Interfaith dialogue: Psychology

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Random House, 1977.

Bruno Bettelheim was one of the great child psychologists of the twentieth century and perhaps none of his books has been more influential than this revelatory study of fairy tales and their universal importance in understanding childhood development. Analyzing a wide range of traditional stories, from the tales of Sindbad to The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and The Sleeping Beauty, Bettelheim shows how the fantastical, sometimes cruel, but always deeply significant narrative strands of the classic fairy tales can aid in our greatest human task, that of finding meaning for one’s life.

——. Freud and Man’s Soul. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1983. 

Argues that mistranslation has distorted Freud’s work in English and led students to see a system intended to cooperate flexibly with individual needs as a set of rigid rules to be applied by external authority.

Bolen, Jean Shinoda, MD. Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women. Foreword by Gloria Steinem. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985.

Just as women used to be unconscious of the powerful effects that cultural stereotypes had on them, they may also be unconscious of powerful forces within them that influence what they do and how they feel, and which account for major differences among women. Psychoanalyst Jean Bolen believes that an understanding of these inner patterns and their interrelationships offers reassuring, true-to-life alternatives that take women far beyond such restrictive dichotomies as masculine/feminine, mother/lover, careerist/housewife. And she demonstrates how understanding them can provide the key to self-knowledge and wholeness. Dr. Bolen introduces these patterns in the guise of seven archetypal goddesses, or personality types, with whom all women will identify. Goddesses in Everywoman shows readers how to identify their ruling goddesses (from the autonomous Artemis and the cool Athena to the nurturing Demeter and the creative Aphrodite), how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes to become better “heroines” in their own life stories.

Dourley, John P. The Psyche as Sacrament: A Comparative Study of C. G. Jung and Paul Tillich. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books, 1981.

Catholic priest and analyst examines the deeper meaning of God, Christ, the Spirit, the Trinity, morality and the religious life. “In the depths of the soul,” he concludes, “the psychological and religious tasks are one.”

Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. New York: Random House, 1995.

Within every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species. For though the gifts of wildish nature belong to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into rigid roles has muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. In Women Who Run with the Wolves, Dr. Estés unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, many from her own traditions, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr. Estés has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

Frankl, Viktor E.  Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. New York: Beacon Press, 1971.

Few books in recent decades have had the continuing impact of Dr. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning — the classic best seller now considered to be one of the most important contributions to psychiatry since the writing of Freud. In it, Dr. Frankl gives a moving account of his life amid the horrors of the Nazi death camps, chronicling the harrowing experience that led to his discovery of his theory of logotherapy. A profound revelation born out of Dr. Frankl’s years as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, logotherapy is a modern and positive approach to the mentally or spiritually disturbed personality. Stressing man’s freedom to transcend suffering and find a meaning to his life regardless of his circumstances, it is a theory which, since its conception, has exercised a tremendous influence upon the entire field of psychiatry and psychology. Here, Dr. Frankl not only describes the genesis and development of logotherapy but also explains its basic concepts, and in this revised and enlarged edition, has included a new chapter, entitled “The Case for a Tragic Optimism,” in which he updates theoretical conclusions of the book. The result is an invaluable work by one of the world’s preeminent psychiatrists.

Gollnick, James. Love and the Soul: Psychological Interpretations of the Eros and Psyche Myth. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier Press, 1992.

The Eros and Psyche myth has, over the course of the twentieth century, received nearly as much attention from depth psychologists as has the Oedipus story. In their attempt to better understand this popular story, scholars have proposed various interpretations, which have generally followed eithether Freudian or Jungian theories about the nature of the psyche and its development.

