Sunday, November 25, 2007

Fisher King Press to publish "Guilt with a Twist" by Lawrence H. Staples

Guilt with a Twist: The Promethean Way

Our hunger for the forbidden fruit grows as we get older and our need for it increases. By midlife, we often sense that something important is missing. Then the "unacceptable," "sinful" parts of ourselves that have been rejected begin to clamor with ever greater insistence to participate in our lives.

Promethean guilt is the guilt we incur for the sins that we need to commit if we are to achieve, both for our selves and for our society, some of the social, political, economic, scientific, psycho-logical, and other changes and developments that we most deeply need to sustain and nourish us. Myth tells us that Prometheus stole fire from the gods and made it available for human use. He suffered for this sin, but human society would have suffered if he had not committed it. There indeed are sins that are destructive to society, but the paradox is that there are also sins that inure ultimately to society's benefit. Those sins that benefit us could not be committed without a creative, Promethean spirit that is supported, when necessary, by an obstinate and irreverent insolence toward authority (political, theological, pedagogical, and parental) and that is informed by a love for freedom. Life inevitably confronts us with the Promethean dilemma: Do we live our lives without fire and the heat and light it provides or do we sin, and subsequently incur guilt, in order to obtain for ourselves and for society those important changes and developments that we need.

After receiving AB and MBA degrees from Harvard, Larry Staples spent the next 22 years with a Fortune 500 company, where he became an officer and a corporate vice president. When he was 50, he made a mid-life career change and entered the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, where he spent the next nine years in training to become a Jungian psychoanalyst. After graduation, he returned to the United States and opened a private practice in Washington, DC, where he continues to work as a licensed psychoanalyst (Jungian). Larry has a Ph.D. in psychology; his special areas of interest are the problems of mid-life and guilt.

Published by available directly from Fisher King Press ISBN 13: 978-0-9776076-4-8 / ISBN 10: 0-9776076-4-X, Publication Date: Spring–2008, Price: $25.00. To order your copy click on the link below or call 1-831-238-7799.

Click the following link to place your order for Guilt with a Twist