Storied Lives

Most books on discovering one's "personal myth" focus on uncovering the general patterns or scripts of a life. STORIED LIVES by depth psychologist Craig Chalquist, PhD goes much farther by showing how specific myths play out from cradle to grave. Personal accounts of discovering and working with these myths enliven the book's emphasis on refashioning these plot lines from the inside out.

What is the myth behind your story?

C. G. Jung used the term "personal myth" to ­d­escribe how ­collective stories, images, and motifs recur in our lives. Over time, however, Jung's term was watered down until it came to mean a kind of personal fiction one could change out of and discard like an old garment.

Storied Lives continues Jung's emphasis on the power of myth by showing how the old tales reinvent themselves continually during the course of a life, replaying with the force of fate when kept out of awareness but inviting creative recasting when consciously tended.