Phantom Narratives: The Unseen Contributions of Culture to Psyche

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

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 Bions 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.

Reviews

Samuel Kimbless 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 Ogden, MD, The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California
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 doesnt 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

Author Bio

Samuel Kimbles is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst, as well as associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco.