Customer Reviews

Modern Woman in Search of Soul: A Jungian Guide to the Visible and Invisible Worlds (Jung on the Hudson Books)

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Jungian analyst June Singer gives us in this book a perspective of the spiritual paths open for us in the times we live. She links these spiritual paths, through the point of view of Jung's analytic psychology, to some of the most original religious practices in christianity, namely the gnostics, but also to scientific knowledge and rational values. The aim of the book is ambitious, since the author wants to present study and knowledge, but also self-study and self-knowledge, as a whole, as doorways which can lead us, if we are not blind to the possibilities open before us, to connect spirit and reason, unconscious and intellect. Although the book is addressed to "modern women", the author does not really write about women, but her advice can be used by any person, man or woman, which is alright for me. In the realm of the spirit we won't find the superficial gender distinction. And this realm the author urges us to enter through our ordinary daily activities and routines, through or usual studies and pursues, commiting ourselves to look at them from different points of view so that we see further than what only our senses tell us. She urges us to make this commitment in order to learn about the world, about ourselves, about the spirit... and thus change the world. Study, spirit, self-knowledge as a militancy. According to the gnostics, the greatest sin is ignorance.

Although the title implies that this is a book that will benefit women only, it's actually a book for everyone who is searching for some understanding of how to find order in the often chaotic world within our modern souls.

With an accessible blend of intellectual reasoning, Gnostic spiritualism and creative interpretation of dreams and fantasy, Jungian analyst Singer provides excellent suggestions on how to integrate the material and non-material worlds in our lives. She doesn't provide any answers to our concerns and anxieties, but she does encourage acceptance of ourselves as we are, with all the disparate parts that make us unique individuals. "One life," she points out, "is too short to achieve perfection and the most we can hope for is completion."

I found this book reassuring, optimistic, inspiring and comforting. Reading it has left me hopeful that mankind will evolve spiritually as well as physically. Singer makes me believe that the potential of the human spirit will conquer those external divides, which are merely a reflection of the fractures within our own souls; and that, although differences between people will always remain, by changing the way we look at those differences we can overcome them peacefully.

Our external reality can't change, but our perceptions of that reality can change for the better and that, in turn, creates a change in the external reality. Singer doesn't gloss over the fact that this slow inner journey - which ultimately benefits the external journey - will be hard, requiring much personal sacrifice and discipline.

By combining faith, science, psychology and poetry, Singer has written a book that offers us a way to make a difference in the world, even if that difference comes from healing ourselves before we try to heal others or the greater world in which we live.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants good advice on finding a way to inner peace and who is willing to work towards integrating their inner conflicts.

I was particularly impressed by the part of the book which talked about fragmentation. I'm 60 years old now and the concept of self-help is only quaint in my own case, after seeing what THE POLITICS OF IRONY: ESSAYS IN SELF-BETRAYAL by Conrad and Seery could teach me about comedians of the ascetic ideal, who loom larger in the comic world of American alter egos than a Jungian view of discovering ancient powers will ever be. Applying the solidly scientific insights contained in this book to individual feelings about the powers which want to break through into our lives is such piffle after realizing how much the entire political system depends on the belief that we are about to have a cakewalk, and the big winner will soon be occupying a white house in Washington, D.C. and torturing those who don't agree that America is good, better, and bestest. If the United States of America is the name of a super power in the visible world, fragmentation into parties that would like to cut and run, keep others out, and continue having a cakewalk all at the same time reminds me of Richard Nixon talking about peace with honor in 1968, only to turn around and sign an agreement in Paris in January, 1973, that said prisoners should not be tortured. How could the U.S. ever sign such a sham statement?