One of the things we have lost in our material age is an ability to think symbolically; to step outside of the immediacy of our problems and issues and view them and manipulate them abstractly. In medieval society, for example, it was believed widely that everything in nature was a symbol revealing to those who would see, the nature of God and of the spiritual world to come. The stamens of the lily represented the nails that pierced Christ's hands and feet, the leaves of a clover were the trinity, and so forth. So, in fairy tales or "marchen" human problems become symbols. Bruno Bettelheim, in his landmark "The Uses of Enchantment," observed that it is not an accident that the most striking figure of terror in fairy tales is the giant. And Robert Bly takes the reader of "Iron John" through a detailed instruction of how to apply the symbols of the tales to the problems of everyday life, and through the manipulation of the symbols, come to see that the problems are not insuperable.
You do not need to agree with Mr. Bly's personal interpretations of the symbols. They are his because of who he is. But it is hard to find fault with his use of the interpretations. That is where the value of this book lies. Once you start thinking symbolically, you will find it hard to stop. You will start to see things in very different ways than before„possibilities will emerge where before were only obstacles. Just as reading the difficult middle part of this book requires an act of will, so seeing our problems and learning to deal with them rather than allowing them to deal with us also requires an act of will„and a kind of second sight. Iron John is a primer on gaining that second sight.