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The Cultural Unconscious — Joseph L. Henderson

The cultural unconscious, in the sense I use it, is an area of historical memory that lies between the collective unconscious and the manifest culture pattern. It may include both these modalities, conscious and unconscious, but it has some kind of identity arising from the archetypes of the collective unconscious which, on one hand, assists in the formation of myth and ritual, and on the other, promotes the process of development in individual human beings. …

Response to “The Cultural Unconscious” — Harry Prochaska

… In his paper, Dr. Henderson has related the dreams of two patients in which a foreign culture was a significant image in their psychic development. The cultural unconscious of the Western psyche carries within it a projection on China and the entire Orient as the “inscrutable and exotic East.” In these dreams, China appears a numinous image of an ancient wisdom, which contains secrets not immediately available to the conscious thinking of Western man. Knowing something of another culture and its history adds dimensions for the patient beyond his own personal projections on the immediately apparent details of the image. The cross-cultural reference extends the meaning of the image into a frame of reference wider than one’s own personal experience within the limitations of his own society. …

Through the Prism of America — Geneviève Geer

I have always been struck by the extra dimension there is to being a Jungian analyst in America. Unlike working in more homogeneous countries where the people are contained in a mythic whole and present problems whose mythic roots are easily identified, we are confronted here by a fascinating variety of backgrounds among our patients. That variety keeps us connected to the richness of the many different motifs and images through which an archetype can reveal itself. …

Response to “Through the Prism of America” — Manisha Roy

I like your paper and agree fully with the points you make. A modern American woman must indeed face and, hopefully, integrate the unconscious symbols of angry witches from her past before she can find her full identity. Let me shift the focus, however, to stress that as Jungians, we have a unique opportunity to observe the archetypal interplay not only in the unconscious material, but also and more importantly in the conscious behavior of the American people. The conscious material is actually vital to the process of reconciliation you talk about. In no other culture can we see the palpable presence of the archetypes as they are acted out, albeit unconsciously. By conscious material, I mean all external behavior, actions as well as values, attitudes, customs — the stuff that a culture is made of. …

Balancing the Shields: Native American Teachings and the Individuation Process — Mary Loomis

Many years ago, before I had begun my analytic training, I had a dream in which a frozen brown bear was lying on an operating table in the basement of my house. The operating table and surrounding area were brightly lit. Nearby, ready to perform an autopsy, stood a man in a surgical gown. Unexpectedly, the bear moved. I was observing this scene from the basement stairs, and, when the bear moved, I was startled. My surprise turned into fear as the bear sat up, left the table, and climbed the stairs toward me. At this point, I became an omniscient observer watching myself and the bear, while, at the same time, feeling as though the bear and I were one. …

Response to “Balancing the Shields: Native American Teachings and the Individuation Process” — Donald F. Sandner

Let me first express my wholehearted appreciation and agreement with the premises of Dr. Loomis’s inspiring paper: that American Indian symbolism and values have had a tremendous effect on American society, and that in the huge body of American Indian myth and ritual one may find all the elements of individuation as Jung described it. In those myths and rituals there is a pathway to the Self as dynamic, as subtle, and far more naturally connected with the earth than the Eurpopean symbolic systems of which many of us are so fond, such as alchemy and Greek mythology.

Actually Jung knew little about American Indian symbolism. In spite of his familiarity with Gladys Reichard’s work and Navaho sandpaintings, and his conversations with Ochwiay Biano in 1925, which barely scratched the surface of Taos mythology, Jung knew nothing about many extremely important American Indian studies. …

America as “The New World”: Psychological Consequences of an Historical Image — Philip T. Zabriskie

At the 1987 Conference for Jungian Analysts we worked with the assumption that there exists in the unconscious — between an individual’s personal unconscious and the universal collective psyche — a layer, so to speak, of energy and images shared by a given people or culture or tribe, for whom certain archetypal forms have come to hold special influence. This assumption is important clinically as well as theoretically, because the energies and symbols in that layer of the unconscious may have much to do with the psychology of a given analysand. …

Response to “America as ‘The New World’”: Psychological Consequences of an Historical Image — John R. Haule

… I think he is right about Americans’ persistent hopefulness — we emphasize the future to the point of losing all sense of the past. Our impatience leads to frustration and despair because we want to do something (anything) before we even sit down and evaluate our present situation. Americans tend to have an upbeat, short-memoried rootlessness; we split good and evil in true-believer or borderline fashion so that we can maintain a sense of innocence, freshness, and moral superiority. In the cultural layer of our American unconscious, we have no place for suffering or sacrifice.

I cannot argue with this. What I’d like to do instead is to apply it to a phenomenon I believe is quintessentially American. I refer to what has appeared in recent decades as a burgeoning literature — together with a bewildering array of self-help workshops and the like which promise sure-fire cures for frigidity, impotence, loneliness, anomie, and meaninglessness. …

Book Reviews

The Scapegoat Complex: Toward A Mythology of Shadow and Guilt— Sylvia Brinton Perera. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books. 1986. Reviewed by Karin Lofthus Carrington.

Psyche Speaks: A Jungian Approach to Self and World— Russell Arthur Lockhart. Wilmette: Chiron Publications. 1987. Reviewed by Edward D. McDougal.

Jung & Feminism: Liberating Archetypes— Demaris Wehr. Boston: Beacon Press. 1987. Reviewed by Polly Young-Eisendrath.

The Dream of Poliphilo: The Soul in Love— Linda Fierz-David. Translated by Mary Hottinger. Dallas: Spring Publications. 1987. Reviewed by Beth Darlington.

The Firebrand— Marion Zimmer Bradley. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1987. Reviewed by Laurie Schapira.

Practical Jung: Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychotherapy— Harry A. Wlimer, M.D. Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications. 1987. Reviewed by Thayer Greene.

The Witch and the Clown: Two Archetypes of Human Sexuality— Ann and Barry Ulanov. Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications. 1987. Reviewed by William Willeford.

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