The past offers a profound resource to prove that culture, as much as individuals, moves through predictable
stages of development that mirror the course of natural evolution. Drug addiction and criminality also go through a predictable
developmental process. Criminalized male addicts (CMA) typically evolve, starting from the innocence of habilitated preteens,
to the experimentation typical of adolescence, to the puerile behavior of adulthood, and finally into the criminal activity
consistent with contemporary tricksters. An example of a trickster is Frank Abagnale Jr., portrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio in
Catch Me If You Can.
Is it worth considering what we can learn about CMAs that are different from the usual theoretical and statistical
studies done on this population? Can an understanding of the archetypes being personified in CMAs help us to perceive
them better? Will this perspective help us to learn why they don’t respond well to treatment, and why their recidivism
rates are so high? And what are the implications of them being on a spiritual quest?
Marie-Louise von Franz, a Jungian psychoanalyst and a protégé of Carl Jung, points out in The Problem of
the Puer Aeternus: that "the man who is identified with the archetype of the puer aeternus remains too long in
adolescent psychology; that is, all those characteristics that are normal in a youth of seventeen or eighteen are continued
into later life."
In 1988, when I arrived on the prison yard, I saw a huge day-care center. Inmates were playing soccer, basketball,
and throwing frisbees. They were working out on the weight pile, and playing cards on picnic tables. The tennis and handball
courts were occupied, and others were cheering their favorite team while watching a softball game. In that puer country
club, our clothes and linen were cleaned for us every week. They provided our meals. Every three months we could have money
and material things (a package) sent to us from the outside. If we were married, we could even spend the weekend with our
wives to relieve ourselves sexually.
Out of the 2.03 million inmates in this country today, according to Kipnis, drug offenders represent 60% of
federal prisoners and over one-third of state and county prisoners. That doesn’t include all the inmates who are incarcerated
for crimes committed while under the influence, or the ones who were committing crimes for money to finance their chemical
indulgences.
The archetypal development from puer to trickster coincides with addictive and criminal development.
Before continuing, we must be kept reminded that development doesn’t happen in strict conformity to pre-described phases--all
addicts and criminals may not fit into this developmental process. There are those who get involved with criminal activity
and never do drugs, and there are those who get involved with criminal activity prior to getting involved with drugs, and
are others who through grief, trauma, and a host of other disturbances pick up a dependency on substances later in life, and
never participate in criminal activity. However, the process I am describing is the most common.
After the young adult has sewn his wild oats, he is traditionally expected to be developing into a responsible
adult who either continues his education, embarks on a career, and/or gets married and starts a family. This doesn’t
happen with those who drink and use. Instead, he continues behaving as though he were an adolescent. Fun takes priority. The
Fun Phase correlates to the Peter Pan mentality of the puer aeternus.
Once this lifestyle is entrenched, the fun phase begins to get cluttered with periodic repercussions. Despite
such inconveniences as being kicked out of high school or college, being asked to leave home, getting fired from jobs, picking
up a DUI or a possession charge, the flighty puer will continue going through girlfriends and jobs. This is the Between
Fun and Addiction Phase.
By the time this phase is over, the high-flying puer has started his downward spiral. His legal problems
increase. Often it’s prison right away. Once criminalization and full-on psychological (sometimes physical) addiction
sets in, the jointster (criminalized male drug addict as trickster) has emerged.
Some authors suggest that the need to alter consciousness is innate--activities such as skydiving and water
skiing, and other sports that increase adrenaline and incite endorphin activity, are consciousness-altering activities. Perhaps
the internal need to release inhibitions, be devious, act crazy, fight, gamble, chase women, lie, cheat, and steal is also
an innate need to alter consciousness, and serves as the impetus to personify the puer and trickster archetypes.
Andrew Weil, long before he became the guru he is thought of today, stated that "the ubiquity of drug use
is so striking that it must represent a basic human appetite."
Christina Grof (1993) is one who considers addiction as a path to wholeness:
As far back into my childhood as I can remember, I was searching for something I could not name. Whatever
I was looking for would help me to feel all right, at home, as though I belonged. If I could find it, I would no longer be
lonely. I would be happy, fulfilled, and at peace with myself, my life, and the world. I would feel free, unfettered, expansive,
and joyful.
Whereas Grof was searching for wholeness through alcoholism, perhaps criminalized male drug addicts, with
all of their puerile and trickster ways, are also on a spiritual search for wholeness.
Viewing jointsters through the archetypes and the spiritual quest, can give us an understanding
that frees us from judgment, and allows us to see them as a breed of humanity different from ourselves. Perhaps some people
are destined to live by organizing principles that we are unaware of. Perhaps there is far more than we would like to admit
that we simply don’t know. Perhaps many of our present theories are wrong.
