Masculine Shame: From Succubus to the Eternal Feminine - Paperback

by Mary Y. Ayers (Author)

How does the image of the succubus relate to psychoanalytic thought?

Masculine Shame: From Succubus to the Eternal Feminine explores the idea that the image of the succubus, a demonic female creature said to emasculate men and murder mothers and infants, has been created out of the masculine projection of shame and looks at how the transformation of this image can be traced through Western history, mythology, and Judeo-Christian literature.

Divided into three parts areas of discussion include:

• the birth of civilization and the evolution of the succubus
• the image of the succubus in the writings of Freud and Jung
• the succubus as child killing mother to the restoration of the eternal feminine.

Through a process of detailed cultural and social analysis, the author places the image of the succubus at the very heart of psychoanalytic thought, highlighting its presence in both Freud's Medusa and Jung's visions of Salome. As such, this book will be of great interest to all those in the fields of analytical psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

Author Biography

Mary Y. Ayers, Ph.D. is the author of Mother-Infant Attachment and Psychoanalysis: The Eyes of Shame, (Routledge, 2003), winner of the NAAP Gradiva Award (2004). She currently works in private practice in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. where she specializes in analytic work with children and adults.