Stein suggests new approaches--on both personal and communal levels--for gaining freedom from the compulsion to repeat endlessly the dysfunctional patterns that have conditioned us. In this concise and contemporary account of the process of individuation, he sets out its two basic movements and then examines the central role of numinous experience, the critical importance of initiation, and the unique psychic space required for its unfolding.

Using psychological insights from C. G. Jung's writings, from myths and fairytales, and from years of clinical experience, Stein offers a vivid...