Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology : The Dream of a Science

Rating:
Summary: Meet a man you thought you knew...
Review: Shamdasani's "cubist history" of Jung's core projects places them in their historical and intellectual context. His meticulous research incorporates an extensive review of the writing of Jung's contemporaries, Jung's own papers, Jungian commentary, and even some of Jung's personal marginalia. The scholarship alone is staggering.

Be warned: this is no anecdotal hagiography for the converted but a serious exploration of the man and his thinking. Shamdasani's style takes no prisoners. If you are heavily invested in Jungian ideas, or those allegedly attributed to Jung, you may discover the intellectual rug pulled out from under you without ceremony. Brace yourself.

But do engage, as I dared to. By his apparent scepticism of all psychologies and patent love of opening once tightly sealed black boxes, Shamdasani allows you to re-discover Jung and marvel at the unparalleled breadth and depth of the work of one of our great minds. If you square up and look this author and his subject in the eye, I'd be surprised if you are not profoundly shaken or at least significantly stirred, as I have been.