The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women

Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts #41

by Marion Woodman

Continues the author's long-standing concern with the feminine, focusing on the ways in which a woman may be undermined by a crippling relationship with her inner man. Powerful images from poetry, myth, dreams, analysis and personal experience.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Womens, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Philosophy, Spirituality

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1989

About the author

Marion Woodman was a Canadian mythopoetic author and women's movement figure. She was a Jungian analyst trained at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland. She was one of the most widely read authors on feminine psychology, focusing on psyche and soma. She was also an international lecturer and poet. Her collection of audio and visual lectures, correspondence, and manuscripts are housed at OPUS Archives and Research Center, in Santa Barbara, California. Among her collaborations with other authors she wrote with Thomas Moore, Jill Mellick and Robert Bly. Her brothers were the late Canadian actor Bruce Boa and Jungian analyst Fraser Boa.

Reviews

[Sarah Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book in the bath this evening and two chapters in I'm finding it wonderful: soulful, poetic, insightful and deeply intelligent. Why haven't I read more Marion Woodman; she even writes about the heroes journey? Shame on me.

A resonant grab:

"Gender, which is a matter of biology, is a desirable distinction absolutely essential to the survival of the human racae. But survival on psychic and spiritual levels carries us beyond biology into the area Jung called individuation. The unity of the human race dictatted by the global village we anxiously inhabit - while still looking for a safer place to settle - is a unity that far transcends the sexual attraction of opposites. It is rather a unity that issues from a profound identity that needs urgently to be understood. So long as we fail to do the hard work of bringing our own masculine and feminine sides to consciousness, we fall back upon those ancient parental figures who have long since hardeneded into the established forms which reinforce a patriarchal order." (17)

[Mical · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always have the best dreams and journal sessions when I read Marion Woodman!

[Amé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marion Woodman makes for daily reading and re-reading along with any other kind of self-knowledge/ development work and/or studies undertaken. I was swept off my feet by Leaving my Father's House; Journey to Conscious Femininity written alongside three of her analysands who agreed to share part of their own personal journey towards individuation in the form of significant dreams, pages from their journals and relevant exchanges with Marion in therapy. After finishing this my third book by Marion Woodman, I can understand why Jill Mellick, Jungian Psychologist and personal friend of the author felt compelled to initiate and see to completion a thoughtfully chosen selection of quotes from the author's earlier books in Coming Home to Myself; Reflections Nurturing A Woman's (and Man's) Body and Soul. I had started my own collection anyway and will carry on expanding it.
I'll be reading Addiction to Perfection and the Pregnant Virgin next.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I (figuratively) held a whole jar of salt as I read this book, since I haven't studied psychology since high school and, when I did study it, I wasn't a member of the Jungian support group.

So, despite my misgivings about some of the assertions made, I felt myself grudgingly finding small truths amid the morass of psychological jargon. I found it more useful to hold up the archetypes to literature than I did to the actual cases reviewed (and I found that to be the far more interesting part of the book as well), but I did find myself identifying with some of the figures being discussed.

I think overall this book would have been more useful had it included ways to tap into all those repressed memories and identify with those archetypes (without the use of hypnosis, or a step into the office of the psychologist who wrote the book).

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book tougher going than Marion Woodman’s other titles, but that’s down to limitations in me, not to Marion. She was an incredible analyst and profound thinker. I’m delighted that she was Canadian.

[Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this unfortunate effect on certain women where they become enthralled and drawn to me much like a moth to a flame. As a gangly bald man with pimples, I often wonder why this happens in the first place. I have heard that large noses were popular in Ancient Rome, so at least I've got that going for me.

Thinking they are enthusiastically approaching the everpresent impartial luminosity of the moon, these well meaning women spend weeks to months getting close enough for me to finally reveal a degree of warmth, to which they quite suddenly end up pivoting and flying away, or worse, combusting and spiraling into a fiery nosedive of destruction. The result? They go on to pursue other flames, and I am left once again alone, moderately horny, and confused.

Am I inadvertently attracting highly feminine identified women who unwittingly project their own undeveloped masculinity on to me? Forcing them to eventually acknowledge the leaden weight of their unprocessed psychic content - or otherwise risk a complete mental hemorrhage as my presence becomes increasingly exposing and unbearable to their inner homeostasis?

With all this newfound spare time due to my now empty dating schedule, I could read this book hoping Marion would answer some of these questions. She did - which is a relief as using Chat GPT as your therapist only gets you so far, even with the Plus version.

If you have any doubts as to the complexity of the inner lives of women, read this. I thought maybe this escapade would resolve the issue entirely, but the mystery of women remains unsolved.

Maybe I just need to pay more attention, I don't think I even remember most of what Marion was rattling on about anyway. Mostly silly nonsesne about devouring things, snakes, and weddings.

[Elan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read that does become convoluted at times. The author does tend to be fairly procrustean in her descriptions. Nevertheless it is thought provoking on the necessary inner work to shape the outer world.

[Amber Middlebrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book cover piqued my interest, and the author captured my attention. I experienced vivid imagery of a blue man drifting off to sleep. This book profoundly resonated with my personal journey toward self-actualization.

[Fiona Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book that started off bizarre. All that I can compare the entire structure to is a diary of case studies with little nuggets of psychological takeaways throughout. I don't think I would want to flip through it again.
In her defense though, she did have a nice writing voice.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favorite Woodman so far. It’s the fourth book she published and it has a more finished quality to it than all the others I’ve read by her. Will be returning to this one.

[Hanna Gumółka · Rating 4 out of 5]

trochę mętne przez te wszystkie święte Graale, no i szkoda, że takie heteroseksualne

[Debby Friday · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary read for women with Capricorn placements.

[Carol Watt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another outstanding contribution by Marion Woodman. I would usually feel a sense of loss and sorrow after completing a book of this calibre but this time I feel huge excitement to get started on the next volume. You can't help but feel radically yet subtly altered after reading Marion Woodman, she's in an entirely different league.

[Rachael]

Marion Woodman relates the process of the inner marriage of the masculine and feminine, specifically how this psychic dynamic appears in women. Very meaningful and profound description of the inner masculine and feminine.

[Alyssabenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

For school.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woodman speaks my language so anything she writes is brilliant for me.