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The Racial Complex: A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race
In The Racial A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race, Fanny Brewster revisits and examines Jung’s classical writing on the theory of complexes, relating it directly to race in modern society. In this groundbreaking exploration, Brewster deepens Jung’s minimalist writing regarding the cultural complexes of American blacks and whites by identifying and re-defining a psychological complex related to ethnicity.
Original and insightful, this book provides a close reading of Jung’s complexes theory with an Africanist perspective on raciality and white/black racial relationships. Brewster explores how racial complexes influence personality development, cultural behavior and social and political status, and how they impact contemporary American racial relations. She also investigates aspects of the racial complex including archetypal shadow as core, constellations and their expression, and cultural trauma in the African diaspora. The book concludes with a discussion of racial complexes as a continuous psychological state and how to move towards personal, cultural and collective healing. Analyzing Jung’s work with a renewed lens, and providing fresh comparisons to other literature and films, including Get Out, Brewster extends Jung’s work to become more inclusive of culture and ethnicity, addressing issues which have been left previously unexamined in psychoanalytic thought.
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, this book will be of great importance to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, sociology, politics, history of race, African American studies and African diaspora studies. As this book discusses Jung’s complexes theory in a new light, it will be of immense interest to Jungian analysts and analytical psychologists in practice and in training.
Original and insightful, this book provides a close reading of Jung’s complexes theory with an Africanist perspective on raciality and white/black racial relationships. Brewster explores how racial complexes influence personality development, cultural behavior and social and political status, and how they impact contemporary American racial relations. She also investigates aspects of the racial complex including archetypal shadow as core, constellations and their expression, and cultural trauma in the African diaspora. The book concludes with a discussion of racial complexes as a continuous psychological state and how to move towards personal, cultural and collective healing. Analyzing Jung’s work with a renewed lens, and providing fresh comparisons to other literature and films, including Get Out, Brewster extends Jung’s work to become more inclusive of culture and ethnicity, addressing issues which have been left previously unexamined in psychoanalytic thought.
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, this book will be of great importance to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, sociology, politics, history of race, African American studies and African diaspora studies. As this book discusses Jung’s complexes theory in a new light, it will be of immense interest to Jungian analysts and analytical psychologists in practice and in training.
141 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 28, 2019
11 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
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September 22, 2023
Let me start with the disclaimer that I am a casual fan of Jungian psychology and I am neither an academic nor a psychologist. I'm a lay person with an interest in the topic.
Why did I read this book?
I was moved to read The Racial Complex after listening to a rich episode of the podcast, This Jungian Life, on which the author of this book, Fanny Brewster, was brought on as a guest. The poignancy of her words and her delicate dealings with the subject matter, particularly in a conversation framed by three white hosts, was really beautiful to witness. My hat goes off to her for that, and to me she sounded like she'd make an exceptional analyst.
My issue with it
However, that podcast conversation, as well as the contents of Brewster's book, did not satisfy my intellectual curiosity on the topic. I am a reader of colour, who can identify (in sociological terms) as both a "victim" and a "benefactor" of racism. In Jungian terms, I think of those two subjectivities (victim and, let's say, perpetrator) as archetypal viewpoints. Therefore, when it comes to thinking about race through Jung, I am more interested in the symbolic, rather than literal, analyses of race for the individual. For example, how does a racial complex show itself in a person? What is it trying to say?
Instead of addressing such questions, this book takes a more collective approach to the topic, e.g. what is America's racial complex? While that's interesting, and certainly a worthwhile endeavour, I also feel like the more critical approach to institutional racism is more fruitfully analysed in other disciplines, such as sociology or critical race theory. I wouldn't go to Jung for an understanding of society, the same way I wouldn't go to Marx for a understanding of psychology.
It's not the book's fault
The intellectual history of psychoanalysis, including Jung, are not only Euro-centric but actively racist towards black people and people of colour. As I understand it, Brewster's is one of the first books to introduce modern sociological interpretations of institutional racism to a very white Jungian tradition. It has no choice but to spend many of its pages paving its way in, justifying its existence, and conversing with an entire tradition of thought that has, until now, ignored such a central tenet of the experience of black and brown people. It must acknowledge itself in its context.
As a reader, I felt irritated because I didn't feel that the book was speaking to me, to us, or even to a neutral, curious reader, but rather to a skeptical academic institution. And yet, in my irritation, I could understand and appreciate that it had to do what it had to do. I'm not irritated at Brewster, but at the people I imagine she's talking to, for creating such a barrier between us.
