Marion Woodman, a psychoanalyst "whose popular books and lectures on mythical archetypes resonated with millions of women longing for a language to explore the primal, unconscious elements of feminine identity," died July 9, the New York Times reported. She was 89. Woodman and poet Robert Bly co-authored The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine.
Woodman's self-transformation, "in her mid-40s, stood as an example to the many others for whom she would become a catalyzing influence," the Times noted. In a series of books, including Addiction to Perfection, The Pregnant Virgin and Bone: Dying Into Life, Woodman "found an international audience, giving women a poetic, mythically vivid sense of femininity."
"She had that dramatic flair to her, and a poetic sensibility, that really came out when she was speaking," said Dorothy Gardner, a Jungian analyst in Toronto and a former collaborator. "She was very present to others, and she had an amazing gift of making you feel you were the only one in the room--that she was talking to you alone--though many others were there."
Judith Harris, a Jungian analyst in Zurich, said Woodman "had the courage to explore the images of illness people held in their bodies.... Both as analyst and workshop leader, she would go places where others were afraid to go."