Dr. Muhammad Ismai Wali: A symbol of dedication and commitment

From the few pages of the book I was able to collect some excerpts as follows which would be helpful to those who would like to know and read the book.

Dream and its symbolic variants—fiction, fancy, fantasy, or imagination—have no practical value and pragmatic meaning unless and until placed in a Jungian context.  In this regard, the mainstream criticism focuses on dream-literature as “escapistic.”  This study explores Jungian themes in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in such a way as to make it an experience for soul-making.  The whole study revolves around the key idea of syzygy which Jung uses to conceptualize the contra-sexual archetypes/psychic energies as anima in man and animus in woman respectively. Apart from the Prologue and Epilogue, the study is divided into four chapters.  The Prologue looks at the critical history of Dream followed by a brief orientation to the seminal syzygial patterns in it to prepare the reader how to contextualize the text and its contents. The first Chapter, titled “Crystal is Muddy,” takes us into the psyche of Shakespeare’s Dream  to see what is the role of the paradoxical themes and structures in energizing the dialectical progression of events in the play.  The analysis shows that the persona of Athens grows too old to cope with new changes and challenges of life, which is always in a flux.  The events in the woods, i.e. the dream-mode, in a way, deconstruct the    rigidity observed at the waking level, so that a fresh and flexible persona emerges to accommodate the issues of the young generation. The second Chapter “Hot Ice-I” deals with the issue of identity-formation in the first phase of life.  After the psychological “birth,” the youngsters—Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena—pass through the projection-making stage, which functions  as a symbolic heat for their psychological maturation, epitomized as “summerizing” process.  Their marriage at the end symbolizes typological compensations, making a whole in a syzygial way. In the third Chapter, “Hot Ice-II,”  he explores the theme of the middle age crisis occurring to Theseus and Hippolyta.   Their love grows out of “war,” which is symbolic of the extraverting process during youth.  They turn back on their unconscious, the psychic source from which flows the psychic energies.  The events in the woods function as a dream for them, from which they reawake to compensate for the psychological lack in each other’s. The fourth Chapter “Cold Fire” deals with the theme of psychological wholeness in Jungian studies, usually explained through trinity/quaternity symbols.This chapter concludes with how A Midsummer Night Night’s can be read as “The Midwinter’s Reality.” Dr. M.Ismail Wali is interested in philosophy, psychology, mysticism and literature (Persian and Urdu). He also writes Khowar poetry on the themes of corruption, mismanagement, motivation of youth for hard work. He uses “Akhgar” as his poetic name (takhl’lus). He is currently appointed in Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, as Assistant Professor of English. He believes in use of spiritualism for self- growth and for productive interpersonal communication. His book “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Shakespeare’s Syzygy of Meaning” can be goggled easily and costs 31 US Dollars.]]>