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    He: Understanding Masculine Psychology
    He: Understanding Masculine Psychology
    He: Understanding Masculine Psychology
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    He: Understanding Masculine Psychology

    By Robert A. Johnson

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    About this ebook

    “Entertaining, informative, thought-provoking, mysterious, poetic. Men who read it will surely learn much about themselves, and women—particularly those who are unfortunately misled into thinking of men as “the enemy”—will find it a real eye-opener.”—Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse, M.D., Th.M., Harvard University

    Robert A. Johnson's classic work exploring the differences between man and woman, female and male—newly reissued.

    What does it really mean to be a man? What are some of the landmarks along the road to mature masculinity? And what of the feminine components of a man's personality?

    Women have developed, over the centuries, considerable expertise in the technique of adapting to men, and for good reason, but that is not the same as truly understanding them. The transition from male childhood to real manhood is a complicated struggle, and explored in this book.

    As timely today as when it was first published, He provides a fascinating look into male identity and how female dynamics influence men.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 21, 2009
    ISBN9780061957611
    Author

    Robert A. Johnson

    Robert A. Johnson, a noted lecturer and Jungian analyst, is also the author of He, She, We, Inner Work, Ecstasy, Transformation, and Owning Your Own Shadow.

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    Reviews for He

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    • 5/5
      Profound read - a must read for men in search of themselves
    • 5/5
      This is my second read, and it was even more potent this time around. It’s a great way to start diving into myth-based psychology as it takes the hero’s journey and breaks down the Grail myth as it is relevant to a masculine life. It is thoughtful, and simple, and a very quick read. The first time I read it, this work changed my way of viewing things in life and helped open mental doors for me. This second go was a reinforcement. I recommend it to everyone.
    • 5/5
      Quite a thought provoking look at the myth of Parsifal and the story's relation to the journey of a man through his unfolding of himself.
    • 2/5
      at the end of it, there isn't much for me to take home. barely a few points of value!
    • 5/5
      Highly recommend for a boy or man on his journey towards masculinity and the Self.
    • 1/5
      Unfortunate not all meeting my expectations. Not worth reading it
    • 4/5
      Myths and legends form powerful expressions of our humanity. It would seem that the most enduring of them are likely so powerful because they tap into some elemental truth of our humanness. If so, a deep reading of the story should illuminate ourselves. This is what Robert Johnson achieves in He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, a deconstruction and interpretation of the Grail story. Johnson, a psychologist with Jungian training interprets the tale of Parsifal’s departure from his mother, arrival at Arthur’s court, and search for the Grail. The Arthurian legends comprise a body of stories with multiple variations. The tales focus variously upon Arthur, the naïve knight, Parsifal (Percival), other knights, mentors, the ailing Fisher King, Queen Guenevere, other damsels and loathsome ladies. Johnson uses the French version, penned as an epic poem by Chrétien de Troyes, in the 12th century because it is the oldest. Being the oldest version, it is simpler, more direct, and closer to the subconscious.As we follow Parsival through his adventures Johnson interprets them as life transitions for men. In the process we discover antecedents to Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars trilogy, and Harry Potter. At the end we understand that chasing happiness is ephemeral and true meaning and wholeness can only be attained through service to others. To get us there, I have a worry about the fidelity of Johnson’s retelling of the story, the origins of which are lost in the mists of time.
    • 4/5
      This book takes the myth of Parsifal and attempts to explain some basic aspects of masculine psychology. I did not enjoy this book quite as much as We, or She. The main reason is because, although it describes what men need to do during their journey of life, it doesn't really explain or give many real world examples.The basic premise is that men have a latent or suppressed feminine side of their personality (anima) that needs to be dealt with and accepted instead of ignored.

    Book preview

    He - Robert A. Johnson

    Introduction

    Often, when a new era begins in history, a myth for that era springs up simultaneously. The myth is a preview of what is to come, and it contains sage advice for coping with the psychological elements of the time.

