ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience of trauma and the formation of complexes, not only in the psychology of the individual but also in the psyche of the group. Elucidating the intricate and dynamic interplay between trauma and complex as it arises in the individual and group psyche is a multilayered task that requires slowly circling around the topic as the subtitles of this chapter’s component sections suggest:
• Traumatic realities and the inner world of dreams • Trauma and cultural complexes • Personal and cultural complexes • Interrelationship of personal complexes and cultural complexes • Collusion between personal and cultural complexes • External trauma and inner trauma: defenses of the ego of the group and
archetypal defenses of the group spirit • Father archetype, superego and collective depression • Trauma, loss and the development of cultural complexes • Persistent cultural complexes and the “inability to mourn” • Personal and collective shadows
External trauma causes damage to the inner world. Repetitive trauma to a group of people results in the creation of cultural complexes which, in turn, often fuel further traumatic events. A vicious cycle of trauma leading to complex, precipitating further trauma that reinforces a complex inexorably cascades in a natural, albeit destructive progression. In the contemporary world the Palestinian-Israeli conflict bears unrelenting witness to this tragic cycle of collective trauma begetting cultural complex begetting collective trauma.
