Citation

Wahba LL. J. Anal. Psychol. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Society of Analytical Psychology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1468-5922.12906

PMID

36994544

Abstract

The article discusses dominance and oppression in society due to cultural complexes filled with collective memories of destructiveness and perpetration, implicit memories which have remained repressed. Individual personal complexes and traumas are intertwined with traumatizing historical circumstances, setting up pairs of perpetrator and victim. The metaphors of devouring and asphyxiation are used to denote interpersonal and group relationships in which feelings of imprisonment, suffocating anxiety and expulsion are predominant, all of which leads to painful projections and introjections, dissociation and suffering. Asphyxiating death symbolizes not only environmental devastation by fire, the pandemic and the plague, but is also seen as a symptom of acute anxiety in modern times. Devouring stands for the annulment of the objectified Other in a patriarchal society best revealed in fratricidal struggles, the oppression of women and, ultimately, wars.

Language: en

Keywords

victim; anxiety; angoisse; Angst; ansia; ansiedad; carnefice; complejo cultural; complesso culturale; complexe culturel; coupable; cultural complex; kultureller Komplex; Opfer; perpetrador; perpetrator; Täter; víctima; victime; vittima; жертва; культурный комплекс; преступник; тревога; 受害者; 文化情结; 焦虑; 肇事者