Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves and Others

by Barbara E. Hort

Book Overview

Vampires are not just imaginary creatures of fiction or legend-they really exist. They are the people who, having never received love, settle for power instead, and become experts at robbing others of their vital energy. We've all known them. In her fascinating study of this dark psychological archetype, Barbara Hort looks to traditional myths as well as to their modern equivalents in literature, theater, and film, following a blood-soaked trail to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570621810
• ISBN13: 9781570621819
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Shambhala
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Seeing the vampire in oneself and others

"The Beast has been with us from the beginning of time", writes Barbara Hort, and though she goes on to talk about vampiric characteristics we all share with the monster, there is an "omission": she does not mention the Psychopath, a human-looking-like being, but utterly inhuman in that it lacks the one characteristic of humanness - conscience (For more on psychopaths, read Martha Stout's Sociopath Next Door and Kleckley's Mask of Sanity). And that monster has been with us from the beginning of time, but we can't see him (looks just like us) or understand him (his emotional substratum so unlike anything from our reality), thus infecting our minds with his own mindset, gaining little by little control over the state and national affairs, media and economy of the globe, a process excellently described in Lobaczewski's classic, Political Ponerology. The Vampire has bitten us and we too have lost our humanness, turning into cold blooded unfeeling, feeding beings. Hort's book however, is excellent in teaching the fundamentals of protecting oneself from feeding, and how to reclaim the blood bumping human heart in our chest.

An Absolute MUST READ BUT, be aware...

The only people who don't like this book are the psychic vampires who prey on nurturing people. This book opened my eyes and set me free! I recommend it to everyone I know along with Martha Stout's "Myth of Sanity," "The Sociopath Next Door," Hare's "Without Conscience," "Snakes in Suits," and Lobaczewski's "Political Ponerology". If you never read anything else in your life, read this short list of books for your own protection! Having said that, let me mention the failings of the book. Like all Jungians, Hort believes that everyone has a soul and everyone can equally be a "vampire" so to say. Well, yes, a person who has been raised in a pathological environment - that is, "bitten by the vampire" - can certainly exhibit vampiric traits, but there IS a larger archetype that Hort - and other Jungians - miss completely: the Psychopath. This book is a great example of an opportunity to say something that would really help society that was missed or ignored. Hort describes psychopathy perfectly (and pathological behavior among normal people who have been pathologized by the psychopathic norms of our society) and then semanticizes it. Instead of really educating people about personality disorders and pathology, she suggests that everyone has the archetype of the vampire waiting in the shadows and we only need the right or wrong set of triggers to set it off. That's Bozo Psychology 101! While I really like some Jungian ideas, their refusal to come down to earth and call a spade a spade is unbelievably frustrating. Nevertheless, we can use stories and archetypes to analyze what we experience and what we see in ourselves and others. For that reason, I highly recommend this book with the caveat that you keep in mind that what you are reading is a description of psychopathy and its effects on normal people and that the real vampire is the psychopath and he/she is born that way.

All that and a pack of stakes

I'm not exactly sure what to say, but given how much this book is helping me I felt compelled to say something. I received this book as a Yule present from a concerned friend, and I was initially skeptical since I'd had run ins with "real vampyres" and therefore had a lot of misconceptions about the concept. I'm glad I used my better judgement and read it.For anyone who's tired of being drained dry by their relationships, for anyone who's come to believe that love is nothing but pain, for anyone who's ever been guilted into a relationship, for anyone who tries to help people but only keeps getting hurt in the process, this book is required reading. It's worth its weight in gold.

Transformative

When I first purchased Unholy Hungers, I wanted to understand particularly the particularly virulent behavior of an acquaintance. After reading several pages, I found the book dangerous in that anyone disliked might easily be labeled "vampiric." A few months later, I picked up the volume again, this time with a willingness to encounter the vampiric in myself. Hort's keen insight revealed itself to me immediately and brought light, compassion, and health into the darkest corners of my being. It's a brave work, her book, and I thank her.

Reminiscent of Carol Pearson's archetypal self-help books.

This book was a great combination of depth psychology and practical how-to applications, the genre of Carol Pearson's Hero Within and Awakening the Heros Within. The author uses examples of Dracula, Silence of the Lambs, Snow White, Dorian Gray, and The Firm, among others, to illlustarate various vampiric relationships. It also gives specific directions for relasing oneself from the grip of vampiric realtionships