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Anthony Stevens has devoted a lifetime to modernizing our understanding of the archetypes within us, relating them to conceptual developments in a variety of scientific disciplines, such as the patterns of behaviour of behavioural ecology, the species-specific behavioural systems of Bowlby's attachment theory, the deep structures of Chomskian linguistics, and the modules of evolutionary psychology, to name but a few.
This selection of papers and chapters from the course of Stevens' career, all lucidly written and argued, highlight episodes in the progress of his quest to place archetypal theory on a sound scientific foundation. As a whole, Living Archetypes examines how archetypes are activated in the life history of all of us, how archetypal imperatives may be fulfilled or thwarted by our living circumstances, how they manifest in our dreams, symbols, fantasies and symptoms, and how appreciating their dynamics can generate insights of enormous therapeutic power.
Living Archetypes: The Selected Works of Anthony Stevens provides an invaluable resource for Jungian psychotherapists, psychologists, academics and students committed to extending the evolutionary approach to psychology and psychiatry and understanding the dynamic significance of archetypes.
List of contents
Introduction. Personal Introduction to Archetype: A Natural History of the Self (1982). ‘Attachment Behaviour, Separation Anxiety, and Stranger Anxiety in Polymatrically Reared Infants’ in The Origins of Human Social Relations, edited by H.R. Schaffer (1971), London and New York: Academic Press. The Mother, from Archetype: A Natural History of the Self (1982). On the Frustration of Archetypal Intent, from Archetype: A Natural History of the Self (1982). ‘Attenuation of the mother-child bond and male initiation into adult life’, Journal of Adolescence (1981), 4, 131-148. From Jung: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press), Chapter 3, ‘The Stages of Life’. From The Two Million-Year-Old Self (1993). From The Talking Cure in Three Volumes (2013, Toronto: Inner City Books). Volume 1, Chapter 3, excerpt subtitled ‘Jungian Therapy in Theory and Practice’, pp. 97-109. From Private Myths: Dreams and Dreaming (1995). Dreams in Therapy. From Ariadne’s Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind (1998). From The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, Chapter 3, ‘The Archetypes’, pp. 85-90. From The Roots of War and Terror (2004, London: Continuum). Personal Afterword from Archetype Revisited (2002). Towards a Science of Humanity from Evolutionary Psychiatry (2000). List of Publications. Glossary. Index.
About the author
Anthony Stevens has spent his professional life working as a Jungian analyst, psychiatrist, and writer. He is a graduate of Oxford University and in addition to a Doctorate in Medicine has two degrees in Psychology. He is a Senior Member of the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists and a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His previous books include Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self and Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning, with John Price.
Summary
This selection of work from the course of Stevens’ career highlights his quest to place archetypal theory on a sound scientific foundation.
