Cassandra (metaphor)

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thumb|200px|Painting_of_Cassandra_by_Evelyn De Morgan.]

The Cassandra metaphor (variously labelled the Cassandra 'syndrome', 'complex', 'phenomenon', 'predicament', 'dilemma', or 'curse'), is a term applied in situations in which valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.

The term originates in Greek mythology. Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. Struck by her beauty, Apollo provided her with the gift of prophecy, but when Cassandra refused Apollo's romantic advances, he placed a curse ensuring that none would believe her warnings. Cassandra was left with the knowledge of future events, but could neither alter these events nor convince others of the validity of her predictions.

The metaphor has been applied in a variety of contexts such as psychology, environmentalism, politics, science, cinema, the corporate world, and in philosophy, and has been in circulation since at least 1949 when French philosopher Gaston Bachelard coined the term 'Cassandra Complex' to refer to a belief that things could be known in advance. [Bachelard, Gaston, Le Rationalisme appliqué PUF, Paris, (1949)]

In psychology

The Cassandra metaphor is applied by some psychologists to individuals who experience physical and emotional suffering as a result of distressing personal perceptions, and who are "disbelieved" when they attempt to share the cause of their suffering with others.

Melanie Klein

In 1963 psychologist Melanie Klein provided an interpretation of Cassandra as representing the human moral conscience whose main task is to issue warnings. Cassandra as moral conscience, "predicts ill to come and warns that punishment will follow and grief arise." [Klein, M., Envy and Gratitude- And Other Works 1946-1963, p.293 (1975)] Cassandra's need to point out moral infringements and subsequent social consequences is driven by what Klein calls "the destructive influences of the cruel super-ego" which is represented in the Greek myth by the god Apollo, Cassandra's overlord and persecutor. [Klein, M., Envy and Gratitude- And Other Works 1946-1963, p.295 (1975)] Klein's use of the metaphor centers on the moral nature of certain predictions, which tends to evoke in others "a refusal to believe what at the same time they know to be true, and expresses the universal tendency toward denial, [with] denial being a potent defence against persecutory anxiety and guilt." [Klein, M., Envy and Gratitude- And Other Works 1946-1963, p.293 (1975)]

Laurie Layton Schapira

In a 1988 study Jungian analyst Laurie Layton Schapira explored what she called the "Cassandra Complex" in the lives of two of her analysands. [Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria (1988)] Based on clinical experience, she delineates three factors which constitute the Cassandra complex: 1. dysfunctional relationships with the “Apollo archetype” 2. emotional or physical suffering, including hysteria or ‘women’s problems’, and 3. being disbelieved when attempting to relate the facticity of these experiences to others. [Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria (1988)]

Layton Schapira views the Cassandra complex as resulting from a dysfunctional relationship with what she calls the "Apollo archetype” which refers to any individual's or culture's pattern that is dedicated to, yet bound by, order, reason, intellect, truth and clarity that disavows itself of anything dark and irrational. [Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria p.10 (1988)] The intellectual specialization of this archetype creates emotional distance and can predispose relationships to a lack of emotional reciprocity and consequent dysfunctions. [Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria (1988)] She further states that a 'Cassandra woman' is very prone to hysteria because she, "feels attacked not only from the outside world but also from within, especially from the body in the form of somatic, often gynaecological, complaints.” [Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria p.65 (1988)] .Speaking of the metaphorical application of the Greek Cassandra myth, Layton Schapira states that:

Jean Shinoda-Bolen

In 1989 Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Jean Shinoda-Bolen published an essay on the God Apollo [Jean Shinoda-Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves (1989)] in which she detailed a psychological profile of the ‘Cassandra woman’ whom she suggested referred to someone suffering –as happened in the mythological relationship between Cassandra and Apollo- a dysfunctional relationship with an “Apollo man”. Shinoda-Bolen added that the Cassandra woman may exhibit “hysterical” overtones, and may be disbelieved when attempting to share what she knows. [Jean Shinoda-Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves p.130-160 (1989)]

According to Shinoda-Bolen the archetypes of Cassandra and Apollo do not belong to either gender. She states "women often find that a particular [male] god exists in them as well, just as I found that when I spoke about goddesses men could identify a part of themselves with a specific goddess. Gods and goddesses represent different qualities in the human psyche. The pantheon of Greek deities together, male and female, exist as archetypes in us all... There are gods and goddesses in every person." [Jean Shinoda-Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves p.x-xi (1989)]

"As an archetype, Apollo personifies the aspect of the personality that wants clear definitions, is drawn to master a skill, values order and harmony, and prefers to look at the surface rather than at what underlies appearances. The Apollo archetype favors thinking over feeling, distance over closeness, objective assessment over subjective intuition." [Jean Shinoda-Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves p.135 (1989)]

Of what she describes as the negative Apollonic influence, Dr. Shinoda-Bolen writes:Shinoda-Bolen suggests that a Cassandra women (or man) may become increasingly hysterical and irrational when in a dysfunctional relationship with a negative Apollo, and may experience others' disbelief when describing her experiences. [Jean Shinoda-Bolen, Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves p.130-160 (1989)]

In popular culture

Movies:

