Cry, The Beloved Country

ABSTRACT

Utilizing the classic South African novel by Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, postcolonial ideas are explored as they relate to the development of the theory and practice of analytical psychology. The novel explores cultural identity and attachment in a largely segregated South Africa, where native family ties were ruptured and where identity development was deeply influenced by institutionalized racism. The novel evolves the theme of the return to the native land and with it the emergence of a coherent identity, as well as the repair of ruptured family attachments occurring through economic necessity and caused by mass migration from tribal homes to economic centers such as Johannesburg. Erikson’s identity theory is utilized to understand the impact of culture upon personality development, psychopathology, and the analytical relationship; and Ainsworth’s infant observation work in Africa is utilized to understand how culture is transmitted from caregiver to infant during the first two years of life as patterns of attachment systems unfold and are shaped in the psyche. Culture is seen as influencing both the emergence of identity as well as attachment.

KEY WORDS:

• attachment
• Cry
• The Beloved Country
• culture
• identity
• postcolonialism

NOTE

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian Feldman

BRIAN FELDMAN is a clinical psychologist; a child, adolescent, and adult Jungian analyst; an infant observation seminar leader (AIDOBB) and organizational consultant (ISPSO). He trained as a clinical psychologist at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley, and served as chair of the Department of Clinical Psychology in Child Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical Center where he was honored with the outstanding teaching award. He has been a visiting professor at the Institute of Psychology, Moscow, Russian Academy of Science, and a faculty member at the City University of Macau and the University of Dakar, Senegal. The Psychoanalytic Consortium of Washington, D.C. honored him for his work on attachment and infant observation. Brian is the liaison person for the IAAP analytical training program in Macau and teaches extensively in China. Correspondence: [email protected].