The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden: Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine Psychology - Softcover

Robert A. Johnson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062509187 ISBN 13: 9780062509185

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1993

Synopsis

It is very dangerous when a wound is so common in a culture that hardly anyone knows there is a problem. Such is the case right now with our wounded feeling function—our inability to find joy, worth, and meaning in life. Robert A. Johnson, the celebrated author of He, She, and We, revisits two medieval tales and illuminates how this feeling function has become a casualty of our modern times. Johnson tells the story of the Wounded Fisher King from the Grail Myth to illustrate the anxiety and loneliness that plague men. From the folktale of the Handless Maiden, he explains the very different frustrations of women and describes how these disparities in the way we suffer account for much of the tension and miscommunication between men and women. His insightful analysis shows that these two stories, created centuries ago, are even more relevant today. Author Robert A. Johnson is the best-selling author of He, She, We, Inner Work, and Femininity Lost and Regained.

About this title

About the Author

Robert A. Johnson, a noted lecturer and Jungian analyst, is also the author of He, She, We, Inner Work, Ecstasy, Transformation, and Owning Your Own Shadow.

From Booklist

Johnson, whose work will already be familiar to those interested in Jungian thought, specializes (as in his three books He, She, and We) in applying Jung's theories to the relations between men and women. In this slender book, he mines two important tales for what they can tell us about feeling not simply emotion but a grounded sense of values. Everyone in our culture, he argues, is "wounded" in the area of feeling, but the wound is expressed differently among men than among women. To understand the male problem, he examines the figure of the Fisher King from the Grail legends; to understand women's relationship to feeling, he explores the famous folktale of the Handless Maiden pledged to the devil by her own father. A solid contribution to Jungian thought. Pat Monaghan

Edition details

• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062509187
• ISBN 13: 9780062509185
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 103