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Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine
s/t: A Commentary on the Tale by Apuleius
Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include works by key figures such as C.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A brochure listing each title in the International Library of Psychology series is available upon request.
Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include works by key figures such as C.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A brochure listing each title in the International Library of Psychology series is available upon request.
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
About the author
Erich Neumann
66 books479 followersErich Neumann (Hebrew: אריך נוימן) was a psychologist, writer, and one of Carl Jung's most gifted students.
Neumann received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1927. He practiced analytical psychology in Tel Aviv from 1934 until his death in 1960. For many years, he regularly returned to Zürich, Switzerland to give lectures at the C. G. Jung Institute. He also lectured frequently in England, France and the Netherlands, and was a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and president of the Israel Association of Analytical Psychologists.
Erich Neumann contributed greatly to the field of developmental psychology and the psychology of consciousness and creativity. Neumann had a theoretical and philosophical approach to analysis, contrasting with the more clinical concern in England and the United States. His most valuable contribution to psychology was the empirical concept of "centroversion", a synthesis of extra- and introversion. However, he is best known for his theory of feminine development, a theory formulated in numerous publications, most notably The Great Mother. His works also elucidate the way mythology throughout history reveals aspects of the development of consciousness that are parallel in both the individual and society as a whole.
Neumann received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1927. He practiced analytical psychology in Tel Aviv from 1934 until his death in 1960. For many years, he regularly returned to Zürich, Switzerland to give lectures at the C. G. Jung Institute. He also lectured frequently in England, France and the Netherlands, and was a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and president of the Israel Association of Analytical Psychologists.
Erich Neumann contributed greatly to the field of developmental psychology and the psychology of consciousness and creativity. Neumann had a theoretical and philosophical approach to analysis, contrasting with the more clinical concern in England and the United States. His most valuable contribution to psychology was the empirical concept of "centroversion", a synthesis of extra- and introversion. However, he is best known for his theory of feminine development, a theory formulated in numerous publications, most notably The Great Mother. His works also elucidate the way mythology throughout history reveals aspects of the development of consciousness that are parallel in both the individual and society as a whole.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
February 25, 2011
I've been studying the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and this is the best book I've found so far to dig into the deeper levels of the story as found in Apuleius.
In the beginning I was sceptical about what a man writing in the early 1950's might have to say about the "development of the feminine" -- but Neumann's interpretation of the mythic elements of the story seemed right on target. He also avoided the trap many other authors have fallen into; rather than creating a moralistic story by tweaking the original tale or omitting key elements in order to force it to conform to a particular paradigm of spiritual growth, he grapples with the story in its entirety.
Even if a person did not agree with his specific, Jungian interpretation, Neumann does provide an excellent example of how a myth can yield deeper meaning by looking at each act and each character or figure as more than it first appears.
In the beginning I was sceptical about what a man writing in the early 1950's might have to say about the "development of the feminine" -- but Neumann's interpretation of the mythic elements of the story seemed right on target. He also avoided the trap many other authors have fallen into; rather than creating a moralistic story by tweaking the original tale or omitting key elements in order to force it to conform to a particular paradigm of spiritual growth, he grapples with the story in its entirety.
Even if a person did not agree with his specific, Jungian interpretation, Neumann does provide an excellent example of how a myth can yield deeper meaning by looking at each act and each character or figure as more than it first appears.
March 14, 2019
BRILLIANT! The book has two components, the myth and the commentary. The myth is an easy read, the commentary is not an easy read but very worthy of persistence. The analysis is spot on. I can relate on a personal and on a universal level. I captures the current mood as well. It sets out why and how modern woman is being seduced by the dark sides of the great mother and by a toxic sisterhood. It describes why modern men are lying wounded in their caves scolded by the burning wax of women’s illumination. It describes how women are getting in touch with their masculine consciousness to transcendent, and it prophesies on how personal love for individual man, and connection with our deep personal unconscious, will make us return to our feminine state, ready to meet men or the man on a truly equal footing and welcome the divine seed of immortality and bring joy into the world. It provides me with faith and consolation regarding the sorry state we have put ourselves in and frames it as both necessary and temporary.
