Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies

In Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies, Romanyshyn asks eight questions that uncover how Mary Shelley’s classic work Frankenstein haunts our world. Providing a uniquely interdisciplinary assessment, Romanyshyn combines Jungian theory, literary criticism and mythology to explore answers to the query at the heart of this book: who is the monster?

In the first six questions, Romanyshyn explores how Victor’s story and the Monster’s tale linger today as the dark side of Frankenstein’s quest to create a new species that would bless him as its creator. Victor and the Monster are present in the guises of climate crises, the genocides of our "god wars," the swelling worldwide population of refugees, the loss of place in digital space, the Western obsession with eternal youth and the eclipse of the biological body in genetic and computer technologies that are redefining what it means to be human. In the book’s final two questions, Romanyshyn uncovers some seeds of hope in Mary Shelley’s work and explores how the Monster’s tale reframes her story as a love story.

This important book will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian theory, literature, philosophy and psychology, psychotherapists in practice and in training, and for all who are concerned with the political, social and cultural crises we face today.

Robert D. Romanyshyn is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, an affiliate member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and a Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, USA.