Jungian Perspectives on Indeterminate States: Betwixt and Between Borders

Description

In Jungian Perspectives on Indeterminate States: Betwixt and Between Borders, Elizabeth Brodersen and Pilar Amezaga bring together leading international contributors to analyse and interpret the psychological impact of contemporary border crossing - both literally and figuratively. Each chapter assesses key themes such as migration, culture, gender and identity formation, through a Jungian lens. All the contributors sensitively explore how creative forms can help mitigate the trauma experienced when one is forced to leave safety and enter unknown territory, and examines the specific role of indeterminacy, liminality and symbols as transformers at the border between culture, race and gender. The book asks whether we are able to hold these indeterminate states as creative liminal manifestations pointing to new forms, integrate the shadow ‘other’ as potential, and allow sufficient cross-border migration and fertilization as permissible. It makes clear that societal conflict represents a struggle for recognition and identity and elucidates the negative experiences of authoritarian structures attached to disrespect and misrecognitions. This interdisciplinary collection will offer key insight for Jungian analysts in practice and in training, psychotherapists, anthropologists, political and cultural theorists, and postgraduate researchers in psychosocial studies. It will also be of great interest to readers interested in migration, sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity studies. Cover Endorsement Page Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Notes on the contributors Acknowledgements Copyright permissions and credits Editorial introduction Part 1 Border, migration, and identity Chapter 1 Crossing physical borders and the making of identity: The case of Europe  Introduction Identity: a brief review of key questions Identity in analytical psychology Space, body, borders, and identity formation Being rooted in space: human and non-human environment Bodies and borders Study case: the European identity A founding myth Did a European identity exist in the past? What kind of identity today? Territory Values The European cultural complex of an unheroic heroine The contact zone between the ego and the other The violent crossing of borders by a threatening other, the terrorist The crossing of borders by an exposed other, the asylum seeker Conclusions Notes References Chapter 2 Challenges to the individuation process of people on the move: Developing a sense of global citizenship Introduction A hierarchy of lexicon describing people on the move A common theoretical framework for people on the move Home The impact of potentially traumatic life events Identity development and sense of belonging Individuation and global citizenship Conclusion References Chapter 3 The Mexican-American cultural complex: Assessing the depth-psychological problems due to challenges of assimilation in American society Introduction Part 1: Mexican-Americans: a brief history Part 2: A depth-psychological perspective on the cultural complex Part 3: Interviews Conclusion Notes References Chapter 4 Hidden in plain sight: How therapists miss cultural trauma in trans-cultural white clients Introduction Cultural complexes Three vignettes Michelle Sal Virginia Conclusion Notes References Part 2 Border phenomenology and gender Chapter 5 Ismail is now called Ebru and Lea wants to be a mechanic: Transgender and intercultural work as a municipal task Introduction Interculturality in the city of Frankfurt am Main The Office for Multicultural Affairs (AmkA) Queering the city – the coordination unit for LGBTIQ topics Transgressing the binary Transgender work in practice: Schools and suicide in trans* teens Homelessness of trans* people Being in-between: Is a legal third gender enough? Conclusion Notes References Chapter 6 Child development and gender issues: Symbols, creativity, and alterity through Sandplay therapy Introduction The symptoms Intervention The Jungian perspective The analytical work with children Sandplay therapy Case presentation Conclusion References Chapter 7 Bernini and the Pont Sant’Angelo: The transcendent hermaphrodite as symbol of individuation Introduction: The discovery of the hermaphroditos The psychology of two and one: Jung, the rebis, and hermaphroditos The hermaphrodite and the transcendent function Bernini the trickster: Bringing forth the transcendental hermaphrodite Bernini’s life and art: Individuation and the transcendental hermaphrodite The Pont Sant’Angelo and beauty: The transcendental hermaphrodite as embodied presence Conclusion: The transcendental hermaphrodite as Salvator Mundi References Chapter 8 Problems of symbolisation and archetypal processes: The case of male same-sex desire Introduction Representation of same-sex desire Numinous exclusion Facing the gaps: Archetypes at work i. Persona ii. Father iii. Senex/Puer iv. Anima v. Pan, the Trickster, and ‘communality’ vi. Shadow Conclusion References Part 3 Liminality between borders and symbol formation Chapter 9 An invisible magic circle: A Jungian commentary on When Marnie Was There Introduction Film background and storyline When Marnie Was There – film synopsis Marnie: Imaginary friend or ancestral spirit? Marnie and Merlin The letter M The Tanabata festival A heroine’s journey Conclusion Notes References Chapter 10 Duality of the Japanese ‘fish’ symbol: Standing at the edge of life and death Introduction A synopsis of the short story, ‘Dream Carp’ Two fish or duality of fish Fish and boundary: The case of Japan Iwashi (sardine) Conclusion: Around the ‘Dream Carp’ Separation from the worldly Swimming in the lake Fished up and lying on a chopping board Back to life, or, afterwards Notes References Chapter 11 Heart of Darkness: An archetypal journey to the other side Introduction Nekyia Joseph Conrad’s nekyia Heart of Darkness: A synopsis An archetypal journey Darkness Journey to Hades The snake Ivory as the treasure Light and darkness Symbols and mythology Gates and doors ‘betwixt and between’ borders Pilgrims Marlow and Kurtz, ego and shadow The return Conclusion References Part 4 Border crossing and individuation Chapter 12 Re-visioning individuation: Opening to a witness consciousness Introduction A granddaughter of immigrants: An intergenerational perspective A dream vision: Personal and collective Authentic Movement or Movement-in-Depth ‘Eye of God’ and the transcendent function Cultural complexes and a need to belong A mirror of the soul: Seeing and being seen Re-visioning individuation within a relational field Moving beyond the ‘me’ to include an ‘us’ Temenos: The empty circle containing all The analyst: Observer, witness, or both A witness consciousness Conclusion Acknowledgement References Chapter 13 The tension and paradox between determinate and indeterminate state: Clinical, social, and cultural aspects Introduction Psychotherapy and the dialectics of indeterminate and determinate state Theoretical background: Neuroscience and the indeterminate Change of pathology and the indeterminate state Cultural and contemporary background of the indeterminate Some hints of how to cope with the indeterminate state Conclusion References Chapter 14 The consequences of freedom: Moving beyond the intermediate states of broken individualisation and liquidity Introduction C. G. Jung’s individuation Ulrich Beck’s individualisation Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid society Beck and Bauman contra Jung Giegerich’s realism to contrast broken individualisation and liquidity A clinical vignette: Inner talk in action in Jungian psychoanalysis Conclusions Notes References Chapter 15 Vulnerability and incorruptibility: An aretaic model of the transcendent function Introduction Critical re-reading of Erich Neumann’s neue Ethik (1949a) The first half of life The Anima/Animus projections The ‘Night Sea Journey’ Towards an ethic of centroversion Analytical psychology as a virtue ethic Moral Cases The Hobbit or the vice of in-vulnerability Damage or the vice of corruptibility Odysseus or the subject of centroversion Conclusion Postscript References Index