Sylvia Brinton Perera (December 30, 1932 - ) is an author and a Jungian analyst.
Life and career
Perera worked as a psychotherapist in private practice. She obtained qualification as a Jungian analyst. Subsequently she became a training analyst, and a member of the faculty and board of the C. G. Jung Institute of New York. Her earlier training included an MA in psychology. Her undergraduate studies at Radcliffe had been in art history. Eventually she became the author of four books on Jungian psychology, and co-author of another, in addition to her articles.[1][2]
The eldest of five children of a Quaker family, she grew up in Scarsdale, New York. She has two children by her former husband, political scientist Gregory James Massell. Jungian analyst Edward Christopher Whitmont became her partner until his death in 1998.[3]
Commentary
Andrew Samuels discusses Perera in terms of the developing feminist perspective on Jung's psychology. He proposes three such groups: first, those working with Eros and "psychic relatedness" (including Esther Harding and Toni Wolff); second, those who view woman not as one who relates, but "as she is, in her own right" (Perera, Marion Woodman and Ann Belford Ulanov); and third, those most compatible with contemporary feminism (e.g., June Singer re androgyny). Samuels later adds that Perera describes the finding of "wisdom in change" embedded in an ancient goddess myth. Such wisdom is often disregarded by the prevailing patriarchal view.[4]
Perera's 1981 book Descent to the Goddess concerns the commanding Inanna of Sumer who "presides over the ups and downs of destiny". More terrifying is her underworld sister Ereshkigal with the "eye of death". Edward C. Whitmont compares Perera's description here of the yin of 'feminine consciousness' to that of Erich Neumann. As portrayed by Perera, under the sway of Ereshkigal an impersonal nature inflicts a pitiless pain on humanity. Yet Inanna's "descent into the underworld presages a renewal of life."[5][6]
Susan Rowland also discusses Perera's 1981 book, which she calls "popular and influential". The shadow-sister Ereshkigal holds archetypes of great pain, but also of healing. "[T]his goddess myth of an underworld journey and return enables Perera to shape depressive mental states as potentially empowering women."[7]
Her books
- Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women. Toronto: Inner City Books 1981.
- The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt. Toronto: Inner City Books 1986.
- Celtic Queen Maeve and Addiction. An Archetypal Perspective. New York: Ibris Press 2001; London: Nicolas Hayes 2001.
- The Irish Bull God: Image of Multiform and Integral Masculinity. Toronto: Inner City Books 2004.
- Dreams, A Portal to the Source, co-author Edward Christopher Whitmont. London: Routledge 1992.
Notes
Sources
- Vivianne Crowley, "Perera, Sylvia Brinton" (2017), in David A. Leeming (editor), Enclyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
- S. Naifeh, "Review: Perera, Sylvia Brinton, Queen Maeve and her lovers," in Journal of Analytical Psychology, 230–234. (2001).
- Erich Neumann, "On the Moon and Matriarchal Consciousness" in Spring (1954); new translation in Neumann, The Fear of the Feminine (Princeton: Bollingen 1994), pp. 64-118.
- Susan Rowland, Jung. A Feminist Revision. Cambridge: Polity Press (Blackwell) 2001.
- Andrew Samuels, Jung and the Post-Jungians. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1985.
- Edward C. Whitmont, Return of the Goddess. New York: Crossroad Publishing 1984, 1992.