Susanoo: The Process of Antisocial Personality Turning into Creative Energy

Introduction: The Shouting Storm God

Susanoo, born from Izanagi’s nose, was uncontrollable from the start. He cried out that he missed his mother (Izanami), overturning the sea, and committed all sorts of disturbances in the Takamagahara (the land of the sun) ruled by his older sister Amaterasu, throwing the world into chaos.

However, after being expelled from the High Celestial Plain, he transforms into a hero who defeats the eight-headed monster snake ‘Yamata no Orochi’ and saves people. Psychoanalytically, Susanoo’s journey is the most dramatic case showing how uncontrolled ‘anti-social impulses’ are sublimated into socially valuable ‘creative energy.‘

1. Acting-out: The Crying of an Immature Ego

Susanoo in his childhood could not delay or verbalize his desires and vented them through immediate destructive acts.

• Separation Anxiety and Regression: The disturbances he committed out of longing for his mother are expressions of extreme ‘separation anxiety’ regarding object loss. Eccentricities such as spreading feces in a sacred hall in his sister’s territory or throwing a skinless horse denote infantile ‘regression’ and ‘rebellious acting-out’ wanting to receive attention.
• Absence of Superego: Susanoo at this time was in a state where only the instinct (Id) was running wild, without considering rules or the pain of others.

2. Castration and Expulsion: Acceptance of the Reality Principle

In response to the continued disturbances, Susanoo is ultimately expelled to the earth with his beard cut and his nails pulled out.

• Symbolic Castration: Psychoanalytically, this means ‘castration’ where the ego that enjoyed absolute omnipotence is limited by social law and order (reality principle). Expulsion is the psychological rite of passage where the ego finally escapes the well of ‘me’ and faces the real world where the ‘other’ exists.

3. Defeating Orochi and Sublimation: Transformation of Destructive Energy

Coming down to earth, Susanoo defeats the monster snake by squeezing out wisdom, not tears. This shows that the destructive energy that was inside him has now turned in the direction of ‘energy to protect the object and establish order.’

• Sublimation of Aggression: ‘Sublimation’ mentioned by Freud is changing instinctive desires into socially useful purposes (art, technology, protection, etc.). The scene where Susanoo obtains a sacred sword (Kusanagi no Tsurugi) from the snake’s tail and builds a house and sings a song for the woman he loves symbolizes that the destroyer has finally become a ‘creator of culture.‘

Conclusion: Where is Your Boiling Energy Heading?

In everyone, there is a hidden passion like ‘Susanoo’ that is hard to control. If you just suppress it, it can explode one day and ruin yourself and your surroundings.

What is important is the ‘wisdom of sublimation’ to acknowledge the existence of that energy and decide where to use it. Your anger can become a sense of justice against injustice, and your anxiety can become the concentration to create a detailed work. Today, try using your energy as a tool of creation, not destruction. The storm inside you can also become a sweet rain that drenches the world.

Concluding the Chinese and Japanese mythology series of Batch 15, in the next batch, we will look at the psychology of ‘death and resurrection’ through the story of Osiris and Isis in Egyptian mythology.