Brewster, Fanny - Binding legacies - ancestor, archetype and Other

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<p>Binding legacies: ancestor, archetype</p><p>and Other</p><p>Fanny Brewster, New York</p><p>Abstract: This article discusses the multicultural interconnection between Jungian</p><p>analysts’ training and Africanist training candidates. The importance of ancestral</p><p>lineage and archetypal influences in the clinical setting are explored for better</p><p>understanding of issues related to the transference and therapeutic interventions. A</p><p>discussion of racial relations and racism is addressed as a frequently missing element in</p><p>the psychoanalytical training of future Jungian analysts.</p><p>Keywords: archetype, depth psychology, dreams, psychoanalytical training, racism,</p><p>transference, trauma</p><p>I. Ancestor</p><p>I imagine my first American ancestor’s half-blind gaze as he leaves the slave</p><p>ship. Having spent three months in the hold of a ship bearing the sacred</p><p>name of a god, Mercurio, that in 1823 took ancestors from West Africa</p><p>transporting them to Southeast Brazil; or the Madre de Deus or The Good</p><p>Ship Jesus, the first British slave ship to arrive in America in 1562. These holy</p><p>names are painted on the bow.</p><p>I imagine that my ancestor is weak. His muscles laying loose next to bones,</p><p>moving only at the whim of white men crew members who force him to</p><p>exercise, at their choosing. Forced dancing on deck to the crew’s shouts and</p><p>screams, letting the few snippets of air enter his lungs on days when sun sent</p><p>rays through blue sky. My first American ancestor must have cried as he left</p><p>the tall trees of his savannah. The mother, father, sisters of his family gone,</p><p>forever. The village where he had grown to young manhood passing through</p><p>the rituals of his rites of passage, gone and soon to be replaced with rituals of</p><p>auctions, clearing swamp land for rice plantations, staring into the future of</p><p>his enslaved children.</p><p>The centuries of time weaving through ancestral life has brought me here</p><p>today. As I began to prepare for this time with you I thought about my</p><p>0021-8774/2019/6403/306 © 2019, The Society of Analytical Psychology</p><p>Published by Wiley Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.</p><p>DOI: 10.1111/1468-5922.12500</p><p>Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2019, 64, 3, 306–319</p><p>ancestors, then it became thoughts about my one ancestor, the man or woman</p><p>who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1700s. Memory.</p><p>It can be like a soft cocoon, wrapping up centuries of what was not passed</p><p>down in the culture. All that was missing in the daily life of African teaching.</p><p>We know that trauma causes memory loss. How can we expect to recover the</p><p>memory loss over centuries of slave ship torture and plantation life? Memory.</p><p>It was such an essential aspect of African life because it was through this that</p><p>my ancestor could honour and have a connection to his past as well as his</p><p>future. His present life was the energetic force that bound the two other ends</p><p>together. That bound his life, his own ancestors and his descendants.</p><p>I am here today, attempting to remember something of what my ancestral</p><p>lineage is, what binds me to the culture that I now claim as an African</p><p>American. There are physical markers, my skin colour being the most</p><p>dominant. However, there are internal psychic markers that I might call</p><p>archetypal, the energies that are a part of my ancestral DNA. This is what I</p><p>bring to my everyday life. It is not always in the most positive of ways that I</p><p>am reminded or that I remember the lineage of my skin, the vague</p><p>recollections of a déjà vu moment where I seem to be not of the 21st century</p><p>but rather in a broke-down plantation shack, or standing on the wooden</p><p>planks of an 1840s southern pier. I speak about these things because they are</p><p>a part of who I am as a Jungian analyst. My background and heritage as well</p><p>as my previous clinical training and work as such was not left at the door</p><p>when I entered the New York C.G. Jung Institute in 1998. I brought myself,</p><p>as much as I could remember, and all the emotions that had guided me into</p><p>that impressive brownstone building on East 39 Street.</p><p>This paper is about the clinical aspects of being an African American Jungian</p><p>analyst. I do believe in the African philosophy that says I am not separated</p><p>within my self by parts. I am whole and belong to others in a continuum line</p><p>that is continuous and whole. This means that my clinical work is not</p><p>separate from who I am as a woman of African ancestry. During Jung’s</p><p>lifetime as he did his work and conducted his research, traveling and writing,</p><p>he brought his culture with him. His culture influenced his writing.