ABSTRACT

In Jungian Perspectives on Indeterminate States: Betwixt and Between Borders, Elizabeth Brodersen and Pilar Amezaga bring together leading international contributors to analyse and interpret the psychological impact of contemporary border crossing - both literally and figuratively.

Each chapter assesses key themes such as migration, culture, gender and identity formation, through a Jungian lens. All the contributors sensitively explore how creative forms can help mitigate the trauma experienced when one is forced to leave safety and enter unknown territory, and examines the specific role of indeterminacy, liminality and symbols as transformers at the border between culture, race and gender. The book asks whether we are able to hold these indeterminate states as creative liminal manifestations pointing to new forms, integrate the shadow ‘other’ as potential, and allow sufficient cross-border migration and fertilization as permissible. It makes clear that societal conflict represents a struggle for recognition and identity and elucidates the negative experiences of authoritarian structures attached to disrespect and misrecognitions.

This interdisciplinary collection will offer key insight for Jungian analysts in practice and in training, psychotherapists, anthropologists, political and cultural theorists, and postgraduate researchers in psychosocial studies. It will also be of great interest to readers interested in migration, sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity studies.

part 1|76 pages

Border, migration, and identity

chapter Chapter 1|25 pages

Crossing physical borders and the making of identity

The case of Europe

chapter Chapter 2|19 pages

Challenges to the individuation process of people on the move

Developing a sense of global citizenship

chapter Chapter 3|16 pages

The Mexican-American cultural complex

Assessing the depth-psychological problems due to challenges of assimilation in American society

chapter Chapter 4|14 pages

Hidden in plain sight

How therapists miss cultural trauma in trans-cultural white clients

part 2|68 pages

Border phenomenology and gender

chapter Chapter 5|16 pages

Ismail is now called Ebru and Lea wants to be a mechanic

Transgender and intercultural work as a municipal task

chapter Chapter 6|13 pages

Child development and gender issues

Symbols, creativity, and alterity through Sandplay therapy

chapter Chapter 7|19 pages

Bernini and the Pont Sant’Angelo

The transcendent hermaphrodite as symbol of individuation

chapter Chapter 8|18 pages

Problems of symbolisation and archetypal processes

The case of male same-sex desire

part 3|44 pages

Liminality between borders and symbol formation

chapter Chapter 9|14 pages

An invisible magic circle

A Jungian commentary on When Marnie Was There

chapter Chapter 10|14 pages

Duality of the Japanese ‘fish’ symbol

Standing at the edge of life and death

chapter Chapter 11|14 pages

Heart of Darkness

An archetypal journey to the other side

part 4|72 pages

Border crossing and individuation

chapter Chapter 12|18 pages

Re-visioning individuation

Opening to a witness consciousness

chapter Chapter 13|12 pages

The tension and paradox between determinate and indeterminate state

Clinical, social, and cultural aspects

chapter Chapter 14|19 pages

The consequences of freedom

Moving beyond the intermediate states of broken individualisation and liquidity

chapter Chapter 15|21 pages

Vulnerability and incorruptibility

An aretaic model of the transcendent function