Description
🏆 2023 BIBA® Non-Fiction: Psychology Winner!
What do Niccolo Machiavelli, Abraham Lincoln, Martha Stewart, Vladimir Putin, and Mel Gibson have in common? In their own ways, they each resemble the stormy God of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh—known as the Father in the New Testament and Allah in the Qur’an. Whether or not we believe in his existence, we are all susceptible to the Yahweh complex, a distinct god complex modeled upon his attitudes, emotional style, and behaviors. Like the deity itself, the complex can be positive or dark, influencing our relationships, our social environment and culture, our public affairs and international relations, our treatment of the earth, and, of course, our religions. “Legacy of Darkness and Light” explores both sides of this complex. Drawing upon the experiences of famous individuals as well as the larger factors that shape history, the book aims to help us recognize and understand our own Yahweh complex in order to deal with it in a healthy, conscious, and self-empowered way.
Michael Gellert is a Jungian analyst practicing in Los Angeles, California. He treats individuals and couples. He was formerly Director of Training at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, where he is currently a research instructor. He has also been a humanities professor at Vanier College, Montreal, and a lecturer in religious studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Prior to living in Los Angeles he lived in New York City, where he managed District Council 37’s Personal Service Unit Outreach Program, an employee assistance program for the City of New York. Over the years he has served as a mental health consultant to various organizations, including the University of Southern California and Time magazine.
Michael was born and raised in Montreal. He was educated in rabbinic Judaism, traveled overland from Europe to India at age 19, studied theology at Loyola College in Montreal, and trained with the renowned Zen master Koun Yamada in Japan for two years. He has master’s degrees in religious studies and social work, and studied with Marshall McLuhan at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Modern Mysticism, The Way of the Small, America’s Identity Crisis, The Divine Mind, Far From This Land, and Legacy of Darkness and Light: Our Cultural Icons and Their God Complex.