In the following cinematic examples Cassandra is a term applied to those whose predictions of doom are initially dismissed, but later turn out to be correct. This further denotes a psychological tendency among people to deny and disbelieve such predictions. The person making the prediction is caught in the dilemma of knowing what will happen but not being able to convince others. The figure of Cassandra has also been invoked to describe those who take the role of antagonist toward widespread or institutional ignorance of the future consequences of current actions.The films "Twelve Monkeys", "The Dead Zone", and "" all provide examples of this term. A 1961 episode of the television show "The Twilight Zone" titled "Back There" relates the story of a modern man sent into the past who tries unsuccessfully to convince all who will listen of the impending assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Comics

The Marvel Comic characters Mystique and Destiny, are two mutant super-villains driven to commit acts of violence and terrorism based upon Destiny's visions of the future. Comic writer (and creator of the characters) Chris Claremont, often refers to Destiny as a "Cassandra" figure whose predictions of death for mutantkind are often ignored by the X-Men, with catastrophic effect. However, while Destiny often took her failures in stride, her lover and comrade Mystique would ultimately be driven to insanity after coming into possession with Destiny's various diaries, written with details of the future of mankind and mutantkind. Her madness ultimately leads her to fight the X-Men, who defeat her. Afterwords, Mystique gives the X-Men her copies of Destiny's diaries, promptly telling the X-Men that it was their time to "play Cassandra" with the information inside the diaries.

The corporate world:

Foreseeing potential future directions for a corporation or company is sometimes called ‘visioning’. [Davies, P., ‘The Cassandra Complex: how to avoid generating a corporate vision that no one buys into’ p.103-123 in Success in Sight: Visioning (1998)] Yet achieving a clear, shared vision in an organization is often difficult due to a lack of commitment to the new vision by some individuals in the organization because it does not match reality as they see it. Those who support the new vision are termed ‘Cassandras’ – given the ability to see what is going to happen but not believed. [‘Davies, P., The Cassandra Complex: how to avoid generating a corporate vision that no one buys into’ p.103-123 in Success in Sight: Visioning (1998)] Sometimes the name Cassandra is applied to those who can predict rises, falls, and particularly crashes on the world stock market, as happened with Warren Buffett who repeatedly warned that the '90s stock market surge was a bubble, attracting to him the title of 'Wall Street Cassandra'. [The Bear Book: Survive and Profit in Ferocious Markets, p.81 (2000)]

The environment movement:

Many environmentalists have predicted looming environmental catastrophes including climate change, rise in sea levels, irreversible pollution, and an impending collapse of ecosystems including those of rainforests and ocean reefs. [AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, (1999)] Such individuals sometimes acquire the label of 'Cassandras' whose warnings of impending environmental disaster are disbelieved or mocked. [AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, (1999)] Environmentalist Alan Atkisson states that to understand that humanity is on a collision course with the laws of nature is to be stuck in what he calls the 'Cassandra dilemma' in which one can see the most likely outcome of current trends and can warn people about what is happening, but the vast majority can not, or will not respond, and later if catastrophe occurs they may even blame you, as if your prediction set the disaster in motion. [AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, p.22 (1999)] Occasionally there may be a "successful" alert, though the succession of books, campaigns, organizations, and personalities that we think of as the environmental movement has more generally fallen toward the opposite side of this dilemma: a failure to "get through" to the people and avert disaster. In the words of Atkisson: "too often we watch helplessly, as Cassandra did, while the soldiers emerge from the Trojan horse just as foreseen and wreak their predicted havoc. Worse, Cassandra's dilemma has seemed to grow more inescapable even as the chorus of Cassandras has grown larger." [AtKisson, A., Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World, p.22 p.32-33 (1999)]

Other examples

There are examples of the Cassandra metaphor being applied in the contexts of medical science, [Web, S., Contemporary IMRT: Developing Physics and Clinical Implementation, p.357 (2004)] [Lantos, J.D., The Lazarus Case: Life-and-Death Issues in Neonatal Intensive Care, p.160 (2001)] the media, [Humphreys, L., Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication, p.157 (2006)] to feminist perspectives on 'reality', [Eisenstein, L., 'The Cassandra Complex', p.37-41 in Haring-Smith, T., New Monologues For Women By Women - Vol II (2005)] [Delamotte, D., Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance From 600 B.C.E. p.86 (1997)] to the experience of partners of individuals with Asperger's syndrome, [Jacobs, B., Loving Mr. Spock: Understanding an Aloof Lover, p.281 (2004)] [Jennings, Sheila- Autism in Children and Parents: Unique Considerations for Family Court Professionals. Family Court Review 43 (4), 582–595.doi:10.1111/j.1744-1617.2005.00057.x (2005)] and in politics. [Orwell, S., Angus, I., Orwell, G., My Country Right or Left p.378 (2000)] There are also examples of the metaphor being used in popular music lyrics. [Atkisson, A., Cassandra's Lyre (song) on album Believing Cassandra 2000 ] [ABBA: 'Cassandra' recorded October 18, 1982 as the B-side of the single The Day Before You Came] [Fear Before the March of Flames, Taking Cassandra to the End of the World Party (song) on album The Always Open Mouth 2006 ]

ee also

Martha Mitchell effect ("The Cassandra of Watergate")

References