Transformation: Emergence of the Self

Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology

By: Murray Stein

Narrated by: Tim Lundeen

In Transformation: Emergence of the Self, noted analyst and author Murray Stein explains what this process is, and what it means for an individual to experience it. Transformation usually occurs at midlife, but is much more complicated than what we colloquially call a midlife crisis. Consciously working through this life stage can lead people to become who they are and have always potentially been. Indeed, Stein suggests, transformation is the essential human task. Stein first details how this process of transformation emerges and develops in an individual. Why does this transformation occur? And, more specifically, why does it so often occur in midlife?

Using the example of poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Stein clearly and carefully walks the listener through the hows and whys of the transformation process. Looking at C. G. Jung's life, Stein then explains how transformative images stimulate the transformation process by suggesting new ways of thinking and living. Intimate relationships, like those between a husband and a wife or a doctor and a patient, can also play a very powerful role in transformation. Finally, Stein examines the process in the lives of three important people, Jung, Picasso, and Rembrandt, whose experiences of transformation led to even greater creativity and freedom.

This book is successful both as an easy-to-understand elucidation of the transformation process and as an invitation to personal change. For those people who would like to learn what a meaningful second half of life could be like, Transformation: Emergence of the Self is an inspiring place to start.

©1998 Murray Stein (P)2012 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Although many important books have emerged from the field of analytical psychology, I have encountered none that speaks more directly to the needs of the soul in our time than Murray Stein's new and exciting book Transformation.... This 148-page artfully argued tour de force...I believe to be Stein's master work." ( San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal)

"If Murray Stein lectures as he writes, then he is a master storyteller indeed." ( Journal of Analytical Psychology)

Not a light read, but good insight

This is an in depth study looking at spiritual enlightment, or more precisely midlife return to true self, using a few very well known artists and thought leaders. If you aren't familiar with Carl Jung, the vocabulary could be overwhelming.

Not for a common reader, maybe for a professional.

I was very disappointed with the book, I didn't learn anything about transformation that I could use. Waste of money in my opinion.