The Journey of Luke Skywalker: An Analysis of Modern Myth and Symbol

Quite an outstanding analysis of he steps through which we all pass in life. The author takes you through Carl Jung's theory of development of "normal" human to achieve their full potential. By taking Carl Jung's theories and using the steps Luke takes from immature and undeveloped young man to a mature and self-actualized adult/hero (something we all need to pass from and to), Galipeau explains Jung and Luke extremely well and interestingly. Well done....well worth a couple of weekends to read and digest.

This book is yummy. Definitely not a cocktail table book. I love understanding why I have enjoyed the series of movies so much. It puts into words my feelings and occasional thoughts. I appreciate the author's style, I can hear and see the movie as he writes. At first it may seem dry or difficult to grasp, yet as one reads the author explains concepts clearly and the subject matter kept me reading.

I always enjoy reading other people's thoughts on the underlying themes of Star Wars. And this book takes a great Jungian approach to it. Several times the author points things out that make you think "Hey, i never thought about it like that." On the other hand, there were some parts where I felt the author was making an observation that was a litle out there. But then, I'm not a psychology student.The majority of the text in the book is relating the events of the movies. So even if you're not a hardcore fan like me, who's seen the movies a bazillion times, you'll be able to follow along as if you were watching the movies.

Steven Galipeau's book, The Journey of Luke Skywalker, is, in my opinion, the finest scholarly work that has been done on the Star Wars films. I say this with some authority. As part of the research for my doctoral dissertation, I compiled an annotated bibliography of all the scholarly work which has been done on the Star Wars films. During this project, I read more than a hundred journal articles, books, conference papers, book chapters, and academic papers written from 1977-2001. Though a Jungian perspective was used by several other writers to look at the Star Wars films, no one has penetrated this myth's depths and its relevance to our culture as insightfully as Steven Galipeau.One of the outstanding things about this book is the way in which Galipeau identifies a psychological situation in Star Wars and then connects it with his own experiences as an analyst and with everyday psychological experiences with which the reader can identify. And though the book is a Jungian psychological analysis, the author uses little Jungian "jargon," thus making the book accessible to the general reader. Galipeau approaches Star Wars as a "cultural dream," as a myth or fairy tale which "symbolically depicts in important aspects the psychological and spiritual shifts taking place in our age." Just as our dreams reveal the unconscious archetypal dimensions of the psyche on a personal level, so too, our myths --whether told through traditional means or through the modern medium of film -- reveal hidden archetypal dimensions of our collective psyche. As Mary Lynn Kittelson says in her book, The Soul of Popular Culture (Open Court, 1998), "The movies are like the collective culture dreaming. We assemble in darkened spaces, experiencing together an intense world of images. More directly than any other cultural phenomenon, the movies invite us to experience and ponder our lives and culture." The Journey of Luke Skywalker offers an opportunity to do just that -- to ponder our lives and our culture through the rich symbolism and story of one of the most popular film sagas of our time. Admittedly, this psychological approach to Star Wars is but one perspective among many, but a very important one to those of us who are interested in looking below the surface of our contemporary myths and seeing what they may have to teach us as individuals and as a culture.