Press Release: Animus Aeternus

Animus Aeternus cover image
 Lovers’ Promenade © 2009
Iris Sonnenschein www.irisquilts.com

With Great Pleasure Fisher King Press Announced Today:

Now Available from Fisher King Press

Animus Aeternus: Exploring the Inner Masculine

by Deldon Anne McNeely

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“The animus is the deposit, as it were, of all woman’s ancestral experiences of man—and not only that, he is also a creative and procreative being.”

—C.G. Jung

Inextricably enmeshed in the life of every woman is a constellation of autonomous energy that Jung called animus, her masculine side. As a woman develops psychologically, animus changes, appearing and reappearing as child or adult, lover or enemy, king or slave, animal or spirit. All these manifestations of animus energy are reflected in her experience of masculinity, both in herself and in others.

Press Release: The Promiscuity Papers

Fisher King Press is please to present:


The Promiscuity Papers
by Matjaž Regovec


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The founding myth of psychoanalysis is revisited in The Promiscuity Papers with special attention being paid to the correlation between archetypal promiscuity and incest. The particular concern of the author, Matjaž Regovec, is to reveal how insights from these archetypal themes shed light on the difficulties encountered by a patient in his analytical practice. This work is aimed at practitioners and students in the psychoanalytic, psychotherapy and counselling worlds but will also be of interest to those in the social sciences.

Ann Casement, Licensed Psychoanalyst:

Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Guilt and Gender Roles

by Lawrence H. Staples

Women have an unconscious masculine side and men have an unconscious feminine side. Jungians use the term animus to personify the masculine side of a woman. They use the term anima for the feminine side of the man. Guilt is a formidable obstacle to the development of the contra-sexual sides of our selves. Women who were taught by parents to behave in ways that the parents defined as feminine felt guilty whenever they deviated from such behavior. When they dared to express masculine(1) behaviors, they were made to feel that they were “bad.” Men face a similar problem in developing their feminine(2) side. Fathers can be as appalled by a son’s interest in ballet or art as he can by his tears or his inability to focus and think clearly. To develop our “other” side, we must jump the fence, violate the parental definitions of what is good, enter the shadow, sin, and incur guilt in varying degrees. It is hard and sometimes distasteful work. It’s much easier to manifest contra-sexual qualities today than it was a hundred years ago. But there is still a powerful residual resistance to the development of our contra-sexual selves.

A woman needs access to her inner masculine qualities if she is to protect and defend herself against those masculine qualities that have been turned against her. For a woman the cure for being a victim of those masculine qualities is homeopathic, with respect to the man; that is, she gives him a dose of his own medicine.

Logos vs Eros: Should Manhood be Continued?

article by Bud Harris

The idea that male energy could be good has come to be considered impossible. Yet all the great cultures have lived with images of this energy.(1)  —Robert Bly

Recent years have brought a growing emphasis on the concept of androgyny. Are men and women basically alike underneath it all? If they are, should we strive for an androgynous plateau after doing away with cultural sex roles? Is our common bond in humanity the place we should equally meet? Or do the differences in the masculine and feminine really complement and enhance one another? What about the joyful, tender, romantic moments? Will they be homogenized out of existence? Or have they already been lost as we have replaced the mystery of sex and love with the technology of sex and “how to” manuals for relationships? Or have they been lost as we have become involved in the polemics of sexual politics that mark the angry suspicion that one sex is somehow ahead of the other?

Threshold Experiences

Now available from Fisher King Press

Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings 
by Michael Conforti
First Edition, Trade Paperback, 168pp, Index, Bibliography
 — ISBN 978-0-9441879-9-9
$25.00 USD  Sale Price $19.95   Add to Cart 

This seminal volume represents the foundation of Michael Conforti's 25-year pioneering exploration of the confluence of psyche and matter.

"In the beginning", so goes many a great story. These familiar words beckon us across a threshold, often transporting us into unknown worlds and novel experiences. So too our lives are filled with many such "beginnings" -- new jobs, relationships, adventures, and even the inception of life itself. Each of these "threshold experiences" not only introduces us to new domains, but also draws us into the realities of archetypal fields. Learning to creatively interact with these prefigured, a priori fields can allow us rich access to sources of eternal wisdom.

Fiction: A Portal to the Sacred

article by Phyllis LaPlante

The following paper was entered in a writing contest sponsored by the C.G. Jung Society of St. Louis. If you've read Main Street Stories, you will recognize "Philip" and "Arnie" traveling under assumed names.

FICTION: A PORTAL TO THE SACRED

Here is a modest proposal to help us better understand our patients and ourselves:

1. Read fiction. 2. Write fiction.

I can hear you snort, read fiction? Fiction is a guilty pleasure, to be undertaken only on vacation or when serious reading has been thoroughly digested.

What's that stack of unread material on your desk? Several issues of The Journal of Analytical Psychology, a new work on Jungian psychology authored by a colleague, the book on neurobiology you have been intending to read? Not fiction.

I believe that fiction is not only one portal, but perhaps the best portal, to the sacred -- that is, to the heart of our analytic endeavors. It is our responsibility to understand ourselves and our patients. How do we ordinarily undertake this task?