Reviewed by Maureen Murdock

Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience is a fascinating book with many layers of meaning. It can be read as a memoir of a brilliant scholar, experiencing a lifethreatening injury to her brain, who sustained such brokenness of the heart and body that all the theories about the suffering of the soul suddenly appear in a different light, as well as a beautifully written dialogue between philosophy and depth psychology. Paris asks the questions: What is truly alive and what is outdated in the field of depth psychology? What ideas are fresh and which ones have the potential to harm us even more?

Paris uses her extensive background in philosophy, mythology, and the humanities as well as her expertise as a clinician to explore the realms of depth psychology and how it evokes in us a desire to think deeply about the life of the psyche. The richness of her ideas, as well as the elegance of her style, make this book an essential reference for every student of depth psychology, particularly for psychotherapists and those beginning clinical practice.

Paris redefines the goal of psychotherapy by giving the reader a taste of the awe-inspiring mysteries of life and how the present models of psychotherapy (medical, financial, and redemptive) work against this ability to find a deeper meaning in life. I was especially appreciative of her differentiation of the concept of redemption with that of individuation. She asks the reader to look at how the myth of redemption, which derives from a monotheistic mythology, informs the goals of the therapeutic process. The client starts therapy “in pursuit of consciousness, but covertly the process can conceal a quest for redemption” in which he believes he will ultimately get rid of his internal monsters, change his behavior, and evolve into an enlightened being with flawless psychological health. (p. 54) Paris’ atheistic understanding of Jung’s approach offers a much needed alternative to faith. “Instead of prayer, active imagination; instead of redemption, individuation; instead of belief, the archetypal images of gods and goddesses.” (p. 95)

Paris uses potent examples from her clinical practice to demonstrate how to help the patient examine both the facts and affect of his personal story or myth. As the patient recalls a particular life situation, he becomes more conscious of how he has interpreted it, created a particular version of the story, and shaped the plot with a certain archetypal inflection. Naming the oppressive myth allows the beginning of its dismantling, forcing it into the open for examination and scrutiny. Paris reminds us that a myth working in the background becomes invisible; one thinks it is a personal choice, but it is not. The goal of depth psychotherapy is to become aware of the reigning myth and discover how it shapes the patient by expanding or contracting his being.

Her approach is both theoretical and practical: She listens carefully to the images and symbols in her patient’s tale and emphasizes why it is crucial to remain centered on the imagination of the patient. She cautions against instances in which the therapist exerts too much influence, interpreting the images, with the result that the patient ends up with a story that reflects the therapist’s imagination or theoretical orientation. She writes, “The goal of depth psychology is to evoke: to bring to mind a memory or feeling, to provoke a particular reaction or feeling, to make beings appear who are normally invisible.”(p. 80)

I particularly valued her deconstruction of the prevailing maternal and paternal myths in our culture. Paris writes that the individual mother is still the focus of blame in therapy, diverting attention away from the collective maternal responsibility of our cultural, political, and educational institutions. She calls for a revisioning of the maternal myth—a revolution in values, manners, education, aesthetic sensitivity, city planning, and welfare programs. She examines how the mother archetype has been used to keep women powerless in the role of mother and to keep certain adults infantile. She writes, “We come into the world with our mother, but we die alone. Between these two events, the infantile illusion of safety must thin out until the child is strong enough to bear the responsibility of his or her decisions.” (p. 115) What defines an adult psyche is not independence from a need for compassion and protection but a basic orientation toward achieving responsibility. She quotes Sartre: “To be free, one must be responsible for oneself.” (p. 100)

This is where the paternal principle comes in. Her description of the Father archetype is a much needed act of re-balancing the archetype of Mother with that of the Father. She gives value to the will to win, self-discipline, a fascination for strategy and tactics, a willingness to face conflict, a love of victory, a desire for power, and a capacity to take risks.

One of Paris’s greatest contributions in Wisdom of the Psyche is to warn against bringing too much Great Mother nurturance into therapy. When a patient expresses a need or a wound, it is tempting to take on the maternal role and give the support that seems to be lacking. She cautions the beginning therapist, in particular, to avoid psychological coddling and encourages her instead to bring in the paternal principle to help the patient develop responsibility. Pouring too much maternal love into the therapeutic container deludes the patient into expecting such positive attention in every subsequent relationship. “Too much sweet attention and support breeds an intense neediness that is at the core of egotism.” (p. 152)

Wisdom of the Psyche has the power to encourage one to participate in “amor fati,” the love of one’s fate, to endure the absurd, to cope with the insufferable, to lose one’s innocence, and to embrace the totality of one’s story as it unfolds, as Paris herself did in re-envisioning her own “knock on the head.”

A brilliant look at how the field of depth psychology is enlarging our consciousness.

Maureen Murdock is a depth psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and was Core Faculty in the MA Counseling Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the author of the best-selling book, The Heroine’s Journey, as well as the newly revised Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind; Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory; Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children; and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages.