Book Title: A Jungian Inquiry into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence
Publisher: Routledge
Year Published: 2019
Pacifica Program: Depth Psychology

A Jungian Inquiry into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence

In A Jungian Inquiry into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence, Ipek Burnett’s penetrating cultural criticism enriched with psychoanalytical and Jungian insight offers a timely interrogation of national consciousness in the United States.

Through evocative storytelling, Burnett unpacks the images and myths that run deep in the American psyche―from that of the New World, the city upon a hill, to the Manifest Destiny, the melting pot, and the pursuit of happiness. Against this backdrop, she investigates the vicious cycles of innocence and violence that have dominated American history and continue to reinforce systematic oppression in America, evident in racial and economic inequality, xenophobia, materialism, and more. Burnett’s thought-provoking analysis exposes the ways in which psychological defenses such as historical amnesia, projection, denial, and dissociation work on a collective level, helping America avoid a confrontation with these violent truths of its past and present circumstances, and its national character.

About Ipek S. Burnett, PhD

Ipek S. Burnett, PhD, is a Turkish-American novelist and contributing writer at CounterPunch. She serves as the Chair of the Board at Voice of Witness, a human rights and oral history education non-profit based in San Francisco. Dr. Burnett is also on the Executive Committee of Human Rights Watch’s San Francisco chapter. She is the author of A Jungian Inquiry into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence (Routledge, 2019).