The Puer Aeternus Archetype
"The psychotherapist frequently sees cases of this sort. Such a person considers himself as a most promising individual. He is full of talents and potentialities. One of his complaints is often that his capacities and interests are too wide-ranging. He is cursed with a plethora of riches. He could do anything but can't decide on one thing in particular. The problem is that he is all promises and no fulfillment. In order to make a real accomplishment he must sacrifice a number of other potentialities. He must sacrifice a number of other potentialities. He must give up his identification with original unconscious wholeness and voluntarily accept being a real fragment instead of an unreal whole. To be something in reality he must give up being everything in potentia. The puer aeternus archetype is one of the images of the Self, but to be identified with it means the one never brings any reality to birth" (p. 14)
"It seemed as though the dream itself was adequate reality, as though just the fact that he could have such magnificent compositions in fantasy were sufficient reality to relieve him of any sense of obligation to realize them in fact. Such an attitude is an identification with the original unconscious wholeness, the provisional life, which avoids the hard work required to make the potential actual. Although he though the wanted to write, fantasies were unconsciously considered sufficient reality in themselves. Such a person is afraid to make the commitment required to create something real. He would lose the security of anonymity and expose himself to disapproval. He is afraid to submit himself to judgment by being something definite." (p. 22)
-Ego and Archetype, by Edward F. Edinger (1973)
