Magician, Mesmer or Merlin? –
December 21, 2018 – Robert Bly grew up in Western Minnesota in a family descended from stoic Norwegian immigrant farmers. Bly says he experienced “a recovery of feeling.” … “Certain emotions are coming out that maybe I have kept in,” he said. “My father being alcoholic, from an alcoholic family, we tend to repress a lot. Try to be overly cheerful. I see this stuff coming out, it helps me tremendously.” That introspection led to Bly’s most famous book — a nonfiction work called Iron John: A Book About Men. Published in 1990, it became an international bestseller and sparked what became known as “The Men’s Movement” — based on the idea that men need to be more sensitive. “I mean, when I saw the Republican senators up there, attacking Anita Hill in that insane, bitter, heartless way, I said, ‘Man, that’s the greatest argument for a Men’s Movement I have ever seen,’” he said.
