An experience of the fragility of conventional images of masculinity is something many modern men share. Psychoanalyst Guy Corneau traces this experience to an even deeper feeling men have of their fathers' silence or absence-sometimes literal, but especially emotional and spiritual. Why is this feeling so profound in the lives of the postwar "baby boom" generation-men who are now approaching middle age? Because, he says, this generation marks a critical phase in the loss of the masculine initiation rituals that in the past ensured a boy's passage into manhood. In his engaging examination of...

Hakuin Zenji (1689-1769) was one of the most important of all Japanese Zen masters. His commentary on the Heart Sutra is a Zen classic that reflects his dynamic teaching style, with its balance of scathing wit and poetic illumination of the text. Hakuin's sarcasm, irony, and invective are ultimately guided by a compassion that seeks to dislodge students' false assumptions and free them to realize the profound meaning of the Heart Sutra for themselves. The text is illustrated with Hakuin's own calligraphy and brush drawings.

Vampires are not just imaginary creatures of fiction or legend-they really exist. They are the people who, having never received love, settle for power instead, and become experts at robbing others of their vital energy. We've all known them. In her fascinating study of this dark psychological archetype, Barbara Hort looks to traditional myths as well as to their modern equivalents in literature, theater, and film, following a blood-soaked trail to such unexpected destinations as The Silence of the Lambs, "Snow White," and the Broadway musical Gypsy. She offers insight into how psychic...