ABSTRACT
Introduction With respect to psychological identity, individuation means creation, destruction, eternal recreation – an ongoing process whose faraway goal is maximum wholeness through the union of opposites in consciousness. Can we use this concept of individual development to understand the evolution of collectivities such as nations and groups of nations? Is it useful to think about the political and economic dynamics that underlie the movements of world history from a psychological perspective such as “a politics of individuation?” If so, what does such an analysis look like? These questions pose the challenge of this chapter. All the nations of the Americas – whether of North or South – were created from actions on the part of explorative and aggressive European peoples who, in their own way, were largely unconscious of their ulterior motives and of the implications for the future. They invaded, conquered, and often plundered the territories where we now live and which we call home. This is a shared ancestral heritage. A kind of naked power shadow therefore is woven deeply into the fabric of our original identities.
