Erich Neumann

First Published in 1999. This is Volume V of twelve in the Analytical Psychology series. Written in 1956, this text provides the tale of Amor and Psyche from the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius with a commentary on the psychic development of the feminine.

This is Volume VI of twelve in the Analytical Psychology Series. Originally published in 1959, this is a collection of four essays on art and the creative unconscious, three of which are translations of

First Published in 1999. This is Volume V of twelve in the Analytical Psychology series. Written in 1956, this text provides the tale of Amor and Psyche from the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius with a commentary on the psychic development of the feminine.

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.

The renowned tale of Amor and Psyche, from Apuleius's second-century Latin novel The Golden Ass, is one of the most charming fragments of classical literature. Neumann chose it as the exemplar of an unusual study of feminine psychology. Unfolding the spiritual and mythical background of the pagan narrative, he shows how the contest between the mortal maid Psyche and the great goddess Aphrodite over the god Amor--Aphrodite's son, Psyche's husband--yields surprising and valuable insights into the psychic life of women.

Four essays on the psychological aspects of art. A study of Leonardo treats the work of art, and art itself, not as ends in themselves, but rather as instruments of the artist's inner situation. Two other essays discuss the relation of art to its epoch and specifically the relation of modern art to our own time. An essay on Chagall views this artist in the context of the problems explored in the other studies.