Portrait of the Blue Lady: The Character of Melancholy

by Lyn Cowan

Once imagined in past centuries as an affliction from the gods and as a majestic woman of power and wisdom, Dame Melancholy, the Blue Lady, has been reduced to a modern, impersonal clinical category. But we all get the blues sometimes, and how are we to understand what is going on in the psyche in those blue moods? This book, written in a lyrical style with wit and passion, intends to redeem melancholy and restore it to its rightful place in the human psyche, as a Muse of creative force, a characteristic of greatness, and a bittersweet comfort in the sensitive soul.

Genres: Psychology

314 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Cowan, Lyn was a brilliant, highly respected and influential Jungian analyst who studied at the Jung Institute in Zurich, and graduated from the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts where she later served as Training Director and President. Lyn authored several books and articles on Archetypal Psychology. Her papers will likely be archived at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition to her analytic practice, Lyn was an engaging lecturer who presented internationally, entwining her storytelling and love of horse racing with her Jungian teachings and scholarly expertise.

Reviews

[James Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable volume, combining scholarship, clinical insight and criticism of current modes of psychotherapy, mythopoetics and history. Ms Cowan brings them all together in a most fascinating and readable way and manages to restore melancholy as Muse, and destroys the current clinical misunderstanding of it as "depression" or "bi-polar disorder." It is odd that a book about such a difficult to bear Muse can, at the same time, offer so much insight and hope.