King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering Masculinity Through the Lens of Archetypal Psychology - A Journey into the Male Psyche and Its Four Essential Aspects

I've often repeated to my children that the most pertinent and memorable thing (i.e. legacy) about them is their character; specifically, how they treat others. It's easy to tell them that but getting them to actually practice what I preach is tantamount to a Herculean effort, especially with regard to their siblings. However, perhaps my strategy should fall along the lines of helping them identify behaviors and their source. This book is a great start in that direction. I originally learned about this book from Stephen Pressfield who recommended it as essential reading in the study of the Warrior Archetype, which is a video series he produces that's nearly 50 (at time of this writing), 5-10 minute episodes on that subject. If you don't know who Pressfield is, then simply understand that he is the preeminent author of warrior literature (e.g., Gates of Fire, Virtues of War, Killing Rommel) so he knows what he's talking about. This work was so insightful and impactful on me. I had to keep from highlighting everything because "if everything is special, nothing is special". But right from the get go this book slaps you upside the head: "We have written this book in order to answer this question, which is on the minds of both men and women. In the late twentieth century, we face a crisis in masculine identity of vast proportions. Increasingly, observers of the contemporary scene—sociologists, anthropologists, and depth psychologists—are discovering the devastating dimensions of this phenomenon, which affects each of us personally as much as it affects our society as a whole." "We need to learn to love and be loved by the mature masculine. We need to learn to celebrate authentic masculine power and potency, not only for the sake of our personal well-being as men and for our relationships with others, but also because the crisis in mature masculinity feeds into the global crisis of survival we face as a species. Our dangerous and unstable world urgently needs mature men and mature women if our race is going to go on at all into the future." And Those are merely two from the introduction, with so much more when actually discussing each archetype and it's shadow side. This book is primarily based off of the work of Carl Jung the Swedish Psychiatrist and his ardent followers and practitioners. It's also a good companion to previously reviewed works such as: The Boy Crisis, Strong Fathers Strong Daughters, Grossman's Assassination Generation (as well as both On Combat, and On Killing), and Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning. I originally looked for this work on audible, but it is not available in that format. Kindle had it and I'm grateful for this as I was able to take note of so many passages I want to refer to in the future.

A breath of fresh air that needs to be circulated into the culture. With so much talk of toxic masculinity and patriarchy, this book delineates between that immaturity and positive and mature masculinity that the world doesn't just need in our day but the very same that built the world. This book is required reading for men, women, and especially feminists.

This is one of the best books on the human mind that I have ever read. Dr. Moore and Mr. Gillette absolutely created an amazing framework. They brought Carl Jung's concept to life and then ran with it so as to give a brilliant, tangible understanding. Though each of the archetypes are then further defined in separate books, The King Within, The Warrior Within, The Magician Within, and The Lover Within, the publisher, William Morrow, has neglected these treasures. Now they are only found on the secondary market at multiples their original cost.

The book is easy and it's useful, but it's not fascinating. I had hoped there would be some story telling. King, Warrior, Magician, Lover is a quick read, and you'll get worthwhile ideas for personal growth out of it. Moore wants you to be a strong, confident, caring masculine man. So, it's all good. Buy the book. I get the idea of archetypes, and I generally enjoy the mythopoetic approach because at its heart is story telling. Yet, archetypes are a lot more interesting when Joseph Campbell tells the story of the Green Knight than they are when Robert Moore presents them as models for masculine values/behavior. Campbell tells stories to illustrate how the archetypes work. Here, Moore takes an idea of modelling that is implicit in Campbell and maintains that the archetypes he has chosen are excellent models for personal growth. Moore builds a hierarchy of positive attributes for each of the archetypes listed in the title of his book. These attributes are presented juxtaposed with the archetype's "antithetical/negative" aspects, called the shadow aspects (Carl G. Jung). Moore wants us to identify when our behavior is "acting out" shadow aspects of our personality. That shadow behavior is immature. To be mature we need to change our behavior and be more like one of the confident adult archetypes listed in the book's title and less like a solipsistic youth. Moore parses out the "archetypal values" for each of his four characters. What Moore does is straight forward and easily applied. In essence, are you acting like a man or like a boy? Here, according to Moore, is how grown men act according to the four defining masculine roles they must fulfill.

One of the most influential books I've ever read. I've recommended this to multiple friends and they've all loved it. It's such an important topic that isn't talked about enough. Every man needs to read this.

Fondamentale testo per l'esplorazione degli archetipi maschili nella tradizione jungiana. Ha ormai la sua età ma rimane validissimo.

I bought this book after attending a 'men's retreat' which stirred my interest in finding out more about the masculine archetypes within all men. I approached it with scepticism, as I always tend to with 'touchy-feely' books. Often they promise a lot but halfway through you find that they are just products of the author's self-indulgence and have little real value. Not so with this book. I found a complicated subject clearly explained in layman's language that isn't patronizing, just clear, approachable and human. As the various archetypes and their 'shadow' selves were revealed to me I found areas of difficulty within my life becoming much clearer and could identify with both positive and negative aspects of all the archetypes and how they may impact upon my life. As soon as I finished the book I re-read it to clarify some of the points I had identified and am making in-roads towards trying to come to terms with these 'men inside me', hopefully to make friends and live amicably with them - I'm not naive enough to think that I may be able to change them or make them go away, but this book gives you hope that you can make a truce with some of the 'maggots' burrowing away at the psyche and live a more peaceful and wholesome existence. A valuable book for any man who wants to get closer to the 'real man' buried inside him.

C'est un ouvrage de découvert de soi et de ses possibilités

Shows how mature masculinity is a giving and positive energy, which needs to be striven for, in order to not remain in the immature/bipolar forms of masulinity, that is so often destructive and oppressive.

Es un buen libro, y es una buena reexploración de los arquetipos de un jungianos Pero se nota que tiene casi 35 años desde su primera publicación y algunas cosas se quedan algo anticuadas.