"Making a personality, the task that Jung called “individuation,” may be the adventure of a lifetime. But the person is anchored within a greater, universal identity. Salt remnants of ancient oceans flow through our veins, ashes of expired stars rekindle in our genetic chemistry. The oldest of the atoms, hydrogen— whose primacy among the elements should have gained it a more poetically resonant name—is a cosmic theme; mysteriously elaborated billions-fold, it has created from Nothing the Everything that includes us." (p. 319)
—Theodore Roszak (1992)
How does this resonate with you? What part of our existence is merely genealogical, evolutionary, biological? How does that "two million year old [hu]man" in each of us show up in our modern lives? What do we carry over from our ancestors, both near and distant? Is there a bigger pattern at work, and do we have any say in our own evolution?....
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Let's consider an example where two humans are genetically identical: identical twins.
Genetically, the children of identical twins have two biological mothers or fathers. A DNA test to determine paternity or maternity would match both siblings.
Think about that for a minute. When the child of an identical twin asks "Where did I come from?" the potential answer is interesting.
Research suggests that identical twins raised apart from each other develop eerily similar personalities. They choose the same majors, the same careers, the same sports teams, similar spouses. It's unnerving. It makes many people uncomfortable.
But in myth, twins are portrayed either as an evil omen or representing two different aspects of the hero's psyche. The theme of the "evil twin" or twins being each other's shadow side is common. When twins actually share the same personality, it's horror (think the Grady twins in "The Shining"), and they're soulless.
Could that ambiguity about twins in our myths reflect how uncomfortable we are with the idea that our personalities and sense of self is hard wired rather than the result of independent choices and free will? What does it mean to individuate if we're simply following our programming, or you discover a long lost identical twin whose "individuation" is identical to yours?
If a virus can do that, what else can it do? Parasites affect the behavior of their hosts, so is the reason we're drawn to depth psychology because it's who we are or is it because we "caught the bug," maybe a cold I contracted in 8th grade changed my brain chemistry to make depth psychology appeal to me. You've written about how nature is reaching out to us, crying for help. Is it doing that with a virus? Granted, that would be as disappointing as learning that our ability to perceive The Force is controlled by midichlorians, but if we have a symbiotic relationship with nature, viruses and parasites are a way to accomplish it, and again, it calls into question how we've become who we are.