Stories We Need to Know: Reading Your Life Path in Literature

by Allan G. Hunter

Overview

A combination of therapy and expertise in literature, this book explains the six archetypes derived from 4,000 years of literature and how they may guide unhappy people seeking meaning in their lives. Holding up the great books as the best way to understand these timeless story elements, the discussion devotes a chapter to each of the six archetypes: the innocent, the orphan, the pilgrim, the warrior-lover, the monarch pair, and the magician. Story structures are shown to be particularly suited to therapy with adolescents, many of whom have never stepped away from television and the shopping mall long enough to understand their unmet spiritual needs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781844093014
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	548 KB

About the Author

Allan G. Hunter is a therapist and a professor of literature at Curry College in Massachusetts. He is the author of Joseph Conrad and the Ethics of Darwinism, Life Passages, and The Sanity Manual.
Dr. Allan G. Hunter received his doctorate in literature from Oxford University, which led him to study the deep correspondences between mental disturbance and literary expression. He is a counselor, a therapist, and a professor of literature at Curry College in Boston, where he also teaches memoir writing for the Blue Hills Writing Institute. He is the author of several books, including Spiritual Hunger, Gratitude and Beyond, The Six Archetypes of Love, Stories We Need to Know, The Path of Synchronicity, Write Your Memoir, and Princes, Frogs&Ugly Sisters. He lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 What if there is a road-map to personal growth? What if that map exists in our culture's literature?

Editorial Reviews

"In this groundbreaking study, Allan Hunter uncovers the vital interplay of literature and psychology as he takes a bold new look at the way archetypes—whether found in The Odyssey or Harry Potter—can profoundly transform both individual lives and our spiritually starved society."

Robert Atwan

"A brilliant taxonomy of humanity."

Timothy Staveteig

"An astonishing synthesis of two diverse fields and an illuminating series of insights."  —Bob Atwan, editor, Best American Essays

"A brilliant taxonomy of humanity."  —Timothy Staveteig, publisher, Pilgrim Books

"Just as these are Stories We Need, Allan Hunter is an author we need."  —

Suzanne Strempek Shea, author, Becoming Finola

From the Publisher