Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction [Paperback]

Linda Schierse Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2001

In Witness to the Fire, Linda Schierse Leonard, Ph.D., explores the dark and fiery journey of transformation from the bondage of addiction to the freedom of recovery through creativity. A Jungian analyst, Leonard studies the relationship of creativity and addiction in the lives of writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Rhys, and Jack London, as well as the experiences of ordinary men and women. Leonard holds out the hope that anyone bound by addiction can reclaim the power that fuels dependency for a life of joy and creativity.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Linda Schierse Leonard is the author of Creation's Heartbeat, Meeting the Madwoman, Witness to the Fire, and On the Way to the Wedding.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; First Edition edition (June 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877735883
• ISBN-13: 978-0877735885
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be mandatory reading in any drug/alcohol counseling, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction (Paperback)

Should be mandatory reading in any drug/alcohol counseling course. I've read this book 2x and have savored it completely each and every time. I've gained new insights into myself. I finally understood the reaons for which I drank and how barren and empty my soul was for spirit. How badly I wanted to be "drunk" with spirit. And in my inability to replicate that experience, which fed my frustrations and in turn, lead me to drink. Understood the "voices" in my head that were there to punish me for every imagined infraction. Those harmful "parental voices" mocking approval and throwing tibits of love at me. My need to feel the connection to the spirit and the easy road that I took as a young adult. Every time I have re-read a page or two out of this book has always led me to create some form of art in some way.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, October 10, 2000

By 

"tim_farrington" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction (Paperback)

This is a unique and courageous book, as heartening to the artist as to the addict in each of us. It is a marvelously distilled meditation on creativity's darkness en route to the light. Leonard has deftly woven literary, spiritual, and psychological treatments of the dark night of the soul into a seamless tapestry, and found precious meaning in some of the most devastating aspects of human experience. For anyone facing their own darkness, this book is a welcome and comforting companion, an inspiring guide, and a very wise friend.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars alcoholism & creativity, January 11, 2002

By 

Nilsa Martinez (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction (Paperback)

Never have I seen anything quite like this. This is the definitive book on creativity. & When you don't create, ahhh, the ills that befall us. We fall into an addictive pattern trying desperatedly to recreate that atonement w/God. Failing that, one either drinks, or does whatever to replicate that feeling one more time. Again & again. This book revealed the essence alcoholism. Why certain people drink or create. Simple as that. I've reread this one @ least 2x now. Enjoy your journey.