Feminist Views From Somewhere

Feminist Views from Somewhere: Post-Jungian Themes in Feminist Theory explores what and how Jungian thought contributes to feminist thinking. Broadly speaking, feminist thinking, or thinking by and about women as autonomous, intelligent and independent agents, has opened up scholarship through insightful, reflective critique and practice. This is the starting point of this collection from a range of theorists, interested in the multiple concerns of Jungian and analytical psychology. The contributors take a unique approach to Jungian thinking. Rather than focusing on its mythological aspects, the authors develop alternative, feminist approaches that enhance the appreciation of the possibilities for Jungian and post-Jungian studies. With a primarily theoretical orientation, the rigorous, critical approaches in the collection highlight the possibilities of imaginative Jungian theory. Divided into three parts, ‘Viewing Earth’, ‘Clinical Perspectives’ and ‘Literary Landscapes’, the chapters cover themes including embodiment, intersubjectivity, individuation and narrative. The contributors vividly reflect the range and diversity of opinions amongst women influenced by Jungian thought. Feminist Views from Somewhere is essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, women’s studies and gender studies, as well as analytical psychologists in practice and in training.

Feminist Views from Somewhere: Post-Jungian Themes in Feminist Theory explores what and how Jungian thought contributes to feminist thinking. Broadly speaking, feminist thinking, or thinking by and about women as autonomous, intelligent and independent agents, has opened up scholarship through insightful, reflective critique and practice. This is the starting point of this collection from a range of theorists, interested in the multiple concerns of Jungian and analytical psychology. The contributors take a unique approach to Jungian thinking. Rather than focusing on its mythological aspects, the authors develop alternative, feminist approaches that enhance the appreciation of the possibilities for Jungian and post-Jungian studies. With a primarily theoretical orientation, the rigorous, critical approaches in the collection highlight the possibilities of imaginative Jungian theory. Divided into three parts, ‘Viewing Earth’, ‘Clinical Perspectives’ and ‘Literary Landscapes’, the chapters cover themes including embodiment, intersubjectivity, individuation and narrative. The contributors vividly reflect the range and diversity of opinions amongst women influenced by Jungian thought. Feminist Views from Somewhere is essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, women’s studies and gender studies, as well as analytical psychologists in practice and in training.

Exploring Depth Psychology and the Female Self: Feminist Themes from Somewhere presents a Jungian take on modern feminism, offering an international assessment with a dynamic political edge which includes perspectives from both clinicians and academics. Presented in three parts, this unique collection explores how the fields of gender and politics have influenced each other, how myth and storytelling craft feminist narratives and how public discussion can amplify feminist theory. The contributions include some which are traditionally theoretical in tone, and some which are uniquely personal, but all work to encounter the female self as an active entity. The book as a whole offers a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach to feminism and feminist issues from contemporary voices around the world, as well as a critique of Jung’s essentialist notion of the feminine. Exploring Depth Psychology and the Female Self will offer insightful perspectives to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, gender studies and politics. It will also be of great interest to Jungian analysts and psychotherapists, and analytical psychologists.

The women's movement and feminism has been responsible for profound changes in American society, from greater access to education and jobs to increased choices in health and parenting. Its ideas and goals have largely become a part of everyday beliefs and norms. At the same time, obituaries of the women's movement appear regularly in the news and the current movement is criticized for being apolitical or ineffectual. In this sense, feminism today can be said to be at once "nowhere," no longer visible, and "everywhere," diffused into the culture.Through an extended case study of three communities, Jo Reger explores this paradox with a systematic and empirically-based look at the contemporary women's movement. She investigates some of the most debated topics about and between feminists in the 21st century, including the relationship of contemporary and second-wave generation feminists, the influence of identity politics on gender and sexuality, and the stubborn legacies of racism and classism. Where, with all these changes, is feminism today? The answers, she finds, are myriad and specific to each community. It is precisely the variations and convergences of feminist activism within particular communities, Reger reveals, that define the women's movement today.

Exploring Depth Psychology and the Female Self: Feminist Themes from Somewhere presents a Jungian take on modern feminism, offering an international assessment with a dynamic political edge which includes perspectives from both clinicians and academics. Presented in three parts, this unique collection explores how the fields of gender and politics have influenced each other, how myth and storytelling craft feminist narratives and how public discussion can amplify feminist theory. The contributions include some which are traditionally theoretical in tone, and some which are uniquely personal, but all work to encounter the female self as an active entity. The book as a whole offers a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary approach to feminism and feminist issues from contemporary voices around the world, as well as a critique of Jung’s essentialist notion of the feminine. Exploring Depth Psychology and the Female Self will offer insightful perspectives to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, gender studies and politics. It will also be of great interest to Jungian analysts and psychotherapists, and analytical psychologists.

Defying traditional definitions of public and private as gendered terms, and broadening discussion of women’s writing in relation to feminist work done in other fields, this study addresses American women’s poetry from the seventeenth to late-twentieth century. Engaging the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, history, political theory, religious culture, cultural studies, and poetics, this study provides entry into some of the founding feminist discussions across disciplines, moving beyond current scholarship to pursue an interpretation of feminism’s defining interests and assumptions in the context of women’s writing. The author emphasizes and explores how women’s writing expresses their active participation in community and civic life, emerging from and shaping a woman’s selfhood as constituted through relationships, not only on the personal level, but as forming community commitments. This distinctive formation of the self finds expression in women’s voices and other poetic forms of expression, with the aesthetic power of poetry itself bringing different arenas of human experience to bear on each other in mutual interrogation and reflection. Women poets have addressed the public world, directly or through a variety of poetic structures and figures, and in doing so they have defined and expressed specific forms of selfhood engaged in and committed to communal life.

What is feminism? In this short, accessible primer, bell hooks explores the nature of feminism and its positive promise to eliminate sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. With her characteristic clarity and directness, hooks encourages readers to see how feminism can touch and change their lives—to see that feminism is for everybody.

When Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center was first published in 1984, it was welcomed and praised by feminist thinkers who wanted a new vision. Even so, individual readers frequently found the theory "unsettling" or "provocative." Today, the blueprint for feminist movement presented in the book remains as provocative and relevant as ever. Written in hooks's characteristic direct style, Feminist Theory embodies the hope that feminists can find a common language to spread the word and create a mass, global feminist movement.