By Berthilidis Strix, M.D. and Cornelia Panthera, Ph.Zo.
Lemon-Yellow Press, 250 pages
Deep in the recesses of our subconscious, according to veteran psychoanalyst, Dr. Berthilidis Strix, lies a force that she calls “the silent cluck.” The process of isolating one’s own “cluck” is the subject of this book, which Dr. Strix has written in collaboration with her esteemed colleague, Dr. Cornelia Panthera.
The premise on which their book is based is that this force, which is as individual as we are, is responsible for the choices we make throughout our lives. That fact (if, indeed, it is a fact) renders locating our “cluck” essential, if we are to feel that we exercise control in our lives.
But, why a “cluck?”
Dr. Panthera, a noted zoologist, is among those who believe that we all start life as a Chicken. Our process of maturation, as she explains in the book’s preface, is one of “breaking out of the egg,” both literally and metaphorically.
But, even when we are successful and achieve full maturity, say Drs. Strix and Panthera, we are still subject to the longings of that holdover from our earliest days, our “silent cluck.”
“It is not unusual,” writes Dr. Strix, “for the largest of Lions or for the smallest of Snails, to want to revert to the eggshell. It is, perhaps, at our lowest moments in life that we find our cluck is calling us, and we must listen to it.”
Whether or not you believe in the Chicken Theory, this book will bring your deepest desires and disappointments into focus.
© The Mammalian Daily
Reprinted with permission from Issue 110, Spring 24 AZ
