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The Complex

Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego

 

 Our complexes act as dynamic intermediaries in the life-long dialogue with the unconscious, determining the ways  in which archetypes and instincts enlarge ego-consciousness.

 Shalit provides us with a conceptual scaffold with which to examine the inner structures and assumptions that  underpin our everyday actions, discussions, loves and hates. Includes case material.

 The complex is the key to our inner world. The images in our dreams reflect the complex meeting ground between  the archetypes of the vast unconscious and the realm of personal experience.

The complex carries material from the unconscious into consciousness. Sometimes the major roads are blocked, and communications maintained only “over inconvenient and steep footpaths” (Freud). When refused entrance into consciousness, the complexes become phantoms in the shadow.

 “The fact that complexes are painful is no proof of pathological disturbance. Suffering is not an illness; it is the normal counterpole to happiness. A complex becomes pathological only when we think we have not got it.” C. G. Jung

 

 “The Complex is the best discussion [on the subject] I have seen – James Hall

 

 

 

Contents:

  • Complexes - The Historical Link

Introduction                                                                                                           

The Complex in the History of Psychoanalysis                                                  

A Plenitude of Complexes                                                                                      

Jung’s Personal Complexes                                                                                     

Complex Psychology                                                                                              

The Complex as Path and Vessel of Transformation                                              

The Complex – Cluster, Core and Tone                                                                  

Archetype and Ego                                                                                                 

  • Oedipus – The Archetypal Complex

Freud, Jung and Oedipus                                                                                         

Oedipus - The Myth                                                                                                  

Hero and Complex                                                                                                   

Mars and Eros – the Drive of the Complex                                                          

Mother Self – Father Ego                                                                                        

The Primal Scene                                                                                                    

The Sword and the Shield                                                                                       

The Complex Path – From Archetype to Ego                                                       

The Wounding of Oedipus – Ego Defences and the Autonomous Complex           

Oedipus’ Journey                                                                                                    

From Delphi to Thebes - From Archetype to Ego                                                    

Patricide at the Cleft Way Crossroad                                                                       

The Riddle                                                                                                              

The Cancerous Complex                                                                                         

  • The Complex in the Shadow                                                                                                                        

The Autonomous Complex

The Complex and the Call                                                                                      

The World Parents                                                                                                 

The Archetypal Core of the World Parents                                                             

The Abandoned Child                                                                                             

A Mother Complex                                                                                                  

Kafka’s (Never Sent) Letter to Father                                                                 

The Tower of Babel                                                                                                 

Inflation                                                                                                                  

Hubris                                                                                                                     

The Tower of Babel                                                                                                

The Inflated Ego - The Emptied Self                                                                       

Integration of the Complex                                                                                   

Castration at the Gateway to Individuation                                                      

References    

 

Links to blog posts:

Kafka’s (Never Sent) Letter to Father

 Oedipus Denied . . . not so quickly!

 100-year-old letter reveals Kafka's mouse phobia

The Complex - Messenger from the gods

Quadrant: The Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation

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The Complex is available on Amazon, Inner City Books, and other book sellers.