With an uncommon geniality and good humor, bestselling author Jean Shinoda Bolen demonstrates how mythology can illuminate psychology. In this study, the respected Jungian analyst transcends the personal sphere to focus on the family and patriarchal society. Using Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle The Ring of Nibelung as a framework, the author investigates the psychological origins and destructive capacity of authoritarian institutions. Each of the four central chapters of the book examines one of Wagner’s operas, which the author links to a particular Jungian archetype. In doing so, the book reveals profound truths about humanity, human relations, and society that can be highly transformative. In concluding, Shinoda Bolen outlines a possible post-patriarchal society and how each individual can help in forming it by living a life centered on authenticity.

Jean Shinoda Bolen is a psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst, and the author of many books, including Crones Don’t Whine and Goddesses in Everywoman. She is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She lives in San Francisco.