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Thomas Moore

Dark Eros: The Imagination of Sadism New Edition Paperback – April 1, 1998

by Thomas Moore (Author)

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The author of the National Bestsellers Care of the Soul, Soul Mates, and The Soul of Sex turns to the shadow side of loving and therapy: its cruelties, perversions, and appalling tortures.

In Dark Eros, Thomas Moore shines a new light on the dark fictions of the Marquis de Sade to learn what they teach about the horrors hidden in the human heart, revealing the poetic and imaginitive powers that lie within violence and sexual victimization. By returning to the paradox of ancient medicinethe cause of a disease is its very cureThomas Moore opens the way through sadism that affects family, education, love affairs, the work place and politics.

Print length

202 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Spring Publications
Publication date

April 1, 1998
Dimensions

5.76 x 0.69 x 8.47 inches
ISBN-10

0882143654
ISBN-13

978-0882143651
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Spring Publications; New Edition (April 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 202 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0882143654
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0882143651
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.76 x 0.69 x 8.47 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,243,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #579 in French Literary Criticism (Books)
- #1,200 in French Literature (Books)
- #8,499 in Medical General Psychology

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21 ratings

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Magical

Thomas Moore has a wonderful way of conveying connections and insights from the psychological ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2017

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A very well written exploration of Dark Eros, particularly as it relates to the writings of de Sade. Thomas Moore has a wonderful way of conveying connections and insights from the psychological to the philosophical and this book is no less different. He confronts the darker side of eros unflinchingly -- even examining scatalogical subject matter and its significance in the psyche. Fascinating in its exploration, I'd recommend any of Moore's works. That said, if someone doesn't know what to expect and are thinking there will be some kind of racy dissertation on sexuality, this isn't that book. It's also worth mentioning that this is mostly a book that revolves around de Sade's works, rather than a general conception of Dark Eros.

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Amazon Customer

A good view of De Sade

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2012

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Sadism is based on a man named Sade, long story short that is. The two are not the same however, this book knows that. What the author actually talks about is Sadeism, and Sadean ways. The book is entirely about Moore's views on the man's work, from a philosophy standpoint.

In that respect, it's quite a good book. It still leaves a lot to be desired, but it's a good starting point at least, for those of us who don't easily access De Sade's work and want to know about the man. It has a lot of thought provoking points and ideas, as one would expect of a book rooted in philosophy. I feel it could have gone into more depth, and that it got repetitive a lot though. Even the guy who did the introduction in my copy kind of wished other topics had been discussed.

If you are actually interested in Sadism and in a way its origins though, try this book out.

3 people found this helpful

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F. Raffaele

A Glimpse at the Dark Side

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2010

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Mr. Moore takes a very measured approach to the "dark-side" in this book.
Although sadism and its perversions is something we typically want to run away from, Moore gives us an opportunity to safely approach it from an existential perspective. The dark side exists in our human nature and having a way of understanding it makes us less likely to become dominated by. The "shadow" will achieve control unless we are aware of it and can subordinate it.
Mr. Moore is a great teacher in addition to being a good writer. One of the most interesting aspects I found about the book is his love of words. You find yourself using the dictionary a lot and enjoying it. You soon realize that his fascination with words has to do with appreciating the fact that within the word is the nature and meaning of whatever it is that you are trying to understand. The word becomes the key by which you can unlock meaning. The historical construct of the word provides perspective into our intellectual history and development. Each word we create and use is a step forward in consciousness and awareness.
The book is a good example of how to use depth psychology for understanding the most difficult aspects of our nature.

12 people found this helpful

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Red Lego

Deep Exploration of the Shadow of Human Sexuality

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2017

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Wonderful, unflinching, and soulful analysis of the darker aspects of human sexuality. Thomas Moore's writing makes Jungian and archetypal psychology accessible to a general audience without sacrificing complexity, nuance, or depth.

One person found this helpful

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Matthew L. Morava

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2015

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This is an amazing book on sadism. Should be required reading for all therapists.

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Gordon Wegener

Different book by Thomas Moore

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2013

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I have read many books by Thomas Moore, but this both strikes out in new territory and has his searching approach. I was also impressed by the prompt delivery of my order

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2013

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If Thomas Moore wrote it-read it. You will learn. This is not about pornography or sex per se... it is about the soul.

3 people found this helpful

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Dan Nicholas

Five Stars for a retired monk, now married writing about Dark Eros

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2013

Thought I'd lost this book by Thomas Moore, 12 years a monk in the Catholic Church. I think it is out of print now but this week I also went back for a second look at a related book, Desire, by John Eldredge. As to the Eldredge book on desire? Not a perfect book but good enough to revisit. I find it interesting that it was reviewed by a mere 17 readers while his men's movement book on guys being Wild (Wild At Heart-Discovering the Secret Of A Man's Soul, 2011)was reviewed by 900 plus readers and men's movement workshop attenders.

But this title by Moore grips me now, especially in his forward by Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig who speaks of innocence ravaged by a dark side in de Sade's novel Justine and Juliette. "Here, the sexual imagination symbolically represents the necessary ravishing of the innocent pure part of our soul. Innocence is in the final analysis a refusal to come really in touch with this world. The innocent soul has to be initiated and forced into the dark and fascinating reality of life. If the soul remains innocent, it is not really becoming human but is just like a plant." Indeed.

