In this provocative, closely argued book, Ellen Handler Spitz explores three principal psychoanalytic approaches to art. The first considers the relations between an artist's life and work; the second focuses on the work of art itself; and the third encompasses the intricate relations between a work of art and its audience or beholders. To illustrate her theoretical discussion, Spitz draws on a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, literature, music, and dance. "No one who is concerned with the psychoanalytic study of art can afford to neglect [this book]; no one who cares about the art of psychoanalysis should ignore it."--Aaron H. Esman, M.D., Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association "This book ... should prove fascinating to all who are concerned with works of art as expressions of the human mind and heart."--Shehira Davezac, Hospital and Community Psychiatry "This book is highly recommended to all who enjoy the multiple applications of analytic thought to extend our senses."--Jay Lefer, Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis Ellen Handler Spitz holds degrees in art history, aesthetics, and education from Barnard College, Harvard University, and Columbia University. She was trained as a special candidate at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University.

Psyche and the Arts challenges existing ideas about the relationship between Jung and art, and offers exciting new dimensions to key issues such as the role of image in popular culture, and the division of psyche and matter in art form.

Unfolding the Unconscious Psyche is a study of the creative arts and depth psychology, and the threads that run between the two. Edward Applebaum begins with works of art, in media including painting, music, literature and film, and pursues aspects of each towards an understanding of the unconscious psyche of the creator. By combining a study of the artistic work with the insight of depth psychology, Applebaum opens a dialogue between studies of works of art and their creators and the individuals who form the work’s audience. Each discussion is dictated by the artwork itself and is viewed from a variety of perspectives. Throughout the book the reader is encouraged to develop their own analytical technique: to follow the clues available, link threads together and analyse what they can see. The result demonstrates the value of dialogue in blending depth psychology with the arts, through examination of work by artists including Georgia O’Keefe, Ingmar Bergman, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Mahler and Virginia Woolf. Applebaum also seeks to correct misconceptions about the arts that have filtered into the study and practice of depth psychology since the earliest writings of Freud and Jung. This uniquely creative and insightful work will be absorbing reading for analytical and depth psychologists, students of analytical psychology, academics and scholars of the arts and anyone with an interest in the application of Jungian ideas.

An American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize Finalist 2019! Analytic interpretation is fundamental to the process of psychoanalysis, Jungian analysis, and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Interpretation is the medium by which the psychoanalytic art form is transmitted. What one chooses to say in analysis, why one chooses it, how one says it, when one says it; these are the building blocks of the interpretive process and the focus of Interpretation in Jungian Analysis: Art and Technique. This volume is the first of its kind in the literature of analytical psychology. Until now, the process of interpretation has been addressed only briefly in general Jungian texts. Interpretation in Jungian Analysis provides an in-depth exploration of the process, including the history of analytic technique, the role of language in analytic therapy, the poetics and metaphor of interpretation, and the relationship between interpretation and the analytic attitude. In addition, the steps involved with the creation of clear, meaningful, and transformative interpretations are plainly outlined. Throughout the book, clinical examples and reader exercises are provided to deepen the learning experience. The influence of the Jungian perspective on the interpretative process is outlined, as are the use of analytic reverie and confrontation during the analytic process. In addition to the historical, technical, and theoretic aspects of interpretation, this book also focuses on the artistic and creative elements that are often overlooked in the interpretive process. Ultimately, cultivating fluidity within the interpretive process is essential to engaging the depth and complexity of the psyche. Interpretation in Jungian Analysis will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists of all theoretical orientations and will be essential reading for students of analytical psychology.

Jungian Art Therapy aims to provide a clear, introductory manual for art therapists on how to navigate Jung’s model of working with the psyche. This exciting new text circumambulates Jung’s map of the mind so as to reinforce the theoretical foundations of analytical psychology while simultaneously defining key concepts to help orient practitioners, students, and teachers alike. The book provides several methods, which illustrate how to work with the numerous images originating from the unconscious and glean understanding from them. Throughout the text readers will enjoy clinical vignettes to support each chapter and illuminate important lessons.

Throughout, Blier pushes African art history to a new height of cultural awareness that recognizes the complexity of traditional African societies as it acknowledges the role of social power in shaping aesthetics and meaning generally.

Do the ancient Greek poets, playwrights, philosophers and mythologies have anything to say to modern human beings? Is their time finished, or do their insights have as much relevance to the human condition as they did 2,500 years ago? When the Soul Remembers Itself continues the exploration of the connections between ancient and modern psyche with a resounding affirmation of its ongoing relevance. Uniquely combining poetry, drama and storytelling in a pioneering collection, an international selection of contributors each explore a character, myth or theme from ancient Greece in the context of its relevance to the modern psyche. Each author enters an imaginative dialogue that pieces and bridges together fragments of the past with the present, exploring themes such as initiation, war, love, paranoia, tragedy and the soul’s journey through the vicissitudes of life on earth, through characters such as Ajax, Persephone, Orpheus, Electra, the Apostle Paul, Perpetua and Jocasta. Understanding myth is crucial in Jungian analysis, and by connecting the modern person with the age-old questions of life and death, the contributors bring truly archetypal narratives to life and speak to the human condition throughout the ages. When the Soul Remembers Itself will be of great interest to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, classics, ancient religion, archetypal studies and mythology. As the contributors’ conclusions apply to both contemporary theory and clinical practice, it will also appeal to Jungian analysts and psychotherapists in practice and training.

Psyche and the Literary Muses focuses on the psychology of literature from an empirical point of view, rather than the more typical psychoanalytic position, and concentrates on literary content rather than readers or writers. The book centers on the author’s quantitative studies of brief literary and quasi-literary forms, ranging from titles of short stories and names of literary characters to clichés and quotations from literary sources, in demonstrating their contribution to the topics of learning, perception, thinking, emotions, creativity, and especially person perception and aging. More broadly, Psyche bears on literary studies, art, and psychology in general, as well as interdisciplinarity. This book deepens the understanding and appreciation of literature for scholars, academics and the general reader.

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. Violet de Laszlo has selected for inclusion in Psyche and Symbol five selections from Aion: "The Ego," "The Shadow," "The Syzygy: Anima and Animus," "The Self," and "Christ, A Symbol of the Self." The book continues with "The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairy Tales," "The Psychology of the Child Archetype," and "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass." Also included are the foreword to the Cary Banes translation of the I Ching, two chapters from Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, "Psychological Commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Dead," and "Commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower."