Who Is Esther for You? A Psychological Reflection and Book Review for Black History Month

I am reading "South to America: Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation" by Imani Perry. Perry fearlessly tackles the tough and demonic truths of the South's history, including slavery and segregation, how race and racism shape the South, how the South IS American, and illuminates the importance of violence and yet also love in understanding the soul and heritage of the nation.

I am finding it rather challenging to self-regulate while reading this book as I can’t decide if I should notice the author’s lyrical nuance, moving into colloquial and historicism, or literary criticism to memoir, or the hip-hop references, or take notes on what I am learning about each state she traverses in her travelogue: Alabama, North Carolina, Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis, The Black Belt, The Low Country, Florida, Mobile, New Orleans, The Bahamas, and Havana.

I admire serious writers who don't simplify their works and speak in a language that is accessible to common people. I find Perry to be a source of inspiration for my own writing. She is precise with quotes and dates, has a cinematic writing style, and does not demonize she encounters, even when meeting a Confederate reenactor at a historical museum. She is a postmodern humanist who avoids judgment while describing historical trauma and violence.

One of the most "psychological" aspects of the book is the presence of Perry's ancestor, Esther, who haunts the pages. Despite meeting many people throughout the book, Esther remains a constant figure. Perry scours her ancestor's reports and discovers two records of her: one in 1870 as Easter Lowe, born in Maryland in 1769, and in 1880 as Esther Watkins, born in Georgia in 1789. Perry reflects on Esther's life and what she represents, using her as a lens to explore the broader themes of the African American experience in the South. Esther is a powerful symbol of resilience and strength for Perry, representing the unbreakable spirit of the African American community in the face of adversity. Perry visits Esther's birthplace in rural Alabama and reflects on the brutal conditions of slavery and segregation that Esther endured, speaking to the resilience and strength of the African American community.

Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung wrote that the unconscious mind operates on a deep collective level (not unlike the Zodiac) and influences our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Analysts such as myself have a fine eye for listening to the “persons” in our client’s speech and can sometimes help them delineate the persons of the psyche: A Shadow Self of moral inferiority; An Erotic Beloved; A God-Image. Within the shadow one can find “children” expressing hurt, rage, shame. Humans have yet to stop seeing their Person-in-Charge as the only part of who they are and cease enslaving their part-selves much as their Parent Society did. How to begin the journey? We can engage personify our split-off feelings and dialogue with them. Jung called this kind of deep and painful but spiritualizing dialogue “active imagination.” He saw this new form of internal emancipation as the “second dispensation,” the one to follow the Christian-Myth-of-Meaning. The Church or Temple resides in the Psyche.

In this sense, Perry's journey through the South and her exploration of her ancestor's life can be seen as a form of active imagination.

So there could be two journeys. One is “Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of the Nation.” The other “Below’s Each of Your Mason-Dixon to Understand the Shadow and the Soul of Your Own Psyche.”

Now there could be a second volume? Let’s all write that for our own struggle, histories, legacies and futurities.