ABSTRACT
The United States is at a crossroads: Moving away from the stalemate of political polarization and culture wars requires reflection, critical thinking, and imagination. This book of collected essays brings together leaders in Jungian and archetypal psychology to forge this path by offering a comprehensive look at the American psyche.
Re-Visioning the American Psyche examines the myths, images, and archetypal fantasies ingrained in the collective consciousness and unconscious in the United States. The volume tends to manifest symptoms in political institutions, social conflicts, and cultural movements. Using various interpretative processes—from psychoanalytic to literary and to participatory—it reflects on the meaning of democratic participation, the psychological cost of wars and violence, intergenerational trauma due to racism, the emotional dimensions of political polarization, deep-seated oppositional thinking in patriarchal structures, frailty of the American Dream, and more.
With its rich scope, interdisciplinary scholarship, and critical engagement with historical and current affairs, this book will be of great interest to those in Jungian and depth psychology, as well as sociology, politics, cultural studies, and American studies. As a timely contribution with an international appeal, it will engage readers who are invested in better understanding psychology’s capacity to respond to social, cultural, and political realities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|55 pages
Politics, power, and polarization
chapter Chapter 3|15 pages
Captain Ahab and Donald Trump
part II|54 pages
Colonization, war, and violence
part III|46 pages
Transgenerational trauma, racism, and social justice
chapter Chapter 9|16 pages
Toward "splendid cities"
part IV|32 pages
Gender, sexuality, and the patriarchy
chapter Chapter 10|19 pages
In the wake and shadow of "the battle of the sexes"
chapter Chapter 11|11 pages
Private parts, public prejudice
part V|67 pages
Psychotherapy, citizenship, and cultural movements