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Ancient gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, and fabulous creatures
are alive and well with us. They exist in the mythological unconscious and emerge in dreams and fantasies of modern
men and women. This book bring us into an incredibly psychic reality - the mythic reality of the infinitely creative
human imagination.
"Michael Vannoy Adams is a man with a magnificient vision of
the life of the soul. The Mythological Unconscious is an authoritative study, a gift to the expert as well as the
novice, a treasure trove of the imagination for everyone with an interest in psychology and mythology. Adam's language
is fresh and bold, and the elegance of his writing invites us all to be immersed in deep mythological stories."
Ginette Paris
"A scintillating book. Clinically sensitive, intellectually sophisticated, and a born communicator, Adams
once more challenges the psychoanalytic world to reavaluate core issues, and makes us concious of just how omnipresent
ancient myths are in the modern psyche."
Andrew Samuels
"Beatifully written and well reasoned, The Mythological Unconscious will be of great interest to all psychotherapists
and persons with an interest in the imagination. Adams revisits and enlarges Jung's concepts of archetypes and
the collective unconscious, and while noting the universal patterns of image-making in myths, dreams and fantasies,
he carefully delineates his important thesis that these images are also culturally shaped. In the clinical arena,
he poignantly carves out the use of mythological parallels for understanding the ongoing deep cross-currents that
emerges in all of us." James L. Fosshage
"At the heart of culture, ready to awaken into our everyday life at any moment, lie the timeless myths, unconsciously
determining our actions. Adams gives us unparalleled guidance through the hidden structure of existence, waking
us to the worlds explored by the great psychoanalysts like Freud and Jung, but doing it from the standpoint of
a new century. The Mythological Unconscious is contemporary, alive with meaning, poised to shake your imagination."
Robert Bosnak
"Psychic life is real and has consequences, and our world needs to let this fact in and make more room for
it. Adams' book affirms the importance of psychic reality and, while deeply Junguian, is not parochial. It is expressive,
scholarly, and fun."
Michael Elgen
"Adams's musings on the creatures of the psyche have produced a volume that is both spcious and immediate.
Each charpter has a balance of charm and scholarship, humor and gravitas, wich simultaneously amuses and enlightens.
The lions, bulls, unicorns, and centaurs of myth come vividly alive through the author's mix of play and serious
probing." Beverley Zabriskie
The unconscious is one of the most radically original discoveries ever made. The implications are vast and revolutionary.
What, however, is the unconscious?
Some of the greatest psychoanalysts of all time declare emphatically that the unconscious is mythological. Sigmend
Freud speaks of "endopsychic myths" and " psycho-mythologt". C. G. Jung refers to the "mythopoetic
imagination" and the "myth-forming' structural elements" of the psyche . Wilfred R. Bion asserts
that the psyche extends into the "domain of myth". James Hillman contends that "the essence of psyche
is myth" and that "psychology is ultimately mythology".
Michael Vannoy Adams reaffirms the decisive importance of the mythological unconscious. What distinguishes this
book from previous books on mythology and psychology is that Adams provides so many impressively persuasive examples
of how myths appear in contemporary dreams and fantasies and does so with such erudiction, wit, and eloquent clarity.
Among the many mythological images that Adams discusses are Oedipus, Odysseus, Hercules, the Hydra, Poseidon, Chronos,
Medusa, Narcisus, Hermes, Nike, Zeus, Pan, Tezcatlipoca, the lion, the centaur, Pegasus, the bull, the labyrinth,
the Minotaur, the griffin, and the unicorn. Finally, he presents a dream that beautifully exemplifies the "myth
of hero".
Michael Vannoy Adams is a Junguian analyst in private practice in New York City. A Marshall scholar, he is graduate
of C. G. Jung Institute of New York, a faculty member and supervisor at the Object Relations Institute, and a faculty
member at the New School University, where he was previously associate provost. He is the author of The Multicultural
Imagination: "Race", Color, and the Unconscious and the recipient of two Gradiva Awards from the Nation
Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acnkowledgments
1. Psycho-Mytholy: Meschugge?
2. Dreams and Fantasies: Manifestations of the Mythological Unconscious
3. African-American Dreaming and "The Lion in the Path": Racism and the Cultural Unconscious
4. "Hapless" the Centaur: An Archetypal Image, Amplification, and Active Imagination
5. Pegasus and Visionary Experience: From the White Winged Horse to the "Flying Red Horse"
6. The Bull, the Labyrinth, and the Minotaur: From Archaeoly to "Archetypology" (With an Apology to Ariadne)
7. Griffins, Gold, and Dinosaur Fossils: Mythology and "Fantastic Paleontology"
8. Dreaming of a Unicorn: A Comparison of Lacanian and Junguian Interpretation
9. "Destiny" and the Call to Heroism: A Dream of Vocation and Individuation
References
Index
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