Jung: A Feminist Revision by Susan Rowland

Jung: A Feminist Revision Reviews

• 
  Araminta Matthews

  This is not a book for the feint of heart. This is academia at its finest. Rowland has finally made palatable the theories and expositions of Jung (who is a sexist bastard in his theory and practice, to be sure). Thank you Rowland. I wanted Jung's alchemical writings and personal myth and mysticism as a foundation for my personal psychology, but could not bring myself to reconcile his overt sexism (and complete lack of self-awareness thereof). This work helped me to do just that.
• 
  Bohdan Pechenyak

  A relatively short book that presents a feminist interpretation of Jung’s work in a condensed and efficient manner. Moving from biographical summary and an overview of Jung’s theories, through the univocal “Jungian feminism” that extends, revises or “amplifies” (a Jungian term) his ideas, culminating in a form of “goddess feminism”, and on to the multiple Jungian feminisms based in the poststructuralist, postmodern, and post-Freudian currents (even briefly looking forward to ecofeminism and cyberfeminism), Susan Rowland highlights the tension between the Enlightenment-oriented Jung, reaching out for a grand narrative of psyche and culture, and the Gothic (rather than postmodern or deconstructionist) Jung, undermining that theoretical narrative with his central, sublime and unknowable unconscious. This tension is most obvious in his theorizing about anima as the independent “other” of masculinity, which he often tends to collapse into female sex (and specific important women in his life) and into “the feminine”, this essentializing the latter. Despite this tendency, his theories contain a lot of rich and promising material to support a feminist perspective in our postmodern world.
• 
  Tracy

  I was putting away papers from the intro class I just taught, and I found a mention of this book. The reference was obscure, so I started hunting. . .
  
  and decided I would have to read this book!
  
  Many contemporary scholars hate Jung because he's easily understood to be sexist, racist, and just one of those awful dead white males we love to hate. Is it possible to find anything worthwhile in what he says? Well, in my own experience with his theories, I have found him to be enlightening. His racism and sexism aren't in the service of sexism or racism but often point the way towards liberation.
  
  Apparently, Rowland (her last name is part of my home town! - ha!) sees the same in Jung's work. She directly addresses his problematic works, his life, and she purportedly saves his insights into what it means to be human.
  
  Can't wait to read it.
• 
  Frater

  Great survey of the current literature on a revision and expansion of Jung's theories of gender relations with an emphasis on the feminine.