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June 20, 2026A Jungian interpretation of the Cupid and Psyche myth in Apuleius. Quaint and old-timey in terms of its gender essentialism, but still helpful. My two main questions regarding the myth were:
When Psyche hears the lamentations of her grieving sisters, she is moved to pity. Eros pleads with her to instead “have pity on yourself and on us both; remember your duty and control yourself, save your home.” Against her husband’s exhortations, she yearns to talk with her sisters and “to appease their grief.” But when they see Psyche’s resplendent new home, their grief quickly turns to envy, their lamentations to treachery. Later, on her journey to the Underworld, Psyche is told: “you must not be swayed by pity, which is forbidden to you.” Why, in her ascent to higher consciousness, is Psyche required to set this emotion aside? Neumann says of ego-stability: “Among men this stability is manifested as endurance of pain, hunger, thirst, and so forth; but in the feminine sphere it characteristically takes the form of resistance to pity. This firmness of the strong-willed ego, concentrated on its goal, is expressed in countless other myths and fairy tales, with their injunctions not to turn around, not to answer, and the like.” And “The feminine is threatened in its ego stability by the danger of distraction through ‘relatedness,’” such that “the prohibition of pity signifies Psyche’s struggle against the feminine nature.” Again, I don’t go in for all this gender essentialism, but Neumann’s is an interesting answer to my question.
Another answer that occurs to me has to do with how, in this tale, the objects of pity are always false: the grieving sisters are actually enemies; the “lame driver,” the woman weavers, and the dead man in the Underworld are either illusory, or beyond salvation. In the proper development of one’s capacity to Love, one must also recognize the worthiness and trustworthiness of the objects on which one expends compassion and sympathy.
Psyche’s journey takes her through a marriage-funeral – to a primordial, sensual Paradise in which she is fused with Eros – to a painful separation/individuation – and finally, through many trials, to a higher consciousness that allows her to exist as separate from but also in relation to the beloved. Neumann:“this signifies that the soul’s individual ability to love is divine, and that transformation by love is a mystery that deifies.” It is not Venus or any other *diety* who can take this *deifying* journey, but only the individual human woman, with her capacity for suffering, death, and rebirth. It is through Psyche’s self-sacrifice, moreover, that Eros himself transforms, individuating from his mother, evolving from boy to man, and self-actualizing as the god of Love, “for the understanding of what love and its true secret are becomes accessible to him, becomes living experience for him, only through Psyche’s love.”
See also: Till We Have Faces, a modern retelling of Cupid and Psyche myth.
It seems that one cannot begin to understand this tale before uncoupling Venus from the ideal of divine Love to which the human Psyche must ascend, for, though herself divine, Venus personifies the very opposite of this ideal. How can this be? Neumann argues that this Venus represents a transpersonal Love whose interests rest with the collective; she is the “first parent of created things, the primal source of all the elements” – primordial, anonymous, unindividuated, fueled by drive with fertility as its end. In contrast, Psyche’s is a personal Love, that of an earthly, human, unique individual. Thus Venus is positioned as Psyche’s enemy, for here the goddess is “only nature and the species in opposition to the requirements of the individual.”
Why does Venus exhibit the same negative characteristics as Psyche’s sisters (envy, possessiveness, ego) in a story whose main theme is the human soul’s ascent to divinity through Love?
Why is pity, whether for her grieving sisters or those suffering in the Underworld, considered a flaw that Psyche must overcome?
When Psyche hears the lamentations of her grieving sisters, she is moved to pity. Eros pleads with her to instead “have pity on yourself and on us both; remember your duty and control yourself, save your home.” Against her husband’s exhortations, she yearns to talk with her sisters and “to appease their grief.” But when they see Psyche’s resplendent new home, their grief quickly turns to envy, their lamentations to treachery. Later, on her journey to the Underworld, Psyche is told: “you must not be swayed by pity, which is forbidden to you.” Why, in her ascent to higher consciousness, is Psyche required to set this emotion aside? Neumann says of ego-stability: “Among men this stability is manifested as endurance of pain, hunger, thirst, and so forth; but in the feminine sphere it characteristically takes the form of resistance to pity. This firmness of the strong-willed ego, concentrated on its goal, is expressed in countless other myths and fairy tales, with their injunctions not to turn around, not to answer, and the like.” And “The feminine is threatened in its ego stability by the danger of distraction through ‘relatedness,’” such that “the prohibition of pity signifies Psyche’s struggle against the feminine nature.” Again, I don’t go in for all this gender essentialism, but Neumann’s is an interesting answer to my question.
