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THE THERAPIST PSYCHOLOGIST BOOK STORE
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Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy (Reality of the Psyche Series) By Edward F. Edinger ( Open Court Publishing Company )
Release Date: 1991-02-19
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $34.00
Price: $30.60
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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
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 Most excellent resource for individuating humans ( kceridwen )
Used this book in an art class in applied alchemy....it is a great resource.
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Yet another therapist likes it! ( citrinitas )
This would be a valuable text for anyone working with the Jungian model of alchemy, but I'll echo the view that it is not exactly a beginner's book. If you're new to this kind of work, a good place to start would be Calvin Hall's Primer of Jungian Psychology.
Excellent companions to Anatomy would be Jung on Active Imagination, edited by Chodorow, and Jung's own Memories, Dreams and Reflections, or Man and His Symbols.
Edinger's book would also be a smart buy for anyone practicing pathworking or other spiritual techniques that make extensive use of imagination. If this is your thing, another great companion text would be Alchemy & Mysticism: the Hermetic Museum, by Roob. That book is a peerless collection of alchemical images. Occult Psychology (one of my personal favorites), by Alta J. LaDage, would also be a very natural fit.
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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.
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Superb ( jgsparks )
This book is simply superb. Edinger is a master of his field. As a Jungian analyst who teaches Jungian psychology at all levels, I have found this book the best intermediate-level text for studying what Jung's psychology is about and how the process of psychotherapy actually works. Edinger's prose is clear and concise and examples abound. The book is thorough, readable, and an absolutely accurate description of the role of alchemical symbols in personal growth.
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A great introduction to a fascinating subject ( pinkpoet )
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.
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