Presenting an original and vital model for psychological development, the brilliant and pioneering author of He, She, and We offers a new understanding of the stages of personal growth through which maturity and wholeness can be achieved.
Using quintessential figures from classical literature--Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust--Robert Johnson shows us three clearly defined stages of consciousness development. He demonstrates how the true work of maturity is to grow through these levels to the self-realized state of completion and harmony.
In Johnson's view, we all reach the stages depicted by Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust at various times of our lives. The three represent levels of consciousness within us, each vying for dominance. Don Quixote portrays the innocent child, while Hamlet stands for our self-conscious need to act and feel in control though we have no real connection to our inner selves. Faust embodies the master of the true self, who has gained awareness by working through the stages.
Presenting an original and vital model for psychological development, the brilliant and pioneering author of He, She, and We offers a new understanding of the stages of personal growth through which maturity and wholeness can be achieved.
Using quintessential figures from classical literature--Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust--Robert Johnson shows us three clearly defined stages of consciousness development. He demonstrates how the true work of maturity is to grow through these levels to the self-realized state of completion and harmony.
In Johnson's view, we all reach the stages depicted by Don Quixote, Hamlet, and Faust at various times of our lives. The three represent levels of consciousness within us, each vying for dominance. Don Quixote portrays the innocent child, while Hamlet stands for our self-conscious need to act and feel in control though we have no real connection to our inner selves. Faust embodies the master of the true self, who has gained awareness by working through the stages.
Robert A. Johnson, a noted lecturer and Jungian analyst, is also the author of He, She, We, Inner Work, Ecstasy, Transformation, and Owning Your Own Shadow.
On the heels of Robert Bly's best-selling Iron John ( LJ 11/15/90), comes this slim volume which offers quite a different assessment of maleness and its self-completion. Johnson, author of Inner Work ( LJ 7/86) and We ( LJ 2/1/84), uses three literary archetypes: Don Quixote (simple, two-dimensional man); Hamlet (complex, four-dimensional man); and Faust (complete, four-dimensional man). As a result of modern education and urbanization, Johnson posits, Western man is no longer simple; yet he lacks self-determination and therefore is trapped. The insights found here seem applicable to universal self-fulfillment and provocation (e.g., what significance does Faust's victory over the devil hold for men in these AIDS-ridden, economically troubled times?). Also, where Bly's book demands action, Johnson's is purely cerebral and more interesting to readers familiar with classic literature.-- David Nudo, New York
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