Self Begetting Ouroboros: The Science Fiction Of Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-88) has usually been described as a solipsist. However the American science fiction writer''s central ''solipsistic’ motif is the self-begetting and self-devouring ourobouros serpent which according to the individuation theory of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) represents symbolic incest. Jung argues that incest could be understood in terms of the ego''s desire for union with the unconscious which feminine in a man and masculine in a woman is personified by the contrasexual component (anima in man; animus in woman). As men are drawn to women by their contrasexual component and vice versa all male-female relationships are characterized by anima-animus interactions that is projected variants of the endogamous urge so the goal of the individuation process is recognition of the projection and introjection that is a self-union or self-hood characterized by an individual relationship between a man and a woman rather than a relationship between anima and animus. The symbol of the self-begetting (projecting) and self-devouring (introjecting) ourobouros serpent symbolizes this process.