</p><p>It is with pride that I acknowledge my first American ancestor, though I do</p><p>not even know his or her name. Though centuries have passed preventing me</p><p>from claiming that name and my African birth name, I can feel, understand</p><p>through an intuitive sense and know from the relationship with my parents</p><p>and grandparents, that my ancestor had the strength and the beautiful essence</p><p>of survival of which Maya Angelou speaks when she says, ‘still I rise’</p><p>(Angelou 1994, p.7).</p><p>African Americans and Africans, I wish to call us all by the term Africanists,</p><p>are continuously viewing a horizon that reflects issues of identification,</p><p>freedom, struggle and survival. The problems that accompany these issues</p><p>confront individuals as well as the communal and cultural group. However,</p><p>they are not limited only to these groups. The psychology of finding one’s self</p><p>Binding legacies 307</p><p>and recognizing lineage and history is crucial in any individuation process as</p><p>well as the survival of community. How to reconcile European influence with</p><p>Africanist values is an ongoing issue not just for those left in Africa but also</p><p>for the African Diaspora.</p><p>The metaphysical manner in which Africanists think of time further supports</p><p>a claim for the metaphysical nature of African thought. In the Yoruba tradition,</p><p>one’s birth is connected with time in such a way that it is possible to identify</p><p>one’s birthday with a particular god. This in turn provides some direction in</p><p>determining personality. Not unlike astrology, this system predicts personality</p><p>traits and life issues.</p><p>Time is important because it links one to ancestors and provides some</p><p>element of prediction of future events. Customs and rituals show respect</p><p>for elders and ancestors indicating that present time is limited, and must</p><p>include a wider, more holistic view of life that is inclusive of death. When</p><p>Jung began building his home at Bollingen in Switzerland, he initially</p><p>thought to use the architectural model of an African hut. Even though he</p><p>later changed the structure of his building to stone based more on a</p><p>European model, the idea of the ancestor continued in his thoughts and his</p><p>dreams. Jungian psychology as it is practiced has a profound attachment to</p><p>considerations of our ancestors and how they influence us in contemporary</p><p>life.</p><p>Much of our clinical psychotherapy is discussion based on the significance of</p><p>paternal and maternal grandparents and great grandparents. We are not only</p><p>interested in the specific current story of the patient’s life but also want to</p><p>know the narrative of how they came to be the people they are through their</p><p>ancestors. An Africanist perspective acknowledges that this comes from an</p><p>ancestral lineage bonding.</p><p>In Africanist consciousness there is no psychological struggle to preserve the</p><p>skin, the need for botox or not. There is no obsession to take care of it in such a</p><p>way as if it will mean the permanent preservation of the physical body, of life</p><p>itself. This goes against the philosophical understanding that life continues,</p><p>whether in the body of a recently passed ancestor or one from an earlier</p><p>period of time.</p><p>It might seem insignificant to think about the consciousness of how we</p><p>perceive our skin but in the narrative of racial relations and racism in the</p><p>American collective, skin as culture has been and continues to be vitally</p><p>important. From a depth psychological point of view, it is not only the</p><p>surface that requires attention but also that which lies underneath.</p><p>In</p><p>considering the ‘underneath’ of the body and our desire to preserve it or</p><p>release it through death, there are cultural considerations that are dependent</p><p>upon traditional spiritual and philosophical beliefs. This is an important</p><p>aspect of what I bring to my clinical work with my patients.</p><p>Since Africans held philosophical beliefs regarding the continued existence of</p><p>the life force energy, inter-generationally, it would follow that the attention is</p><p>308 Fanny Brewster</p><p>not only given to a singular individuated bodily existence but includes a</p><p>perspective that incorporates a view of eternity through the communal, and</p><p>therefore through ancestors.</p><p>II. Archetype</p><p>Depth Psychology has often spoken of itself as having a history that</p><p>encompasses many of the cultural and social attributes that exist in the world.