From the Author
Gods in Everyman is a companion volume to Goddesses in Everywoman. Both are the archetypes in us, based on the gods and goddesses in Greek mythology. People are complex, there is a pantheon of these archetypes in each of us. They act from within us, and the more we know of them, the more conscious we can be about ourselves, the better. Every archetype is a predisposition each contributes to our personality, helping define our strengths, difficulties, and meaning. Families and cultures favor some archetypes over others, which affects success and self-esteem. On a personal level, individuals who find themselves repeatedly attracted to certain types need to know "who" it is in them and in the other person. I hope that people who read both books, will come away with a respectable knowledge of Greek mythology, a working understanding of Jungian archetypal psychology, and on a personal level, with insights into themselves and the significant people in their lives.
From the Back Cover
In this challenging and enlightening companion volume to the best-selling Goddesses in Everywoman, Jean Shinoda Bolen turns her attention to the powerful inner patterns---or archetypes---that shape men's personalities, careers, and personal relationships. Viewing these archetypes as the inner counterparts of the outer world of cultural stereotypes, she demonstrates how men and women can gain an invaluable sense of wholeness and integration when what they do is consistent with who they are. A Jungian analyst, Dr. Bolen introduces these inner patterns in the guise of eight archetypal gods with whom the reader will identify. From the authoritarian, power-seeking gods (Zeus, Poseidon) to the gods of creativity (Apollo, Hephaestus) to the sensual Dionysis, Dr. Bolen shows men how to identify their ruling gods, how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes in order to enrich and strengthen their lives. She stresses the importance of understanding which gods you are attracted to and which are incompatible with your expectations, uncovers the origins of the often-difficult father-son relationship, and explores society's deep conflict between nurturing behavior and the need to foster masculinity.
In Gods in Everyman Dr. Bolen presents us with a compassionate and lucid male psychology that will help all men and women to better understand themselves and their relationships with their fathers, their sons, their brothers and their lovers.
About the Author
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a an internationally known Jungian analyst and author of Goddesses in Everywoman (Greek goddesses and feminine archetypes), and Gods in Everyman (Greek gods and masculine archetypes), The Tao of Psychology (on synchronicity), Ring of Power (about archetypes, symbols, and themes in Wagner's Ring Cycle, a Jungian-feminist interpretation), Crossing to Avalon (on pilgrimage, goddess spirituality, midlife), and Close to the Bone: Life Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning. She is clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California Medical Center San Francisco, a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, and a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women and the International Transpersonal Association. She has been involved in the Healing Journeys: Cancer as a Turing Point Conferences, and was in two acclaimed documentaries, the Canadian Film Board's Goddess Remembered, and the academy award winning anti-nuclear film, Women--For America, For the World. She is currently writing Goddesses in Older Women (about archetypes, spirituality, and authenticity in women over fifty) and The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World (on women's circles).
