Leaving My Father's House: A Journey to Conscious Femininity [Paperback]

Marion Woodman (Author), Kate Danson (Contributor), Mary Hamilton (Contributor), Rita Greer Allen (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1992

The renowned analyst and author here provides deep insight into the process required to bring feminize wisdom to consciousness in a patriarchal culture—as struggle in which many women are more fully engaged today that ever before. Presenting the personal journeys of three wise women as maps, she points the way to the state of inner wholeness and balance she calls "conscious femininity."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Jungian analyst in Toronto, Woodman here collaborates with three of her analysands, who tell their own stories of breaking with patriarchal values and recovering feminine energies. Danson, a graduate student coping with the trauma of an abortion, comes to terms with her loveless childhood and a brother's sexual abuse. Hamilton, a dancer struggling to crack through the armored rage in her body, dialogues with inner figures she calls Medicine Woman and Deer. Allen, a sculptor working through the grief of being childless, at age 72 "faces into darkness with the wit and wisdom of a seasoned crone." Using Jungian archetypes and a Grimm fairy tale about a princess who rejects an incestuous marriage, Woodman in her interlinking commentaries charts each woman's growth toward wholeness. The first-person case histories, distilled from private journals, are detailed maps of self-transformation. Illustrated.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Living in a patriarchal society in which the driving force is power, women learn early how to please through the power of their sexuality. The transformative process of finding feminine consciousness involves the painful experience of leaving the father's house and claiming the positive energy usually projected onto a man, making him godlike. Woodman, a Jungian analyst and author of The Pregnant Virgin (Inner City Bks., 1985) and The Ravaged Bridegroom (Inner City Bks., 1990), uses the fairy tale Allerleirauh to demonstrate the process of integrating the many parts of a personality into a whole, allowing a woman to take her active role in society and freeing her from the negative mother (or the overly critical feminine). Three women describe their process, each representing a part of the fairy tale. Their stories are heartening in their emphasis on the positive in a difficult process of healing the psychic split between feminine and masculine. As in all of her books, Woodman's piercing clarity and intelligence leaves one both wiser and inspired. Highly recommended for psychology and women's studies collections.
- Paula N. Arnold, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, Vt.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (November 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877738963
• ISBN-13: 978-0877738961
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and heartfelt look at woman's path., October 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Leaving My Father's House: A Journey to Conscious Femininity (Paperback)

With this book, Marion Woodman guides us through a complex and difficult journey. Her work with women through the often painful and lonely process of coming into their own life is shared with wisdom, compassion and deep love. I have found this book to be fundamental to my growth and my process. The women who shared their stories have enriched my life and have helped guide me on my way. I've given this book as a gift to many women friends, and I feel it can be a helpful and useful tool for anyone embarking on the inner journey.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading For Women (& Men), July 30, 2001

By 

R. A. Piccione "RAP" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leaving My Father's House: A Journey to Conscious Femininity (Paperback)

If life had a reading list, this book would certainly be on it. Woodman does a supreme job of linking the women's narratives -- clarifying and filling in their experiences in archtypical and Jungian terms -- without dimming the spotlight on their individual experiences.

How long will we live our lives unwhole and blaming others (or even ourselves!) for our unhappiness? Until we all read this book and others like it, I'd guess.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow, November 20, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Leaving My Father's House: A Journey to Conscious Femininity (Paperback)

In middle age,life can seem to drag to a halt. Marion Woodman and her coauthors demonstrate that the richest part of inner work is possible when we no longer are focusing most of our energy on the outer world of our families,or our careers. the stories these women tell of their own dream journeys are almost beyond belief, and inspired me to resume dream work i abandoned years ago. the journey never ends, and Leaving My Father's House begins a whole new ring on the spiral to wholeness. my only complaint is that at times the book felt too wordy.