</p><p>Jung’s archetypal psychology with its theory of the collective unconscious and</p><p>archetypes has been the primary psychology system recognizing the</p><p>universality of man as both divine and human. When I began my studies in</p><p>Depth Psychology as a doctoral student much of what was written at the time</p><p>was about Greek mythology. This was the first, and for a very long time, the</p><p>most frequent archetypal arena from which Jungians borrowed to express</p><p>and explore Jungian theories of the archetypes.</p><p>This has gradually changed to be more inclusive of other mythologies since as</p><p>we know every society has their own mythology. Anthropologists traveled all</p><p>over the world to discover and write about mythologies. Many of these</p><p>‘discovered’ myths came from Africa. They are labeled creation myths. One</p><p>major difficulty in the re-telling, and re-interpretation of African myths in</p><p>particular was actually their scarcity in the arena of Depth Psychology. They,</p><p>like other aspects of what was a part of Africanist life, including its religion</p><p>and philosophy, were eliminated from view. Unfortunately, the lens of Depth</p><p>Psychology became white as it spoke of fairy tales, myths and also as theories</p><p>were developed for working with patients.</p><p>Jung’s most significant theories included his work with dreams, the</p><p>importance of the collective unconscious and mythology. I will touch on those</p><p>and have included them for our discussion because of their interconnectedness</p><p>to the archetypal and their predominance in clinical practice. In Jungian</p><p>clinical work one major emphasis is on the connection between the ego and</p><p>the unconscious. Jung’s theory of the self archetype states that it is the</p><p>guiding force in the development of consciousness. In order for this to occur</p><p>however, the ego must be available to understand the importance of the</p><p>relationship between ego and Self. Jung believed that when this relationship is</p><p>not in sync or functioning optimally, then we are extremely unhappy in our</p><p>lives.</p><p>He believed that this relationship was the most important one for a healthy</p><p>psychological life. He believed that everything we do, say, think, plan,</p><p>conceive of must be guided by consciousness through the Self archetype. So I</p><p>will begin with this relationship and we will hear Jung’s own discovery of this</p><p>relationship within himself while he was in Africa. In traveling back and forth</p><p>between Jung’s own words, African philosophy and Jungian theories and</p><p>Binding legacies 309</p><p>practice, we can discover how major elements of Depth Psychology principles</p><p>grew from Jung’s Africanist experiences.</p><p>The Connection between the Unconscious and the Conscious</p><p>In his book The Heart of Soul, John Bolling discussed his view of this</p><p>interconnectedness:</p><p>The African Science is the accumulated knowledge in the collective consciousness of</p><p>Afrocentric people of how to live in tune with the non-human work of Mother</p><p>Nature and the invisible spiritual world of God. This African Science comprises the</p><p>Heart of Soul.</p><p>(Bolling 2008, p. 3)</p><p>Bolling is commenting on a most basic and recognizable aspect of African</p><p>philosophic thought and existence. The unbroken unity of spirit and nature</p><p>exists in African consciousness as one. Jung in his writings regarding psychic</p><p>energy spoke of the view of Africans and Native Americans regarding ‘spirit’</p><p>and its presence in the world and in all life. For a long period of time after the</p><p>initial exploration of Africa, Europeans involved in the ‘study’ of Africa were</p><p>critical of the African concept of inanimate object ‘spirit possession’. Although</p><p>Jung valued the concept of libido and psychic energy in his own theories, he</p><p>took an African attribute (Spirit) and denied the ‘correct’ use of it by those</p><p>from whom he borrowed the concept. His belief seemed to be that Africans</p><p>and Native American people were unable to move forward in consciousness</p><p>because they were stuck at the ‘concrete’ level of infusing objects with spirit.</p><p>When I consider the concept of unity between levels of consciousness, it seems</p><p>reflected in the dreams of my patients as well as in my own dreams. In further</p><p>consideration of African belief regarding this issue, as individuals and</p><p>societies become more cognizant of the earth and its resources, an ecological</p><p>movement has developed that accepts the spirit of everything on the planet</p><p>and sees the connectedness between all things in existence. The African</p><p>experience of life and respect for nature in all its aspects continues to be a</p><p>standard, although until recently an unrecognized one.