Another answer that occurs to me has to do with how, in this tale, the objects of pity are always false: the grieving sisters are actually enemies; the “lame driver,” the woman weavers, and the dead man in the Underworld are either illusory, or beyond salvation. In the proper development of one’s capacity to Love, one must also recognize the worthiness and trustworthiness of the objects on which one expends compassion and sympathy.
Psyche’s journey takes her through a marriage-funeral – to a primordial, sensual Paradise in which she is fused with Eros – to a painful separation/individuation – and finally, through many trials, to a higher consciousness that allows her to exist as separate from but also in relation to the beloved. Neumann:“this signifies that the soul’s individual ability to love is divine, and that transformation by love is a mystery that deifies.” It is not Venus or any other *diety* who can take this *deifying* journey, but only the individual human woman, with her capacity for suffering, death, and rebirth. It is through Psyche’s self-sacrifice, moreover, that Eros himself transforms, individuating from his mother, evolving from boy to man, and self-actualizing as the god of Love, “for the understanding of what love and its true secret are becomes accessible to him, becomes living experience for him, only through Psyche’s love.”
See also: Till We Have Faces, a modern retelling of Cupid and Psyche myth.
December 27, 2020
I shamelessly love myth (Apuleius is a Roman author) and I think one of the most refreshing things about him, as a writer from his time, is that he wrote women characters that exuded power and did not paint them derogatorily because of said power. As myth echoes itself throughout the ages, you can find a lot of Apuleius' rendition of the tale echoed through modern stories today (I'm thinking Beauty and the Beast, especially the Czechoslovakian version, and Sleeping Beauty particularly).
It's been about a year since I have indulged in a psychoanalysis of myth, and this was so refreshing. I really enjoyed Neumann's commentary on this myth because of the analytical thought and attention to every detail of the story. Every detail in the telling of a myth is often imperative and symbolic, and Neumann walks the audience through these details so elegantly and deliberately. Neumann's commentary never shames Psyche (or even women at large). In fact, he accounts for "the slavery of the feminine in the patriarchate" that is a viewpoint expressed in antagonistic characters (whom we may otherwise label as malicious or evil, like Maleficent, and whom, without analysis, is seen as unjustly flat and evil in Sleeping Beauty). He does categorize actions and behaviors as feminine and masculine, but elucidates that neither weakness or strength is a direct attribution of femininity or masculinity. Finally, this story is about transformation, elevation of love, and a coming of age. He weaves in space for maturation for his characters.
I hope to find more modern interpretations of this tale. It is beautiful and timeless and this book has heightened my interest in this specific myth. While my bias is obviously cast in favor of this myth/commentary, I would love nothing more than a rebuttal or a spin on this interpretation, as it is more than 50 years old.
It's been about a year since I have indulged in a psychoanalysis of myth, and this was so refreshing. I really enjoyed Neumann's commentary on this myth because of the analytical thought and attention to every detail of the story. Every detail in the telling of a myth is often imperative and symbolic, and Neumann walks the audience through these details so elegantly and deliberately. Neumann's commentary never shames Psyche (or even women at large). In fact, he accounts for "the slavery of the feminine in the patriarchate" that is a viewpoint expressed in antagonistic characters (whom we may otherwise label as malicious or evil, like Maleficent, and whom, without analysis, is seen as unjustly flat and evil in Sleeping Beauty). He does categorize actions and behaviors as feminine and masculine, but elucidates that neither weakness or strength is a direct attribution of femininity or masculinity. Finally, this story is about transformation, elevation of love, and a coming of age. He weaves in space for maturation for his characters.
I hope to find more modern interpretations of this tale. It is beautiful and timeless and this book has heightened my interest in this specific myth. While my bias is obviously cast in favor of this myth/commentary, I would love nothing more than a rebuttal or a spin on this interpretation, as it is more than 50 years old.
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July 23, 2007Psychoanalysis of myths gives me hives.
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February 26, 2025This book presents an intriguing exploration of what sets a heroine's journey apart from a hero's. For those struggling to integrate their inner psyche amid the relentless push for unyielding strength, individualism, and the more egoic, masculine development, this reading will resonate deeply. The heroine's journey serves as both a companion and a subversive act, tipping the heavy imbalance of victorious triumph that dominates traditional hero's journey narratives. The myth of Eros/Amor and Psyche serves as a powerful mythical symbol and reminder of our ever-so-mortal, human qualities. Those qualities we must not lose amid the myriad ways we are bound by the need to survive.
----
If so I, a mortal, adore you from this far out on our bed.