This elaborate work provides serious students of psychology, religion and mythology with a detailed account and analysis of what has been accomplished in the spychological interpretation of the Eros and Psyche myth to date. It emphasizes how psychological theory determines the direction of interpretation much more than does the literary context of the myth itself. It also examines the strengths and weaknesses of these psychological interpretations (five Freudian and six Jungian) of the Eros and Psyche myth in order to lay the groundwork for an interpretation which (1) avoids the rigidity of both Freudian and Jungian dogma and (2) restores the myth to its rightful literary and religious context — something which has been ignored by most psychological interpretations.

Hillman, James. The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling. New York: Random House, 1996.

A Jungian analyst explores the fundamental questions of human existence and identity, discussing such topics as fate, character, motivation, intuition, vision, impulse, and calling.

Johnson, Robert A. She: Understanding Feminine Psychology – An Interpretation based on the myth of Amor and Psyche and using Jungian psychological concepts. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

What does it mean to be a woman? What is the pathway to mature femininity? These are some of the questions addressed in this perceptive exploration of female psychology. This bestselling book is invaluable to any woman who wants to better understand herself.

Jung, C.G.  Modern Man in Search of a Soul. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1933.

The basic introduction to the thought of Jung, one of the founders of modern psychiatry. Here Jung examines some of the most contested and crucial areas in the field of analytical psychology: dream analysis, the primitive unconscious, and the relationship between psychology and religion.

——. Psyche and Symbol. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

The archetypes of human experience which derive from the deepest unconscious mind and reveal themselves in the universal symbols of art and religion as well as in the individual symbolic creations of particular people are, for C. G. Jung, the key to the cure of souls, the cornerstone of his therapeutic work. This volume explains the function and origin of these symbols. Here the reader will find not only a general orientation to Jung’s point of view but extensive studies of the symbolic process and its integrating function in human psychology as it is reflected in the characteristic spiritual productions of Europe and Asia.

Lerner, Harriet. The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted, Betrayed, or Desperate. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 2002.

In her most groundbreaking book to date, Dr. Harriet Lerner takes us beyond The Dance of Anger and shows us how to ‘find our voice’ with the people in our lives who matter the most.

Lowenthal, Martin. Alchemy of the Soul: The Eros & Psyche Myth as a Guide to Transformation. Berwick, Maine: Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 2004.

The book is divided into three parts: – Part 1 is a beautiful retelling of the myth of Eros and Psyche.- Part 2 examines the power of myth and alchemy and shows how spiritual alchemy can restore and transform the soul.- Part 3 is an initiation into the alchemical mysteries using myth as mentor.

Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. Boston & London, Shambhala Publications, 1990.

This book describes contemporary woman’s search for wholeness in a society in which she has been defined according to masculine values. Drawing upon cultural myths and fairy tales, ancient symbols and goddesses, and the dreams of contemporary women, Murdock illustrates the need for—and the reality of—feminine values in Western culture today.

Neumann, Erich. Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.

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.

Ornish, Dean, MD. Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1998.

Love and survival. What do they have to do with one another? This book is based on a simple but powerful idea: Our survival depends on the healing power of love, intimacy and relationships. As individuals. As communities. As a country. As a culture. Perhaps even as a species.

Shlain, Leonard. The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. New York: Viking, 1998.

Forging provocative connections among many fields, the author of Art and Physics demonstrates how alphabetic literacy caused the development of the brain’s left half over the right, which affected the role and power of women.

Wilson, James Q. The Moral Sense. New York, The Free Press, 1993.

James Q. Wilson has taken an unfashionable, but undeniable crucial question about our moral nature, and produced a bracing, elegant, carefully researched and closely argued book.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: Orion Publishing Group, 1995.

This is Mary Wollstonecraft’s most famous work. While she does not seek to undermine the family, she argues strongly for a woman’s right to enter any sphere of activity she chooses, affirming a woman’s right to fulfillment as a human and not merely as a sexual being. This was a view inevitably limited by the age in which she wrote, and this edition incorporates as appendices writings by contemporary philosophers such as Rousseau, Locke and Kant, thereby placing Wollstonecraft’s thinking in context.