</p><p>The Akan people’s theory of ‘being’ is based on the lived experience with a</p><p>‘Supreme Being’ at the top. This vertical view of life encompasses God,</p><p>deities, ancestors, humans and objects of nature from top to bottom. Every</p><p>aspect of this vertical existence contains sunsum. Gyekye gives a very lengthy,</p><p>detailed description of sunsum, stating that it is the spirit, or quality that</p><p>exists in all things. As he progresses, Gyekye further details his definition of</p><p>sunsum as a part of the okra (soul) that is also one’s personality. He states the</p><p>Akans’ concept of a person is dualistic and ‘interactionist’ (Gyekye, 1987).</p><p>310 Fanny Brewster</p><p>There is no separation of body and soul as in the Cartesian model because</p><p>both okra and honam (body) are joined together by the spirit of sunsum that</p><p>keeps all things together. This is important in considering the healing</p><p>practices of the Akan community. Thus, individuals in the community know</p><p>that they are more likely to be healed by the traditional healer than by the</p><p>Western practitioner because of their spiritual belief. A sickness in the body is</p><p>also a reflection of a sickness in the soul. Both are treated by the traditional</p><p>healer.</p><p>Big Dreams and Ordinary Dreams</p><p>Jung borrowed this term for defining dreams from the African Elgonyi. The</p><p>dream below is from an African American dreamer with whom I worked. I</p><p>consider it to be a big dream.</p><p>Shaman Dream</p><p>A shaman stands before me dressed in ritual clothing of graying dusty almost-</p><p>rags. I have just completed a death ritual, and he is doing a purification</p><p>cleansing on me. I think I ask him to do the cleansing or sense that it is</p><p>expected. I put my hands out thinking that I know what to do or strongly</p><p>feel this. He pours sand into my hands. From the sand he takes some and</p><p>throws it over my face and forehead. Next he throws some on my chest area.</p><p>Then he touches my solar plexus and stomach area. We stand as he does the</p><p>ritual. Then he tells me to bury the sand in the mountains. During the ritual I</p><p>hear the words, the only ones I understand, soul and clean.</p><p>Symbols of the dream are the Shaman, the death ritual, ritual clothing, sand,</p><p>body parts, mountains, and the soul. Themes of the dream are the spiritual</p><p>and death, and the elements are travel and transportation.</p><p>It would appear that based on the results of the dream symbols, content, and</p><p>associations of the patient, there are indications for consideration of these</p><p>elements from a cross-cultural perspective when engaged in clinical practice</p><p>with African Americans. The dreamer in her associations spoke of her own</p><p>ethnic lineage as the child of a mother who was Hindu and a father who was</p><p>Catholic. In discussing</p><p>her own spirituality she states, ‘My definition of</p><p>spirituality is being in tune to certain things. Not beating myself up but</p><p>knowing things happened for a reason .... still believe in Catholicism. But not</p><p>all of it. I believe in God’. The dreamer relates that she often dreams of travel</p><p>Binding legacies 311</p><p>and considers death of the body to be an invitation to being reborn. Her dream</p><p>of a shaman fits in with her belief that there are individuals, like a Catholic</p><p>priest, as a shaman, who have spiritual powers and are there to help us with</p><p>our own individual spiritual practice. The patient reports that cleansing her</p><p>soul with the help of a shaman fits in with the cleansing of baptism or</p><p>confession, rituals of Catholicism.</p><p>The possibilities for dream interpretation are subjective and particular to the</p><p>interpreter and the dreamer. In addition, the most standard methods of dream</p><p>interpretation as we have come to know them, rely on symbol interpretation</p><p>which is Eurocentric. It was my experience during the course on dreamwork</p><p>that dreams may be interpreted in different ways and with different</p><p>considerations as to diagnostic information based on one’s knowledge of</p><p>symbols. There are instances whereby a symbol may have an interpretation</p><p>that is universally recognizable, including from an Africanist perspective.</p><p>However, I have also found that because African symbols are so sparsely used</p><p>for dream interpretation, the symbolic language for determining the deeper</p><p>meaning of a symbol for someone of Africanist background may be lost. In</p><p>order to deepen the interpretation of dreams, there is an indication for</p><p>inclusion of as many symbols as possible because what may appear</p><p>meaningful based on one interpretation may actually prove to be limiting</p><p>because of a lack of knowledge of symbols from a particular culture. Symbols</p><p>are not always meaningful for everyone in the same way. Associations are</p><p>important in helping to find direction for symbolic interpretation. Equally</p><p>important is knowledge of the dreamer’s culture and what symbols may be</p><p>expressing from this culture.