So I'm thinking Wild this morning. But more Dark. Dark Eros this morning. And sad. It seems evident that this topic of Eros is still not popular among Evangelicals. Because it has a sexual side, which we fear. Yet misdirection and dishonest avoidance here continues to wreck so many lives and leaves others simply withered and plant like. Maybe Thomas Moore with Dark Eros has something to teach Eldredge who disappoints for he is not brave as Moore to take on the dark side of desire with it's shadowy side. We pay dearly when we decide to lift up purity at the cost of sweeping the Dark under our sofa before guests arrive.

Dark Eros. At the right on my prayer corner this morning are small newspaper clips, B&W pics of two dead cops from my small coastal town. On the left of my votive oil lamp I have a third small newsprint picture of the killer, the dead shooter. I pray for all three. I have to pray for him, too. He was being investigated, questioned through the door by the cops, for unrequited advances toward a woman at work. Add that to his dark list of habits such as peeping, lurking in the bushes watching what he called "nice girls" through the bathroom window as they showered.

The young man, Jeffrey Goulet, is a darker figure with a name. He was this last Tuesday afternoon being investigated for his inability to master Dark Desire in his inappropriate advances he made at work with a co-worker barista. All this happened at a coffee spot in our seacoast town the day before and led to anger when confronted; and then a killing of both cops on his doorstep. This followed his own equally senseless death in a cop shootout 30 minutes later. This tragedy is a story but three days old here in our town. It is not only a Dark Eros story for me but a first ever event locally where cops were killed here in my city. This is for me sad as I read that his dad when interviewed called his son, a "ticking time bomb". All Dark Eros denied time bomb I'd call it.

We need more books and conversations on desire; dark desire, too. All deadly when we deny the reality of it's power and mystery. The press wants to talk gun control now. Why is nobody talking Dark Eros?

Eldredge quotes Simone Weil in his chapter on disowned desire. "The danger is that the soul should persuade itself that it is not hungry. It can only persuade itself of this by lying." And one can only hide the lie so long before it comes out, often tragically.

In my local paper today I read the words of a father on his dead son. "He's got one problem, peeping in windows," his father said in a halting emotional voice. "I asked him, 'Why don't you just go to a strip club?' He said he wants a good girl that doesn't know she's being spied on, and said he couldn't stop doing it."

An exciting and titillating bad desire for a good girl. How exactly Dark Eros is all that? And sad when this hunger is not named and owned and dealt with. It was glossed over and sadly not addressed as Eldredge says. Moore says this, too. Indeed how often the Dark goes unchecked in men who won't get help or talk with other men about this soul hunger that runs deep; a kink and urge urge that needs acknowledging, naming, owning bridling. Not denying.

Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter Stephen Baxter said this morning (3.1.13)at some point in the 30-minute cop showdown, that the shooter Goulet sent a text to his twin brother: "I'm in big trouble. I love you."

It is trite of course to say that this troubled young man and now deceased cop killer, Jeremy Goulet, had "love trouble" with women. Trouble with desire around women. Dark Eros trouble. He wasn't otherwise stupid. He was a skilled Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot, trained and trusted to control a helicopter warship in a firefight in the sky; but unworthy of trust with a shadow desire spun downward in his own darkly erotic earth life. He had been discharged from the military. He continued with a history of being arrested as a voyeur, a common dark side peeper.

As a dad with sons, I think it doubly sad this morning that one of the two cops he killed this week was a woman and mom. Who had two sons no less. I clearly remember her patrolling the main mall here downtown. When called out by Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler who stood as plain clothed investigators on his porch, he would not open the door but rather ambushed them through another entrance before they could react.

I wish I could have gotten this father's son to my men's support group last month. We call it a "men's team". We met several times 50 feet from where he worked at that coffee place, the Kind Grind. Sad. He was a man and a son and a brother with a Dark Eros mastery problem long before he was a killer. My men's team met for dinner next door unknowingly just two hours after this mortal event went down a mile away. We were at the restaurant right next door--I'm talking 50 feet away--from where this Jeremy Goulet worked as a barista; where he'd been fired for not having a successful handle on his shadowy sexual desires last Friday. So what ways the fruit or our communitie's lack of skill in dealing with Dark Eros and his rejected advances toward a woman? Three are dead. Proof of the importance of this Thomas Moore book and this Eldredge book, too. Both are men working in the church. Moore a retired monk, hits an important topic; a topic for men that is too painful for churches and communities and families to continue to ignore on the front end of disaster and hungers denied.

As to Eldredge as a writer on Christian themes, I only wish he had been more honest and brave and included Dark Eros as a chapter in his book. Ignorance here cost us in my town. Ignorance of this power. In Dark Eros Thomas Moore touches all of us, reminds us of the importance of Jung and the shadow stuff. We all need to play and work with it, master it. Or it masters us. And, of course, demons hitch on for the ride as we go down. And we always take others with us when this happens I think. O how the demons love that part of the story.

A quote from Jung on Shadow and Dark seems apropos:

"Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected. -Carl Jung

No surprise then that I picked Moore's book of the shelf for a second read. And a way too long review.

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Dark Eros: The Imagination of Sadism New Edition Paperback – April 1, 1998

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