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Phantom Narratives

The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche

Samuel Kimbles

In Phantom Narratives: The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche, Samuel Kimbles explores collective shadow processes, intergenerational transmission of group traumas, and social suffering as examples of how culture contributes to the formation of unseen, or phantom, narratives. These unseen narratives bundle together a number of themes around belonging, identity, identification, shadow, identity politics and otherness dynamics, and the universal striving for recognition. These dynamics enter the superego of our collective consciousness long before we are conscious of how they contribute to the shaping of our attitudes toward self and others, us and them (significantly contributing to scapegoat dynamics), emotionally generating fascination, possessiveness, disavowal and entitlement, and shame and fear. Also included in this book is an elaboration of Bion’s work on groups in the context of thinking about cultural complexes that helps to flesh out how human groupings generate processes that support and hinder the development of consciousness in both individuals and groups. Kimbles argues that the awareness that can come through an understanding of cultural dynamics as manifested through cultural complexes and cultural phantoms in combination with the development of cultural consciousness can lead to an understanding of how groups can develop and individuals in groups can individuate.
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  • TOC
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 124 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅜
978-1-4422-3189-4 • Hardback • July 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)
978-1-4422-3190-0 • eBook • July 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)
Subjects: Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis, Literary Criticism / General, Psychology / History
Samuel Kimbles is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst, as well as associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

Epigraph: “Interview with a Phantom: Cornelius Gurlitt Shares His Secrets”
Introduction
Chapter One: From Jung’s Complex Theory to Cultural Complex theory and Phantom Narratives
Chapter Two: Phantom Narratives Unseen but Present: Background
Chapter Three: Phantoms Travel: The Journey to African—Cultural Melancholia in Black and White
Chapter Four: Cultural Complexes and Collective Shadow Processes
Chapter Five: Cultural Complexes and the Transmission of Group Traumas in Everyday Life
Chapter Six: Social Suffering through Cultural Mourning, Cultural Melancholia, and Cultural Complexes
Chapter Seven: A Cultural Complex Operating in the Overlap of Clinical and Cultural Space
Chapter Eight: Chaos and Fragmentation in Analytic Training Institutes
Bibliography

Samuel Kimbles’s Phantom Narratives is a masterful work that explores the significant ways in which we are the creations of invisible ('phantom') narratives. The book compellingly develops an understanding of the ways in which invisible cultural phenomena powerfully influence both what we think and the way we think. This form of acculturation limits our ability to understand one another, both in our individual relationships and in groups. The book comes to life not only clinically, but also as a penetrating commentary on important contemporary social issues. This is an outstanding piece of clinical and theoretical work.
— Thomas H. Ogden, MD, The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California; author of Coming to Life in the Consulting Room and Reclaiming Unlived Life


That culture is all over psyche is hardly a new discovery, but the specificity of the images that linger to express what has been imposed upon our emotional lives by the cultural past can be startling. Samuel Kimbles is not afraid to take an interest in such phenomena. He knows how to let each phantom tell its story. Because he doesn’t slight the gravitas of what cannot bring itself to be forgotten, he is convincing when he claims that the cultural past may well be sticking around to haunt us because it wants us to imagine a different future.
— John Beebe, MD, University of California, San Francisco


Phantom Narratives

The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • In Phantom Narratives: The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche, Samuel Kimbles explores collective shadow processes, intergenerational transmission of group traumas, and social suffering as examples of how culture contributes to the formation of unseen, or phantom, narratives. These unseen narratives bundle together a number of themes around belonging, identity, identification, shadow, identity politics and otherness dynamics, and the universal striving for recognition. These dynamics enter the superego of our collective consciousness long before we are conscious of how they contribute to the shaping of our attitudes toward self and others, us and them (significantly contributing to scapegoat dynamics), emotionally generating fascination, possessiveness, disavowal and entitlement, and shame and fear. Also included in this book is an elaboration of Bion’s work on groups in the context of thinking about cultural complexes that helps to flesh out how human groupings generate processes that support and hinder the development of consciousness in both individuals and groups. Kimbles argues that the awareness that can come through an understanding of cultural dynamics as manifested through cultural complexes and cultural phantoms in combination with the development of cultural consciousness can lead to an understanding of how groups can develop and individuals in groups can individuate.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 124 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅜
    978-1-4422-3189-4 • Hardback • July 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)
    978-1-4422-3190-0 • eBook • July 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)
    Subjects: Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis, Literary Criticism / General, Psychology / History
Author
Author
  • Samuel Kimbles is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst, as well as associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents

  • Epigraph: “Interview with a Phantom: Cornelius Gurlitt Shares His Secrets”
    Introduction
    Chapter One: From Jung’s Complex Theory to Cultural Complex theory and Phantom Narratives
    Chapter Two: Phantom Narratives Unseen but Present: Background
    Chapter Three: Phantoms Travel: The Journey to African—Cultural Melancholia in Black and White
    Chapter Four: Cultural Complexes and Collective Shadow Processes
    Chapter Five: Cultural Complexes and the Transmission of Group Traumas in Everyday Life
    Chapter Six: Social Suffering through Cultural Mourning, Cultural Melancholia, and Cultural Complexes
    Chapter Seven: A Cultural Complex Operating in the Overlap of Clinical and Cultural Space
    Chapter Eight: Chaos and Fragmentation in Analytic Training Institutes
    Bibliography

Reviews
Reviews
  • Samuel Kimbles’s Phantom Narratives is a masterful work that explores the significant ways in which we are the creations of invisible ('phantom') narratives. The book compellingly develops an understanding of the ways in which invisible cultural phenomena powerfully influence both what we think and the way we think. This form of acculturation limits our ability to understand one another, both in our individual relationships and in groups. The book comes to life not only clinically, but also as a penetrating commentary on important contemporary social issues. This is an outstanding piece of clinical and theoretical work.
    — Thomas H. Ogden, MD, The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California; author of Coming to Life in the Consulting Room and Reclaiming Unlived Life


    That culture is all over psyche is hardly a new discovery, but the specificity of the images that linger to express what has been imposed upon our emotional lives by the cultural past can be startling. Samuel Kimbles is not afraid to take an interest in such phenomena. He knows how to let each phantom tell its story. Because he doesn’t slight the gravitas of what cannot bring itself to be forgotten, he is convincing when he claims that the cultural past may well be sticking around to haunt us because it wants us to imagine a different future.
    — John Beebe, MD, University of California, San Francisco


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