</p><p>When reviewing questions in light of the dream, I wonder if after separately</p><p>going deeper into the image or symbol and finding meaning, two different</p><p>cultures would have the same interpretation. Do symbols derived from</p><p>mythology create a different archetypal meaning depending on the myths of</p><p>each culture? Does culture influence change in archetypal patterns? When a</p><p>dream image is archetypal and spiritual in one tradition is it possible that it</p><p>can be considered merely a Jungian complex in another?</p><p>Mythology</p><p>Mythology as a topic and experience is interwoven in the fibre of Jungian</p><p>personal clinical work, workshops and publications. Most recently the</p><p>inclusion of a personal myth has become more popular. Individuals can</p><p>consider their own personal human egoic personality features in conjunction</p><p>with the archetypal. Attributes of goddesses and gods can be explored as</p><p>aspects of the divine in each human and as part of the collective unconscious.</p><p>I do believe this.</p><p>312 Fanny Brewster</p><p>Years later as Jung traveled on his African safari on the train to Nairobi he</p><p>describes the following:</p><p>The train, swathed in a red cloud of dust, was just making a turn around a steep red</p><p>cliff. On a jagged rock above us a slim brownish-black figure stood motionless,</p><p>leaning on a long spear, looking down at the train … It was as if I were this</p><p>moment returning to the land of my youth, and as if I knew that dark-skinned man</p><p>who had been waiting for me for five thousand years. The feeling-tone of this</p><p>curious experience accompanied me throughout my whole journey through savage</p><p>Africa.</p><p>(Jung, 1989, p.254, my emphasis)</p><p>Why waiting for him? Why savage Africa? As Jung’s work developed, a major</p><p>portion of it was concerned with mythology. Some believe that the Masai man</p><p>that Jung observed that day became for him a representative of the survival of</p><p>the original man, the one who had always lived inside white people but who</p><p>had to be killed off, the Other, the false hero, in order to become his</p><p>authentic self.</p><p>In the further development of American Jungian psychology and its</p><p>accompanying relationship with Mythology, African Mythology was most</p><p>often absent. There were no African heroes or heroines showing courage,</p><p>strength, romance. All were to be Greek. Depth Psychology continued as the</p><p>others before it had done, relying only on Africans for noting that which was</p><p>not significant or relevant to any culture or society.</p><p>Jung is said by Jungian historians to have had a most profound experience</p><p>standing that day on the Athi Plains hilltop. But none of this was conveyed in</p><p>his writing about mythology and Africanist people, in sharp contrast to the</p><p>way Jung treats Native Americans. In his brief visit to New Mexico, Jung met</p><p>with an Elder and warmly referenced him in his autobiography and</p><p>discussion of mythology. Not so with Africa, the birthplace of all mythologies.</p><p>III. Other</p><p>Prior to my training to become a Jungian analyst I had attended a doctoral</p><p>program where I studied Depth Psychology. I came to that school because I</p><p>was very much interested in dream work and the study of dreams. I thought,</p><p>okay, because the state of California is so strict regarding what you can and</p><p>cannot do, I will get a license. Though I must say that people, my people,</p><p>your people had been hearing and using dreams as part of healing practices</p><p>for over a thousand years. However, I believed that if I didn’t get a license to</p><p>hear a dream or work on a dream I would be accused of practicing</p><p>psychology without a license.</p><p>I buried myself in my studies. However, there was one major traumatizing</p><p>experience in my doctoral years that continues to ripple even today. During a</p><p>Binding legacies 313</p><p>Tavistock group process, a loud, screaming match emerged between myself and</p><p>another individual in the group. He was angry that I was speaking of racism in</p><p>Depth Psychology as practised in America. It was ugly. I thought I should leave</p><p>the program. Through discussions with some peers and faculty, I decided to</p><p>remain. This is why I believe in karma. If I had left, I don’t think I would be</p><p>standing here today. Because I stayed and experienced such a powerful ‘yes’, I</p><p>had an almost numinous third year in the program, maybe because Shadow</p><p>had been exposed in terms of racism, and, I finished the program. I didn’t</p><p>know it then but that Tavistock experience was the premonition event of</p><p>what was to follow. I came to New York, began analysis and had a dream. I</p><p>knew that I was to become a Jungian analyst. I didn’t know enough about the</p><p>Collected Works or Jung’s racial writings to rethink that decision. I had no</p><p>idea where it would lead.