1st Edition

Cultural Complexes and Europe’s Many Souls Jungian Perspectives on Brexit and the War in Ukraine

Edited By Jörg Rasche, Thomas Singer Copyright 2025
214 Pages 1 Color & 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

214 Pages 1 Color & 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

214 Pages 1 Color & 32 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

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... Read more

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

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.

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.

‘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