The Spiral Way
by Aldo Carotenuto, PhD
A fifty-year-old woman enters Jungian analysis. Her life is apparently going quite well. One would never characterize her as “sick.” Nevertheless she suffers from depression and serious inner conflicts that have paralyzed her life—while her private suffering is scarcely visible to the outside world. This is the story of her inner journey, during which she rediscovers her energy and comes to appreciate her own uniqueness. It is also the story of any woman’s possibilities at this important age, an age ripe for the activation of hidden sources of healing and renewal. The focus here is on the importance of dreams, which at times of transition point the way. The author’s informed commentary illustrates how the transformation of the images of the unconscious corresponds to the development of the personality as a whole. The message of this book is that there is no age at which psychological change is not possible; there is never a time in one’s life when there is no more hope.
Impossible Love or Why The Heart Must Go Wrong
by Jan Bauer
Some love affairs mark our lives forever. Whether we call them la grand passion, tragic romance, or l’amour fou, they remain indelible because impossible. Why do we fall in love at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and with the wrong person? Why do we put up with the anxiety, the pain, the shame, and the longing never fulfilled? This book explores the nature of these “marvelous disasters” and finds a deeper necessity in the betrayals, taboos, and excesses of impossible love. Using perhaps the greatest of all tragic romances—the passion between Heloïse and Abelard—as a psychological scaffold, Jan Bauer examines the erotic structures of irresistible attraction with love stores from the lives of men and women today.
Swamplands of the Soul
by James Hollis, PhD
Is the purpose of life to achieve happiness? Who does not long to arrive some distant day at that sunlit meadow where we may abide in pure contentment? In reality we know life is not like that; our road is often dreary, the way unclear. Much of the time we are lost in the dismal states of guilt, grief, betrayal, doubt, depression, anger, terror and the like. Is this all we can hope for? Perhaps not, says this author. The Jungian perspective, by encompassing both the meadow and the bog, asserts that the goal of life is not happiness but meaning. And meaning, though it may not be all sunlight and blossoms, is real. Swamplands of the Soul explores the quicksands where we have all floundered. It lights a beacon by showing what they mean in terms of our individual journey and the engendering of soul. For it is precisely where we encounter the gravitas of life that we also uncover its purpose, its dignity and its deepest meaning.
Romancing the Shadow
by Connie Zweig, PhD, and Steve Wolf, PhD
Beneath the social mask we wear every day, we have a hidden shadow side: an impulsive, wounded, sad, or isolated part that we generally try to ignore. But as therapists Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf show in this landmark book, the shadow can actually be a source of emotional richness and vitality, and acknowledging it can be a pathway to healing and an authentic life. “Romancing the shadow”—meeting your dark side, accepting it for what it is, and learning to use its powerful energies in productive ways—is the challenging and exciting soul work that Zweig and Wolf offer in this practical, rewarding guide. Drawing on the teachings of Carl Jung and compelling stories of men and women whom they have helped in their clinical practices, they reveal how the shadow guides your choices in love, sex, marriage, friendship, work, and family life. With their innovative methods, you can uncover the unique patterns and purpose of your shadow and learn to defuse negative emotions, reclaim forbidden or lost feelings, cultivate compassion for others, renew creative expression, and find purpose in your suffering.
The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter
by Marion Woodman
This book offers eye-opening insights into the relationship between the individuation process of a woman and the state of her body. The underlying hypothesis, convincingly presented, is that weight disturbances and eating disorders often have a meaning: that is, they are purposeful symptoms. Specifically directed toward practical procedures which can enable a woman to hear her bodily symptoms as symbolic representations worth exploring because they lead to an understanding of her instinctive femininity and the wounds this has suffered, inflicted not only by others but also by herself.
Now or Neverland: Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth
by Ann Yeoman
Even if one has never seen the play, or read the novel, the figure of Peter Pan is as well-known as the heroes, heroines, ogres and witches of such classic tales as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. As a familiar figure of spontaneity, adventure and play, in the common mind Peter Pan is the little boy who didn’t want to grow up, the spirit of perpetual youth and joy associated with Neverland. Now or Neverland is a psychological overview of the eternal boy archetype, from its ancient roots right up to contemporary experience, including a detailed interpretation of J. M. Barrie’s widely-loved novel and play. Underlying the author’s lively discussion is a new perspective on Peter Pan as a representation of archetypal energies that deeply influence our collective experience as well as our personal life.
