Dionysus in Exile

Book excerpt: The internationally renowned Jungian analyst Lopez-Pedraza diagnoses the psychological illness at the core of modern society--the loss of embodied soulfulness in people's lives. In this study of the Greek god Dionysus, he offers insight for a cure. This book may be worth several years in psychotherapy, if one takes its message to heart. Dismemberment and cannibalism, Prometheus and Titanic nature, mystical experience, the communal aspect of Dionysiac worship, jazz, flamenco, and bullfighting are among the many twists and turns taken in this essay that wends its way through issues of the body and emotion to open hidden doors for psychotherapy and to cast new light on post-modern humanity.