"One of many exciting qualities of Kathryn Madden's new book is that it is daring, bold and innovative.... [S]he promotes a new field of study, depth theology. Its archetypal space is Abyss; its journey to it is through the underworld of psyche...The still center around which this conversation largely takes place is the images of 'Other' and 'Otherness' and the Abyss. Her work holds a particular fascination... in the possibility of a mystical psychology that engages both the poetic and the mythic impulses of psyche in and through embodiment.... Madden has a vision, a new way of apprehending psyche through the teachings of depth psychology and mystical experience that implicates as well the psyche's poetic impulse." --Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. Core Faculty Mythological Studies Program, Distinguished Professor in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, author or co-editor of 13 books, including Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field

"What makes Madden's views so pertinent is that she bridges the gap between psychology and spirituality. In writing of 'transcendent ultimacy' (which is not unlike Bion's 'O') versus 'surface immediacy, ' she suggests that 'our previous notions and images of God, the transcendent, the ultimate--whatever we call it--are shattered and redefined' through our experience of unitary reality. Her description of different types of abyss and their effects, ranging from the terrifying to the ecstatic, is excellent and gives one a useful sense of what one could call the 'intermittent bipolarity' of the experience of unitary reality, as one of a pair of contained opposites enters consciousness. It is this reality, symbolized by the abyss, that 'may help us to understand how our dealing with contrast and otherness from the inside view informs how we deal with otherness outside ... in the course of the individuation process.'" --Paul W Ashton, psychiatrist and Jungian analyst in private practice; author, From the Brink: Experiences from the Void from a Depth Psychological Perspective; editor, Evocations of Absence: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Void States (Cited in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, vol. 81, 2009)

"Kathryn Madden's long-awaited book, Dark Light of the Soul, is quite simply stunning! In it she gives us a vast map of the spiritual dimensions of the psyche, and of the painful terrain one must often traverse in order to achieve (or receive) unitive consciousness. Following Boehme, with Madden's tutelage we are shown the terrain of unitary reality--a rare and wondrous trip.... The mystic or the Self in each of us can resonate with the experience of these seminal voyagers into the realm of unitive consciousness.
"She ends with detailed reviews of three of her own clinical cases, demonstrating how several years of psychotherapy using dreams and spontaneous imagery as primary foci of the treatment can result in amazing spiritual experiences and connection with the unitive dimension of the human psyche.... As the author says, 'The analyst's job is to be present to this reality and to be a sort of midwife to the birthing of the third thing that incarnates.' Even if it were these cases alone, Dark Light of the Soul is well worth reading and pondering.... I found this rich book delightful. Madden's work bears reflective reading and re-reading." --Fredrica Halligan, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist currently practicing psychospiritual therapy and consultation as Director of the MindBodySpirit Institute in Stamford, CT (Cited in Psychological Perspectives, 2010.-- (10/25/2009 12:00:00 AM)