An insightful exploration of the unconscious fear of the feminine by a pioneering Jungian psychologist

Erich Neumann was one of C. G. Jung’s most brilliant students and a renowned practitioner of analytical psychology in his own right. This landmark book brings together five of his most illuminating essays on feminine psychology. Neumann discusses the psychological stages of woman’s development, the moon and matriarchal consciousness, Mozart’s Magic Flute, the meaning of the earth archetype for modern times, and the fear of the feminine. He sees in Mozart’s fantastical realm a clash and true coming to terms of the matriarchal and patriarchal worlds. Reflecting a timely concern about the one-sidedness of patriarchal Western civilization, The Fear of the Feminine explains why a synthesis of the feminine and the masculine in the psychic reality of both the individual and the collective is one of the fundamental tasks of contemporary society.