Up: [[People]] Created: 2022-11-03 Updated: 2025-02-20 ![[marion-woodman_480x.webp|400]] JUNGIAN ANALYST. AUTHOR. London, Ontario — Canada 1928-2018 (89 years old) [Tribute after her death](https://appliedjung.com/marion-woodman/) #### How I First Learned of Her My editor, fifteen years ago, suggested that I read Marion’s book, *Addiction to Perfection*. Gee, I have no idea why he’d think I needed that! #### Since Then… I’ve read *Addiction to Perfection* five times. The religious imagery in it is tough for me to get through (I don’t have the background), but there’s a lot of good content in there as well. I’ve also read a lot of Marion’s other books: - *The Owl was a Baker’s Daughter*: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Repressed Feminine - *The Pregnant Virgin*: A Process of Psychological Transformation - *The Ravaged Bridegroom*: Masculinity in Women - *Leaving My Father’s House*: A Journey to Conscious Femininity - *Conscious Femininity*: Interviews with Marion Woodman - *Bone: Dying into Life* Marion’s battle with uterine cancer - *Sitting by the Well*: Bringing the feminine to consciousness through language, dreams, and metaphor (audiobook) - *Coming Home to Myself*: Daily Reflections for a Woman’s Body and Soul - co-authored with Jill Mellick The only one I have yet to read is *Dancing in the Flames*: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness. #### Marion Woodman through the Lens of Instructions for Life ##### PAY ATTENTION I especially value Marion’s attention to the importance of body in Jungian work. She struggled with anorexia nervosa when she was young, and needed to give her body a lot of attention if she was to stay alive. But the attention wasn’t the usual drill of food deprivation and heavy duty workouts. Marion says very firmly that if you go to power over the body, the body will rebel. Her form of paying attention involved a process she developed called [[BodySoul Technique]], along with dance, and simple movement. ##### BE AMAZED Marion taught English literature and drama to high school students for more than 20 years. This is very evident when listening to lectures or reading her books. Marion was an excellent speaker and Shakespeare quotes abound. She entered into analysis while teaching and then, a few years later, quit her job and went into full time analysis in Zurich. In her second year of full time analysis, she realized that she wanted to train as an analyst. ##### TELL ABOUT IT As the tribute author at the top of this note attests, Marion was *a pioneering analyst in the relationship between psyche and soma* in women. She specialized in the impact of patriarchy on women’s eating disorders, addictions, and disordered relationships to our bodies. She has left an incredible legacy and I’m proud that she was Canadian. I just wish I’d been conscious enough to have gone to hear her lecture. I know she was at the University of Toronto (my alma mater) on several occasions.