</p><p>I share with you how I came to be a Jungian analyst because it helps define</p><p>my own personal spiritual beliefs as well as the power of depth psychological</p><p>work. A dream brought me into training to be a Jungian analyst. If I had</p><p>been in Africa and had gone to a traditional healer and told him or her my</p><p>dream, I would have probably followed in his or her footsteps. I like to think</p><p>that this has happened in some way with my own personal analyst. The</p><p>influences of my clinical work with my patients come from an Africanist</p><p>tradition as well as a European one. Africanist, because this is my cultural</p><p>experience, the one in which I was raised in a small Southern town. My ego</p><p>complex, racial complex, Self/ego axis, these and more must constantly</p><p>expand in Psyche’s realm as I work with patients. This I believe is true</p><p>relational clinical work at depth. As the African American woman analyst</p><p>who finds herself listening to the words of a white woman whose ancestors</p><p>enslaved my own, there must be a place in the transferential field for such a</p><p>realization, an acceptance of the place for both our archetypal DNA selves. A</p><p>place for both of our egos to find some safety in the room. How does and</p><p>how can this happen?</p><p>My patients come from a variety of backgrounds, African American,</p><p>Caribbean American, white,</p><p>Middle Eastern, Chinese American. How to sort</p><p>through ethnicity, including my own? How does the work change due to</p><p>ethnicity? I have begun writing about the racial complex. Jung barely</p><p>mentioned black/white, Jewish/Christian complexes in an essay written in</p><p>1930 about race in America (Jung, 1930). He said it was ‘complicated’! What</p><p>an understatement. And he decided to leave it alone. He was in New York at</p><p>the time and returned to Europe with no further words or helpful suggestions</p><p>for what we Americans should do to solve our racial relations problem.</p><p>Is it solvable? Can our insistence on tribal connections and our mostly</p><p>unspoken ancestral bonds keep us from fighting along racial lines for</p><p>eternity? Can we make peace in the clinical setting, or does racism and fear</p><p>show itself there too? Is the work just good enough and should be left alone</p><p>when othering occurs? Does the perfect clinical work ever really happen? I</p><p>314 Fanny Brewster</p><p>don’t believe so, and thinking about complexes and having a belief in them,</p><p>including racial ones, I know we will continue to struggle within the therapy</p><p>room as well as outside on the streets. This can only happen if we can bring</p><p>ourselves into the room to even discuss issues of personal problems with racism.</p><p>Depth Psychology can be a downer. It is not ‘Happiness Psychology’. Our</p><p>psychology deals with the underground, suffering, the rage and affliction of</p><p>the gods. This suits me. It must because I have found myself in the centre of</p><p>this kind of analytical work. Karma? Purposeful? Yes to both. I want to see</p><p>shadow. My cultural background prepares me to look at the darkness. When</p><p>I do clinical work I must be careful not to push my patients too far into the</p><p>dark, the shadow, before they are ready.</p><p>My ego’s comfort with knowing what it is like to be marginalized in</p><p>American society must not be the only boundary for my patients. I must let</p><p>them create their lines through our work together. I must be careful. This is</p><p>sometimes difficult because I want them to move faster, harder against their</p><p>binding ties. Making the decision to acknowledge Psyche’s rhythm, to feel</p><p>into something else, aside from my ego’s desire, recognizes my own cultural</p><p>hurt or intergenerational trauma while leaving room for the patient to</p><p>develop ‘good enough’ safe psychological boundaries with my caring support.</p><p>It doesn’t have to be a full attack and pushing of the patient’s ego into getting</p><p>stronger.</p><p>This is my battle. This is a part of my ancestral lineage material, fighting,</p><p>holding the line, staying safe. I think it shows up in the work, my own</p><p>complex becomes constellated. I don’t just want to save my twenty-something</p><p>year old African American patient, as any ‘normal’ caretaker ‘complexed’</p><p>therapist would, I want to carry her through every racial insult and pain</p><p>she will have to endure for the rest of her life. This is my complex, my</p><p>racial-analyst complex, that wants to carry my patient because I can feel</p><p>the weight of the intergenerational Sisyphus stone. This to me is one of the</p><p>complications that Jung addressed with a few words:</p><p>As a rule the coloured man would give anything to change his skin, and the white man</p><p>hates to admit that he has been touched by the black.