Thomas Moore (2) (1940–)

>“I’m often surprised in my therapeutic work when an otherwise mature and discerning adult who is faced with some tough choice collapses everything into the statement “I can’t be selfish.” When I explore this weighty moral imperative with the person further, I usually find that it is tied to a religious upbringing. ”

I feel like there is something to gain from everything you read, but IMO, this is a book that has a very specific niche: those who do not understand myth, psychology, or how systems organize organically regardless of individual neuroticism, and want to understand deeply why all their experiences are not validated in depth by others. If you tie back ignorance about own actions regardless of what that person justifies that action as, all the way to upbringing, you are ignoring all the interactions in between that made that hard to validate any self (adult or child) against, and those exude a similar lack of connectedness to child while having nothing to do with anything religious or upbringing related.… (mere)

from cover

'From time to time I've been jolted byan extraordinary book which stops my world. It forces me to look at reality in a different way-a more expansive and meaningful way. It has provided a missing piece for me.'--John Bradshkaw, author of Homecoming

'The sincerity, intelligence and style-so beautifullly clean-of Tom Moore's Care of the Soul truly moved me. The book's got strength and class and soul, and I suspect may last longer than psychology itself.'--James Hillman, author of Re-Visioning Psychology

'This book just may help you give up the futile quest for salvation and get down to the possible task of taking care of your soul. A modest, and therefore marvelous, book about the life of the spirit.'--Sam Keen, author of Fire in the Belly

'Thoughtful, eloquent, inspiring.'--Alix Madrigal, San francisco Chronicle

Thomas Moore is a leading lecturer and writer in North America and Europe in the areas of archetypal psychology, mythology, and the imagination. He lived as a monk in a Catholic religious order for twelve years and has degrees in theology, musicology, and philosophy.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
I Care of the Soul
1 Honoring Symptons as a Voice of the Soul
II Care of the Soul in Everyday Life
2 The myth of family an dchildhood
3 Self-love and its myth: narcissus and narcissism
4 Love's initiatins
5 Jealousy and envy: healing poisons
6 The soul and power
7 Gifts of depression
8 The body's poetics of illness
9 The economics of soul: work, money, failure and creativity
III Spiritual Practice and Psychological Depth
10 Theneed for myth, ritual, and a spiritual life
11 Wedding spirituality and soul
IV Care of the World's Soul
12 Beauty and the reanimation of things
13 The sacred arts of life
Notes
Suggstions for further reading… (mere)