In this deeply moving audio series, Hollis trains his soulful eye on the psychology of men and masculinity. He warns us at the outset that when we use words like masculinity and femininity, we’re really talking about mysteries. Biology, history, culture, dynamics of our family of origin and elements unique to each one of us come together to constitute this extraordinarily complex mystery. Hollis profoundly distills and articulates these mysteries to make them accessible to many.
Woven throughout the course is the idea of the eight secrets that men carry within. What do these secrets make them do? What do these secrets keep them from doing?
These questions are available to us in a way that were not for our parents and grandparents. Our longer lifespan and a softening of gender roles are now allowing many things to surface that have been held down. Yet despite our generation’s new opportunities, facing these questions still stirs up enormous conflict. So we often wind up colluding with unseen patterns rather than upsetting them.
By example, Hollis encourages us to risk bringing them to the surface. He calls out to all men to become conscious of the fact that they are wounded. The unconsciousness of their trauma causes them to repeatedly wound themselves and those around them. This course aims to bring men and women to greater awareness and foster dialogues that must be had for healing to begin. Hollis shows us that it is possible to allow tough issues to surface and to question the deep-rooted assumptions that are choking our roots.
Hollis traces the path of the masculine using the central concepts of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. He describes how complexes, transference, archetype, anima, animus, sublimation, projection ,transference & other concepts play out through the masculine. To illustrate these ideas he offers rich examples from poetry, literature, stories from his own life-journey, anecdotes from his years of clinical practice and observations of popular culture.