Julian of Norwich Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Robert H. Thouless

Critical Essay by Robert H. Thouless

SOURCE: "Some Characteristics of Julian's Thought" in The Lady Julian: A Psychological Study, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1924, pp. 51-65.

Considering Julian's mystical experiences within a psychoanalytic framework, Thouless speculates on the psychic sources and meanings of her imagery.

Before passing to a consideration of particular teachings embodied in the shewings of the Lady Julian, we may notice two characteristics of her thought which must strike at once her most casual reader. These are the rich content of imagery in her thinking, and her almost repellent insistence on the physical awfulness of the crucifixion. The former is a point of psychological interest upon which we may dwell a little; the second is one which we shall be forced to consider, for it would be indeeduseless to commend a mediaeval religious writer to the average reader of the present day unless some defence could be made for her against the...
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