Such a divine stature wholly embedded.
Am I putting you in harm’s way to have it all shed,
By looking at you dead?
In your sorry little eyes, infantile, painful, somber.
Real bitter, they were.
To be closer.
To be rude.
Real brute, and crude.
In your puerile face, mortal, human, subdued.
Eros, divine Eros,
This mortal Psyche longed for the loss
Of your godlike visage.
For gods’ sake, Eros, your seraphic image!
To be cheered —
Earnestly revered, and endeared.
Has to wreak havoc on your holy, to spur love from the seed.
Just to adore ever more intimately, nearer in our bed,
Earnestly shared, as we danced.
To be wed.
----
If so I, a mortal, adore you from this far out on our bed.
Such a divine stature wholly embedded.
Am I putting you in harm’s way to have it all shed,
By looking at you dead?
In your sorry little eyes, infantile, painful, somber.
Real bitter, they were.
To be closer.
To be rude.
Real brute, and crude.
In your puerile face, mortal, human, subdued.
Eros, divine Eros,
This mortal Psyche longed for the loss
Of your godlike visage.
For gods’ sake, Eros, your seraphic image!
To be cheered —
Earnestly revered, and endeared.
Has to wreak havoc on your holy, to spur love from the seed.
Just to adore ever more intimately, nearer in our bed,
Earnestly shared, as we danced.
To be wed.
December 17, 2025
DNF lol this sh*t was boring and outdated as hell
June 5, 2016
Actual rating: 3.5
The story of Amor and Psyche was really interesting! It is my assignment for my English 258, Mythology in Literature, class and I must admit, I thought I would not be so interested in it. I found many connections to some fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose). To read about this kind of crossover in this story, it made it so much more interesting. However, when it came to the "The Psychic Development of the Feminine" I was not as interested. Since I did not know some of the stories it was compared to, I was a little lost. But it did have some answers to some questions I had.
The story of Amor and Psyche was really interesting! It is my assignment for my English 258, Mythology in Literature, class and I must admit, I thought I would not be so interested in it. I found many connections to some fairy tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose). To read about this kind of crossover in this story, it made it so much more interesting. However, when it came to the "The Psychic Development of the Feminine" I was not as interested. Since I did not know some of the stories it was compared to, I was a little lost. But it did have some answers to some questions I had.
November 30, 2024
Excellent Jungian study of a crucial archetypal engagement with feminine psychology. Where Maria von Franz reads the myth as a reflection on the shaping masculine consciousness of Apuleius's Golden Ass (the source of the versions that have come down in the West), Neumann flips the emphasis to read it as the story of Psyche's development. Both readings are convincing and it's probably best to read them together. I think Neumann reverts in a small degree to a few of the patriarchal notions of the `1940s and 1950s in his reading of Psyche's "return" to Eros (Cupid) at the end, but that's a small quibble and doesn't negate the deep insights.
December 5, 2008
A book that somehow stirs memories in my brain, this one needs to be read for a class, I think, or discussed with someone who is reading it for a class. It covers the evolution of the feminine psyche through myth and stories of Psyche, Aphrodite and others. Over half the book is discussion of all this, but even that was a struggle for me to get through on my own. Perhaps I'm just not patient enough.
June 21, 2017
Jungian psychoanalysis of Greek mythology in relation to the development of the feminine personality. One of many books from my psychotherapy training reading pile/mountain. I enjoyed the love story of Amor and Psyche and some of the interpretation but generally found this hard going.
November 1, 2022
Amazing. Hard. Plentiful of symbols. Focused on the development of the feminine, especially for women.
April 6, 2026
Wonderful Jungian psychoanalysis of the feminine development, through the myth of Eros and Psyche.
The idea of a psychoanalysis of the feminine psyche is very interesting to me, and Erich Neumann, Jung's student, performed it masterfully.
The stages of the feminine development, sexuality in the feminine experience, the journey towards individuation, the battle against the contrasting matriarchate/patriarchate tendencies within the feminine experience, are of the topics mentioned.
"Matriarchal hostility toward encounter with the man, that is, toward love, must indeed be overcome, and the patriarchate represents a necessary transition stage even for the feminine development, but 'imprisonment in the patriarchate', 'harem psychology', is a regression over against the matriarchal independence of womanhood. For this reason an essential and positive element is contained in the opposition of the matriarchal powers to the imprisonment of the feminine in the patriarchate as well as its servitude to the Eros-dragon, the paternal uroboros. In this sense 'regression' to the matriarchal powers often has a progressive meaning," "...This, however, occurs only when the powers are accepted in favor of a still unknown and broadened personality, a movement toward psychic wholeness, and not when the psyche surrenders to a destructive, personally regressive shadow aspect such as the sisters represent in the tale of psyche."
