Words As Eggs: Psyche in Language and Clinic

by Russell Arthur Lockhart

. Spring Pubs, clean copy, occasional marking in text, Professional booksellers since 1981

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

1000 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

Reviews

[Lily MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read the book Words as Eggs by Jungian analyst Russell Lockhart. The idea for the work, and the chapter from which the title comes, originated in one of Lockhart’s dreams. A voice in his dream said “Do you not know that words are eggs, that words carry life, that words give birth?” (92) Lockhart later points out that this dream revelation isn’t exactly new in the larger scheme of things. In the beginning, it’s rumored that God spoke the world into existence: “the word is seed and gives birth to life and living things” (92). As eggs, words are constantly delivering new ideas and thoughts, filling our minds with possibilities and worlds we otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

A writer, I’m fascinated with anything to do with words and how they inform, form, and reform our surroundings—and us. They are magical and ordinary simultaneously, both grounding us in their multiple meanings as well as suggesting possibilities that seem limitless. That’s one reason why poetry and fiction in particular have such a profound grip on our imaginations and on us. In his exploration of his dream announcement, Lockhart does a compelling job of taking the reader into the soul and roots of language, demonstrating how mysterious and complex these 26 letters of the alphabet are that have an endless capacity to change shape.

[H.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will appeal to you if you and are intrigued by the psychic revelations to be found through exploring the depths and etymology of words found in dreams, active imagination and when hidden psyche speaks with us – if we stay with the stillness, rather than pay them minimal attention before rushing on by to the next words and images.

This work will appeal to you if you can grok what Hermann Paul meant when he wrote: “The old word meanings have an after-effect, chiefly imperceptible, within the dark chamber of the unconscious of the soul”, what Jung meant when he wrote: “What an archetypal content is always expressing is, first and foremost, a figure of speech” or metaphor, and Russell Lockhart's own words: “The unconscious remembers these old meanings, remembers the entire history of a word’s story. But the conscious mind needs to be reminded.”

And the work will be of benefit to you if you wish to discover more about the vital roles that Eros and Psyche (and synchronicity) play in our lives.

[Ailish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been interested in patterns, and this book opened a whole new world of the patterns and links between words and thoughts.