HEALING CIVILIZATION: Bringing Personal Transformation into the Societal Realm through Education and the Integration of the Intra-Psychic Family, by Claudio Naranjo, MD. Foreword by Dr. Jean Houston. Published by Rose Press, 2009.

NOTE: You can learn more about the book Healing Civilization and purchase it here.

Claudio Naranjo, MD, the renowned Chilean psychiatrist who brought the Enneagram of Personality to the West, wrote this book bringing his decades-long work with individuals and groups about the transformation of the inner life into its application to the larger human society. Dr. Naranjo was already a much-published author when he brought this manuscript to me to edit (the original was written in Spanish, and I worked from a loose translation into English), so he already had a wide following of readers.

And yet this book has reached an audience beyond those who already knew his earlier work. And it continues to be relevant to today’s world, as the not-yet-integrated “Intra-Psychic Family” (as the author calls it) of the Father (the head), the Mother (the heart), and the Child (the instinctive center in the belly) plays dysfunctionally out in the world. Bringing our attention to healing this internal split can bring about a state of strength, caring, and spontaneity in human beings — a greater well-being internally and for humanity as a whole.

Brilliantly weaving together history, anthropology, religion, economics, education, psychological development, personal growth, and political oppression, Healing Civilization illuminates our sobering global situation. 

Offering a hopeful plan for change, this meaningful guide proposes an integrated balance among the three inner aspects of our being — the head, the heart, and the instincts — and provides a transformative plan that begins with the re-education of the coming generation of children and strives to build a world that is meaningful and harmonious.

My role: Editor, Publisher

From the back cover:

The Doctor has taken the pulse of our modern way of life, and concluded that it is very sick — perhaps terminally ill. How did this dangerous state of affairs come to be? And — is there a cure?

In this ground-breaking book, noted Chilean-born psychiatrist and consciousness pioneer Dr. Claudio Naranjo, who first created descriptions of the Enneagram character types, now applies over 30 years of transformational work with individuals and groups to the societal realm, to heal our collective illness.

His diagnosis? “The great problem of civilization is none other than civilization itself,” he declares.

Its root cause? Patriarchy: a condition that is deeper, wider, and closer to home than you know. For patriarchy thrives not only in the outer world (the economy, war, racism, child abuse, oppression of women, human rights violations) but also in the workings of our own conditioned mind. A virus that masquerades as ourselves, it is killing life on the planet — and within us.

The remedy? To transform our consciousness by integrating and finding balance within our own ‘intra-pyshcic family’ — our ‘three brains,’ corresponding to the “Inner Father,” “Inner Mother,” and “Inner Child” — through a new Education oriented to personal and collective evolution. For healing civilization is an inside job — and the future of true civilization is in our hands.

Reader praise for the book (just a sampling):

“Claudio Naranjo is at the forefront of those seeking to transform the world. For anyone wanting to make a difference for the better, Healing Civilization is a must!” — Michael Toms, New Dimensions Radio

“A grand theory of Civilization with a capital C!” — Johan Galtung, recipient of the 1987 Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel Prize”)

“An explorer of the outer reaches of inner space, [Naranjo’s] depth soundings of the wells of history and civilization resound with the echo of one who hears the pathology while seeking the song of the new mythos of who we are, where we have been, and what we yet can be . . . . In Healing Civilization, Claudio Naranjo gives us back our once-and-future birthright…. In such seeing, there is the coincidence of opposites, the cessation of contendings, the seeing of all forms in one form, and yes, the resolution and bringing of new light to the long dark night of civilization.” — Jean Houston, author: The Possible Human; A Passion for the Possible; A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story. Program Director, United Nations International Institute for Social Artistry; UNICEF advisor

"A courageous call by an innovative scholar and successful practitioner in nurturing human potential. This book builds on Claudio Naranjo's earlier works analyzing how human societies suppress individual creativity and potential through their child-rearing and educational practices. Dr. Naranjo points to the pervasive patriarchal structures and mindsets inherited from our distant past - but not inherent in humans. He traces these repressive authoritarian societies and how they overtook earlier matrifocal societies described by Marija Gimbutas and later by Riane Eisler in her The Chalice and the Blade and Sacred Pleasure. Both female and male scholars have noted the repression, fear and aggression leading to violence that is engendered by these patriarchal societies which still pervade humanity world wide. I welcome the debate that will be engendered by Healing Civilization, as it may help us devise paths toward development and fostering fully-alive, compassionate, empathetic human beings who can evolve toward Planetary Citizenship. Dr. Naranjo should take heart that many around the world have taken up the vital task of reforming markets, money-creation, credit-allocation and capitalism itself, to reform markets and grow the new more ecologically and socially aware "green" companies of the post-fossil fueled Solar Age." — Hazel Henderson, author, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, and Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs, and Actions Can Shape a Sustainable World

The author on working with me: “I owe the present edition of my book to Naomi Rose, to whom I am indebted. An experienced editor and writing coach helping people find their own depth through self-expression. I trusted that she would be the right person to revise my manuscript. She was moved by its content and not only was grateful for the opportunity to read it but also expressed the wish that she might be of further help in its becoming known to the English-speaking public [through publication]. I like the idea of having my book produced with such maternal care and deep appreciation.” — Claudio Naranjo, MD

If you have a book calling you to write it — whether it’s “just” a wish at this point, or you’ve already stepped into the writing but you don’t know what to do next to have it be an authentic expression of you — consider calling on me to be the midwife of the book that can only come out of you.

You can start by (any or all):

• Subscribing to my weekly newsletter on “Writing from the Deeper Self” (sign-up form below).

• Reading my books on the creative process —

  • Starting Your Book: Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside you

  • An Organic Approach to Structuring Your Book: A Right-Brained Alternative to Outlines

  • 10 Essential Qualities That Help You Write a Book: Watering the Seeds of the Qualities You Need

• Booking a complimentary 30-minute consultation with me to explore the book waiting in your heart.

Any way you’re drawn to do it, I can help you listen forth the book that wants to be known through you — and you will get to bloom, in the process.

Naomi Rose, Book Developer & Creative Midwife

Encouraging your flowering

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