The patriarchate/matriarchate can be positive elements when contrasted with eachother in a collective inner movement toward consciousness, individuation, and a broadened personality, yet they are regressive when one gets stuck in them.
Quote includes spoilers:
"The psyche who approaches the bed - is no longer the languorously ensnared being, bewitched by her senses, who lived in the dark paradise of sexuality and lust. Awakened by the incursion of her sisters, conscious of the danger that threatens her, she assumes the cruel militancy of the matriarchate as she approaches the bed to kill the monster, the male beast who has torn her from the upper world in a marriage of death and carried her off into darkness. But in the glow of the newly kindled light with which she illumines the unconscious darkness of her previous existence, she recognizes Eros. She loves. In the light of her new consciousness she experiences a fateful transformation, in which she discovers that the seperation between beast and husband is not valid. As the lightning bolt of love strikes her, she turns the knife against her own heart or (in other terms) wounds herself on Eros' arrow. With this she departs from the childlike, unconscious aspect of her reality and the matriarchal, man-hating aspect as well. Only in a squalid, lightless existence can Psyche mistake her lover for a beast, a violator, a dragon, and only as a childlishly ignorant girl (but this too is a dark aspect) can she suppose that she is in love with a "higher husband" distinct from the lower dragon. In the light of irrupting love Psyche recognizes Eros, who is the upper and the lower in one, and who connects the two." He then followed with: "what Psyche now experiences may be said to be a second defloration, the real, active, voluntary defloration" "She is no longer a victim, but an actively loving woman"
In her development she learns to love.
The idea of "The great mother", and other psychoanalytical terminologies must be explored elsewhere, great book.
The idea of a psychoanalysis of the feminine psyche is very interesting to me, and Erich Neumann, Jung's student, performed it masterfully.
The stages of the feminine development, sexuality in the feminine experience, the journey towards individuation, the battle against the contrasting matriarchate/patriarchate tendencies within the feminine experience, are of the topics mentioned.
"Matriarchal hostility toward encounter with the man, that is, toward love, must indeed be overcome, and the patriarchate represents a necessary transition stage even for the feminine development, but 'imprisonment in the patriarchate', 'harem psychology', is a regression over against the matriarchal independence of womanhood. For this reason an essential and positive element is contained in the opposition of the matriarchal powers to the imprisonment of the feminine in the patriarchate as well as its servitude to the Eros-dragon, the paternal uroboros. In this sense 'regression' to the matriarchal powers often has a progressive meaning," "...This, however, occurs only when the powers are accepted in favor of a still unknown and broadened personality, a movement toward psychic wholeness, and not when the psyche surrenders to a destructive, personally regressive shadow aspect such as the sisters represent in the tale of psyche."
The patriarchate/matriarchate can be positive elements when contrasted with eachother in a collective inner movement toward consciousness, individuation, and a broadened personality, yet they are regressive when one gets stuck in them.
Quote includes spoilers:
"The psyche who approaches the bed - is no longer the languorously ensnared being, bewitched by her senses, who lived in the dark paradise of sexuality and lust. Awakened by the incursion of her sisters, conscious of the danger that threatens her, she assumes the cruel militancy of the matriarchate as she approaches the bed to kill the monster, the male beast who has torn her from the upper world in a marriage of death and carried her off into darkness. But in the glow of the newly kindled light with which she illumines the unconscious darkness of her previous existence, she recognizes Eros. She loves. In the light of her new consciousness she experiences a fateful transformation, in which she discovers that the seperation between beast and husband is not valid. As the lightning bolt of love strikes her, she turns the knife against her own heart or (in other terms) wounds herself on Eros' arrow. With this she departs from the childlike, unconscious aspect of her reality and the matriarchal, man-hating aspect as well. Only in a squalid, lightless existence can Psyche mistake her lover for a beast, a violator, a dragon, and only as a childlishly ignorant girl (but this too is a dark aspect) can she suppose that she is in love with a "higher husband" distinct from the lower dragon. In the light of irrupting love Psyche recognizes Eros, who is the upper and the lower in one, and who connects the two." He then followed with: "what Psyche now experiences may be said to be a second defloration, the real, active, voluntary defloration" "She is no longer a victim, but an actively loving woman"
In her development she learns to love.
