ABSTRACT

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross understood that death necessitated a grieving process that included anger. This anger took place in the dying person as well as in those who would be left behind after the death of this individual. What about the grief that lies beneath the anger? Can this be a consideration for a better psychological understanding of African American women? The strength of the black woman has also been mythologized. African Americans are situated within a cultural complex that holds not only the positive images and dynamism of their individual lives but also that of the group. Samuel L. Kimbles' theoretical concept of the cultural complex brings into focus a primary idea that a cultural complex is for the group as well as for individual functioning within a group. In deepening his concept regarding the cultural complex, Kimbles states: In short, if the personal unconscious can be understood through personal complexes, the cultural unconscious can be understood through cultural complexes.