Krampus

http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Krampus

I picked up a copy of National Geographic for December. It has an article about something I had not encountered before. The link above gives the essential information. It is a strange new--rather resurrected--practice.

As I read about this, my psychological analysis kicks in. It bespeaks the "split" nature of personality I cited before with Reaction-Formation Psychosis being the basis of much modern religiosity.

Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, was a resident of Vienna, Austria. It is in the area where the Krampus roamed at his time. That time was one of great turmoil in philosophy / medicine / political unrest. It was the era which generated Karl Marx and his ideas of a government where the workers ran things with committees and all material goods should be shared equally. Out of unhappiness comes deeper thought and insight.

We are in a similar era today. All sorts of religions are in direct conflict. Americans are trying to say we must be a Christian country despite the clear constitutional demand that Congress shall make no laws concerning religion. We are certainly in a war tantamount to the Great Crusades! Conflict is everywhere.

Add to this conflict scenario the economic struggles which are world wide and you have pressure on most of us which causes our demons to come out like Krampus. The masks are scary and bespeak several people I have met lately. They have a demon within which lurks beneath the surface of their personality!

Freud posited 3 aspects of personality which are basic: Id / Ego / Super Ego.

According to his theory of personality the Id is our selfish self. It seeks to get what it wants when it wants it. There are no bounds on the lusts of the Id!

The Super Ego is exactly the opposite. It gives our personality a super human perfection. It seeks good and success. It treats people with the same good goals that Jesus prescribed: Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.

The Ego is the balance point trying to encompass both Id and Super ego. A balanced person has a sense of self that incorporates some of the Id and Super Ego and recognizes their existence. In short, Ego is the present moment self trying to maintain control of the excesses of Id and Super Ego.

Another concept of Freud was the importance of dreams. In our dreams, he posited, we are freed of normal conscious restraints. Each dream has strange objects which symbolize those things which are troubling the Ego--usually a conflict between Id and Super Ego. Out of these dreams and using hypnosis, Freud tried to help people understand themselves. His favorite questions were: "What does this mean to you?" "What was that symbol in your dream representing out of your past history?"

Freud started by trying to help himself in his terrors. He advocated that every practitioner should have therapy himself on, at least, a weekly basis. For him, the therapy was essential and a never ending process. Like many people in my Abnormal Psychology class years ago at Emory, the main reason for them studying was that they had emotional and personality problems driving them to the edge of sanity. As I looked around the classroom and witnessed the discussions and interaction, I concluded: about 10% of us in this class are normal--the rest be a little crazy!

Our professor, in the first lecture, stated clearly that as we studied the abnormal classifications that everyone here will find some of these things in his/her mind because none of us is perfect. If any of you find yourselves severely troubled by any of this, make an appointment and let's talk privately--I mean it!!! This is important!

Now back to Kampus.

The mask worn by the participant is hideous and scary. The reveling going on right now across Europe has a high amount of intoxication accompanying it. The purpose is to scare children into being good so Santa brings toys rather than the switches in the bag of the Kampus. Before the day of Freudian understanding, pagans used this practice to "get the demons out." Once demons are out and looked at, we can begin to acknowledge their presence and put them in perspective.

What troubles me in recent years is the dispersion Fundamentalist preachers are putting on Halloween. The costumes and spooks of All Hallows Eve deal with the same fears and worries of children. It is simply a way to make spooks fun and get candy from adults. As children go up and down the street, there are fun things to make their hair raise without killing them. It is similar to a roller coaster ride. In your heart you know you are safe despite things that go bump in the night!

Too much is being put out these days as scare tactics. We have seen them in abundance over the National Healthcare debate. George Bush used this tactic to the max by saying Sadam Hussain has "Weapons of Mass Destruction." In reality most of this amounts to "Weapons of Mass Distraction" so we have to fund and follow the leader of the US Government. Thereby, we sanction our soldiers using our Weapons of Mass Destruction applied against the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan who are killed by what is called "peripheral damage." Too often, our own soldiers are the victims of a bomb or artillery shell gone awry. Everyone is scared in war and innocent people die a bloody death.

In reverse, this is exactly the purpose of the Terrorist. The events of 9/11 now have us held captive with fear. We stand in long lines at airports for searches. The citizens of New York and the Pentagon employees go to work every day with hidden fears every time a plane passes close overhead. We are living in a current environment filled with fear!

Back to the Freud Id/Ego/Super Ego idea: Our fearful Id is putting massive doses of Adrenaline into our bodies. There are more panic attacks these days. We hear news reports of murder/suicides. We rejoice that the Oregon State killer of cops was cut down yesterday, but we can't help but wonder who will be next. In many ways we become our own worst enemy through fear!

If you keep watching the storms and hurricanes on the Weather Channel, you are obsessing on hidden fears and using the stories to scare them out of you. My mother lives in Atlanta where there is a murder or robbery every day. She acts as though each one happened right outside her door although she lives in a fairly safe and sane neighborhood. At age 91, she, like many elderly people, are filled with fear. However, at the same time she has a deep faith and trust that "God will take care of you." Remember that marvelous hymn. My daddy sang it often as he shaved getting ready for another day of trying to minister to people with deep troubles.

What I am saying is that, as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." The disciples were quizzing him on when he would return. They thought they could not exist without him. Jesus told them, in essence, "Quit relying on my presence. The Kingdom of God is IN YOU!"

God gives each of us the ability to cope if we rely on his Spirit and trust He will provide a way. The Kampus is awful, but it can be controlled by the centered person. With God's help, the Kampus is just a pretend costume designed to get the evil spirits out into the open so it can be seen a discovered to be---just a drunk in a silly mask and costume!