The idea of "The great mother", and other psychoanalytical terminologies must be explored elsewhere, great book.
August 7, 2017
Δε νιώθω ότι είμαι σε θέση να γράψω κριτική γι αυτό το βιβλίο. Κάτι τέτοιο θα απαιτούσε υπόβαθρο που εγώ δε διαθέτω. Αν, λοιπόν, έχετε ανάγκη να διαβάσετε μια κριτική ανάλυση, αυτό το review δε θα σας βοηθήσει και άρα προτείνω να το αγνοήσετε. Παρακάτω θα παραθέσω την αίσθηση που μου άφησε, τις σκέψεις που μου γέννησε και πόσο εμένα με βοήθησε στη σκέψη μου.
Ξεκίνησα το βιβλίο αυτό με συστολή, μην μπορώντας να φανταστώ πώς θα μπορούσα να ανταπεξέλθω ως αναγνώστρια σε (ή τι θα μπορούσα να αποκομίσω από) μια αρχετυπική/γιουνγκιανή ανάλυση του μύθου του Έρωτος και της Ψυχής με έμφαση στην ψυχολογική ανάπτυξη του θηλυκού.
Προς μεγάλη μου έκπληξη το ανάγνωσμα με συνεπήρε. Απόλυτα. Τα σημαίνοντα και τα σημαινόμενα έδωσαν τέτοιες ψυχαναλυτικές διαστάσεις στο μύθο του Απουλήιου (που παρεμπιπτόντως περιέχεται, αποτελώντας το πρώτο σκέλος του βιβλίου) ώστε ένιωσα ότι βιώνω έναν απόλυτο συγχρονισμό σε σχέση με τις μύχιες σκέψεις και τους προβληματισμούς της περιόδου, οδηγώντας με να αφήσω κάθε άλλη δραστηριότητα ώστε να αφεθώ απερίσπαστα στην ανάγνωση.
Ορισμένες έννοιες που μου εντυπώθηκαν:
- Το θηλυκό αναπτύσσεται όχι μόνο επειδή αναγνωρίζει τη δυναμική του, αλλά και επειδή ενσωματώνει στη φαρέτρα του στοιχεία του αρσενικού με τρόπο οικείο και χρηστικό σε αυτό.
- Το θηλυκό βιώνει και εξελίσσει την ατομικότητά του αναγνωρίζοντας και αγαπώντας το αρσενικό με έντονο και αποφασιστικό τρόπο.
- Το αρσενικό υπερβαίνει εαυτόν και μετασχηματίζεται φθάνοντας στη δική του ωριμότητα με έμπνευση την εξατομίκευση του θηλυκού.
Το θηλυκό και το αρσενικό δεν είναι ο άνδρας και η γυναίκα.
Εν κατακλείδι, εάν έχετε ανάγκη από εξηγήσεις, συμβολισμούς και κατευθύνσεις αναφορικά με την αυτοεξέλιξη και το συσχετίζεσθαι, κι εάν δε φοβάστε να αναμετρηθείτε με τη στριφνή γλώσσα των αναλυτικών ψυχολόγων (και το σύμπαν του Jung), αφεθείτε στο συγχρονισμό του σύμπαντος και, όποτε πέσει στα χέρια σας αυτό το βιβλίο, ανοίξτε το με όρεξη.
Ξεκίνησα το βιβλίο αυτό με συστολή, μην μπορώντας να φανταστώ πώς θα μπορούσα να ανταπεξέλθω ως αναγνώστρια σε (ή τι θα μπορούσα να αποκομίσω από) μια αρχετυπική/γιουνγκιανή ανάλυση του μύθου του Έρωτος και της Ψυχής με έμφαση στην ψυχολογική ανάπτυξη του θηλυκού.
Προς μεγάλη μου έκπληξη το ανάγνωσμα με συνεπήρε. Απόλυτα. Τα σημαίνοντα και τα σημαινόμενα έδωσαν τέτοιες ψυχαναλυτικές διαστάσεις στο μύθο του Απουλήιου (που παρεμπιπτόντως περιέχεται, αποτελώντας το πρώτο σκέλος του βιβλίου) ώστε ένιωσα ότι βιώνω έναν απόλυτο συγχρονισμό σε σχέση με τις μύχιες σκέψεις και τους προβληματισμούς της περιόδου, οδηγώντας με να αφήσω κάθε άλλη δραστηριότητα ώστε να αφεθώ απερίσπαστα στην ανάγνωση.
