The Golden Ass of Apuleius: The Liberation of the Feminine in Man

by Marie-Louise von Franz

"Today there is much discussion of the liberation of women," writes Marie-Louise von Franz, "but it is sometimes overlooked that this can only succeed if there is a change in men as well. Just as women have to overcome the patriarchal tyrant in their own souls, men have to liberate and differentiate their inner femininity. Only then will a better relationship of the sexes be possible." It is this timely theme that Dr. von Franz explores in her psychological study of a classic work of the second century, The Golden Ass by Apuleius of Madaura. The novel recounts the adventures of a young Roman who is transformed into an ass and eventually finds spiritual renewal through initiation into the Isis mysteries. With its many tales within a tale (including the celebrated story of Psyche and Eros), the text as interpreted by Dr. von Franz is a rich source of insights, anecdotes, and scholarly amplification.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Psychoanalysis, Alchemy, Mythology, Philosophy

264 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1970

About the author

Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar.

Von Franz worked with Carl Jung, whom she met in 1933 and knew until his death in 1961. Jung believed in the unity of the psychological and material worlds, i.e., they are one and the same, just different manifestations. He also believed that this concept of the unus mundus could be investigated through research on the archetypes of the natural numbers. Due to his age, he turned the problem over to von Franz. Two of her books, Number and Time and Psyche and Matter, deal with this research.

Von Franz, in 1968, was the first to publish that the mathematical structure of DNA is analogous to that of the I Ching. She cites the reference to the publication in an expanded essay "Symbols of the Unus Mundus," published in her book Psyche and Matter. In addition to her many books, Von Franz recorded a series of films in 1987 titled The Way of the Dream with her student Fraser Boa.

Von Franz founded the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. In The Way of the Dream she claims to have interpreted over 65,000 dreams. Von Franz also wrote over 20 volumes on Analytical psychology, most notably on fairy tales as they relate to Archetypal or Depth Psychology, most specifically by amplification of the themes and characters. She also wrote on subjects such as alchemy, discussed from the Jungian, psychological perspective, and active imagination, which could be described as conscious dreaming. In Man and His Symbols, von Franz described active imagination as follows: "Active imagination is a certain way of meditating imaginatively, by which one may deliberately enter into contact with the unconscious and make a conscious connection with psychic phenomena."

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing Von Franz book!
"A woman's natural inclination is to mother, to nurse...wherever there is a wounded being around, she wants to support it. Not to have any sentimental love for something that is doomed to die and has to go is very hard. This applies also in analysis: a neurotic attitude in the analysand naturally cries out for our pity, but to give in here would mean to keep alive something dying or already dead. To have pity and love, combined with the reckless "cruelty" to allow the condemned thing to die,is very difficult in practical life. It is so much easier to be full of feeling and to give in to one's feminine inclination to sympathize. To have a "knife" in the hand and, without listening to the cries of the patient, to cut off a wrong attitude, this can be very painful for the doctor himself. Naturally the same applies also to the contents of the unconscious which have outlived their time. One should not fall into retrospective sentimentality, but live forward, "letting the dead bury their dead." p 126

[Mephistopheles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant. An incredibly deep interpretation of The Golden Ass (one of my favorite books) that is a must read for how it clarifies the problems of our time. That being said, there are a couple areas where one is reminded that this was written in the past century, but that only makes a small portion of the book, the rest is full of profound insights. It's also quite funny in places. One of my favorite quotes: "...the more he will cut himself off from the anima, and she therefore falls into the lower level, into matter. This means that he is dissociated from his anima, who sinks down into suffering and endless emotions. Where the man does not consider his anima and keep in contact with her, she becomes more and more involved in sensual impulses and primitive affects. That's why the academic man often has a worse character than the man in other professions, for is is the type who tends to reject the anima and who therefore regresses onto a lower level. If you take away the academic persona from the professor, you may find just a baby. He is often the man who marries his cook, for he is too lazy to find a proper wife and has no time to develop his feeling and woo a decent woman to whom he might have to give into a certain extent."

[Craig Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant reading of the archetypal dimensions of a second century book that blurs and redefines genres, incorporating a novelistic frame story with a set of narratives that von Franz convincingly interprets as dreams. Where Erich Neumann read the central myth of Psyche and Eros as an engagement with feminine psychology, von Franz flips the perspective to focus on what it says about male relationship to the Anima.

No clue how much of the book would make sense to anyone not grounded in Jungian psychology and terminology. Von Franz is one of the handful of analysts who extended Jung's work most effectively. For those engaged seriously with Jung, her study is indispensable. (The usual caveat with things Jungian applies: while von Franz has a broad perspective, she's also part of the Germanic/Swiss culture surrounding Jung's work, so you have to be willing to read through occasional passages that invoke stereotypes of national character or culturally-bound assumptions about gender. The insights survive "translation" easily.)

[Oskar Brenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marie-Louise Von Franz delivers once again greeat doses of insight.

There is one section where MLVF brielfly describes the steps of individuation (p.179, 1992) in a few paragaphs that I found especially interesting: "... Then comes the next step, the problem of the realization of animus and anima, in which one is taken far away from outer reality. The integration of these powers means hard work on oneself for years. In this stage, one is still, so to speak, in the land of death. One can only work on the anima or the animus problem out by a period of great introversion."

Readeable, pragmatical and insightful. Worth a second read.

[Vivian Matsui · Rating 4 out of 5]

A von Franz faz neste livro uma leitura do Asno de ouro (Apuleio), pelo viés da psicologia junguiana. Não recomendo ao público geral, mas para quem sabe um pouco da teoria do Jung, ou se interessa, pode até ser, pode pegar uma parte ou outra...
Claro: deve-se ler o Apuleio primeiro, nem devia dizê-lo, mas vai saber, as pessoas são tão impressionantes.
Agora para os junguianos, como eu, recomendo fortemente. O livro em si, do Apuleio, já havia mexido bastante comigo, e a von Franz ajudou um pouco, desmexeu umas coisas, mas mexeu outras.
É assim que o livro cresce. Minhas últimas sessões com o terapeuta foram basicamente sobre estas leituras.

[Carson Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book in Jungian psychology. Franz has a really easy to understand way of talking and does not overcomplicate the language she uses. The ideas she puts forward throughout this book are interesting and even with the easy language are a lot to digest. Her look into psychology of man brought about some interesting looks about what divinity is and mans growth towards the individuation of the self. Also her emphasis on balance in life and the world was an interesting outlook and used the example of men having an obsession with aesthetic and that is not wholly realistic as beauty has to be balanced with the ugly. Also all the symbology knowledge and explanation with the historical outlook was another great side to this book. Her approach is interesting and I will need to reread this book.

[airy xie · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book finished in 2024 🎉🎉🎉

I always love the language of Von Franz even if it is the translation edition. I wish I can understand German so I can feel her's in her native.

So many insight inside this book. Make me so grateful find it.

[Kathy Hale · Rating 1 out of 5]

A series of various stories. One of them is a really good rendition of Cupid and Psyche. A little diffucult to get through some of the varient spelling.

[MFA]

good