The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology) (Hardcover)

by Stanton Marlan (Author), David H. Rosen (Foreword) "Jung considered alchemy in a way that few people, if any, before him had imagined..." (more)
Key Phrases: sol niger, lumen naturae, alchemical engravings, Adam Kadmon, Anatomy of the Psyche, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"... sheds the light of blackness, and the luminosity of darkness.... This story of The Black Sun will bring you new ideas about death and blackness as well as the personal reflections of the author's life-long quest for new understanding." - Harry A. Wilmer, author of How Dreams Help"

Product Description
The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the modern world. Although modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a negative force, it actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche. In this book, Jungian analyst Stanton Marlan reexamines the paradoxical image of the black sun and the meaning of darkness in Western culture. Marlan draws on not only clinical cases, but also literature such as Goethe's Faust and Dante's Inferno, the black art of Rothko and Reinhardt, and other inspirations to explore the influence of light and shadow on the fundamental structures of modern thought as well as the contemporary practice of analysis. He shows that the black sun accompanies not only the most negative of psychic experiences but also the most sublime. The Black Sun offers insight into modernity, the act of imagination, and the work of analysis in understanding depression, trauma, and transformation of the soul. A contribution to the understanding of alchemical psychology, this book draws on a postmodern sensibility to develop an original way to look at the black sun and helps us explore the unknown darkness conventionally called the Self.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585444251
• ISBN-13: 978-1585444250
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #513,870 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual and mesmerizing, September 10, 2005

By	Maddalene - See all my reviews

The Black Sun is an extraordinary examination of the alchemical stage known as the "nigredo"..the blackening or mortification, so often experienced as depression, terror, or madness. I was especially transfixed at the way in which Dr. Marlan expresses the paradoxical nature of these experiences in that the darkness itself contains a "shine" or luminescence, that is the light of nature, not that of heaven. The text is richly referenced with the writings of Dr. Jung, several case studies, and many other literary examples. This book is an eloquent validation of a domain of experience that is unavoidable, yet so often denied.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Synthesis, November 15, 2006

By	Mark P. Shumway "Rachel Fitzgerald" (Georgetown,, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Stanton Marlan has made a needed and deeply satisfying contribution to literature which synthesizes the obscured but major investigations into alchemy, masculine images of power and suffering, abstract and beautiful passages of negative theology. As a psychotherapist,I am profoundly grateful, excited and helped in my work with male clients. What is more basic or universal than experiences which draw on light and dark.

12 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless, July 4, 2007

By	W Shultz "Bill B." - See all my reviews

The only reason I gave this product one star is because there's no option for no stars at all. Alchemy cannot be explained by psychology or academia. In fact, alchemy and academia, and especially psychology, are completely opposite in their aims and goals. Psychology reinforces ego while alchemy dissolves it. That is why people like this and Jung should be completely ignored; they speak from a basis of clinical, academic opinion and not actual experience obtained by realization. If you, who are reading this, remembers anything from this review then I hope you at least remember that. Save your money and spend it somewhere else on things that are more important.