This remarkable and wide-ranging book is an inventory of symbols and the symbolic imagination. The editors and their fifteen contributors are drawn from a variety of scholarly backgrounds—including anthropology, ethnology, psychotherapy and art history. This diversity of approach is responsible for the book’s unique character, a reflection of the multiplicity of symbols and signs and the phenomenal range of possible interpretations they offer. This book draws together folklore, literary and artistic sources, and focuses on the symbolic dimension of every colour, number, sound, gesture, expression or character trait that has benefitted from symbolic interpretation. The conscious and unconscious minds are explored, desire and dreams are treated alongside the known and the chronicled. Extraordinary in its range and eclecticism, this dictionary was originally published in French as the Dictionnaire des Symboles, and it is regarded as the standard work on the subject.
Jean Chevalier (1906–1993) was a French writer, philosopher, and theologian. Until 1964, he was director of the Bureau of Relations for… More about Jean Chevalier
About Alain Gheerbrant
Alain Gheerbrant (1920–2013) was a French writer, editor, and explorer. He was the founding editor of K Éditeur, which published works… More about Alain Gheerbrant
