We Are Living in a Feeling-Toned Complex
I was reading through a list of fifty-seven outlandish, outrageous and offensive lines from President Trump’s recent Michigan rally, courtesy of Chris Cillizza, Editor-at-Large for CNN. The script was as predictable as a trip to the dentist. Trump went on about crowd size, walls, weak laws, unpatriotic Democrats and so on. The speech seemed to be filled with sound and fury, signifying everything. At least from a psychological point of view.
I have also been reading about Carl Jung’s work at Burgholzli, a psychiatric clinic at Zurich University where Jung worked in the early years of the twentieth century. It was here that Jung developed his Word Association Test. In short, a staff member read a list of 100 words to each patient who was told to respond with the first word that came to mind. Reaction time was measured. This work would later lead to the lie detector test.
The Word Association Test measured complexes, the unconscious feeling, fears, tics and beliefs that are triggered by some event, word, memory, slight, trauma and so on. Building on the work of other German researchers, Jung would call this his complex or feeling-toned complex theory. A complex is irrational and it’s repetitive. Because this state is unconscious, people tend not to change their behavior. Jung suggested people who are ill-informed, not especially logical, and think they might be over their head can resort to emotional outbursts and repetition of phrases and words.
Complexes, residing in the unconscious, are pure, basic instincts. If I am caught in a complex that tells me I am more important or powerful than those around me, these instincts will play out in my behaviors. I might brag endlessly about my accomplishments, looks or the size of my hands and at the same time ridicule others who are at the bitter end of my wrath.
We all have complexes and the challenge, according to Jung, is to recognize them and incorporate them into our consciousness. Complexes can be small and automatic, such as a slip of the tongue or a Freudian slip. If we don’t bring complexes into the daylight, they become shadow material and remain unconscious.
Depending on how complexes are received and handled, they can have both positive and negative effects, affecting the wholeness of the personality. A negative complex is when it takes over a person’s life and introduces a kind of biased subjectivism, distorting one’s sense of reality and even memories. Under these circumstances I am unable to get out of the way of my complex; it rules me. I see the world and especially those I dislike through the lens of the complex. I am becoming neurotic.
Of course, without Freudian slips, the uncle who wears his complexes on his sleeve and the insufferable court jester, life would be terribly boring. Most of us have complexes about our looks, height and lineage, none of which suggest we are inferior. Jung saw these types of complexes as revealing weak but redeemable parts of our psyches. Our task is to recognize these complexes, bring them into consciousness and deal with them. This might mean altering one’s behavior or response when a complex is triggered, thus draining some of the emotion from this condition.
Our days are filled with feeling-toned complexes. Sometimes this is play; sometimes it is war. We weaponize complexes and slurs all the time. Remember the recent Presidential election when slights about small hands and the like were the order of the day? Not surprisingly, Trump has a peculiar affinity for this kind of barn talk. We know that some feeling-toned complexes are buried in memories from childhood and erupt in all their primitive fanfare when one is threatened, overwhelmed and faced with uncomfortable truths. The charges of “fake news” possess all the ingredients of an unconscious energy charge that is by definition based on biased, compulsive thinking that tends to repeat itself in predictable ways.
I know, I know; the various psychological associations have warned about analyzing public figures at a distance. And though I have studied Jungian psychological for twenty-five years, I’m not a psychologist. But it is not as if I’m predict suggesting Trump might live to be two-hundred or he actually weighs 239 lbs. My task is much simpler. And is in plain sight.
By Jung’s definition we are living, collectively, in a feeling-toned complex where irrational, primitive, and compulsive thinking have become the order of the day and indeed, the orders of the day. The net results of all this negative energy is a fear that feeds the complex and the vicious cycle continues. The red meat that was the 2016 Presidential campaign represented a caravan of negative cultural complexes about lost land, jobs, and racial and political identity. Trump played this Complex Card very well. Perhaps Michael Wolff, author of “Fire and Fury,” got it right after all. He wrote: “Trump is less of a person than a collection of terrible traits. Wolff just described Jung’s complex theory. The criticisms of the book — it’s gossip, slander, half-truth, bombast, conceits, likes and the like — correctly describe the feeling-toned complex that is the White House and the media bubble that surrounds it.
I’d suggest the media acquaint itself with the works of Carl Jung, especially his writings about feeling-toned complexes. This might take some of the emotion and pathology out of political coverage. Invite a Jungian into the newsroom. There are first-class Jungian associations in New York and Washington DC. They could be a great help.
I think one of the greatest challenges the media faces today is how to write about the firehose of political nonsense we endure daily.
Jung could help.
