Archetype: A Natural History of the Self,
first published in 1982 was a ground-breaking book; the
first to explore the connections between Jung's
archetypes and evolutionary disciplines such as ethology
and sociobiology, and an excellent introduction to the
archetypes in theory and practical application as
well. C.G. Jung's 'archetypes of the collective
unconscious' have traditionally remained the property of
analytical psychology, and have commonly been dismissed
as 'mystical' by scientists. But Jung himself described
them as biological entities, which, if they exist at
all, must be amenable to empirical study. In the work of
Bowlby and Lorenz, and in recent studies of the
bilateral brain, Dr Anthony Stevens has discovered the
key to opening up this long-ignored scientific approach
to the archetypes, originally envisaged by Jung himself.
At last, in a creative leap made possible by the
cross-fertilisation of several specialist disciplines,
psychiatry can be integrated with psychology, with
ethology and biology. The result is an immensely
enriched science of human behaviour. In this revised,
updated edition, Anthony Stevens considers the enormous
cultural, social and intellectual changes that have
taken place in the past 20 years, and includes: * An
updated chapter on The Archetypal Masculine and
Feminine, reflecting recent research findings and
developments in the thinking of feminists *
Commentary on the intrusion of neo-Darwinian thinking
into psychology and psychiatry * Analysis of what has
happened to the archetype in the past 20 years in terms
of our understanding of it and our responses to
it
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