Marion Jean Woodman (née Boa, August 15, 1928 – July 9, 2018) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

mythopoetic author, poet, analytical psychologist and women's movement figure. She wrote and spoke extensively about the dream theories of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

.Active Interest Media, Inc..
Yoga Journal
'. Active Interest Media, Inc.; November 1988. . p. 51. Her works include ''Addiction to Perfection'', ''The Pregnant Virgin'' and ''Bone: Dying into Life''.

Early life and education

Woodman was born on August 15, 1928 in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, the eldest of three children of Ila (née Phinn) and Andrew Boa, a clergyman. She completed a degree in English literature at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

.Thomas Kirsch.
The Jungians: A Comparative and Historical Perspective
'. Psychology Press; 2000. . p. 114. Later in life she studied psychology at the

C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of many currencies * Caius or Gaius, abbreviated as ...

, Switzerland.

Career

Woodman taught high school English for more than twenty years. Suffering from anorexia, she took a sabbatical with her husband a college professor, and traveled first to India and then to England, where she became interested in the theories of Carl Jung. She entered analysis with Jung's British colleague, E. A. Bennet. She subsequently enrolled in the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, and trained as an analyst.Pythia Peay.
America on the Couch: Psychological Perspectives on American Politics and Culture
'. Lantern Books; 1 April 2015. . p. 166. In 1982, Woodman wrote a book about analytic psychology, ''Addiction to Perfection'', which was published by the new company, Inner City Books, set up by her colleague Daryl Sharp. Woodman continued to write on the subject of feminine psychology, focusing on

psyche Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή). Psyche may also refer to: Psychology * Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious * ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...

and soma.Donald Kalsched.
The Inner World of Trauma: Archetypal Defences of the Personal Spirit
'. Taylor & Francis; 25 February 2014. . p. 109. She has also lectured internationally. She has written collaboratively with

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

Jill Mellick Jill Mellick is a Jungian-oriented clinical psychologist, expressive arts therapist, researcher and author; and a founding member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association ( IEATA). In 2019, the OPUS Archives, at Pacifica Gradu ...

and

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

. Woodman was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' Magazine in 2012 as the 100th most spiritually influential living person. Her collection of audio and visual lectures, correspondence, and manuscripts are housed at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, OPUS Archives and Research Center, in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

Personal

Her husband Ross Woodman was Professor at the

. He is the author of ''The Apocalyptic Vision in the Poetry of Shelley'', and ''Sanity, Madness, Transformation: The Psyche in Romanticism'', both published by the University of Toronto Press. Ross Woodman died at their home in London, Ontario, on 20 March 2014. Her younger brothers were the actor

Bruce Boa Andrew Bruce Boa (10 July 1930 – 17 April 2004) was a Canadian actor, who found success playing the token American in British films and television, usually playing military types. Boa's most recognizable film role is in ''The Empire St ...

and the Jungian analyst Fraser Boa, both of whom predeceased her. In November, 1993, Woodman was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She recorded the subsequent two years of cancer treatment in a journal, which was later published as ''Bone: Dying into Life''. She died at her home in London, Ontario on July 9, 2018, aged 89.

Notable books

*''The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter : Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Repressed Feminine'', 1980 Inner City Books. *''Addiction to Perfection : The Still Unravished Bride'', 1982 Inner City Books. *''The Pregnant Virgin : A Process of Psychological Transformation'', 1985 Inner City Books. *''The Ravaged Bridegroom : Masculinity in Women'', 1990 Inner City Books. *''Leaving My Father's House : A Journey to Conscious Femininity'' (co-authored with Kate Danson, Mary Hamilton, Rita Greer Allen), 1992 Shambhala Publications. (PB edition) *''Conscious Femininity : Interviews With Marion Woodman'', 1993 Inner City Books. *''Dancing in the Flames : The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness'' (co-authored with Elinor Dickson), 1996 Shambhala Publications. (PB edition) *''The Maiden King : The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine'' (co-authored with Robert Bly), November 1998,

Henry Holt & Co Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

; *''Bone: Dying Into Life'', 2000 Viking Compass. *''Sitting by the Well: Bringing the Feminine to Consciousness Through Language, Dreams and Metaphor'', 2000 Sounds True (audiobook) *''Coming Home to Myself : Daily Reflections for a Woman's Body and Soul'' (co-authored with Jill Mellick), April 2001 (paperback ed.)

Conari Press Red Wheel Weiser Conari, also known in different periods in its history as RedWheel/Weiser, LLC and Samuel Weiser, Inc., is a book publisher with three imprints: Red Wheel, Weiser Books and Conari Books. It is America's second-largest publisher ...

. *''The Art of Dreaming'', by Jill Mellick (with a foreword by Woodman), 2001

References

External links

Marion Woodman Foundation website

OPUS Archives and Research Center website

BodySoul Europe - The European Marion Woodman-related Communication Network
*
Punita Miranda, Body and Soul Relations: Marion Woodman and C.G. Jung
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodman, Marion Writers from London, Ontario Jungian psychologists Symbologists 1928 births 2018 deaths University of Western Ontario alumni 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women non-fiction writers