Customer Reviews

Dream Theatres of the Soul: Empowering the Feminine Through Jungian Dream Work

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had been going through a critical life transition, was having some rich dreams, and was hoping to find a few books that might help me gain a bit of a better understanding of them. I got several notable, highly respected books on dreams, this being just one among many. Yet, not only was it the most helpful to me as an especially rich and grounding, illustrative account of working with dreams, but it also beautifully discussed and worked with several key aspects of Jungian psychology (key aspects of the individuation process in particular) and all of this in relation to a woman's developmental process. It was strikingly resonant for me in all three of these extremely rich areas, which speaks to the hard-won depth/authenticity/clarity through which Jean Raffa wrote this piece. It very naturally inspired, mobilized, great hope for healing and rewarding growth in me (something I was frighteningly losing sense of and knew certainly wouldn't emerge through easy or quick solutions), the best kind of hope: no simple, rose-colored glasses here. What a great surprise! A terrific and very surprisingly in-depth, especially resonant and humane resource for all three of these areas and so much that stems from, and gives rise to, them (for it's only 201 pp.!--often shorter pieces are the most difficult to write; quite an accomplishment; thank you, Ms Raffa...).

This is a fascinating, accessible book about Jungian dream work. I particularly appreciated the author's application of the theory to women's issues. Part One explains the basics of Jungian dream analysis and includes valuable suggestions about how to understand more about your dreams. Part Two is a collection of the author's own dreams and her interpretations of them. Often in this second part I was at a loss to see how she arrived at certain interpretations--but Raffa certainly deserves credit for taking the risk of sharing them with us!