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How a person experiences their father and other authority figures is often shaped by the father complex.

Strong reactions to issues of authority, achievement, and power often reveal an activated father complex.

Complexes aren't eliminated; they become less activated through conscious reflection and choice.

It’s a timeless topic that perennially gets a new spin: power and authority. We have opinions about who has it, who doesn’t, and why that matters. In Carl Jung’s psychology, power, achievement, and authority figures are often associated in the psyche with the father, patriarchy, and masculine, which are all associated with the proverbial father complex.

Carl Jung described complexes as emotionally charged bundles of memories and experiences—“feeling-toned groups of representations”—that cluster together and organize around a core theme or archetype such as “father,” “mother,” or “attachment.”

Complexes are shaped through early and ongoing personal, relational, and cultural experiences. They influence how we think, feel, and respond, and can congeal into enduring response patterns. You can read more about complexes here and the mother complex here.

In my last post, I covered ten characteristics of complexes that I first learned from Jungian psychoanalyst Dr. Florence Irvine, such as “having a life of their own,” strong emotional intensity, and a lack of empathy. When people say they are “feeling triggered,” it’s likely that a complex was activated.

A complex distorts reality—it constricts and splinters the personality so the triggering event is viewed strictly through the lens of the complex. With the father complex, for example, men who lack emotions and dominate—those who emulate the........

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