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Joseph Henderson pioneered analytical psychology in San Francisco. But he also spent many years in Europe studying with Jung in Zürich, and later with other analysts in London. All
this is set out in the first essay on ‘J. L. H. Henderson, his life and work’. There Gareth Hill suggests that he was one of the Americans in whom Jung discovered Indian traits in the unconscious and this gave special meaning to his return to his native soil where he practised and pursued his researches for so many years. Through his work runs the theme of initiation and his best-known book is on that subject. A bibliography of his publications shows, however, his wide interests: Navajo myths, T. S. Eliot, Shakespeare, transference and psychological types may be picked out because they relate to the contents of this volume.
The Shaman from Elko is divided into three parts. The first part comprises essays on a Navajo prayer; ‘Shamanistic principles of initiation and power’; a personal essay, ‘The Shaman from Elko’ (Henderson's place of birth), and a fascinating description by Maud Oakes of her personal experience of ‘the blessing way ceremony’.
Part two is composed of heterogeneous essays on Shakespeare (two articles), Gaston Blanchard, and Meyrick's ‘Golem’, covering artistic topics; ‘Reflections on language and Jung's typology’, using various authors’ styles as matter for comparative analysis; and an ingenious reconstruction of the Eleusinian mysteries by Alice Kent.
Part three is clinical. It contains rich material from a woman for whom the memory of a vision in childhood makes a focus of interest; there are also some clinical reflections on introversion and/or schizoid personality; empathy in the analytic process (which I found especially good); the hierarchy of symbols; the treatment of an acute schizophrenic process; and a final essay on the usefulness of an initial dream by Renaldo Maduro.
The wide-ranging content of this volume—my list is not complete—will provide something of intere