Ecce Mulier

CREATIVITY AND MADNESS, sparked by the intrusion of unconscious symbolism, arise from the same feminine depths---what Jung, following Goethe, called the realm of the Mothers.  Which one triumphs depends on the strength of the ego under the onslaught of unconscious contents.  The developmental course of that ego, and its archetypal aspects, are charted here, in a psychobiography that ventures into the realm of the Mothers so that the creativity and the madness of Friedrich Nietzsche can be better understood.

Drawing upon classical, archetypalist, and developmental approaches, Dr. Ostfeld de Bendayán investigates the purpose and meaning of Nietzsche’s states of mind, his emotional life, his dominant patterns of behavior, his recurrent fantasy motifs, his interests and choices, his symptoms, and his manifestations of the Self.  Dreams, visual and auditory hallucinations, and poems are mined for insights, and alchemy, religion, philosophy, literature, and archetypal symbolism provide further illumination.  The result is a rich analytical psychological portrait that enhances our understanding of psychic dynamics in general, of the etiology of psychosis, of the fruitful alliance between psychology and myth, of the existential condition of postmodern (Dionysian) humanity, and of the relationships between the creative process and the collective unconscious.

Chiron 2008      306pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-43-2   $24.95

The Black Nightgown

A woman's dream of being trapped in a black nightgown reveals a dread that dominates her psyche and blocks her development as a self. In her story and others', Jungian analyst Nathan Schwartz-Salant reveals how the same complex characterizes our society as a whole. This archetypal pattern is the Fusional Complex.

The Fusional Complex is like the Renaissance alchemists' prima materia, said to be vile and worthless, ubiquitous and easily discarded, and yet essential for the creation of that most highly prized goal of the alchemical opus: the lapis, a symbol of the self. Like the prima materia, the Fusional Complex is found everywhere-in addiction and codependency, in masochistic submissions that sacrifice essence and potential, in the dark corners of relationships that are fixed in old patterns and simmer in contempt and resentment, and in the array of the character disorders. Because it generally goes unseen, however, these disorders do not transform.

Through the theory of the Fusional Complex, and with the non-ordinary perception that detects it, we can learn to make transformative discoveries that are rarely possible through usual analytic procedures. And through the cultural and individual examples of The Black Nightgown, we will see that the Fusional Complex is the doorway through which any new form of consciousness and associated self-the structure that bestows a sense of identity and order within human life-must pass.

Chiron 2007      272pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-41-8   $28.95

The Fire and the Rose

Our encounters with love, spirituality, and sexuality play a major role in shaping who we are. These powerful aspects of our lives are woven into the pattern that forms our potential for wholeness. Through growing consciousness, sexuality and spirituality can support our efforts to live more passionately and to understand love in all of its forms. In this stimulating and inspiring book, Jungian Analyst Bud Harris, Ph.D., challenges us to reconsider our views of spirituality and sexuality as opposites and bring them into harmony and creativity. Together, we can heal one of our culture's great wounds of the soul.

Chiron 2007     224pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1888602-42-5   $19.95

The Fountain of the Love of Wisdom

A commemorative volume in memory of Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz who is remembered as one of the most beloved and perhaps most important of Carl Jung's students. This is an important volume for the many readers of Jungian literature who have over the years come to appreciate the depth of insight and compassion of Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz.

It is comprised of fifty-five essays, poems, and reminiscences in memory of Jungian analyst and author Marie-Louise von Franz with additional material documenting her life and work, including a biographical sketch and chronology, eulogies and death announcements, birthday addresses, personal impressions, reactions by the Jungian community to the news of her death, reviews and lists of her published work in English, including books, articles, and films.

Chiron 2006      664pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-38-4   $29.95
Including 8pp. of color and 32pp. of b/w photos

On Life's Journey

C.G. Jung wrote, in The Development of Personality, "In every adult there lurks a child-an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention and education. That is the part of the human personality that wants to develop and become whole."

In this reflection on life's journey, Daniel Lindley applies the insights gleaned from many years of study of literature and psychoanalysis to show how we are "always becoming"-and always obligated to care for that archetypal child. Drawing upon psychological truths expressed by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Eliot and others, Lindley illuminates the process of individuation through personal experience, art and archetype. From birth to old age, he demonstrates, even in our separateness we share an archetypal ground. Thus, at any point in our lives, "The path we walk is not unknown; it has purpose and direction. We are living out stories that existed long before we did, and will be there long after we are gone."

Chiron 2006      172pp.      hardcover: ISBN 978-1-888602-40-1 $39.95
                                                     paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-36-4 $24.95

The Cult of the Black Virgin

Why are over 500 of the world's images of the Madonna 'black' or 'dark'? And why are they so little known? A resurfacing of the powerful pagan goddesses of sexuality, the underworld and earth-wisdom, the Black Virgins are symbols of power and majesty, the other aspect of the traditional Madonna's maidenhood or tender maternity. They personify the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant in a quest for lost feminine wisdom and the search for soul.
Ean Begg's fascinating book investigates the pagan origins of the phenomenon as well as the heretical Gnostic-Christian underground stream that flowed west with the cult of Mary Magdalene and resurfaced in Catharism at the time of the Crusades, especially with the Templars.

Chiron 2006      192pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-39-5    $19.95

The Principle of Individuation

The Principle of Individuation suggests new approaches, on both personal and communal levels, for gaining freedom from the compulsion to repeat endlessly the dysfunctional patterns that have conditioned us. In this concise and contemporary account of the process of individuation, Murray Stein sets out its two basic movements and then examines the central role of numinous experience, the critical importance of initiation, and the unique psychic space required for its unfolding. Using psychological insights from Carl Jung's writings, from myths and fairytales, and from years of clinical experience, he offers a vivid description of this lifelong and dynamic process that will be useful to clinicians and the general public alike.

Chiron 2006      240pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-37-1     $19.95

C. G. Jung

E.A. Bennet's biography of C. G. Jung went to press just a few days before Jung's death in 1961. Over the preceding fifteen years, Bennet had met frequently with Jung at his home and stayed there as his guest. Their many talks-about Jung's childhood, his family, his career and the development of his ideas-yielded the material for this authorized biography. Thanks to Bennet's unique opportunities to hear Jung's personal perspective-on subjects from Freud to Hitler, and including a valuable correspondence about Aion, regarded as Jung's most "difficult" book-C.G. Jung sheds new light for today's scholars on Jung's work and on the man himself.

Chiron 2006     192pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-35-7     $19.95

The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals

Barbara Hannah, a student and a close friend of C.G. Jung, presents lectures on the symbolic meaning of several domestic and wild animals. According to Jung, the animal is sublime and, in fact, represents the "divine" side of the human psyche. He believed that animals live much more in contact with a "secret" order in nature itself and-far more than human beings-live in close contact with "absolute knowledge" of the unconscious. In contrast to humankind, the animal is the living being that follows its own inner laws beyond good and evil-and is, in this sense, superior.
Here Hannah shows how our animal nature can become the psychic source of renewal and natural wholeness.

The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals is volume 2 in the "Polarities of the Psyche" series.

Chiron 2006      413pp.      paper: ISBN 978-1-888602-33-3     $29.95