Product Description

"Edinger has greatly enriched my understanding of psychology through the avenue of alchemy. No other contribution has been as helpful as this for revealing, in a word, the anatomy of the psyche and how it applies to where one is in his or her process. This is a significant amplification and extension of Jung's work. Two hundred years from now, it will still be a useful handbook and an inspiring aid to those who care about individuation". -- Psychological Perspectives

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260825 in Books
• Published on: 1991-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

Customer Reviews

Profound Anatomy
As a practicing clinical psychologist, I want to offer my positive critique of this important work. Edinger, as one of the two primary and most influential students of Jung--until his death in 1998--displays here his thorough knowledge of alchemy, mythology, and Jung's teachings (as I and many others understand them). In his progressive explication of the alchemical stages of development he not only educates the reader about the alchemists' understanding of their own work, he uses their writings and images as a way to understand the human psyche. In doing this he not only gave me insight into my treatment of my clients, his wisdom helped me to understand myself and my dreams in a new and significant way. Furthermore, even as a skeptic, I am able to make use of his psycho-spiritual interpretations, for they are about the growth of human consciousness and the essential nature of maturity, theoretical and practical. I recommend this important work to anyone who desires a deeper, enrichened awareness of the nature of the human psyche as well as the development of consciousness--as seen through an alchemical metaphor.

Excellent Resource
This is an excellent resource for those already familiar with Jung's work, and I agree with a previous reviewer that it should be considered an intermediate-level text. I disagree with another reviewer who slams this book because of its spiritual connotations and because of disagreements on specific interpretations. Allow me to comment as yet another practicing therapist in this set of reviews. My personal experience of this book is that nearly every page stimulated further insight into my own life and the lives of my clients, and any book that does that warrants 5 stars.

How could anybody conclude otherwise? Well, there is a percentage of people who are very troubled by the many spiritual or metaphysical implications of Jung's works, and they often present very narrow views about what Analytical Psychology is and how it works. That seems ironic for such a highly interpretive theory and system. Personally, I am not troubled in the least by those implications for I am convinced that Jung was not only aware of them, he actively explored them himself.

If you are in the nay-sayers camp then you are not going to like everything about Edinger's work. On the other hand, if you are open to such implications, or if you can merely overlook them and translate words like "God" into something more human and scientific, then you should find this book a useful addition to Jungian studies of alchemy and psychotherapy.

It's important to further consider the entire matter of interpretation. It's true that on many counts I might have differed with Edinger on how to interpret various images and passages. As I pointed out before, Analytical Psychology is nothing without freedom of interepretation. There are no hard and fast equations to follow in decoding the symbolism of dreams and myth, though Jung has provided us with some powerful guidelines and tools. If I recall correctly, Edinger even points out that more than one alchemical operation can be seen at work within the same symbolism. Still, he clearly trusts his own experience, insights, and feelings, and has integrated them with the host theory in a way that is open and flexible enough that others can find it very stimulating and applicable.

A great introduction to a fascinating subject
If I had my time over again I would read these three books on alchemy in the following order: All of them are excellent in their own sphere to introduce a complex process.

(1) The Forge and the Crucible - Eliade
This is an excellent prehistory of alchemy showing the patterns of thought out of which Alchemy most probably arose. An easy read.

(2) Anatomy of the Soul - Edinger
Set out according to seven processes involved in alchemy Calcinatio, Solutio, Coagulatio, Sublimatio, Mortificatio, Separatio, Coniunctio, this is an accessible book that puts each process in reasonably neat boxes, (though the considerable overlap and intermingling is acknowledged). The approach is somewhat mechanical.

(3) Alchemy, an Introduction... - Von Franz.
More 'organic' than Edinger, Von Franz has a very warm and human touch. She deals with the origins of alchemy in Egypt and Greece and delves into the 'Aurora Consurgens', attributed to Aquinas. She includes relevent and interesting case material. Being a transcription of lectures, it is a little haphazard, though none the less informative for that.