Addiction to Perfection

Studies in Jungian Psychology

By: Marion Woodman

Narrated by: Rebecca Sands

"This book is about taking the head off an evil witch."

With these words, Marion Woodman begins her spiral journey, a powerful and authoritative look at the psychology and attitudes of modern woman.

The witch is a Medusa or a Lady Macbeth, an archetypal pattern functioning autonomously in women, petrifying their spirit and inhibiting their development as free and creatively receptive individuals. Much of this, according to the author, is due to a cultural one-sidedness that favors patriarchal values—productivity, goal orientation, intellectual excellence, spiritual perfection—at the expense of more earthy, interpersonal values traditionally recognized as the heart of the feminine.

Marion Woodman's first book, The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Repressed Feminine, focused on the psychology of eating disorders and weight disturbances. It has been critically acclaimed for its "sense of the Earth Mother and its recognition of the feminine principle in the Holy Spirit" (Margaret Laurence, author of The Stone Angel), and for its "eye-opening insights into the relationship between the individuation process of a woman and the state of her body" (Werner Engel, psychiatrist and medical director of the C.G. Jung Training Center Clinic, New York).

Here, with a broader perspective on the same general themes, Marion Woodman continues her remarkable exploration of women's mysteries through case material, dreams, literature, mythology, food rituals, rape symbolism, Christianity, imagery in the body, sexuality, creativity, and relationships. The final chapter, a discussion of the psychological meaning of ravishment (as opposed to rape), celebrates the integration of body and spirit, showing what this can mean to a woman.

©1982 Marion Woodman (P)2023 Marion Woodman

The narrator is horrible, the book is brilliant.

I actually could not listen past the first chapter. The narrator is awful. Her voice lacks the seriousness and depth when reading this work. Who is choosing these narrators? I was able to find an AI voice that read this to me with greater meaning than this person you hired to narrate this amazing book.

Addiction as a deal with the devil

Fascinating exploration of eating disorders through a Jungian lens.
I don’t understand the criticism of the narrator. She does a fine job. A few obscure words like “enantiodromia” are mispronounced.

Audio bummer

Inconsistent audio was unfortunately distracting from content. Clearly skilled voice work, hope she re does it some day!

Great poetry and Insights

First of all I would like to praise the Narrator who has been criticised in several reviews. I actually enjoyed the reading, the voice and intonation were on point, the problem lies with the quality of the recording which seems amateur, there are sounds of dogs barking, drinking water, difference in volume, etc. The book is great, I need to read it a couple of times more to get a good grasp of the symbolism.

Great book but poor performance

This is a great book but unfortunately the narrator has a bad performance for this book, I can even say that it is one of the worst recordings I have ever listened to. It is an inappropriate narration that does not suit such a serious and important book.