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BROMWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (214)
2500 East
Fourth Avenue,
80206-4214
(Columbine Street at East Fourth Avenue)

Telephone:
(303) 388-5969
Fax: (720) 424-9355
E-mail: Bromwell@dpsk12.org

Mr. Jonathan Wolfer, Principal

A Book For Everyone

Lara Newton's book, Brothers and Sisters: Discovering the Psychology of Companionship is a rare thing. It is a new kind of psychology book. After all, there have been so many psychology books over the years, studies of children and parents, husbands and wives, abusers and victims, bosses and workers, friends and lovers... you name it, and there is probably a psychology book about it. Or two or three!

But there have actually been few books to investigate the psychological relationship between brothers and sisters. And this is the very first book that looks at that topic from a Jungian perspective, weaving together down-to-earth case studies with client dreams and stories from folk tales and mythology. The result is a deep, rich, and ground-breaking exploration into a new avenue of psychological thinking. Even better, the book unfolds with a narrative ease of a good story, and while it is thoroughly founded in clinical research, the style is not overly academic. It can be read and enjoyed by everyone, from psychoanalysts and college professors to any brother or sister who may stumble across the title while browsing online.

The book begins personally, with the author's own story of her life as a brother's sister. Then Ms. Newton examines the ways in which the brother-sister relationship follows universal or archetypal patterns, and how these patterns reveal important truths about psychological well-being. The archetypal brother-sister relationship begins with a sense of bonding (as with a child's unconscious sense of togetherness or union with a sibling), and then is threatened or even broken by a wounding experience (often as the siblings grow up and grow apart), and then is redeemed or experiences healing (as with grown siblings who reunite in a more conscious manner). An understanding of these dynamics reveals the psychology of companionship, a transformative sense of the equality that is possible between the sexes.

Ms. Newton initially explores these themes by looking closely at two fairy tales, Grimms' Brother and Sister and The Death of Koschei the Deathless (from Russia). The first tale, less familiar than Hansel and Gretel but richer and more nuanced, represents the psychological development of women in a section titled "The Sister's Work." The second story highlights male development in "The Brother's Work." Along the way, contemporary examples and other fairy tales and myths are used to amplify the varied patterns and concepts related to the processes of bonding, wounding, and healing. Further sections then examine a wide range of brother-sister experiences, both positive and negative, from siblings who are antagonistic toward each other ("Dark Bonds"), to relationships afflicted by psychological or actual incest ("Forbidden Union"), to brothers and sisters who primarily live and grow apart but still connect later in life ("The Exiled Brother: Three Bird Tales"). The book concludes on an optimistic note with a description of the "questing spirit" that can manifest in both men and women. This is the author's name for the hopeful, creative energy that has been nourished by the mutuality of the brother-sister relationship and goes forth on a journey characterized by loyalty and truthfulness.

This book is not just for people who have an actual brother or sister. After all, even an only child develops friends who are like brothers or sisters. And all of us respond to stories or films with siblings as characters, or have dream figures who seem brotherly or sisterly. Ms. Newton's book, then, is for everyone -- and especially for readers interested in pursuing a new path towards psychological transformation.

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