</p><p>(Jung, 1930. Para.963)</p><p>Of course, who does not want an easier life? Are there days when I have wished</p><p>for an easier life as a clinician, when I consider as Hillman calls it, the</p><p>supremacy of white, (Hillman, 1986), as I reflect on the oppression that my</p><p>first American ancestor has felt and all of our descendants? A change of</p><p>colour, no. An easier life, yes.</p><p>This is my human ego self-soothing itself with the possibility of something of</p><p>lightness, not shadow. Taking a break from what can seem like a</p><p>never-ending oppression because I am black and I am marked. And this can</p><p>Binding legacies 315</p><p>be called my paranoia and I had better have a good dose of it. The DSM books</p><p>have a designation for paranoia. It’s all right to have that but when it comes to</p><p>race we have to rewrite some things in that book. When I look at it for diagnosis</p><p>I look with the eyes of a woman of colour raised and living in a racist society.</p><p>Therefore, when I think to diagnose my patients, whether by DSM or Jungian</p><p>classifications, usually both, I know that politics and race play a part in who</p><p>has determined what a particular diagnosis should be. When my Asian</p><p>patient speaks to me of her fears regarding being taken advantage of because</p><p>of her ‘anticipated’ softness because she is Asian, I can understand this in the</p><p>same way I can understand how my African American patient can be</p><p>misunderstood as cold or hard because she is black. These two situations are</p><p>reflections of what presents itself in the clinical setting. These are the</p><p>subtleties of race, and the grossness of race that we live with as Americans.</p><p>As least I do. I do not think that I’m alone.</p><p>Personally, I believe that if race does not enter into the clinical setting at some</p><p>point, it doesn’t matter who is white and who is black or if both are of the same</p><p>ethnicity, then something is missing from the work. We live in a global world</p><p>now where my black skin can be disrespected in Rome, and where I am not</p><p>given a seat in a restaurant, because I’m assumed to be African. I’m only</p><p>hated when it is discovered I’m American. I’m still black, this doesn’t change</p><p>anything for me because psychological margins exist the same as physical</p><p>margins and boundaries. As a woman of colour and a woman who has</p><p>completed Jungian analytical training, I learned something of boundaries.</p><p>And safety.</p><p>I come back to safety because I think my patients of colour are concerned</p><p>about their safety in a way that white patients don’t appear to be, this is</p><p>understandable. We speak together of fear and safety, sometimes where there</p><p>is no apparent reason for the fear or concern for safety to exist. Is it only my</p><p>projection that they have a ‘right’ to be afraid because of their colour? Or is it</p><p>real that they ‘are’ at risk in the world, whether in Rome or Texas? This is a</p><p>question that perhaps white privilege never has to ask; my white patients do</p><p>not present with this fear.</p><p>I wish I could say that ethnicity does not matter, that my skin colour has</p><p>no other meaning than soft, supple, shiny, these attributes, and not blackness</p><p>or brownness that has had such a harsh meaning for centuries. Not the one</p><p>that has caused my ancestor to be stolen from Africa, my ancestors to</p><p>work on plantations for generations or caused me at times to be afraid for</p><p>my life.</p><p>My work as a clinician has been shaped by my training to become a Jungian</p><p>analyst. Jung’s words of racism in the Collected Works and the Europeans who</p><p>stole from Africa have called to me and I wish to respond. Their words and</p><p>deeds have encouraged me to attempt to deconstruct, to refute racist ideas</p><p>and to have a voice to change the storyline from one of derogation to</p><p>enhancement for those of colour.</p><p>316 Fanny Brewster</p><p>In my work as a professor, I frequently see more African American and</p><p>other students of colour looking into Depth Psychology as a career field.</p><p>They seek me out for conversations because they have read my first book</p><p>or, without having read it, feel hurt at discovering for the first time Jung’s</p><p>language regarding Africanist people. These young people who are in a</p><p>process of discovery want guidance and are also calling for reassurance that</p><p>they are all right, that they can believe in dreams and mythology, and not be</p><p>at the bottom end of a hierarchy of consciousness. I feel exceptionally</p><p>fortunate to be in a place in my life where I am able to respond to and</p><p>confirm their humanity, their value and their goodness. I do not believe</p><p>there is any easy way to be an African American Jungian analyst. It is truly</p><p>a calling and I am bound by my ancestry, as well as by archetypal forces</p><p>that can possess me. I am bound as Other. This is my life, which is my</p><p>work. It is many times my joy and can sometimes be my sadness. And still it</p><p>is my life.