Mary Harrell
Imaginal Figures in Everyday Life: Stories from Between the World of Matter and Mind was recognized as an award-winning finalist in the “Health: Women's Health” category at the 2017 International Book Awards (IBA). Mary Harrell unflinchingly greets a cast of imaginal figures who inhabit her life,and encourages all of us to welcome their wisdom into our own innerlandscapes. These very real beings dwell in a realm between matter (nature)and mind (reason), appearing in dreams, intuitive callings, visions, feelings,and sometimes frightening events. Mary offers her own intimate experiencesthrough which she explores and engages these figures, showing her readershow to host these beings as one would host invited guests. From the work ofphilosopher Henry Corbin, psychiatrist C. G. Jung, and psychologist JamesHillman, we know that the name of the realm in which these figures dwell isthe mundus imaginalis, or the imaginal world. As this is a work in whicharchetypes are grounded in experience, Imaginal Figures In EverydayLife: Stories from the World between Matter and Mind is both a path toindividual transformation and, in the words of psychologist RobertRomanyshyn, "a therapy of culture."Mary Harrell, Ph.D., a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and New York licensedpsychologist, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Emphasis in DepthPsychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. She isCurriculum and Instruction Associate Professor Emeritus at State University of NewYork (SUNY) at Oswego. While at the university she taught education and psychologycourses and served as Professional Development Schools (PDS) specialist, supportingthe National PDS initiative, which builds bridges between elementary and secondaryschools and the university's School of Education. Her writings in the areas ofeducational reform, and imaginal psychology appear in four invited chapters inedited books. In 2014 Mary's poetry was anthologized in SyracuseUniversity's The Stone Canoe, a Journal of Arts, Literature and Social Commentary,No. 8. She lives with her husband, Stephen, in South Carolina.
