ABSTRACT
In Jungian analytic work, which is always about the exploration of complexes, one does not necessarily recognize that the knot one is trying to untie may be a cultural complex.1 Like any other complex (Sandner and Beebe 1995), the cultural complex creates internal conflict; occasions anxiety, anger, and depression; governs the outer situations that are brought to the therapy for counsel; shapes the transference in the therapeutic interaction; and structures the imagery of the patient’s dreams. Since these complexities affect the individual, and any person who comes into the emotional field that surrounds the individual, we often assume that they belong solely to the subjective nature of that individual person. Yet they can represent culture operating at the level of the individual. By following a careful clinical method, a therapist can unmask the intrusion of a cultural complex into the unconscious life of the patient. A clinical example of just such work follows.2
