The Lady of the Hare

A Study in the Healing Power of Dreams

by

JOHN LAYARD

This book is in three parts, and contains matter of vital interest to all concerned with the healing of mind and body, and in particular to the psychologist and to the student of mythology and folk-lore.

Part I is the first verbatim account ever pub-lished of a dream-analysis on Jungian lines. The book takes its title from the fact that, in one of the twenty-five dreams and visions here discussed, the subject of the analysis, a woman, dreamt that she sacrificed a hare which offered itself as a willing victim. This dream symbolized the transformation of instinctive force into spiritual power-power not only to cure the dreamer's own petty ailments and to restore her to bodily strength, but also to deepen and reinforce her understanding of reli-gious truths and even to contribute towards the reawakening of a mentally defective daughter. The secret of such dream-analysis is the existence, in the author's opinion, of a redemptive process latent in all people, which is not only the common basis of all religious systems, but is found also to express itself in individuals by means of dreams. This is a very different point of view from that held by Freud, who reduces all things to sex and fails to recognize that sex, however important,

may itself be often a symbol for something deeper. Part II reviews the world-wide Mythology of the Hare in its relation to dream-life, and opens up a new avenue of approach for the proper understanding of all forms of mythological material when recognized as symbolizing psychological fact, not only among the ancients or primitive peoples but also as a living force in the psyche of modern man.

Part III includes a detailed analysis of four dreams from other patients about hares and rab-bits, showing the mythological motives on which they are based and their application to the psycho-logical problem with which these patients were severally concerned.