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.