ABSTRACT
The complex of racism and its archetypal core experience of the master–slave relationship is defined, exemplified and amplified in this chapter. The complex of racism is a core wound in the American experience and has historically played out on the American stage as an essential aspect of the archetype of democracy. This chapter invites the reader into the complex of racism through personal narratives and the theoretical underpinnings of the complex. Additionally, a very critical paradigmatic component of racism is explored through the cultural complex. Cultural trauma informs the personal complex and plays an important role the formation of both the personal and cultural complexes. Exploring the interconnectedness between the cultural and individual complexes and the traumas that define them help the reader to understand how the illness of racism forms and spreads.
