The GreatHouse Company

“A New Philosophy Of Contemporary Symbolism.”

Symbolism.Org represents the online presence of The GreatHouse Company of Columbus, Ohio. GreatHouse is involved in ongoing research, consulting and publishing centered on the symbolism of popular culture.

Symbolism has a far greater presence in contemporary culture than most realize. More than an ancient, esoteric discipline, it really serves as the centerpiece for an entirely new modern philosophy and understanding of the world.

While symbols seem to increasingly “migrate” to contemporary culture - defining such things as leading brands, products, films, events and celebrities - few understand the dynamics and cycles of their movement, their overall language and what they tell us. In effect, we are much more busy creating symbols than trying to understand them.

The purpose of Symbolism.Org and The GreatHouse Company is to create a forum for communications related to theory and application of contemporary symbolism. It brings together a number of disciplines such as sociology, communications and media theory, film studies, mythology, philosophy, analytic psychology and history.

John Fraim

John Fraim is President of The GreatHouse Company. He has a BA in History from UCLA and a JD from Loyola Law School (Los Angeles). After a successful career as a marketing executive he founded GreatHouse to explore symbolism and its relationship to popular culture. GreatHouse is currently involved with research, consulting and publishing centered on the symbolism of popular culture.

His articles and essays have been widely published in leading publications and e-zines including Business 2.0, The Industry Standard, Ad Busters, The Journal of Marketing, Spark OnLine, Media & Culture Journal, The Jung Page and Psychological Perspectives. His book Spirit Catcher won the 1997 Small Press Award for Best Biography.

Selected sections from three unpublished works on symbolism are published for the first time on the Symbolism.Org site. The first statement of his theories is Symbolism of Place (SP) written while he was President of Pacific Marketing Strategies, a marketing consulting firm, in Berkeley, California. The project attempts to understand the psychological, dramatic and cultural significance of the context of place in the stories we create and the stories we watch. With Symbolism of Popular Culture the concepts of Symbolism of Place are applied to popular culture. The latest project Battle of Symbols applies his symbolism theories to global culture in the context of post-9/11 and the war on terrorism. Offline publication of these three manuscripts is planned in the near future. Comments from site visitors are welcome and encouraged.

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