The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype

Erich Neumann

Book

The Great Mother

An Analysis of the Archetype

Erich Neumann
Translated by: Ralph Manheim
Preface by: Martin Liebscher

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2015

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This book is in the series

Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology

This book is in the series

Works by Erich Neumann

This book is in the series

Volume 612 | Princeton Classics

This book is in the series

Bollingen Series (General)

About this book

This landmark book explores the Great Mother as a primordial image of the human psyche. Here the renowned analytical psychologist Erich Neumann draws on ritual, mythology, art, and records of dreams and fantasies to examine how this archetype has been outwardly expressed in many cultures and periods since prehistory. He shows how the feminine has been represented as goddess, monster, gate, pillar, tree, moon, sun, vessel, and every animal from snakes to birds. Neumann discerns a universal experience of the maternal as both nurturing and fearsome, an experience rooted in the dialectical relation of growing consciousness, symbolized by the child, to the unconscious and the unknown, symbolized by the Great Mother.

Featuring a new foreword by Martin Liebscher, this Princeton Classics edition of The Great Mother introduces a new generation of readers to this profound and enduring work.

Author / Editor information

Erich Neumann (1905–60), a psychologist and philosopher, was born in Berlin and lived in Tel Aviv from 1934 until his death. His books include The Origins and History of Consciousness, The Fear of the Feminine, and Amor and Psyche (all Princeton). Martin Liebscher is associate professor at the School of European Languages, Culture, and Society at University College London.

Reviews

"Neumann's creative intuition has enabled him to read in these records of the past a content and meaning that throws a beam of light on the psychological history of [hu]mankind."

Topics

Jewish Studies Jewish Culture Jewish Folklore

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
FOREWORD TO THE PRINCETON CLASSICS EDITION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	vii
FOREWORD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	xiii
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	xv
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
LIST OF PLATES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	xxi
LIST OF TEXT FIGURES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	xxxix
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	xlvii
PART I
Chapter One. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ARCHETYPE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	3
Chapter Two. THE ARCHETYPAL FEMININE AND THE GREAT MOTHER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	18
Chapter Three. THE TWO CHARACTERS OF THE FEMININE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	24
Chapter Four. THE CENTRAL SYMBOLISM OF THE FEMININE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	39
Chapter Five. THE TRANSFORMATION MYSTERIES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	55
Chapter Six. THE FUNCTIONAL SPHERES OF THE FEMININE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	64
Chapter Seven. THE PHENOMENON OF REVERSAL AND THE DYNAMIC OF THE ARCHETYPE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	75
PART II
A. THE ELEMENT AR Y CHARACTER
Chapter Eight. INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	89
Chapter Nine. THE PRIMORDIAL GODDESS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	94
Chapter Ten. THE POSITIVE ELEMENTARY CHARACTER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	120
Chapter Eleven. THE NEGATIVE ELEMENTARY CHARAc'rER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	147
B. THE TRANSFORMA 1"'IVE CHARACTER
Chapter Twelve. THE GREAT ROUND Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	211
Chapter Thirteen. THE LADY OF THE PLANTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	240
Chapter Fourteen. THE LADY OF THE BEASTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	268
Chapter Fifteen. SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	281
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	337
ERICH NEUMANN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	353
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	355
PLATES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	381

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

May 4, 2015

eBook ISBN:

9781400866106

Edition:

With a New foreword by Martin Liebscher

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

432

Other:

185 halftones. 74 line illus.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400866106

eBook ISBN: 9781400866106

Keywords for this book

Archetype; Consciousness; Mother goddess; Great Goddess; Matriarchy; Fertility; Psychology; Eleusinian Mysteries; Spiritual transformation; Illustration; Eranos; Depth psychology; Phenomenon; Tiamat; Rite; Deity; Carl Jung; Participation mystique; Christianity; Mother; Psychology and Alchemy; World view; Pottery; The Origins and History of Consciousness; Fertility rite; Uterus; Aurignacian; Hieros gamos; Menstruation; Analytical psychology; Nekhbet; Uniqueness; Emergence; Suggestion; Writing; Navel; Odin; Chthonic; Feeling; Neurosis; Psychological Types; Dionysus; Indication (medicine); Queen of Heaven; Thought; Greek mythology; Huitzilopochtli; Ixchel; Psychotherapy; Tomb; Castration; Libido; Developmental psychology; The Other Hand; Neumann; Valkyrie; Incest; Phallus; Religion; Solar deity; Femininity; Ambivalence; Patriarchy; Cybele; Theory; Good and evil; Sake; Moirai; Personality; Reality

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General/trade;

The Great Mother

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About this book

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