The Human Shadow and What Stories Do We Need?

De: Robert Bly

Narrado por: Robert Bly

Robert Bly - one of the most compelling mythologists and storytellers of our time - captures the imagination in two live recordings.

In The Human Shadow, Bly takes us on a thought provoking and entertaining journey exploring our "shadow" through poetry, music, and storytelling. Bly says that the development of the shadow starts in childhood when parents make it clear there are certain parts of us they don’t like: "you’re too noisy!" So we put this into a "bag". Over time, our independence and feeling also go into the bag, getting heavier and heavier. Then, according to Bly, we spend the rest of our life trying to get everything back out of the bag to live fully again.

What Stories Do We Need? reminds us that the mythology we have inherited is often defective. Just as the church refused to accept the reality Galileo saw in his telescope, literalists have removed the dark soul images that nourished our ancestors from mythology by refusing to include them in our stories. But Bly reminds us that these are exactly the stories we need to hear.

©2009 Robert Bly (P)2009 BetterListen! LLC

Insightful and funny

I have listened several times and each time I learn more about my shadow and the mythology that makes us.

Fantastically engaging and informative

Extremely pertinent material in these times of such struggles to fully inhabit ourselves. To take ownership of our total arc of inner and outer characters is a life’s work and Robert’s work is invaluable along the way.

WOW ... Bly speaks directly to my heart!

What a gift Robert Bly has to share with men (and all those women that live, work, and attempt to understand us). already listened to 3 times through, shared with my wife and my boys!!!

very animated!

Loved the emotion and enthusiasm. This was timely and pertinent to my life's circumstances. He helped make Jungian Shadow work come alive.

ok

loved it. struggled to finish it. for me it got too perfornance like and less narrative. or maybe it is too smart for my level

Bly is my greatest living hero

Easy listen, read iron john if you want this 5 hours spread into 400 pages...so much is said so well, very funny, personable..listened to this probably a dozen times

I can listen to this over and over

Where does The Human Shadow and What Stories Do We Need? rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a beautifully performed audio. Robert Bly is witty, gentle and wise and I could listen to him for hours. This book presents the concept of the shadow in such a delightful and unusual way, interspersed with fairy tales, poems and deep insights. The only negative is across the two recordings on this book is some repetition, however it is the sort of material that benefits from more than one listen anyway.

Deep

Amazing depth, profound story, wonderful poetry, all in a powerful performance, thank you Robert Bly.

Liberal rants and screaming; only 1 hour regards the shadow

Professor screaming regularly and very frequent rants and Reagan, Bush, and how conservatives are evil - during psychology lectures make this “book” extremely difficult to recommend. The material itself is only slightly better. It relates to mythology, the different aspects of the human (primarily male) psyche but is so disjointed by the narration as to be very forgettable. The shadow psychology principle only gets treatment during the first 90 minutes - so, if your interest is studying the duality of man, you won’t get a lot here that’s focused on that.

Don't waste your time or money on this

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the content was far less political and the message was more tight.

What was most disappointing about Robert Bly’s story?

I expected something more elegant, like Joseph Campbell. Instead, this was some left wing psychology with far too much politics mixed in. He seemed unable to communicate ideas without injecting his partisan political beliefs.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This wasn't a book, it was a rambling conversation with some guitar music inserted at times. Their are much better alternatives available on Audible.