Encountering the Other: The White Shadow – A Talk with Karen Naifeh, Ph.D.

There is no charge for this program but please email jungaco@jungcentralohio.org by August 20 so that we can get back in touch with you to provide the zoom link to participate.

How can we who identify as White learn to recognize the myriad things we do – often unconsciously – that are offensive to people of African heritage, Native Americans, and other People of Color.  As members of the dominant group in our society we have learned not to see embedded forms of racism and oppression in our attitudes, conversation, and general behavior. In order to make lasting change, we are challenged to understand what forces keep unconscious racial bias alive and active. One answer lies in the concept of a Cultural Shadow, in this case the White Shadow in American society.

This presentation by Dr. Naifeh will draw on writings of Jung and post-Jungian writers such as Kimbles, Singer and Brewster, as well as examples from philosophy, relational psychoanalysis, film and literature to depict the Cultural Shadow.  In one of his 1925 lectures Jung diagrammed the geology of the personality.  Post-Jungian writers have connected the Cultural Shadow with archetypal evil and the formation of negative cultural complexes.  An  exploration of this powerful connection can lead us to new ways of understanding how the sense of Other is created and maintained in the psyche, thereby revealing ways for us to bring the Cultural Shadow into consciousness.

Dr. Naifeh’s talk will include dialogue about how to recognize how the Cultural Shadow impacts us personally and practical ways to deal with it.

Dr. Naifeh is co-chair of the ad hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusivity and an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She holds doctorate degrees in medical physiology and in clinical psychology. She teaches candidates in the GCJISF’s analytic training program and clinic internship program and supervises doctoral interns in the Institute Clinic. She is a clinical supervisor at the Women’s Therapy Center in Berkeley.

Dr. Karen Naifeh Talk on the White Shadow