My Book Reviews

A Brief Jungian Interlude This week, I wish to discuss two books about that psychic reality Jung called succinctly and aptly "the Shadow."  Jung stressed that   "[E]veryone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."    The S hadow  or " shadow aspect " of our psyche may refer to (1) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious, or (2) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not recognize in itself. Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative.   However, it has positive aspects, which are recognized once the Shadow has been accepted and integrated into the psyche.  In this brief review I wish to discuss two books I have read on Jung's concept of "the Shadow." 1. Romancing The Shadow Romancing...

I wish to discuss very briefly two books which I purchased recently: (i) James Harpur's A Complete Guide To The Soul: Who am I? What is my life's purpose?  Where am I going when I die? London: Rider, 2010 and (ii) T he Human Voyage of Self-Discovery: Essays in honour of Brendan Purcell , Dublin: Veritas, 2013. (i)  A Complete Guide To The Soul My copies of the two books reviewed here Anything from the pen of Patrick Harpur is well worth reading for its breadth of scholarship. I realise the title sounds very New Age-like, but Harpur is too astute and learned to let his heart run away with his reason; rather he balances both wonderfully.  When I buy any book on spirituality, philosophy or psychology I read about the author first to see his/her academic or professional background and (ii) check his/her endnotes and references. A perusal of Harpur's bibliography includes on the one hand, literary and philosophy figures from ancient and modern times, e.g., Homer, P...

I wish to talk about two philosophy books here, both of which I read several times in the past few months because they bear re-reading as (i) they are pretty accessible and (ii) rivetingly interesting. They are both introductory volumes to the subject.  As long as I have been studying philosophy - now some 35 years - I have never passed over the opportunity of reading good introductions to the subject as they all give a different slant and that small bit of extra information. (i) Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers My copies of the two books reviewed here This first book is written by Philip Stokes, and is published by Arcturus Publishing Ltd., 2012. The Amazon website informs me that  Stokes is married with two children and is currently living in Thailand, and further that he teaches English language and Critical Thinking skills at a university there. His latest work, apparently, is an open source critical thinking textbook written for lecturers and students of p...