The Fear of the Feminine

<p>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.<br><br><br> 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 <i>Magic Flute,</i> the meaning of the earth archetype for modern times, and the fear of the feminine. In Mozart's fantastic world, Neumann saw a true <i>Auseinandersetzung</i>--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.</p>