    In the myth of Parsifal’s search for the Holy Grail we have such a prescription for our modern day. The Grail myth arose in the twelfth century, a time when many people feel that our modern age began; ideas, attitudes and concepts we are living with today had their beginnings in the days when the Grail myth took form. One can say that the winds of the twelfth century have become the whirlwinds of the twentieth century.

    The theme of the Grail myth was much in evidence in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. We will be using the French version, which is the earliest written account, taken from a poem by Chrétien de Troyes. There is also a German version by Wolfram von Eschenbach. The English version, Le Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory, comes from the fourteenth century; but by that time it had been elaborated a great deal. The French version is simpler, more direct and nearer to the unconscious; therefore it is more helpful for our purposes.

    We must remember that a myth is a living entity, and exists within every person. You will get the true, living form of the myth if you can see it as it spins away inside yourself. The most rewarding mythological experience you can have is to see how it lives in your own psychological structure.

    The Grail myth speaks of masculine psychology. This is not to say that it is confined to the male, for a woman participates in her own inner masculinity, though it is less dominant for her. We must take everything that goes into the myth as part of ourselves. We will have to cope with a dazzling array of fair damsels, but must see them too as parts of the masculine psyche. Women, too, will be interested in the secrets of the Grail myth, for every woman has to cope with one of these exotic creatures, the male of the species, somehow, as father, or husband, or son. Also a woman partakes quite directly of the Grail myth as the story of her own interior masculinity. Especially as modern women take more part in the masculine world by embracing a profession, the development of masculinity becomes important to her. A woman’s masculinity or a man’s femininity is closer than one realizes. The insights of this myth will be immediate and practical for our present time.

    The Fisher King

    Our story begins with the Grail castle, which is in serious trouble. The Fisher King, the king of the castle, has been wounded. His wounds are so severe that he cannot live, yet he is incapable of dying. He groans; he cries out; he suffers constantly. The whole land is in desolation, for a land mirrors the condition of its king, inwardly in a mythological dimension, as well as outwardly in the physical world. The cattle do not reproduce; the crops won’t grow; knights are killed; children are orphaned; maidens weep; there is mourning everywhere—all because the Fisher King is wounded.

    The notion that the welfare of a kingdom depends upon the virility or power of its ruler has been a common one, especially among primitive people. There are still kingdoms in the primitive parts of the world where the king is killed when he can no longer produce any offspring. He is simply killed, ceremonially, sometimes slowly, sometimes horribly, because it is thought that the kingdom will not prosper if the king is becoming weak.

    The whole Grail castle is in serious trouble because the Fisher King is wounded. The myth tells us that years before, early in his adolescence, when he was out wandering around in the woods doing his knight errantry, the Fisher King came to a camp. All the people of the camp were gone, but there was a salmon roasting on a spit. He was hungry, there was the salmon roasting over the fire, and he took a bit of it to eat. He found that the salmon was very hot. After burning his fingers on it he dropped the salmon and put his fingers into his mouth to assuage the burn. In so doing he got a bit of the salmon into his mouth. This is the Fisher King wound and gives its name to the ruler of much of our modern psychology. Modern suffering man is the heir to this psychological event which took place culturally some eight hundred years ago.

    Another version of the story has it that the young Fisher King was overwhelmed with amour one day and was out hunting for some experience of his passion. Another knight, a Muslim pagan, had had a vision of the True Cross and was out searching for some expression of this quest. The two came within sight of each other and, like true knights, each lowered visor and lance and went at the other. There was a terrible clash, the pagan knight was killed and the Fisher King received the wound in his thigh which blighted the kingdom for so many years.

    What a sight! The knight of vision and the knight of sensuousness clash in terrible combat. Instinct and nature now suddenly having been touched by a vision of spirit clashing with pure spirit which has been touched by a vision of instinct and nature. Such is the crucible within which the highest evolution can take place—or a deadly conflict capable of psychological destruction.

    I shudder at

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