These essays by the famous analytical psychologist and student of
creativity Erich Neumann belong in the context of the depth psychology
of culture and reveal a prescient concern about the one-sidedness of
patriarchal Western civilization. Neumann recommended a "cultural
therapy" that he thought would redress a "fundamental ignorance" about
feminine and masculine psychology, and he looked for societal healing to
a "matriarchal consciousness" that forms the bridge between the feminine
and the creative.Brought together here for the first time, the essays in
the book discuss the psychological stages of woman's development, the
moon and matriarchal consciousness, Mozart's Magic Flute, the meaning of
the earth archetype for modern times, and the fear of the feminine. In
Mozart's fantastic world, Neumann saw a true Auseinandersetzung-- the
conflict and coming-to-terms with each other of the matriarchal and the
patriarchal worlds. Developing such a synthesis of the feminine and the
masculine in the psychic reality of the individual and of the collective
was, he argued, one of the fundamental, future-oriented tasks of both
the society and the individual.