</p><p>References</p><p>Angelou, M. (1994). Phenomenal</p><p>Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women. New York:</p><p>Random House.</p><p>Bolling, J. (2008). The Heart of Soul: an Africentric Approach to Psycho-spiritual</p><p>Wholeness (vol.1). Bloomington, IN: Author House.</p><p>Gyekye, K. (1987). An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual</p><p>Scheme. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.</p><p>Hillman, J. (1986). ‘Notes on White Supremacy’, Spring 1986. Dallas: Spring</p><p>Publications.</p><p>Jung, C.G. (1930/1970). ‘The Complications of American Psychology’, CW 10.</p><p>——— (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books.</p><p>TRANSLATIONS OFABSTRACT</p><p>Cet article aborde l’interrelation multiculturelle entre la formation des analystes</p><p>Jungiens et les candidats Africanistes à la formation. L’importance de la lignée</p><p>ancestrale ainsi que celle des influences archétypales dans le cadre clinique sont</p><p>étudiées pour mieux comprendre les questions liées au transfert et aux interventions</p><p>thérapeutiques. Une discussion sur les relations raciales et sur le racisme est abordée,</p><p>en tant qu’élément souvent manquant dans la formation psychanalytique des futurs</p><p>analystes Jungiens.</p><p>Mots clés: transfert, racisme, formation psychanalytique, traumatisme, mémoire,</p><p>ancêtre, archétype, psychologie des profondeurs, mythologie, rêves</p><p>In diesem Artikel wird die multikulturelle Verbindung zwischen Jungianischer</p><p>Analytikerausbildung und afrikanischen Ausbildungskandidaten diskutiert. Die</p><p>Binding legacies 317</p><p>Bedeutung der Ahnenreihe und der archetypischen Einflüsse im klinischen Setting wird</p><p>untersucht, um mit der Übertragung und den therapeutischen Interventionen</p><p>zusammenhängende Probleme besser verstehen zu können. Eine Diskussion über</p><p>Rassenbeziehungen und Rassismus wird als ein oft fehlendes Element in der</p><p>psychoanalytischen Ausbildung zukünftiger Jungianischer Analytiker angesprochen.</p><p>Schlüsselwörter: Übertragung, Rassismus, psychoanalytische Ausbildung, Trauma,</p><p>Gedächtnis, Vorfahre, Archetyp, Tiefenpsychologie, Mythologie, Träume</p><p>Questo articolo discute le connessioni multiculturali tra il training degli analisti junghiani</p><p>ed i training dei candidati africanisti. Vengono esplorate l’importanza della discendenza</p><p>dagli antenati e le influenze archetipiche nel setting per una migliore comprensione dei</p><p>temi legati al transfert ed agli interventi terapeutici. Si accenna ad una discussione sul</p><p>razzismo e sulle relazioni tra razze, come elemento spesso mancante nel training dei</p><p>futuri analisti junghiani.</p><p>Parole chiave: transfert, razzismo, training psicoanalitico, trauma, memoria, antenati,</p><p>archetipo, psicologia del profondo, mitologia, sogni</p><p>В статье обсуждается мультикультурная взаимосвязь юнгианских тренингов и</p><p>африканских кандидатов. С целью улучшения понимания особенностей переноса и</p><p>терапевтических интервенций исследуется значимость родословной линии и</p><p>архетипических влияний в клиническом сеттинге. Поднимается вопрос о недооценке</p><p>расовых отношений и расизма в психоаналитической подготовке будущих юнгианских</p><p>аналитиков.</p><p>Ключевые слова: перенос, расизм, психоаналитический тренинг, травма, память, предок,</p><p>архетип, глубинная психология, мифология, сновидения</p><p>El presente artículo da cuenta de la interconexión multicultural entre la formación de</p><p>analistas Junguianos y candidatos en formación Africanos. La importancia del linaje</p><p>ancestral y las influencias arquetipales en el setting analítico son exploradas para una</p><p>mejor comprensión de situaciones relativas a la transferencia y a las intervenciones</p><p>analíticas. Se presenta una discusión sobre relaciones raciales y racismo, como un</p><p>frecuente elemento ausente, en la formación psicoanalítica de futuros analistas</p><p>junguianos.</p><p>Palabras clave: transferencia, racismo, formación psicoanalítica, trauma, memoria,</p><p>ancestro, arquetipo, psicología profunda, mitología, sueños</p><p>绑定的遗产:祖先、原型及他者</p><p>文章讨论了在荣格分析训练及非洲受训候选人之间的多元文化联结。文章探索了临</p><p>床设置中祖系传承及原型的影响的重要性，从而更好地去理解与移情及治疗干预有关</p><p>318 Fanny Brewster</p><p>的主题。文章讨论了在未来心理分析训练中，需要特别重视种族联系及种族主义，而</p><p>这是常被忽略的元素。</p><p>关键词: 移情, 种族主义, 心理分析训练, 创伤, 记忆, 祖先, 原型, 深度心理学, 神话, 梦</p><p>Binding legacies 319</p>