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Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Book - Very Revealing!
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book. At 29 years old and fairly new to the dating scene, I didn't realize how much the history of my life was projected onto the person I'm dating. This book helped me to step back and see how I approach relationships. I now at least know what I need to work on and what I should expect from myself and others. It helped me to understand myself. The book is written in a gender-neutral manner. It's common sense (now that I've read the book) applies to both sexes, regardless of sexual orientation. I've even recommended it to married friends that are perfectly happy. Thank you!
Rating:
Summary: Hands down the best book I ever read!!
Review: I have read this book a number of times and glean new wisdom every time. It explained every mystery of human relationship that has baffled me for 50 years. The insight I gained helps me understand other people as well as myself in both personal and professional relationships. Hollis can synthesize Jung better than any author or teacher working today, and uses literature and poetry which greatly enriches his writing. All of James Hollis books are exemplarary and I recommend them all. I have been fortunate enough to hear Hollis speak and he is even better in real life. Extremely wise and empathetic. I have also given this book as a gift to many of my friends and colleagues. I find the previous review very interesting and reveals more to me about the author of the review than this book!!
Rating:
Summary: Hands down the best book I ever read!!
Review: I have read this book a number of times and glean new wisdom every time. It explained every mystery of human relationship that has baffled me for 50 years. The insight I gained helps me understand other people as well as myself in both personal and professional relationships. Hollis can synthesize Jung better than any author or teacher working today, and uses literature and poetry which greatly enriches his writing. All of James Hollis books are exemplarary and I recommend them all. I have been fortunate enough to hear Hollis speak and he is even better in real life. Extremely wise and empathetic. I have also given this book as a gift to many of my friends and colleagues. I find the previous review very interesting and reveals more to me about the author of the review than this book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Overall very good--but...
Review: This book discusses in a bit greater depth the well-known concept that infatuation is an unrealistic illusion. While this general idea has been popularized by many (including M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled), it's an illusion we are all so vulnerable to, that it's good to be reminded of this irrational dynamic. The author shows good intelligence, even wisdom, and a reasonably good facility for writing, with an occasional poetic or lyrical flair. I've given this 4 stars because I think it's intelligent reading and can stimulate us to be more aware of the unconscious forces that drive us in the arena of romantic love. I do, however, have a few misgivings about the book.
First, the author seems to feel the need to include a sprinkling of words the average reader will not understand. A few examples: "cynosure," "limns," and "oeuvere." This use of either a highly specialized nomenclature or an unnecessary reaching for unusual--and for most people, opaque--terms is a bit annoying. And I restrain myself from analyzing the author's motivations... Second, the author takes a political jab at those whose religious or political beliefs he disagrees with. He repeats the unoriginal comment that the Moral Majority is neither moral nor a majority, etc...
I happen not to be religious, and I disagree with many of the policies the Moral Majority would support. But I think it's beneath the dignity of the author, and of serious psychological discourse, to include such a subjective, and emotion-based, attack, when the psychological theory the author discusses not only doesn't require this for illustration, but can be easily presented as consistent with any number of religious or socio-political views, including those of the Moral Majority. Third, although I know that this is part of a series on Jungian studies, I found it a little tiresome for Jung to be quoted or alluded to in many cases where it seemed unnecessary. It almost reminds one of bad theology, wherein every decent idea needs to be shoe-horned back into a vague Bible passage. Having said all that, I urge you to buy the book and read it. We need all the help we can get in waking up to our unhelpful unsconscious energies. This book can help on that front, and can stimulate personal growth.
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