What I nonetheless enjoyed
I am no expert, but there does seem to be a great deal of integrity and loyalty to Jungian concepts, which are well explained and introduced, such as the "complex", "constellation", "shadow", etc. I also think this book does a fantastic job of documenting valid criticism's of Jung's writing in which he overlooks race or outright contributes to the intellectual degradation of black and brown people.
What I think this book does best, is to bring the topics to life with very real historical examples of racial complexes at work, e.g. the enslavement of black people in America, or in the ways that healing racial complexes can manifest in the body. The stories and anecdotes of this book are really what bring it to life and where I think Brewster's light shines the brightest.
Would I recommend?
Despite my critiques of what this book didn't give me, I will still say that it's excellent, because it is ambitious and necessary. I applaud Brewster for her bravery in taking on this topic, and for her management of the skeptical voices she no doubt had to tolerate, either out externally or in her head, in the process of writing.
Also, the references are rich and full of great recommendations for further reading. I am grateful for the research that went into producing this book.
I would recommend The Racial Complex to people who are interested in learning more about Jungian psychology from a non-white perspective, and also those who are interested in a less mainstream approach to critical race theory. For black Americans in particular, I think this book could be very healing to read.
Why did I read this book?
I was moved to read The Racial Complex after listening to a rich episode of the podcast, This Jungian Life, on which the author of this book, Fanny Brewster, was brought on as a guest. The poignancy of her words and her delicate dealings with the subject matter, particularly in a conversation framed by three white hosts, was really beautiful to witness. My hat goes off to her for that, and to me she sounded like she'd make an exceptional analyst.
My issue with it
However, that podcast conversation, as well as the contents of Brewster's book, did not satisfy my intellectual curiosity on the topic. I am a reader of colour, who can identify (in sociological terms) as both a "victim" and a "benefactor" of racism. In Jungian terms, I think of those two subjectivities (victim and, let's say, perpetrator) as archetypal viewpoints. Therefore, when it comes to thinking about race through Jung, I am more interested in the symbolic, rather than literal, analyses of race for the individual. For example, how does a racial complex show itself in a person? What is it trying to say?
Instead of addressing such questions, this book takes a more collective approach to the topic, e.g. what is America's racial complex? While that's interesting, and certainly a worthwhile endeavour, I also feel like the more critical approach to institutional racism is more fruitfully analysed in other disciplines, such as sociology or critical race theory. I wouldn't go to Jung for an understanding of society, the same way I wouldn't go to Marx for a understanding of psychology.
It's not the book's fault
The intellectual history of psychoanalysis, including Jung, are not only Euro-centric but actively racist towards black people and people of colour. As I understand it, Brewster's is one of the first books to introduce modern sociological interpretations of institutional racism to a very white Jungian tradition. It has no choice but to spend many of its pages paving its way in, justifying its existence, and conversing with an entire tradition of thought that has, until now, ignored such a central tenet of the experience of black and brown people. It must acknowledge itself in its context.
As a reader, I felt irritated because I didn't feel that the book was speaking to me, to us, or even to a neutral, curious reader, but rather to a skeptical academic institution. And yet, in my irritation, I could understand and appreciate that it had to do what it had to do. I'm not irritated at Brewster, but at the people I imagine she's talking to, for creating such a barrier between us.
What I nonetheless enjoyed
I am no expert, but there does seem to be a great deal of integrity and loyalty to Jungian concepts, which are well explained and introduced, such as the "complex", "constellation", "shadow", etc. I also think this book does a fantastic job of documenting valid criticism's of Jung's writing in which he overlooks race or outright contributes to the intellectual degradation of black and brown people.
What I think this book does best, is to bring the topics to life with very real historical examples of racial complexes at work, e.g. the enslavement of black people in America, or in the ways that healing racial complexes can manifest in the body. The stories and anecdotes of this book are really what bring it to life and where I think Brewster's light shines the brightest.
Would I recommend?
Despite my critiques of what this book didn't give me, I will still say that it's excellent, because it is ambitious and necessary. I applaud Brewster for her bravery in taking on this topic, and for her management of the skeptical voices she no doubt had to tolerate, either out externally or in her head, in the process of writing.
Also, the references are rich and full of great recommendations for further reading. I am grateful for the research that went into producing this book.
I would recommend The Racial Complex to people who are interested in learning more about Jungian psychology from a non-white perspective, and also those who are interested in a less mainstream approach to critical race theory. For black Americans in particular, I think this book could be very healing to read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review