Just Finished Reading: The Hero Within – Six Archetypes We Live By by Carol S Pearson

I picked this book up ages ago when I was doing research for my dissertation. I never actually got around to reading it – or to be honest even dipping into it – because I had more than enough to work with already without going off on a tangent. On finally reading it I was gratified (in some ways at least) that it wouldn’t have added very much to my argument – which doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting.

Although generally a little too ‘New Age’ for my liking the author did present some interesting ideas regarding human personal and social development. Basically written as a self-help book for women it argued that we each go through six archetypes – which shouldn’t be seen as progressive stages but styles-of-being that we individually go through at different paces and in different orders depending on a variety of things – from our initial starting point of the Innocent. With the end of innocence in early childhood we move into the Orphan phase when we realise the world is not made for us and that we have to live in a world where we can’t always get what we want and where things are far from perfect. It’s from this point that, the author maintains, we each go our separate ways.

I did actually recognise the archetypes she drew on either in me or people I’ve known. Clearly (as far as I’m concerned) my archetype is the Wanderer – a seeker after information, truth and ideas. I also recognised elements of the Warrior and Magician too. What I didn’t connect with at all was the Martyr though I’ve known several people (most often women) who see themselves in this role. I’ve also known more than a few Warriors in my time!

What the author proposed, and taught in her classes, was methods and ways of transforming the lives of people who have become stuck in a particular archetype at the expense of skills they could acquire from the others which, it seems, they are either too afraid or too dismissive of to use to their advantage. The classic Martyr – I’m sure we all know someone like this – constantly puts herself second (or third) behind partner and children sacrificing her life for others with little reward or recognition thinking that this is just how things are. She cannot give into her Wanderer aspect because she feels it would be a betrayal of her responsibilities and be selfish. Yet the Wanderer – even in something as simple as taking a weekly art class – would not only enhance her happiness but allow her to see life as something more than merely giving to others. Like I said, a little too New Age for my general recommendation. It is however a passably interesting read which did at least make me look at myself and other people in a somewhat different light for a few weeks.