The Cultural Complex (The Cultural Complex Series)

Geesh! The reviews are so critical. What about gratitude that a black man did the heavy lifting to bring some of the Jungian shadow into some collective awareness? We have a layer of cultural subconscious mishegas and it would behoove us to be aware of it. If you’re a clinician, also for your clients. It has a deep impact. Thank you to Kimbles & Singer for this groundbreaking work.

At long last Jungian psychology is making a significant contribution to understanding conflict between cultures and groups, that is, instead of focusing on the individual. The editors, Singer and Kimbles, offer a conceptual framework, inspired by J. W. Perry's ideas on the dynamics of bi-polar pairs of complexes. The authors describe effectively the play of cultural complexes in Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and Latin America generally. Historical events such as colonial conquest and war create societal traumas around which a cultural complex forms and may endure for generations. A present-day incident, such as perceived discrimination against one's society, may constellate a cultural complex, reopening a collective psychic wound and igniting group conflict. Insightful as these studies are, it is unfortunate that none applies the conceptual framework derived from Perry. For a complete application of this framework to cultural complexes that drive the conflict between oppressors and oppressed in Guatemala and Canada, see my own book, The Psychopolitics of Liberation: Political Consciousness from a Jungian Perspective. Lawrence Alschuler, Professor of Political Science

Jungian psychology has tended to analyze the individual in terms of complexes and society in terms of archetypes. This anthology introduces the idea of the cultural complex: a psychic pattern that can promote group identity but, when operating unconsciously, can seize entire populations with irrational impulses, stereotypical behavior, and dangerous forms of acting out. One has only to think about the hysterical and authoritarian reactions to 9/11 in America to see a cultural complex at work.A strength of this anthology is that it includes contributors from around the world, each applying cultural complex theory to actual examples drawn from immediate experience.Singer and Kimbles have bridged a huge gap in the depth psychological approach to understanding and dealing with collective trauma.

The number of stars reflect the Kindle version only. The content of the book is great; however, the Kindle version is unusable. There is no table of contents so you cannot navigate to different chapters. Perhaps not a problem if you read the book straight through, but if you have to read only certain chapters for a class, it is nearly impossible to find them.

A colleague suggested I read this book because I often critique psychotherapy's emphasis upon the individual without attention to group dynamics as they express themselves in racism and sexism. Interestingly, Amazon only credits one of the co-editors, Tom Singer, as the "author" even though the book cover clearly lists Singer and Sam Kimbles as co-editors. Is this Amazon's own (unwitting) participation in the group dynamic of racism? Amazon lists the White man as but not the Black man? Where have I seen that before.....