Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind

By Anthony Stevens

Book Overview

Symbolism is the most powerful and ancient means of communication available to humankind. For centuries people have expressed their preoccupations and concerns through symbolism in the form of myths, stories, religions, and dreams. The meaning of symbols has long been debated among philosophers, antiquarians, theologians, and, more recently, anthropologists and psychologists. In Ariadne's Clue, distinguished analyst and psychiatrist Anthony Stevens explores the nature of symbols and explains how and why we create the symbols we do. The book is divided into two parts: an interpretive section that concerns symbols in general and a "dictionary" that lists hundreds of symbols and explains their origins, their resemblances to other symbols, and the belief systems behind them. In the first section, Stevens takes the ideas of C. G. Jung a stage further, asserting not only that we possess an innate symbol-forming propensity that exists as a creative and integral part of our psychic make-up, but also that the human mind evolved this capacity as a result of selection pressures encountered by our species in the course of its evolutionary history. Stevens argues that symbol formation has an adaptive function: it promotes our grasp on reality and in dreams often corrects deficient modes of psychological functioning. In the second section, Stevens examines symbols under four headings: "The Physical Environment," "Culture and Psyche," "People, Animals, and Plants," and "The Body." Many of the symbols are illustrated in the book's rich variety of woodcuts. From the ancient symbol of the serpent to the archetypal masculine and feminine, from the earth to the stars, from the primordial landscape of the savannah to the mysterious depths of the sea, Stevens traces a host of common symbols back through time to reveal their psychodynamic functioning and looks at their deep-rooted effects on the lives of modern men, women, and children.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691004595
• ISBN13: 9780691004594
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 2.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Pioneering Psychology

Steven's has presented another landmark book in his continuing endeavor to forge Jungian psychology into a comprehensive field that incorporates evolutionary psychology and places it on a firm empirical basis. This is a must for any psychology buff and represents part of a revolutionary frontier in the study of the human mind. I highly recommend Stevens and Price's "Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning".

translated Darwin

This is a book gives significance and meaning to everything that pops in your head. It is filled with possible representations of things that you would otherwise, look over. I don't always agree, yet it is filled with interesting and somewhat new theories about dreams.

a fascinating book...

if i could give more than 5 stars, ill wholeheartedly give this book the rating it deserves! i guess anyone who believes that dreams are indispensable in leading us towards the fulfillment of our destiny (individua tion)should definitely read this book. ariadne's thread indeed serves its name right as it almost literally makes our journey in the labyrinthe easier. reading this book also made me fully understand and appreciate the phenomenology of the numinous which remained quite murky for me before encountering ARIADNE'S THREAD. i hope that reading this book will be of help to you readers, as much as it has been an illuminating experience for me. let's give this book and anthony stevens a standing ovation :)

A hugely important and educational book

This is one of the most important, scholarly yet immmensely readable and accessible books on the subject of symbols, dreams and man's search and need for meaning written in recent years. The author's style is direct and lucid. He bridges the mystical and scientific in a way that few can do. In so doing brings the reader to a level of understanding which reflects the author's own evolutionary biological perspective, yet all the while paying homage to the miraculous function of the numinous in the human psyche. Anyone interested in dreams and symbols, their biological, psychological and spiritual significance should read this beautifully written book. Any person pursuing their own analysis or training in analytical psychology, dynamic psychotherapy or psychology will be edified and much enriched by it. It is a gem to be bought, treasured, read and re-read many times.

The best book on symbols

This is an excellent ultra-Darwinian analysis of archetypal material. The best book written on the subject. I have always wondered the origins of the social taboos and customs, and found answers in this book. Strongly recommended.