Phantom Narratives: The Unseen Contributions Of Culture To Psyche

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<span style="tab-stops:left 67.5pt;"><span>In <span style="font-style:italic;">Phantom Narratives: The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche<span>, Samuel Kimbles<span> explores collective shadow processes, intergenerational transmission of group traumas, and social suffering as examples of how culture contributes to the formation of unseen, or phantom, narratives. These unseen narratives bundle together a number of themes around belonging, identity, identification, shadow, identity politics and otherness dynamics, and the universal striving for recognition. These dynamics enter the superego of our collective consciousness long before we are conscious of how they contribute to the shaping of our attitudes toward self and others, us and them (significantly contributing to scapegoat dynamics), emotionally generating fascination, possessiveness, disavowal and entitlement, and shame and fear. Also included in this book is an elaboration of Bion’s work on groups in the context of thinking about cultural complexes that helps to flesh out how human groupings generate processes that support and hinder the development of consciousness in both individuals and groups. Kimbles argues that the awareness that can come through an understanding of cultural dynamics as manifested through cultural complexes and cultural phantoms in combination with the development of cultural consciousness can lead to an understanding of how groups can develop and individuals in groups can individuate.

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Phantom Narratives Phantom Narratives The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche Samuel Kimbles ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Rowman & Littlefield A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 16 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BT, United Kingdom Copyright © 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield The chapter 3 epigraph and text thoroughout chapters 2 and 3 are from Gem of the Ocean, by August Wilson. Copyright © 2003, 2006 by August Wilson. Published by Theatre Communications Group. Used by permission of Theatre Communications Group. Parts of chapter 2 are from Two Trains Running, by August Wilson, copyright © 1992 by August Wilson. Used by permission of Dutton, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kimbles, Samuel L. Phantom narratives : the unseen contributions of culture to psyche / Samuel Kimbles. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4422-3189-4 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4422-3190-0 (electronic) 1. Intergroup relations. 2. Social psychology. 3. Jungian psychology. 4. Personality and culture. I. Title. HM716.K56 2014 302--dc23 2014015796 TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America To my muse Sara Epigraph FROM JUNG’S COMPLEX THEORY TO CULTURAL COMPLEX THEORY AND PHANTOM NARRATIVES The following is a summary of “Interview with a Phantom: Cornelius Gurlitt Shares His Secrets,” by Õzlem Gezer, which appeared November 17, 2013, in the online version of Spiegel magazine. The reclusive, eighty-year-old Cornelius Gurlitt hoarded art treasures his father obtained under dubious circumstances during the Nazi era. In February 2012, customs
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