Just as women used to be unconscious of the powerful effects that cultural stereotypes had on them, they may also be unconscious of powerful forces within them that influence what they do and how they feel, and which account for major differences among women. Psychoanalyst Jean Bolen believes that an understanding of these inner patterns and their interrelationships offers reassuring, true-to-life alternatives that take women far beyond such restrictive dichotomies as masculine/feminine, mother/lover, careerist/housewife. And she demonstrates how understanding them can provide the key to self-knowledge and wholeness. Dr. Bolen introduces these patterns in the guise of seven archetypal goddesses, or personality types, with whom all women will identify. Goddesses in Everywoman shows readers how to identify their ruling goddesses (from the autonomous Artemis and the cool Athena to the nurturing Demeter and the creative Aphrodite), how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes to become better "heroines" in their own life stories.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, author and activist. an internationally known speaker who draws from spiritual, feminist, Jungian, medical and personal wellsprings of experience. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, UCSF clinical professor, and a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
Jean's website is www.jeanbolen.com. Lecture and workshops under "Current schedule."
She is the author of The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, The Millionth Circle, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don't Whine and Urgent Message from Mother. Her books have been translated into over thiry foreign editions. All are in Spanish. She is a leading advocate for a UN 5th world conference on women (www.5wcw.org)
