The Fear of the Feminine and Other Essays on Feminine Psychology

By Erich Neumann

Book Overview

These essays by the famous analytical psychologist and student of creativity Erich Neumann belong in the context of the depth psychology of culture and reveal a prescient concern about the one-sidedness of patriarchal Western civilization. Neumann recommended a "cultural therapy" that he thought would redress a "fundamental ignorance" about feminine and masculine psychology, and he looked for societal healing to a "matriarchal consciousness" that forms the bridge between the feminine and the creative.

Brought together here for the first time, the essays in the book discuss the psychological stages of woman's development, the moon and matriarchal consciousness, Mozart's Magic Flute, the meaning of the earth archetype for modern times, and the fear of the feminine. In Mozart's fantastic world, Neumann saw a true Auseinandersetzung--the conflict and coming-to-terms with each other of the matriarchal and the patriarchal worlds. Developing such a synthesis of the feminine and the masculine in the psychic reality of the individual and of the collective was, he argued, one of the fundamental, future-oriented tasks of both the society and the individual.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691034737
• ISBN13: 9780691034737
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Veil is Lifted

Neumann's insight of this intricate psychology simply amazed me. I read this book a couple of years ago so I have a difficult time recalling particular passages. What did strike me though was how the fear of the feminine, is so often morphed into the blaming of 'woman.' What I took from this book is that the fear of the feminine, is the fear of coming to consciousness, a fear of developing a deeper relationship to one's self or soul. Unfortunately, this fear of the feminine principal often becomes distorted and turned into humanity's fear of 'woman.' What is feared, ultimately, is what grants freedom. In other words, like Eve, the feminine principal may seduce, but it is in the call to higher consciousness. Mel Mathews is the author of several novels, including: LeRoi, Menopause Man, and SamSara...