When the Personal Becomes Political: Martha Graham and Myth, Carl Jung as Agent 488, and United States Cold War Psychological Warfare

When the Martha Graham Dance Company landed in Athens under the auspices of the John F. Kennedy administration in 1962, the “Picasso” and “First Lady” of what the press called “Modern American Dance” found herself concerned that Greek audiences would not appreciate the American retelling of ancient Greek myths in Greece (Phillips, 2020). Why had the State Department risked accusations of cultural imperialism in the midst of Soviet anti-US propaganda proclaiming the danger of global Cocolonization (US Government HUAC, 1962)? First, Graham was well-known as an outstanding artistic ambassador (Prevots; Cross; Franko; Phillips 2020, 2021, 2023). Second, her use of myth fit psychwar needs. Indeed, when politics met psychology during the Cold War, the US government’s association with psychologist Carl Jung’s work had already been established by psychwar experts during World War II; espionage agents consistently relied on Jung to understand Adolf Hitler, the Nazi movement, and the most effective persuasion techniques for large populations. Indeed, the director of the CIA when Kennedy’s team deployed Graham, Allen Dulles, had named Sigmund Freud’s student, Carl Jung, “Agent 488” (Bair). As an analysand, Graham had personally explored Jungian psychology with one of his most esteemed therapists in New York, Frances Wickes (Kirsch). Deploying the dramatic canon established by Euripides her scaffolding, Graham had built her works using the Freudian foundations of modern psychology but reinterpreted to present the female perspective. Graham reversed Freud’s Oedipal Complex using Jung: Oedipus’ mother, Jocasta, became the everywoman. Autobiography and mythic biography met Jungian psychology to unleash creativity (Elms). In addition, Graham’s use of psychiatry challenged the Soviets: modern Freudian-based practice had been eschewed by Soviet governmental medicine, but was slowly seeking traction in satellite countries by 1962 (Angelini, Savelli and Marks). Graham and her American myth-ballets became an ideal choice for export.

The way in which a Jungian approach to myth functioned in Graham’s work, and thus her deployment as a representative of the US, speaks to Cold War psychwar ideas of universality which would simultaneously, and necessarily access individual “hearts and minds.” On stage representing the US government in Greece, Graham explored the tortured, guilt-ridden Jocasta, the jealousy-ravaged Medea, and the vengeful Clytemnestra. The enduring and essential humanity of the Greek myths celebrated this US-government sought universality, which led not only to a positive reception of Graham in Washington and Greece, but also “trickled down” to the Greek opinion of the US writ-large. Greek elites expressed critical reverence for Graham’s retelling. Using a spin on the feminist paradigm, “the personal is political” (Hanisch), Graham’s use of Jung to distil human experience through myth, while used politically, was only effective because Graham had made it personal. This cycle of personal-to-political was well understood by psych warriors at the time. Yet Graham’s personal creative power created and continues to sustain the enduring power of these works, well after the conclusion of the Cold War. Systemic shifts in US government’s propaganda campaigns that rejected Graham Company touring has not undermined the continued power of her myth-based works.