ABSTRACT
This essay stresses the need for analyzing the United States and its psychological character—the country’s puer spirit, inferiority complexes, violent history, narcissism, unacknowledged guilt, and psychological defenses. Using Jungian and archetypal insights that probe myths across cultures—from Krishna to Icarus and Narcissus—Moore examines both the positive and negative aspects of the child archetype. He underscores the importance of building a good, healthy relationship with the archetypal child. Only then can a balance be found to help America maintain its hopeful and idealistic state and creative imagination, while it learns to think critically and take responsibility like a grownup. At once a rich depth psychological exploration and cultural critique, Moore’s piece serves as a touching and persuasive plea for the American nation to engage in self-reflection and therapy, which entails looking beyond self-narratives of democracy and goodwill, probing the dangerous relationship between innocence and violence throughout its history, wrestling with the country’s foundational ideas and ideals, and living out its values in sincerity.
