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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.332
EAN num: 9780060963965
ISBN number: 0060963964
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 83
Printing Date: November 01, 1989
Publishing house: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: November 01, 1989
Sale Popularity Level: 20155
Studio: Harper Paperbacks
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Robert A. Johnson, noted lecturer and Jungian analyst, updates his classic exploration of the meaning of being a man, and adds insight for both sexes into the feminine side of a man's personality.
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Rated by buyers 
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of course, you can't be Jung...but this is a nice 'pop' version that WILL help many people (and has).
i prefer all the ineffable alchemical referencing in Jung, but i love the way this book simply speaks and relays its message.
not all people care to dig through depth psych texts...some need Insight.
this book is a great guide.
Rated by buyers 
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Precisely because this book is written in a "read between the lines" fashion, one is forced to look within one's self; thus the reader is lead to seek and find his/her own understanding.
Rated by buyers -
I found this book to be very interesting. It goes into great detail about the symbolism of the story of the Grail, and Johnson shows you how you can use mythology to relate to your own inner experience. That being said, I thought that there were not enough example of how certain things play out in everyday life. I was hoping that he would say how a man shows his mother complex, or how the father archetype shows itself in man's development. (Ironically, there is no mention of the father archetype at all!) The analysis basically boils down to a man needing to understand his feminine side, which I have frankly heard enough of in my psychoanalytic studies. I do believe it is important, and I would dread life without being in touch with the feminine, but why can't Jungian psychology move on? Why is there so little talk about the father? Why is it that every book I pick up tells me that I need to be in touch with my anima? I get the picture.
In addition, Johnson mentions that the masculine search within ends with a higher understanding of the self, but he ends rather abruptly. I wish that there was more about the mysteries of the self, and how the masculine enhances the self, but there is no such discussion.
If you think about this book enough, you will see that it is lacking very much, and it is better as a primer about the story of the Grail than it is about masculinity and the struggles of men today. It still has strong interpretive value, and it teaches us things to look for in mythology. So I would still recomend it for anyone.
Rated by buyers -
After gaining personal insights that I had never seen articulated so well, I gave HE to all my sons -5 - one of whom told me "that HE was a book which should be made mandatory reading for every boy in high school. HE helps put the forces which drive male psycholgy in perspective and balance incredibly well.
Rated by buyers -
This small book actually began with 10 lectures given by Robert Johnson at an Episcopal Church. Thus they are concise and do not offer a broad array of examples. I found the book to be excellent and found it much more to the point that Emma Jung's long study of the Holy Grail myth in all it permutations.
Of course, as a Jungian, Johnson sees mythology as reflecting underlying psychological and spiritual processes that take place in the human psyche. These myths are spontaneous images from the unconscious and contain both psychological and spiritual truths. Myths allow the interaction of archetypes, which are patterns of life that are universally true for humans. Myths are to mankind as dreams are to an individual. Therefore a dream shows the dreamer a truth about themselves whereas the myth shows mankind a truth that applies to all of us.
Individuation is a process that Jung describes as a life long movement toward wholeness and completion. It involves the life long expansion of consciousness and the ability of the conscious ego or personality to reflect the total self. One interpretation of Jesus Christ is that of a man who has been able to allow the unconscious to fill up the self and be always present in the personality. Because God the Father moves through and emerges in the world through the human unconsious, Christ may say that he and the Father are one.
A primary very first step in the individuation process is the confrontation with the Shadow. Actually the confrontation with various aspects of the Shadow continue throughout a lifetime, but the very first encounter is usually of great psychological power. The negative repressed side of the personality, that longs for acceptance and integration, continually follows the ego until the strength is mustered to face the shadow, accept the shadow, and then integrate the shadow into the personality which increases the energy and strength of the personality/psyche because energy is no longer used to suppress the shadow.
After the shadow is integrated, many people then may develop to the point where they can integrate the anima/animus, which is the characteristics of the opposite sex into their more complete psyche. It is here that Johnson points out the Parsifal and quest for the Holy Grail is in fact a myth of the male reconciliatoin with the anima who becomes a guide and leads him to the Grail.
Here Emma Jung and Robert Johnson would have slightly different interpretations of the Holy Grail myth. Whereas both see the anima as being essential to reaching the Grail, Johnson believes the integration of the feminine, the Anima, is a major and tricky task for young men. Also, whereas Emma Jung saw the grail as serving mankind as an expanded consciousness through which much psychic material may now flow; Johnson sees that the grail serves mankind through and expanded consciousness but also serves God because it is through this expanded consciousness that God flows into human interactions and becomes real and active in the world. This is a philosophical and theological issue of great importance. The very first question is: Is God an active participant in the world and in the lives of men? Johnson goes beyond Deism, which would acknowledge God acting through nature, and would assert that God acts through the unconscious of mankind and it is through expanded and integrated consciousness that God becomes real in the world of men. Thus the Grail, the symbol of the accessible unconscious, serves man and God. This is the key to both Emma Jung's and Robert Johnson's work. She would emphasize that the Grail serves man and Johnson would emphasize that the Grail serves God, but both would acknowledge that the Grail serves both. This is the point of Johnson's book but he takes you down many fruitful trails to reach this point. I will point out some of these paths:
The Fisher King has wounds so severe that he cannot live, yet he is incapable of dying. The kingdom is dependent on the virility and power of its rule. As an adolescent, the Fisher King is burned on the fingers when he tries to eat hot broiled Salmon. He touches the divine part of his own unconscious but it is too hot for his consciousness to handle. He touches his individuation but can not hold it. His life becomes barren, his wound never heals, and he can not cure himself even though he and the Grail are in the same castle. The fool must come to cure the king.
Parsifal is the holy fool, the innocent, who emerges from the forrest nieve and full of creative possibilities. He is entraced by the knights and longs to become one. He must break with his poor heartbroken mother, Heartsorrow, on his journey to be a man. All men must be somewhat disloyal to their mother on the path to manhood and toward individuation. His very first quest is to fight the Red Knight and gain his armour. He kills the Red Knight and thus takes on masculine power, courage ... Read More
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