The Trilogy

Terra Alba.
Solve. Coagula.

One continuous work in three volumes: a scientific map of the psyche fused with the ancient art of alchemy, carried from foundation, through dissolution, to synthesis. Here is exactly what's inside.

Pre-order See what's inside
  • Three volumes
  • Sixteen types
  • Richly illustrated
A hardcover copy of Alchemical Mind: The Science and Soul of Personality Typology, by Elior Elkayam and Daniel Hansen, standing at an angle
The Method

Solve et Coagula

The oldest maxim in alchemy is also the structure of this book: dissolve the self into its parts, then recombine those parts into something more whole than what you started with. Each volume performs one operation.

I
Terra Alba

Purify the ground

Before typology, the shared architecture everyone stands on: persona, shadow, self and daemon, and the five stages of individuation from Nigredo to the Lapis Philosophorum.

II
Solve

Dissolve the self

The mind taken apart, piece by piece, into dispositions, attitudes, temperaments, functions and the eight archetypal roles that operate inside every one of us.

III
Coagula

Recombine the whole

The dissolved elements recombined into sixteen fully realised mental types, organised by four worldviews and brought to life through real and fictional examples.

Inside the Trilogy

What each volume covers

Vol. I

Terra Alba

The alchemy of the soul and a full map of the psyche — personal, unconscious and collective — before any typology is introduced.

  • Persona & Shadow
  • The Daemon
  • Individuation
  • Nigredo → Lapis
Vol. II

Solve

Attitudes, temperaments and the eight mental processes, resolved into the four dyads and four worldviews that generate every type.

  • Eight Processes
  • Four Temperaments
  • Four Dyads
  • Eight Archetypal Roles
Vol. III

Coagula

Full profiles of all sixteen mental types, grouped by worldview and illustrated with figures from history, film and literature.

  • Sixteen Profiles
  • Spine & Arm Types
  • Archetypes in Fiction
  • Therapeutic Afterword
Two Ways In

For the practitioner. For the story-lover.

For the practitioner

You already think in frameworks. Alchemical Mind gives you a typology rigorous enough to hold up in the consulting room: John Beebe's eight-function model treated at full depth, the persona–shadow–self–daemon architecture of the psyche, and an afterword on the therapeutic power of typology.

Appendix A, Depth Psychology in a Shallow World, and Appendix E, The MBTI Code, ground the system in the literature you already know.

For the story-lover

You already spot the Hero, the Trickster, the Devil in every story you love. Volume II names the eight archetypal roles that generate them — Hero, Adversary, Dreamer, Devil, Mentor, Senex, Child, Trickster — and Volume III shows the sixteen mental types walking around inside your favourite films, shows and novels.

Appendix D, Archetypes in Film & Literature, and a chapter mapping the Free Peoples of Middle-earth onto the four worldviews, make the pattern impossible to unsee.

Format

The particulars

Format
Three-volume hardcover set
Illustration
Richly illustrated throughout, in an engraved alchemical style
Contents
Full bibliography, endnotes and five appendices
Authors
Elior Elkayam & Daniel Hansen
Language
English
Availability
Pre-orders opening soon
Questions

Before you begin

Do I need a background in psychology to read this?

No. Volume I, Terra Alba, builds the shared architecture of the psyche from the ground up before any typology is introduced, so the later volumes never assume prior training.

Should I read the volumes in order?

Yes. Each volume is built on the last: Terra Alba lays the psychic ground, Solve dissolves it into its working parts, and Coagula recombines those parts into the sixteen living types.

Who is this trilogy written for?

Both the practitioner and the seeker. It gives clinicians a typology rigorous enough for real use, and gives anyone who loves spotting archetypes in fiction a language for what they're already seeing.

When can I get a copy?

Pre-orders are opening soon. Use the button below to be notified the moment the trilogy is available.

The Authors

Linguists by training

Elior Elkayam and Daniel Hansen came to the psyche the way a linguist comes to a language: looking for its structure. What they found was a grammar, a finite set of attitudes, temperaments and functions that combine, like parts of speech, into the sixteen ways a human being can be arranged.

Alchemical Mind is the result: modern psychology woven together with Kabbalah, Taoism and alchemy, and illustrated throughout to make difficult ideas visible.

The Great Work

Bridge the gaps between minds

Remember who you are, refine who you have become, and embody who you are here to be. The map is ready.

Back to the overview

Three volumes · Illustrated throughout · No spam, one email at launch