ABSTRACT
The author describes ways in which the body can become the metaphorical and literal repository of cultural complexes. Through addressing the bodily aspect of “the body politic,” she explores potential solutions to C. G. Jung’s question in his “Essays on Comparative Events” regarding how we might save the human race from its destructively primitive fascination with power. The chapter focuses, in particular, on ways in which the cultural complexes of shame and fear have been activated in response to the sociopolitical phenomenon of Trumpism. Using examples from psychological, cultural, creative, and sociological literature, a public Facebook thread, her own “teratoma” of personal and cultural complexes, and a recent session with an analysand, the author concludes that frank and risk-taking dialogue between people holding views from opposite sides of the political and cultural divide can be helpful in humanizing a dangerously polarized field and offer potential transformation of rigidly held views.
