1st Edition
Cultural Complexes and Europe’s Many Souls Jungian Perspectives on Brexit and the War in Ukraine
This timely and important new volume examines the impacts of Brexit and the war in Ukraine from the lens of the cultural complex model, in an exploration of the underlying dynamic relationships within and between countries.
There have been seismic changes in Europe in recent years, with the onset of Brexit and the Russian/Ukraine war, pre-existing cultural complexes have erupted in fragmenting divisions and war, creating an atmosphere closest to that of the ominous animosities of the Cold War after World War 2 and impacting the psyche on both an archetypal and cultural level. In this volume, contributors provide early attempts to make sense of the current situation, and to think about it in terms of activated Cultural Complexes, specifically in Britain and Eastern Europe, and perhaps across the globe.
This will be an important read for Jungian analysts interested in the underlying dynamic fuelling Brexit and the Ukraine-Russia war as well as those interested in Jungian studies, analysis and political activism, and international affairs from a Jungian perspective.
Introduction
Section 1: Preexisting cultural complexes in Great Britain, Germany, and Russia
1. Britain: Autonomy and Insularity in an Island People
Jules Cashford
2. About Two Cultural Complexes: The German Complex of Superiority and the Russian Complex of Feeling Encircled by Hungry Barbarians
Gert Sauer
3. Russia, a “Therapy” for the West?
Luigi Zoja
4. The Mysterious Russian Soul
Elena Volodina
Section 2: Cultural complexes emerging in the context of Europe divided and at war
5. A Tale of Two Referenda: Convulsions in Post-Brexit UK and in Ukraine
Ann Kutek
6. The War of Symbols
Dmytro Zaleskyi
7. Transcorruption: Russian Boundlessness and Shadow Aspects of European Civilization
Dmitry Kotenko
8. Perseus: A Myth for Our Times
Viktoriya Roslik
9. Inside the Russian Complex
Natalia Pavlikova
Section 3: Complexes and archetypes
10. Archetypal defenses of the group spirit in Russia and Ukraine: The axes of destruction
Thomas Singer
11. War in Europe
Jörg Rasche
Biography
Thomas Singer, MD, is a psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst who trained at Yale Medical School, Dartmouth Medical School, and the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is the author of many books and articles that include a series of books on cultural complexes that have focused on Australia, Latin America, Europe, the United States, and Far East Asian countries, in addition to another series of books featuring Ancient Greece, Modern Psyche. He serves on the board of ARAS (Archive for Research into Archetypal Symbolism) and has served as co-editor of ARAS Connections for many years.
Jörg Rasche, MD, is a child psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, working in private practice in Berlin. He served for many years as president of the German Jungian Association (DGAP) and was vice-president of IAAP and president of the German Association for Sandplay Therapy (DGST). Also a trained musician, he has published many papers and some books on mythology, music, sandplay therapy, and analytical psychology, as well as serving on the board of various Jungian journals.
‘Just when we thought ‘job done’, Europe is once again a problem: Russia-Ukraine, Brexit, divisions within the EU, confused responses to Covid and the climate crisis, and the rise of neo-fascist and populist parties fuelled by a hatred of anyone Other. And once again our Editors Thomas Singer and Joerg Rasche have risen to the challenge with this addition to the Cultural Complex series. What is unique about this book is its utter realism and laser-like psychosocial focus on the important things happening in the troubled continent.’ Professor Andrew Samuels, author of The Political Psyche
