It was described as a book about men, that re-examined the myth of Iron John using Jungian psychology, and concluded that men need to reconnect with the 'wild man' inside them. It spent 62 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.
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To judge by men's lives in New Guinea, Kenya, North Africa, Zulu lands and in the Arab and Persian culture favored flavored by Sufi communities, Men have lived together in heart unions and soul connections for hundreds of thousands of years.
Contemporary business life allows competitive relationships only in which the major emotions are anxiety, tension, loneliness, rivalry and fear after work. What do men do? Collect in a bar to hold light conversations over light beer unities that are broken off whenever a young woman comes by or touches the brim of someone's cowboy hat. Having no soul union with other men can be the most damaging wound of all.
Bly urges men to rediscover their manhood by getting back to their wild nature. Some feminists, he says, in a justified fear of brutality, have labored to breed fierceness out of men, creating the sort of soft male of whom Teddy Roosevelt might have said, 'I could carve a better man out of a banana.'
Bly believes that inside of every such male, there's a wild man yearning to get out a radiant inner king just waiting to confer masculine pride and sureness of purpose.
Bly insists he doesn't blame women for men's sorry state. He blames older men who have failed to provide young ones with the role models they crave.
