Star Wars and Jung:

A Contemporary Mythology

(Routledge, 2025)

Jung and Star Wars: A Contemporary Mythology is a comprehensive deep dive, analyzing the Star Wars phenomenon from the perspective of analytical psychology as a living mythology in our time.

Drawing from Jungian perspectives, as well as the influence of Joseph Campbell and James Hillman, this book examines the rich characters and history of the saga using concepts developed in the field of analytical psychology.

It explores Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 and the concept of canon, as well as examining the Force and a number of iconic characters, including Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia Organa, and more.

By coming to understand the psychological ground of its mythic aspects, we learn to see Star Wars as a grand narrative of the human condition.

With Star Wars being ubiquitous in mainstream pop culture, this book will interest Jungian analysts and academics in film and mythological studies, offering a fresh and lesser-known perspective on depth psychology.

Reviews

“Few narratives emerging from popular culture have achieved the stature of modern mythology as convincingly as Star Wars. Ellerhoff delivers a compelling and incisive exploration of its central characters and themes through a Jungian framework. Drawing upon foundational Jungian constructs—including archetypes, synchronicity, and the Transcendent Function—he offers a sophisticated analysis that seamlessly integrates rigorous academic inquiry with the widespread cultural resonance of the franchise, engaging both scholars and dedicated Jedi enthusiasts alike.”

- John Bucher, PhD, Executive Director, Joseph Campbell Foundation

“Truly brilliant! Ellerhoff amplifies the archetypal magic of the Star Wars saga with an analytical eye kin to the Jedi masters. He takes a classic hero’s myth of the modern age and grows it, greens it, with the wisdom of a new ethic. A recommended read for anyone looking to deepen their associations to the force within.”

- Alexis Durgee, Jungian Psychotherapist and curator of Alchemical Toil: Inner Work Library

“By applying a Jungian lens to the franchise, Ellerhoff has crafted a fascinating exploration of the way myths and mythmaking infuse Star Wars. This book will be required reading for all who want to better understand the conceptual links between our world and those far, far away.”

- Chris Kempshall, PhD, University of Exeter, author of The History and Politics of Star Wars (2022) and The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire (2024)

“Fluidly exploring the symbolic and archetypal aspects of its characters and themes, Jung and Star Wars takes us through the George Lucas-Joseph Campbell connection and beyond, into a galaxy that’s very close to our hearts. A fun read but also an important contribution to the scholarship on its subject, Ellerhoff was called by this lineage and he has heeded the call. The Force is strong with this book."

- Gary S. Bobroff, Founder, Jungian Online / JUNG Archademy

“In his lively, infinitely knowledgeable guide to the Star Wars universe, Ellerhoff tells us that 'Myth works to reenchant our sense of existence,’ and this is precisely how he treats the legendary saga. This exquisitely detailed, meticulously researched book will undoubtedly be of interest to Jungian scholars and analysts, as well as to scholars of film and popular culture. However, his accessible tone and encyclopaedic knowledge of the franchise’s history will also endear him to Star Wars fans searching for comprehensive analyses of the saga.”

- Miranda Corcoran, PhD, University College Cork, author of Haunted States: An American Gothic Guidebook (2024)

Post-Jungian Psychology and the Short Stories of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut:

Golden Apples of the Monkey House

(Routledge, 2016)

Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies series

This book explores the short stories of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, written between 1943 and 1968, from a post-Jungian perspective. Drawing upon archetypal theories of myth from Joseph Campbell, James Hillman and C. G. Jung, the book demonstrates how short fiction follows archetypal patterns that can illuminate our understanding of the authors, their times, and their culture. Chapters carefully contextualise and historicize each story, including Bradbury and Vonnegut’s earliest and most imaginatively fantastic works. By exploring how the authors redressed old myths in new tropes, the book reveals a fresh method which can be applied to all short stories, increasing understanding and critical engagement.

All research in this volume was conducted for the thesis that earned my PhD at Trinity College, Dublin. The project was a great joy for me from beginning to end and led me to the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies in Indianapolis and the Lily Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, which houses Kurt Vonnegut's papers. As far as major projects go, this one was a thrill and I think some of that ecstatic joy is infused in the finished book.

  • Dr. Miranda Corcoran's review for the Irish Association of American Studies

  • Interview about the book with Chuck Augello for The Daily Vonnegut

    • Mole

    (Reaktion Books, 2020)

    Mole is a new volume in the Animal Series, a pioneering series from Reaktion Books. Each book in the series takes a different animal and examines its role in history around the world.

    Though moles are rarely seen, they live in close proximity to humans around the world. Gardeners and farmers go to great lengths to remove molehills from their fields and gardens; mole-catching has been a profession for the past two millennia. Moles are also close to our imagination, appearing in myths, fairy tales and comic books as either wealthy, undesirable grooms or seekers of enlightenment. In Mole I examine moles in nature, as well as their representation throughout history and across cultures. Balancing evolution and ecology with photographs and artworks, I provide new insight into this exceedingly private mammal.

    I am excited to see Mole published, as it led to the most astonishing discoveries I've ever made while researching. How else would I have ever spent a day shadowing Louise Chapman, Norfolk's Very Own Lady Molecatcher? Would I have ever learned any other way that Japanese haiku in the 1600s experienced a poetic movement pitting moles against sea-slugs? Many of the details and images included in this book are bizarre and surpising in the very best ways.

    Trickster Tactics: A Festschrift in Honor of Peter Nazareth

    (Goa: 1556, 2021)

    My seventh book, Trickster Tactics, is also the most joyous collaborative publication I've had the pleasure to undertake, for it was done to honor my mentor Professor Peter Nazareth. Anyone who has spent any time with Professor Nazareth has heard him speak of trickster tactics, which, he teaches, are modes of survival in a dangerous world. For those of us who took his courses, these techniques toward establishing and maintaining political and personal agency were always imparted with a twinkle in his eye.

    Our twenty-two contributors come from Singapore, Malaysia, Uganda, Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. They include colleagues, contemporaries, and former students. Given that Professor Nazareth's interests range from postcolonial literatures to the artistry of Elvis Presley, this Festschrift seeks to twin his ecclectic intellectual instincts with articles, short fiction, remembrances, and poetry. I even got a nice statement from true-crime legend Keith Morrison, who profiled Peter for the Today Show in 1992. This collection surprises, which, if you know Professor Nazareth, is no surprise.

    Coinciding with his retirement from the University of Iowa, where he taught for nearly fifty years, this volume was graciously published by Frederick Noronha, editor in chief at Goa: 1556. Having a Goan press produce this book amplifies the international celebration of such an important and beloved thinker, artist, and teacher.

    Exploring the Horror of Supernatural Fiction:

    Ray Bradbury's Elliott Family

    (forthcoming from Routledge, 2020)

    Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature

    Detailing the adventures of a supernatural clan of vampires, witches, and assorted monstrosities, Ray Bradbury’s Elliott family stories are a unique component of his extensive literary output. Written between 1946 and 1994, Bradbury eventually quilted the stories together into a novel, From the Dust Returned (2001), making it a creative project that spanned his adult life. Not only do the stories focus on a single familial unit, engaging with overlapping twentieth-century themes of family, identity and belonging, they were also unique in their time, interrogating post-war American ideologies of domestic unity while reinventing and softening gothic horror for the Baby Boomer generation.

    Centred around diverse interpretations of the Elliott Family stories, this collection of critical essays recovers the Elliotts for academic purposes by exploring how they form a collective gothic mythos while ranging across distinct themes. Essays included discuss the diverse ways in which the Elliott stories pose questions about difference and Otherness in America; engage with issues of gender, sexuality, and adolescence; and interrogate complex discourses surrounding history, identity, community, and the fantasy of family.

    George Saunders: Critical Essays

    (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

    American Literature Readings in the 21st Century series

    This timely volume explores the signal contribution George Saunders has made to the development of the short story form in books ranging from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) to Tenth of December (2013). The book brings together a team of scholars from around the world to explore topics ranging from Saunders's treatment of work and religion to biopolitics and the limits of the short story form. It also includes an interview with Saunders specially conducted for the volume, and a preliminary bibliography of his published works and critical responses to an expanding and always exciting creative oeuvre. Coinciding with the release of Saunders's first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), George Saunders: Critical Essays is the first book-length consideration of this major contemporary author's work. It is essential reading for anyone interested in twenty-first century fiction.

    Co-editing this collection with my PhD supervisor, Philip Coleman, was a professional delight and one I am grateful to have been invited to undertake. It grew out of a panel we presented in Vienna, Austria, at the International Conference on the Short Story in English in the summer of 2014 and led to some great friendships with fellow scholars. I also had the chance to interview and meet George Saunders, who kindly gave the project his blessing.

    Tales From the Internet

    (Norbert Allen Books, 2015)

    Twelve stories delve into ways the Internet has affected the way people go about their lives, from enacting the hero archetype in MMORPGs to tweeting, trolling, and friending in the seemingly unlikeliest of online communities. I am continuously and persistently interested in all the ways the Internet and social media have augmented our lives since the 1990s. It’s a landscape that has so rarely been explored in fiction. Taking it first and foremost as setting, I set out to write stories about how this use of technology has altered reality at the individual level. In our time, there’s no better place for stories to play out.

    Kevin Storrar’s art adds weight to the collection I could never have achieved alone. He holds Master of Arts degrees in both Fine Art and Gallery Studies. Currently he works at The New Art Gallery Walsall, as well as continuing his own practice. This was his second major collaboration with me, Storrar making a distinct piece of art made for the title page of every story in the collection.

    Three of the contained stories were previously published: "http://youareforgiv.en" in The Flexible Persona, "The Martyr Dumb" in How to Hug Your Ex, and "The Pixelated Paladin" in Pantheon.

    Time's Laughingstocks

    (Norbert Allen Books, 2013)

    Richie is a kid from Des Moines, Iowa, in the year 1994. Dick is Richie all grown up, aged forty-two-and-some. He's also the American father of time travel. Virgil is an actor from 2039 set to play Dick in an award-winning and profoundly unflattering biopic. Time's Laughingstocks is what happens when Dick takes it upon himself to guide Richie and Virgil on a private tour through time...

    Kevin Storrar’s art complements the book. He holds Master of Arts degrees in both Fine Art and Gallery Studies. Currently he works at The New Art Gallery Walsall, as well as continuing his own practice. This was his first body of work produced specifically for a novel.

    This novel is both funny and playful with the trope of time travel, but it also jumps right into the problem of stagnation in one’s life, of sacrificing human connection for the sake of discovery and capital gains. How many adults would, in the way they’ve lived, disappoint their younger selves? How much control do people really have over how they are perceived by others? How careful should we be when it comes to the ongoing process of becoming ourselves? Time’s Laughingstocks explores these questions—with plenty of Neanderthals, broken hearts, dinosaurs, and humor along the way.