Complex is one of the most distinctive conceptual components of Analytical Psychology. According to Jung, complexes are the living units of the psyche that lead the royal road to the unconscious. He first demonstrated their existence using the Word Association Test, where the reaction time and quality of response to ‘stimulus words’ were shown to be individually conditioned by certain categorical principle. How complexes function in the psyche and their interplay between other units became pertinent clinical area to focus on as an analyst. We shall look into the many different kinds of complexes and study their individual and collective implications, supplemented by case presentations.

Brigit Soubrouillard, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist based in France. She holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute in California. She subsequently studied in Zurich and graduated from the double Adult and Child program in 1996. She has worked in private practice for over 30 years with patients from many cultures, and has also a long experience in a child psychiatry clinic. She has been a supervisor and senior analyst for 20 years teaching and lecturing in a number of Jungian institutes in Europe and outside Europe. She was the President of the French Jungian Society, and is now serving on the Executive Committee of the IAAP. She is the Liaison Person for the Hong Kong Developing Group. She is particularly interested in art and in all forms of work with images. Her entry on ‘images’ in the IAAP website can be accessed with the following link: https://iaap.org/ image/