Ορισμένες έννοιες που μου εντυπώθηκαν:
- Το θηλυκό αναπτύσσεται όχι μόνο επειδή αναγνωρίζει τη δυναμική του, αλλά και επειδή ενσωματώνει στη φαρέτρα του στοιχεία του αρσενικού με τρόπο οικείο και χρηστικό σε αυτό.
- Το θηλυκό βιώνει και εξελίσσει την ατομικότητά του αναγνωρίζοντας και αγαπώντας το αρσενικό με έντονο και αποφασιστικό τρόπο.
- Το αρσενικό υπερβαίνει εαυτόν και μετασχηματίζεται φθάνοντας στη δική του ωριμότητα με έμπνευση την εξατομίκευση του θηλυκού.
Το θηλυκό και το αρσενικό δεν είναι ο άνδρας και η γυναίκα.
Εν κατακλείδι, εάν έχετε ανάγκη από εξηγήσεις, συμβολισμούς και κατευθύνσεις αναφορικά με την αυτοεξέλιξη και το συσχετίζεσθαι, κι εάν δε φοβάστε να αναμετρηθείτε με τη στριφνή γλώσσα των αναλυτικών ψυχολόγων (και το σύμπαν του Jung), αφεθείτε στο συγχρονισμό του σύμπαντος και, όποτε πέσει στα χέρια σας αυτό το βιβλίο, ανοίξτε το με όρεξη.
December 24, 2024
Absolutely astonishing, my favorite Jungian analysis of a myth and is currently my third favorite book in Jungian literature. The myth itself speaks volumes to me and really gets me contemplating about love and the body. It is crazy how well Neumann has broken down this myth in his own personal lens of the patriarchal, matriarchal, the uroboros, and centroversion (all of which he introduced in his "The Origins and History of Consciousness"). Heck, it is an interpretation we use for the psyche itself and its significance towards individuation and our human connection with the archetypal divine world of the unconscious.
I can identify and relate to both the feminine and masculine concepts he breaks down into and their relation towards their union and the divine bliss of their conscious awareness. The role suffering plays in the feminine and the role conquest and advancement in the masculine.
As for the interpretation itself, there is so much detail the he goes into that opens your eyes to just how deep and thoughtful interpretations can go. Psyche first goes through her human counter-parts her sisters who represent her own shadow and then confronts the matriarchal goddess, Aphrodite. Her tasks represent the gradual influence of animus influence from instincts in the form of animals. The very act of sifting, sorting, and organizing information being inherent in the psyche explains our own human relation to the role we have in unconscious and conscious information (centroversion).
Then goes onto explain the role the masculine and feminine orientations have in individuation (and the fact that a male can undergo feminine 'mysteries' just as females can undergo masculine 'mysteries' but the very act that leads to Psyche's union with the Gods is reverting back to her feminine nature after undergoing masculine processes that are imposed on her in the form of her tasks.
I can identify and relate to both the feminine and masculine concepts he breaks down into and their relation towards their union and the divine bliss of their conscious awareness. The role suffering plays in the feminine and the role conquest and advancement in the masculine.
As for the interpretation itself, there is so much detail the he goes into that opens your eyes to just how deep and thoughtful interpretations can go. Psyche first goes through her human counter-parts her sisters who represent her own shadow and then confronts the matriarchal goddess, Aphrodite. Her tasks represent the gradual influence of animus influence from instincts in the form of animals. The very act of sifting, sorting, and organizing information being inherent in the psyche explains our own human relation to the role we have in unconscious and conscious information (centroversion).
Then goes onto explain the role the masculine and feminine orientations have in individuation (and the fact that a male can undergo feminine 'mysteries' just as females can undergo masculine 'mysteries' but the very act that leads to Psyche's union with the Gods is reverting back to her feminine nature after undergoing masculine processes that are imposed on her in the form of her tasks.
