Encountering the Other

ABSTRACT

In spite of Jung’s encounter with the spirit of the depths that he describes in The Red Book and his reverence for other cultures, he remained, in some ways, very much a man held by the spirit of the times in which he lived. Eurocentrism, even unconscious patronizing racism, is evident in Jung’s writings. This article asks how, due to the impact of the spirit of the times on us, do we unconsciously express attitudes, writings, and actions that are offensive to the other? There are embedded forms of racism and thereby oppression that members of the dominant group learn not to see, to keep in the shadows. What forces keep unconscious racial bias alive and active in our societies? One answer lies in a culture’s shadow. This article utilizes writings of Jung and post-Jungians, such as Kimbles, Singer, and Brewster, as well as examples from philosophy, relational psychoanalysis, film, and literature that depict culture’s shadow. The relationship of culture’s shadow to Jung’s “geology” of the personality as diagrammed in one of his 1925 lectures is explored as is the connection of culture’s shadow to archetypal evil and to the formation of negative cultural complexes. These explorations are directed toward new ways of understanding the creation and maintenance of the sense of other in the psyche, furthering the work of bringing culture’s shadow into consciousness.

KEY WORDS:

• cultural complex
• evil
• Jung’s racist writings
• master-slave
• oppression
• racial bias
• relational paradigm
• shadow

Notes

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen H. Naifeh

KAREN H. NAIFEH, PhD, is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, where she teaches in the internship and analytic training programs and is co-chair of the ad hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusivity. Her analytic practice with adults is located in Berkeley and San Francisco. She is on the supervising faculty at the Women’s Therapy Center in Berkeley, California. She holds a doctorate in medical physiology as well as clinical psychology and was adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, for eleven years, where she did research in areas of sleep, meditation, and biofeedback. Her areas of special interest are trauma, the shadow, and cultural diversity.