Global politics, American hegemony and vulnerability, and Jungian-psychosocial studies: why there are no winners in the battle between Trickster Pedro Urdemales and the Gringos

Abstract

The author reviews the distortions of global politics wrought by US power and also by US vulnerability. It is understandable that many in the West are far from proud of the achievements of their culture. Those whose concern is for the management of climate change via ecopsychology are right to challenge ‘climate change denial’. But it is problematic when ‘salvation’ is sought from other cultures alleged to have a closer connection to ‘nature’ (itself a problematic term). Though well-meaning, this, the author contends, is politically and psychologically damaging. The author charges many Jungian attempts to compare the ‘Western psyche’ and the ‘psyche’ of indigenous peoples such as the Navajo Native Americans with cultural colonialism, Orientalism, and idealisation. He suggests that other political pathways and projects are needed if the desires of analytical psychology and Jungian studies to exercise social responsibility are to be realised.