Wisdom of the Heart: Working With Women's Dreams [Paperback]

Karen A. Signell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

Destined to become a classic work on women's psychology, consciousness, and dream interpretation, Wisdom of the Heart presents new insights into the special language of women's dreams and leads the reader to discover her own feminine nature and attain a true inner wisdom of the heart.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Fromm Intl; 1st Fromm International pbk edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880641886
• ISBN-13: 978-0880641883
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Balance of Intellectual and Intuitive Wisdom, January 11, 2000

By 

Laurie Edwards - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wisdom of the Heart: Working With Women's Dreams (Paperback)

This book was not what I expected, and I'm glad. I was looking for something simple to help me figure out a dream I had, and I was prepared to put up with some flakiness. In this book, I found neither simplicity nor flakiness. In addition, although the author has a sound intellectual background as a psychologist and Jungian analyst, she applies her knowledge in a way that honors the dark, wordless voice of intuition at the same time.

I am a beginning student of clinical psychology and find that often psychological theories can be used like statistics--you can twist them to say whatever you want or intellectually hone in on one aspect of yourself or others in order to avoid another (at least I do this when looking at myself). This book awakened me to that tendency and allowed me to look gently but honestly at my own shadow and hidden strengths.

Finally, I greatly appreciated the way Dr. Signell validates "women's" ways of understanding without devaluing men or portraying women as their victims. Using dreams as a starting point, she shows how both women and men project onto each other and have unacknowledged expectations of each other. For example, while modern women have made great strides in being independent and working towards gender equality, many of us still contain rather large seeds of the puella eterna, the eternal girl who expects deference and chivalry from men. We may long for the chivalry, but if we get it we rebel, feeling we are being treated as a child or a helpless kitten and then have endless discussions with friends about how hopeless men are. Dr. Signell helps women find "the rat" in our own psyches in a way that is not judgemental or blaming. She suggests that women can improve their relationships by understanding and accepting themselves, but she does this without the usual insinuation that women can singlehandedly make a relationship work.

At times I found my dreams and the material in this book to be inspirational and at times sobering. I recommend reading and dreaming slowly so you can let the inspiration grow and integrate the sobering stuff gently, without being overwhelmed and and running away.

Thank you Dr. Signell. I hope you write another one soon!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empowerment for women & the Feminine through womens' dreams., August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wisdom of the Heart: Working With Women's Dreams (Paperback)

I loved this book. It calls women back to owning their power, to being their own authority, and to living their life on their terms. It calls women to trust themselves and their feelings. It validates womens' feelings and truths. This is the only dream book I've read that puts importance on the dreamer's feelings about the dream and the dream symbols, not just symbol interpretation (of which the author has an excellent knowledge). It has many examples of womens' dreams that the author walks through which helps one learn the art of dream interpretation. Many of the womens' dreams spoke to me personally. I found the archetypal symbols in the dreams powerful and exciting and they bring to light the connection of all women. The Feminine has been ignored and distorted and devalued for so long - so much of it has been buried and forgotten, but clearly never gone as evidenced in these dreams. Bringing the truth of women and the Feminine back into the light is best accomplished through the sources who know best - women. Our dreams are an excellent guide in this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly wisdom from the heart, November 5, 2005

By 

Renee C. Stacey (Northport, ME) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wisdom of the Heart (Paperback)

This is a amazing book. I feel one can tell this author wrote this book from her heart. It reaches through to our own inner wisdom that comes from the heart in the form of our Self (Jungian's term for the unconscious). I appreciate all that she wrote. Her written wisdom has moved me to tears, as well as to write this review. Having read many dream books, I can say I have enjoyed reading a dream book based on women's dreams. Her thoughts on women's dreams reached into my own deep inner wisdom to reveal that 'aha', experience. I highly recommend this book not only for its in depth look into dreams but its revelation and appreciation of women's struggle in a predominately patriarchial society.