Jung was one of the first to see in the Greek myth of Chiron the truth that ‘Only the wounded physician heals’. Despite this origin, Jung makes relatively few statements which amplify the ‘wounded healer’ concept but as an innovative legacy it has become surprisingly popular across a diverse range of psychotherapeutic modalities.

Such use would indicate the concept is understood to be of some importance. This is probably because it acknowledges that all persons working in the helping professions are vulnerable human beings who carry their own individual wounds and that these can be brought to bear on their healing work in a positive way.

In the Jungian tradition, it is the shaman who is seen as the archetypal wounded healer, par excellence, because they turn states of derangement into a self-cure upon which hinges their role as healers for their socio-cultural others. Little is written, however, to specify the zone of wounding which underpins the most effective wounded healer.

By examining Siberian shamanism ethnography, John proposes a contemporary model for the specific psychological construction of healers based on shamanic initiation thereby forging an entirely new approach to the wounded healer phenomenon.