may also be based on memories that are unconsciously triggered by the horse‘s aura and which might have nothing to do with that specific horse. Memories of people who have already dealt with horses before may refer to previous situations with another horse and may have an impact on the current perception. But also horse pictures, horse tales, fairy tales or myths with horses involved can - as the analysis of many man-horse 140 | mup 4|2010 Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex encounters has shown - influence the perception of the current horse and thus the emotions tied to it. If a patient experiences a horse to be particularly mother-like this has probably to do with that he or she longs for maternal emotional security and not necessarily with the special mother-like property of that horse. I have experienced how a patient fell in love with a horse since he idealised particularly female characteristics with that horse and thus felt attracted to it. Reason for this might be a longing for the other sex. One could - in the sense of C. G. Jung - say that the horse had the symbolic constellation of the anima archetype. The actual gender of the horse may be unimportant, but can also be very meaningful, and may contain idealisation, but also devaluation. The transference: “The psychological process of transference is a specific form of the general projection process.“ (Jung 1993, GW 18 / I, 153, § 312) “As everyone knows, we only talk of transference when a human relationship is interspersed with illusionary elements,if, for instance, the analyst is not only experienced in his personal, limited reality as Dr. X., but also as if he or she was all-knowing or almighty. The more delusional becomes part of the transference, the less the patient is able to perceive the analyst as the real Dr. X.. He will turn into the embodiment of the respective projection that cannot be questioned anymore - an indication that the patient‘s ability to have a symbolic as-if experience is blocked. All the mentioned forms of transference (mirror, idealising, archetypical transference) can either appear in an illusionary but also in a delusional manner.“ (Jacoby 2000, 105) Picture 1: Painting by an adult female patient with severe psychotrauma, spontaneously painted after a group psychotherapy session with horses Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex mup 4|2010 | 141 Within the reasoning of analytical psychology these multi-façeted feelings, triggered by the horse, are similar to images and ideas of a transference towards the horse (Jung 1993, GW 18 / I, 158, § 324). The horse is e.g. not experienced anymore within its natural limitation, but as as a “clairvoyant“ and “all-knowing“, as particularly understanding and wise as described in some myths and fairy tales (Jung 1991b, GW 16, 164, § 347). Often I hear patients saying: “The horse is the better human being.“ A closeness is felt that goes very deep within the meaning of the individual and which is far more than the really observed closeness. Many patients start crying and don‘t know why. They talk of an all-embracing touch they don‘t understand out of the current situation and they can‘t do anything about it that could be real. This often made observation lets me believe that those patients are going through a specific form of projection, i. e. a transference towards the horse, but that at the same time a yet unknown, affect-loaded complex has been touched behind which a still undefinable archetype stands that functions autonomously. The horse as an archetypical symbol has touched the patient deep within. The patient is very open and vulnerable, needs to be rather “closed“ than “opened“ even further. Only in the further analytical process it becomes clear which side of the horse-complex has been touched and which archetype had come into being in a symbol-like manner through the encounter with the horse (see picture 2). For the constructive development of the patient it is crucial that the psychotherapist not only uses the “opening“ of the patient through the horse on the conscious relationship level, but also realises the dimension of the archaic touch through the horse and better understands the deeper, still unconscious problem the patient has. Consequences for psychotherapists working with the horse as a medium The consequences for the psychotherapist when working with the medium horse within the scope of his or her psychotherapeutic work are obvious. He or she is not only confronted with the transference of the patient and his or her own counter-transference, but also with his or her own transference towards the horse. Counter-transference: “counter-transference means all conscious and unconscious feelings, sensations and reactions of the therapist towards the patient. … While in all human relationships conscious and unconscioustransference processes usually happen uncontrolled, analysis and therapy uses controlled perception of these processes to not keep projecting unconscious contents towards other people, but also to integrate one‘s own personality. In order to let this happen in a controlled manner, the analytical psychotherapist has to undergo a long training analysis to get to know his or herself and his or her own complexes.“ (Hark 1994, 63) If this transference, i. e. the therapist‘s horsecomplex, remains unconscious, it reduces the character of horse down to the point of view Picture 2: Painting by an adult female patient suffering from a partly remitted psychosis, spontaneously painted after a group psychotherapy session with horses 142 | mup 4|2010 Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex and experience of the psychotherapist and thus restricts the horse‘s efficiency. If, for instance, a patient describes a horse in its personal effect on himself, it‘s not about a “right“ or “wrong“ evaluation of the horse, but about the perception of the patient‘s horsecomplex through the therapist. The patient‘s individual experience always has to be taken without any judgement - except when it is characterised by psychotic delusional content -, even when the psychotherapist experiences the situation with the horse totally differently. The psychotherapist will succeed in this even more the more he or she is aware of his or her own horse-complex. He or she will then be able to observe the experience made by the patient from the meta point of view and see the meaning of the patient‘s horse-complex from a superordinate context and will be able to make use of it in a therapeutic way. An example from a self-awareness group with further education candidates: Isabella (name changed), a future psychotherapist, showed, while being confronted with a white horse with a self-awareness group with horses, a deep and agitated sadness as well as inadequate worries about the horse‘s