The Bible and the Psyche: Individuation Symbolism in the Old Testament
In stock
- Paperback/
This monumental study links a body of literature known and revered for well over two thousand years with a psychological process that has gained recognition only in the twentieth century through the work of C.G. Jung.
The Old Testament documents a sustained dialogue between God and man as it is expressed in the sacred history of Israel. With the new insights of depth psychology, the chronology of biblical events may be seen as analogous to the psychological movement toward wholeness that takes place in individuals.
On a collective level, the Bible is a self-revelation of the objective psyche. As such, it contains a rich compendium of archetypal images representing encounters with the numinosum. These can now be understood on an individual level as pictures of the encounter between the ego and the Self, the major feature of individuation.
The process of individuation, the cornerstone of Jungian psychology, is difficult to define. The Bible and the Psyche, with many examples from modern dreams and clinical practice, illuminates this essentially enigmatic process by relating the mighty mythologems of the Bible to individual experiences of the most personal nature.