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In Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies, Romanyshyn asks eight questions that uncover how Mary Shelley’s classic work Frankenstein haunts our world. Providing a uniquely interdisciplinary assessment, Romanyshyn combines Jungian theory, literary criticism and mythology to explore answers to the query at the heart of this book: who is the monster?In the first six questions, Romanyshyn explores how Victor’s story and the Monster’s tale linger today as the dark side of Frankenstein’s quest to create a new species that would bless him as its creator. Victor and the Monster are present in the guises of climate crises, the genocides of our "god wars," the swelling worldwide population of refugees, the loss of place in digital space, the Western obsession with eternal youth and the eclipse of the biological body in genetic and computer technologies that are redefining what it means to be human. In the book’s final two questions, Romanyshyn uncovers some seeds of hope in Mary Shelley’s work and explores how the Monster’s tale reframes her story as a love story. This important book will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian theory, literature, philosophy and psychology, psychotherapists in practice and in training, and for all who are concerned with the political, social and cultural crises we face today.
Romanyshyn, R. D. (2019). Victor Frankenstein, the monster and the shadows of technology: The Frankenstein prophecies. Routledge.Robert Romanyshyn holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is a writer, having published 8 books and numerous essays.The story of Frankenstein written in 1818 is a story continuing to captivate audiences. Romanyshyn interrogates the story to "see more clearly how our unbridled enthusiasm for technological innovations and our denial of responsibility for their potential consequences have created monstrous problems." This interrogation occurs through 8 questions: Q1-6 explores ways in which "Frankenstein's hubris, his materialistic and utilitarian attitudes toward nature and the human body, and his contrast between himself as a man of science and his beloved wife.... appear today in the guise of contemporary crises." Q7-8, explores "seeds of hope that are present in the story." Romanyshyn asserted that Victor Frankenstein, "[crossed] that boundary between humanity and the gods" to become a creator god. His experiment raised questions about what it means to be human considering embodiment, nature, otherness, and homeless. The Monster becomes a "specimen body [to be] observed, it is an object, a body with no home, a refugee." And yet, "his bodily actions show him to be an independent subject with intention, purpose, and direction." Romanyshyn raises concern for modern visions of singularity purported by Ray Kurzweil who stated "there will be no distinction post-Singularity between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality. . . . our experiences will increasingly take place in virtual environments." Romanyshyn's most thought-provoking section focused on exploring who the monster really is. In acknowledging Frankenstein's lack of a sense of responsibility for his actions, Romanyshyn described our task as "marginal work" which "requires that we take responsibility for what we have individually and collectively denied, split off from themselves, projected onto the 'other' and exiled that 'other' to the margins. It requires that we own what we have individually and collectively denied. It requires that we "become" the Monster."There are so many themes and questions that arise from this book: (a) Elizabeth and the feminine within the narrative; (b) definition of "monster" and how "other" appears in movies and within our rhetoric; (c) the appeal of zombie and monster movies, generally; (d) alternatives to homo digitalis and Kurzweill's cyborgian vision. This book would be good for those interested in literature; questions about the human and societal condition; and the effect of technology on the human psyche.
