HISTORICO-PHILOSOPHICAL ЕХРLICATION OF THE PHENOMENON PERSONALITY: A VIEW THROUGH THE LENS OF JUNG’S OF THE ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The article is devoted to the historico-philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of personality in the receptive field of psychoanalytic views of Carl Gustav Jung. It is established, that personality is a conglomerate, that is a set of two opposite psychic structures: (a) consciousness (Ego) – the areas of self-awareness and (b) the areas of unconsciousness (personal unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness),which to the form a holistic image of the personality (deu. gestalt). For it is known, that personality is an organic whole only provided if the coherence of all structures of the psyche. It is underlined, that thanks to the symbiotic combination of the upper and lower layers of the psyche was formed a «holistic canvas» of the collective unconscious. In fact, this kind of syncretism can be explained only by the fact that consciousness and the personal unconsciousness (the area of conflicts and repressed, forgotten, repressed memories, which were previously realized and eventually fixed as complexes) are inherited psychic dispositional structures of the collective unconsciousness, which is storage the lion’s share of displaced «forgotten» information. It is emphasized, that the collective unconsciousness (the lower layer of the mental structure) is a reservoir for instincts and archetypes (historical experience inherited from previous generations). It is substantiated, that each personality belongs to a certain type of «psychological attitude» => [extrovert] – [ambievert] – [introvert] and on the basis of this analysis were identified peculiarities of each of the presented types.

Resistance and Repetition: The Holocaust in the Art, Propaganda, and Political Discourse of Vietnam War Protests

The Western European protest movement against the American War in Vietnam stands out as something unique in contemporary history. Here finally, after all the senseless horrors of the twentieth century, reason speaks, demanding an end to Western atrocities against the poor South. But in the rosy fog of humanistic idealism and youthful revolution lies the unanswered question, why did this and not any other conflicts, before or after, render such an intense, widespread reaction? Taking Sweden as a case in point, this article employs the concepts of resistance, trauma, memory, and repetition to explore why the Vietnam movement came into being just as the buried history of the Holocaust resurfaced in a series of well-publicized trials of Nazi war criminals. It suggests that the protests of the radical young Leftists against American “imperialism” and “genocide” were informed by repressed memories of the Holocaust. The Swedish anti-war protests had unique and far-reaching consequences. The ruling Social Democratic Party, in order not to lose these younger Left wing voters to Communism, also engaged actively against the Vietnam War. And, somewhat baffling for a political party often criticized for close ties to Nazi Germany during WWII, its messaging used the same rhetoric as the Far Left, echoing Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda.

Belief in Unconscious Repressed Memory Persists

On the basis of converging research, we concluded that the controversial topic of unconscious blockage of psychological trauma (i.e., repressed memory) remains very much alive in clinical, legal, and academic contexts. In his commentary, Brewin (this issue, p. 443) conducted a cocitation analysis and concluded that scholars do not adhere to the concept of unconscious repression. Furthermore, he argued that previous survey research did not specifically assess unconscious repression. Here, we present critical evidence that runs counter to his claims. First, we inspected his cocitation analysis and found that some scholars support notions that are closely related to unconscious repression. Furthermore, we conducted another analysis on the basis of articles’ similarity. Again, we found examples of scholars specifically endorsing unconscious repressed memories. Second, as opposed to what Brewin reports, recent survey research now exists that bears directly on people’s beliefs regarding unconscious repression. This work reveals that large percentages of people (e.g., students and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing [EMDR] clinicians) endorse the concept of unconscious repressed memories. The belief in unconscious repressed memory can continue to contribute to harmful consequences in clinical, legal, and academic domains (e.g., false accusations of abuse).

An Archeology of Mexican Modernity

Cultural analysts have noted similarities between Alfonso Cuarón’s Colonia Roma and José Emilio Pacheco’s Colonia Roma, depicted twenty years earlier in his best-selling novel Las batallas en el desierto (1981). But no one has examined how Pacheco’s work studies the emerging relationship between modernization and the racialization of space, which Cuarón’s film Roma later captured for a global audience. Pacheco’s depictions of a spatialized interaction between social classes in mid-twentieth-century Colonia Roma, I argue, offer an archeology of space, race, class, and modernity that attempts to counteract forces of social amnesia following a period of repression and censorship. Drawing on the critical practice of spatial studies, I look beyond the flat representation of space and study instead how a multidimensional spatialization depicted in this work reveals the legacy of Spanish colonial infrastructures of race and the emerging formulation of modernity. Indeed, Pacheco’s novel tells the story of repressed memories and unearths the infrastructures of a coloniality/modernity that continue to affect Mexico today.

Reports of Recovered Memories in Therapy in Undergraduate Students

Psychologists have debated the wisdom of recovering traumatic memories in therapy that were previously unknown to the client, with some concerns over accuracy and memory distortions. The current study surveyed a sample of 576 undergraduates in the south of the United States. Of 188 who reported attending therapy or counselling, 8% reported coming to remember memories of abuse, without any prior recollection of that abuse before therapy. Of those who reported recovered memories, 60% cut off contact with some of their family. Within those who received therapy, those who had a therapist discuss the possibility of repressed memory were 28.6 times more likely to report recovered memories, compared to those who received therapy without such discussion. These findings mirror a previous survey of US adults and suggest attempts to recover repressed memories in therapy may continue in the forthcoming generation of adults.

Tilting at Windmills: Why Attacks on Repression Are Misguided

In the November 2019 issue of Perspectives, Otgaar et al. argued that the “memory wars” persist and that “the controversial issue of repressed memories is alive and well and may even be on the rise” (p. 1072). Their thesis overlooked the well-established consensus that recovered memories of trauma may be genuine, false, or a mixture of the two and instead focused on a disputed mechanism: unconscious repression. A formal cocitation analysis identified the major publications mentioning repressed memories, but none endorsed a theory of unconscious repression. Studies of beliefs about repressed memories by the general public and other groups do not support Otgaar et al.’s thesis either because these studies did not adequately assess the key ideas defining the theory of repression. Clinical evidence is consistent with recovered memories occurring in many different forms of therapy, including ones that do not use suggestive techniques or rely on the concept of repression. Thus, Otgaar et al. have proposed the existence of a problem for which little objective evidence can be found. Continuing theoretical uncertainties about the mechanisms responsible for forgetting are less important than the general recognition since the 1990s that suggestive therapy and attempts to exhume memories are hazardous and generally inappropriate.

Psychodynamic therapy

From its early origins in the study of repressed memories and unconscious conflict to its more recent iterations as brief, relationship-focused treatments for increasingly diverse individuals, psychodynamic psychotherapy has adapted itself to the changing needs of its patients, practitioners, and the larger culture. At the same time, a clear tradition links the distinct phases of dynamic therapy. This chapter reviews seven articles that represent major themes and shifts in the work of dynamic therapy over the 125 years of its history. It presents the background for the genesis of each paper, the ways that the article responded to the context in which it arose, and the implications the article had for psychodynamic practice. Lastly, the chapter highlights how these landmark papers point to the continuing challenges and evolution of dynamic psychotherapy.