well-being. During analytical group exercises she remembered another white horse she had trained and taken care of herself which was then “taken away“ from her. She told about her extreme hatred towards the horse‘s owner who had sold the horse without asking her. Her mourning about the horse as well as her hatred towards the woman were so great that all thought all this had happened just a while ago. However, many years had past since then, and such a hefty eruption of emotions was unusual. Further analysis unveiled that Isabella had lost her father when she was three years old and never mourned, since she was never aware that she had been missing him. During her encounter with the white horse within the scope of the self-awareness, group Isabella‘s horse-complex had been touched, at first bringing back the sad loss about the horse she had trained and taken care of along with her hatred for the owner who hadn‘t consulted her in this important decision. The hefty, nearly uncontrolled emotion can only be explained that the horse was a symbol of the father archetype. The emotional arousal that can be triggered by touching the father archetype was even heftier as the loss of her personal father was a taboo. The transference towards “white horse“ was able to be resolved and an adequate mourning for the father she had lost in her early years and her fatherless childhood was able to be initialised. This important process made the young therapist aware of a crucial part of her own horse-complex and thus she was finally able to free herself from her “white horseloss-mourning-complex“. That way one could talk of a personal horsecomplex that is touched by the actual encounter with a horse and thus shapes this encounter in a feedback-like manner (in the abovementioned case with separation anxiety, mourning, worries). So, the horse-complex is of importance for patients and therapists alike. The first in terms of getting healthy again, the latter as a basis of a challenge of self-awareness and basis of their work. It‘s the psychotherapist‘s job to realise his or her own projections towards the horse and the identification with the horse‘s properties in a deeper sense and to take them back from the actual horse, i. e. to realise his or her own transference towards the actual horse. Only then the therapist will be able to offer the patient as many ways as possible of man-horse encounters. The more the psychotherapist is aware of his or her personal and collective horse-complex the more freely he or she will be able to offer the horse to the patient and the higher will the horse‘s efficiency be. Meaning for the therapy horse My patients have taught me that a horse can be seen and experienced from very different points of Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex mup 4|2010 | 143 view and that this experiencing always has to do with the current encounter, the possible ability to maintain and shape a relationship, the projections towards the horse and the identifications with the horse‘s properties along with the ability to symbolise. Hence, a therapy horse has to deal with many different transferences from the patients‘ side, and so it is important for the therapy horse‘s psychical and physical well-being that at least the therapist is eager to take back his or her own transferences towards the horse. If the therapist remains open for the deep, emotional responses a horse triggers within herself or himself during an actual encounter, i. e. open for his or her own transference towards the horse, open for sensing his or her own transference towards the horse, and if he or she makes an effort to analyse without any judgement, the relationship towards that horse will become clearer and more genuine. This way the therapist can prevent the horse from becoming “tired of therapy“ since it is not able anymore to put all those wishes and fantasies in a real context through its natural feedback. It requires a lot of boldness and strength to let oneself surprise over and over again by the real partner “horse“ and to admit to never be able to know it in its full importance and to stabilise it in its hard job with the patients. When a therapist is successful in keeping his or her ability to observe the therapy horse always anew from different angles, to see and understand the changing abilities, weaknesses and needs during the course of a horse‘s life and to put his or her own desires in relation to this, the therapist has already done a lot to respect and protect his or her therapy horse and at the same time to disempower his or her own horsecomplex. And yet it will keep coming back in always new contexts. Literature Baum, M. (1991): Das Pferd als Symbol. ■ Fischer, Frankfurt Benecke, N. (1994): Der Mensch und seine ■ Haustiere. Die Geschichte einer Jahrtausende alten Beziehung. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart Hark, H. (Hrsg.) (1994): Lexikon Jungscher ■ Grundbegriffe. Walter, Solothurn / Düsseldorf Jacoby, M. (2000): Übertragung und Beziehung ■ in der Jungschen Praxis. Walter, Düsseldorf/ Zürich Dr. Dr. Michaela Scheidhacker Specialised phycisian for psychotherapeutic medicine, Balint group host, teaching therapist, group teaching therapist and supervisor with the Bayerische Landesärztekammer (BLÄK) (Bavarian State Board of Physicians), member of the Deutscher Arbeitskreis für Gruppenpsychotherapie und Gruppendynamik (DAGG) (German study group for group psychotherapy and group dynamics), amateur riding teacher (FN), additional training in pedagogic-therapeutical riding (DKThR), attending physician of psychotherapeutic riding at the Isar-Amper- Klinikum, clinic Munich-East, teaching hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, many scientific publications in specialised magazines, Head of the Munich School of Psychotherapeutic Riding, provider of further education seminars in the field of psychotherapeutic riding Address: Dr. Dr. Michaela Scheidhacker · Trivastr. 2 80637 Munich, Germany e-mail: info@psychotherapeutisches-reiten.de Internet: www.psychotherapeutisches-reiten.de The author 144 | mup 4|2010 Scheidhacker - The Horse-Complex Jung, C. G. (1991a): Archetypen. Deutscher ■ Taschenbuch Verlag, München Jung, C. G. (1991b): Praxis der Psychotherapie. ■ Walter, Solothurn / Düsseldorf Jung, C. G. (1993): Das symbolische Leben. ■ Walter, Solothurn / Düsseldorf Jung, C. G. (1994): Psychologische Typen. ■ Walter, Solothurn / Düsseldorf Kast, V. (2002): Die Dynamik der Symbole. ■ Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München Scheidhacker, M. (1998): Das Pferd - reales ■ Beziehungsobjekt und archetypisches Symbol. In: Scheidhacker, M. (Hrsg.): „Ich träumte von einem weisen Schimmel, der mir den Weg zeigte …“, Eigenverlag BKH Haar, S. 55-63 von Franz, M.-L. (2005): Archetypische ■ Dimensionen der Seele. Daimon, Einsiedeln