New Book: Marian Apparitions in Cultural Contexts Applying Jungian Concepts to Mass Visions of the Virgin Mary By Valeria Céspedes Musso

Marian Apparitions in Cultural Contexts provides an analysis of collective phenomena, specifically mass visions of the Virgin Mary, from a psychoanalytical perspective. It draws from Jung’s compensation theoretical model with the aim of merging depth-psychology and historical material from the Zeitoun case. Offering an original interpretation of this phenomenon from a Jungian psychological perspective, the book provides stimulating insights to any person interested in these supernatural events, whether general readers with active curiosity or scholars with broad intellectual interests.

A review of the literature points to a prevailing socio-political approach to examining visions of the Virgin Mary, while a psychoanalytical approach is generally lacking. Musso draws from Jung’s compensation theoretical model in　Flying Saucers with the aim of merging depth-psychology and historical material. Common themes and symbols are extracted and interpreted from the empirical material and analyzed along with Egyptian social and political data. The book concludes with a discussion on how depth psychological principles grounded in empirical and historical material could be applied in order to explicate cases of mass visions.