1st Edition
Cultural Complexes in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan Spokes of the Wheel
Thomas Singer presents a unique collection which examines cultural complexes in four parts of East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
From ancestor worship in China to the "kimchi bitch" meme of South Korea, the wounded feminine in Taiwan and hikikomori in Japan, the contributors take a Jungian lens to aspects of culture and shine a light on themes including gender, archetypes, consciousness, social roles, and political relations.
This insightful and timely book will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian ideas, politics, sociology, and Asian studies. It will also be of great interest to Jungian analysts in practice and in training.
Foreword John Beebe Introduction Thomas Singer Part I. 1. Femininity in Chinese Culture: Archetype and Complex Gao Lan and Shen Heyong 2. Ancestral Worship: A Cultural Complex of the Chinese Zhang Lei, Hou Yingchun, and Li Xianghui 3. Single Mothers in Marriage: Cultural and Individual Complexes in Displacement of Immigrant Mothers Gong Xi 4. The Animus Archetype in Chinese Culture Xu Jun Part II. 5. Postmodern Consciousness in the Novels of Haruki Murakami: An Emerging Cultural Complex Toshio Kawai 6. Japanese Landscape and the Subject: On New and Old States of Consciousness Yasuhiro Tanaka 7. Agency, a Japanese Cultural Complex: Transformation of Jungian-Oriented Psychotherapy in an Age of Weaker Agency Chihiro Hatanaka 8. Voices from Nature and Withdrawal (Hikikomori) in Japanese Culture Nanae Takenaka Part III. 9. Seeking Hieros Gamos on the Korean Peninsula: Understanding the Political Situations of Two Koreas from a Jungian Perspective Nami Lee 10. The Kimchi-Bitch Cultural Complex: Modern Misogyny, Memes, and Millennial Men in South Korea Amalya Layla Ashman Part IV. 11. The History of the Search for the Father in Taiwan: A Cultural Complex Hao-Wei Wang 12. An Orphan of the Patriarchy: A Cultural Complex in Taiwanese History Suchen Hung and Hungchin Wei 13. The Wounded Feminine in Chinese Culture Liza J. Ravitz
Biography
Thomas Singer, MD, is a psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst, practicing in San Francisco, USA.
"Seldom have I read a book by assorted authors from cover to cover, yet this particular volume in Tom Singer’s worthy and wide-reaching series on varieties of cultural complexes was compelling for its breadth and depth of focus. I feel better informed about sensitive issues that are still unresolved and that bear the marks of intergenerational trauma, passed on from the colonization, conflicts, and cross-cultural influences of previous centuries, both within Asia and between West and East. Just as it is a ‘must-read’ for the Westerner desirous of knowing more intimately the Easterner, it will be a valuable aid for intra-Asian cultural understanding." - Jean Kirsch, Jungian analyst, USA
"The essays gathered in this beautifully designed and edited collection, most written by Asian Jungian psychoanalysts, present a brilliant display of psychological insight into the cultural histories and complexes of the nationalities under consideration. The broad diversity in perspective and content among these reflections is unified within the framework of Jungian theory. For the curious Westerner and Easterner they bring the soul of the Far East closer." - Murray Stein, author, Jung’s Map of the Soul
"In Cultural Complexes in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan: Spokes of the Wheel, an amazing collection of contributors provide profound insights into cultural complexes. Far East Asia has never been so broadly represented in the Jungian literature. This unique text, drawing upon the Tao Te Ching, links a multitude of cultures into a coherent vision of the collective psyche at its most dynamic. Tom Singer, as maestro of the cultural complex in this collection, creates a polyphonic harmony—it will be a treat for any reader interested in the Far East. The gateway east is open; this is a psychological guide to its riches." - Joe Cambray, PhD, President/CEO, Pacifica Graduate Institute, USA
