I had enjoyed and learned from Perera's earlier book, Descent to the Goddess, so I was pleased to be asked to review The Scapegoat Complex. I know too that the author is attuned to a mythic perception of our times which is dear to me, concerning the redeeming and reintegration of the nature god(dess) lost to the Judaeo-Christian culture.

The Scapegoat Complex has as subtitle—‘Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt’; clearly this is a mighty task, and in her preface the author limits it to some degree by remarking that hers is a predominantly clinical interest whereas Whitmont and Newmann have pursued the broader cultural implications of the scapegoat image.