Description
James Hillman has called Luigi Zoja of Milan an “anthropological psychologist” with good reason. Drawn from Zoja’s lectures in Europe and the Americas between 2000 and 2007, this collection probes in depth one of the core issues that vex contemporary life: violence. Zoja brings a breadth of vision to bear on this terrifying subject as he seeks to understand it in a broad historical, mythological, and psychological context. His basic approach is that of analytical psychology, but he also avails himself of the insights of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and other disciplines. This unique collection is an invaluable contribution to Jungian thought on the subject of violence and is the perfect inaugural volume of Spring’s new Series.
In “Violent Hearts: America’s Divided Soul” (Chapter 1), Zoja challenges the reader to consider America’s cultural propensity for puristic, self-polluting violence. In “Trauma and Abuse: The Development of a Cultural Complex in the History of Latin America” (Chapter 2), he presents a psychological analysis of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. In “The Duel and Honor” (Chapter 3), he addresses the general human attempt to contain the ego’s murderous origins through honorable duel. In “Nightmares” (Chapter 4), he presents the nightmare as a violent confrontation between the dreamer and his or her own villainous inner other, which the dreamer has rejected precisely for its otherness. In “Reductivism: Against Ismene” (Chapter 5), he takes up two modern Western phenomena: the reduction of values and the reduction of time. In “The Clash of Civilizations? A Struggle between Identity and Functionalism” (Chapter 6), he explores the broad social and psychological implications for Western society of the September 11 attacks. In “Almachius and the Demon: Mass Entertainment and Violence-as-Spectacle” (Chapter 7), he explores the mob psychology and blood lust that gives rise to the insatiable demand for violent forms of entertainment in the mass media.