March 15, 2025
Η περίφημη ιστορία του Έρωτα και της Ψυχής από τη νουβέλλα Ο Χρυσός Όνος του Λατίνου Λούκιου Απουλήϊου, του 2ου μ.Χ. αιώνα, είναι ένα από τα γοητευτικότερα εναπομείναντα κομμάτια της κλασσικής Λογοτεχνίας. Ο Έριχ Νόυμαν την διάλεξε ως πρότυπο για μία ασυνήθιστη μελέτη της θηλυκής ψυχολογίας. Αναλύοντας το πνευματικό και μυθολογικό υπόβαθρο του παγανιστικού αυτού αριστουργήματος, μας εξηγεί ότι η σύγκρουση της θνητής κόρης Ψυχής με τη μεγάλη θεά Αφροδίτη για τον θεό Έρωτα -γυιό της Αφροδίτης και σύζυγο της Ψυχής- μας οδηγεί σε απροσδόκητες και πολύτιμες ενοράσεις για την ψυχική ζωή της γυναίκας. (Από την παρουσίαση στο οπισθόφυλλο του βιβλίου)
September 6, 2025
Ο Neumann εστιάζει ακριβώς σε αυτά τα στοιχεία του μύθου που αποδεικνύουν την θεωρία του, ότι δηλ η ιστορία της Ψυχής δεν είναι παρά η πορεία του θηλυκού προς την ολοκλήρωση. Σε πολλά συμφώνησα με τις απόψεις του, με έπεισε με τα επιχειρήματά του, όμως θα είχε εξαιρετικό ενδιαφέρον μία πιο σφαιρική προσέγγιση. (Για παράδειγμα μεγαλύτερη ανάλυση στην παθητική συμπεριφορά του αρσενικού-Έρωτα, αλλά και στους λόγους για την αποτυχία της Ψυχής στον 4ο άθλο γιατί δεν καλύφθηκα από την ανάλυση και τις απαντήσεις που δίνει).
August 7, 2024
Ano passado, dentro do contexto da psicologia analítica, descobri que uma das histórias que minha mãe me contava e eu mais amava era uma versão do mito de eros e psique. Ler o mito de Apuleio e a explicação de um junguiano foi bem especial, apesar da explanação não ser das melhores (um homem falando sobre desenvolvimento psíquico feminino) eu amei ler e ver que se todo mundo tem um mito, talvez esse seja o meu.
July 17, 2018
Wow! I came across a myth I've never heard of before! And a most enjoyable one too! The psychological analysis is also full of interesting information, but can get slightly difficult to grasp at points. It's definitely worth the effort though if one stays with it!
September 29, 2022
This book really made me reflect on femininity, the death of self implied by marriage, and the trials and tribulations of an imperfect protagonist with continual ambivalence about going on living--something I can certainly relate to. I love Neumann's commentary.
June 30, 2024
A bit of a slog to get through but well worth it for the psychological analysis and insights of the interplay between Psyche (the feminine aspect of our psyches) and Eros (the masculine component). Lots of good takeaways.
March 2, 2020
A heroine's journey.
July 11, 2021
This is such an important story in the mythology of the heroine's journey. The importance of the transformation from maidenhood to motherhood. Such a powerful subject that deserves more scrutiny.
November 25, 2024
Interesting
February 23, 2025
Really explains the whole thing.
April 30, 2026
ripetitivo
May 5, 2026
life-changing
May 23, 2026
argomento: 4
ritmo: 3,5
stile: 2,75
totale: 3,42
ritmo: 3,5
stile: 2,75
totale: 3,42
November 26, 2020
Un capolavoro.
December 4, 2022
Telling of the myth and good commentary
The telling of the myth itself was a critical translation work. The story itself is presented as-is, and then the analyses follow.
The analyses definitely have many interesting points of mythography. There are parts where the story is explored not only as the journey that Psyche, the individual, must undergo, but also how it is reflective of the broader pattern of individuation.
There are definitely parts of the commentary that felt very obtuse to me (I'm new to Jung) and also it was very self-referential and repetitive in some parts. I would say that the English translation could really benefit from more editing and more clarity as to what the takeaway is supposed to be, since the notes are presented as many stacked interpretations.
The telling of the myth itself was a critical translation work. The story itself is presented as-is, and then the analyses follow.
The analyses definitely have many interesting points of mythography. There are parts where the story is explored not only as the journey that Psyche, the individual, must undergo, but also how it is reflective of the broader pattern of individuation.
There are definitely parts of the commentary that felt very obtuse to me (I'm new to Jung) and also it was very self-referential and repetitive in some parts. I would say that the English translation could really benefit from more editing and more clarity as to what the takeaway is supposed to be, since the notes are presented as many stacked interpretations.
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