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Ring of Power: The Abandoned Child, the Authoritarian Father, and the Disempowered Feminine : A Jungian Understanding of Wagner's Ring Cycle
Ring of Power The Abandoned Child the Authoritarian Father and the Disempowered Feminine A Jungian Understanding of Wagner's Ring Cycle Author:Jean Shinoda Bolen In this brilliant and provocative analysis of the dysfunctional family and patriarchal society, popular author and Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen explores the process of enlightenment, empowerment and healing that can be sparked by myth, drama, and metaphor. The lengthy title of this work describes exactly what is covered. It is not necessar... more »y to know the story of the Ring Cycle in depth or even to be familiar with Norse mythology as the author covers both. Each of the four operas in the cycle is described individually with an analysis of the meaning according to Jungian psychology. As in her earlier works, Goddesses in Everywoman (HarperCollins, 1985) and Gods in Everyman (HarperSanFrancisco: HarperCollins, 1989), mythological figures are treated as archetypes which illustrate dysfunctional family structures and behaviors. This is a very readable, useful book for those working on self-examination and change, and is highly recommended for collections of both scholarly and popular psychology. Drawing on Richard Wagner's enduring, multigenerational Ring Cycle operas, Bolen examines our roles in a patriarchal, dysfunctional society. She demonstrates how recognizing ourselves in the stern fathers, disempowered mothers, abandoned children, and brave truth-tellers of powerful cultural myths can uncovered our buried desires, liberate our untapped strengths, and free ourselves from personal and global cycles of destruction and dysfunction.« less