The Beginner's Guide to Jungian Psychology

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and easy-to-read ispringboard to Jung's ideas
Review:
Jungian psychology is fascinating, nuanced and voluminous, - and Jung's writings themselves are a tough read for someone unacquainted with psychology because he addresses himself to his peers who already understand the jargon. Additionally, Jung being extremely intelligent and intellectual (Robertson, I would say is very intelligent but avoids coming off as intellectual) continually interrelates his ideas to religion, literature, art, mythology, while he writes which, while interesting, makes it hard for a beginner to extract just the basic ideas.

I've read three of Robertson's books on Jung and he has a gift for communicating Jung's basic ideas in a simple and useful manner.

If you have read a bit on Jungian psychology before, this book will re-enforce your knowledge and fill in some of the blanks, - or at the very least shed light on the subject in a different way. If you're new to Jungian psychology this book is an excellent starting point. Sure, - it's limited and not extremely precise - but it's a quick read and will save you a lot of head-scratching once you start reading more in depth treatments of Jung's work.

If you're stuffy or intellectual, this book isn't for you, but if you're looking for a down-to-earth springboard to Jung, this is it!


Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyed!
Review: This book provides a great overview of Jung's theories of personality. Clear and easy to read without being simplistic.

Rating:
Summary: Casting pearls at swine
Review: This book was my gateway into Jungian psychology. As such, I feel affection for it. Yet I cannot help but suspect that the book succeeded in arousing my curiosity DESPITE, rather than because of, the author's expository talents--i.e., the lack thereof. Roberton's plastic, conveniently ambivalent, flip-flopping use of terminology which was naturally imprecise to begin with makes this book very frustrating for the discriminating reader. His description of the Personality Types is contemptibly sloppy, to the point where one can only puzzle out the REAL theory by making lucky deductions from the diagrams. When combined with careless, seemingly bizzarre digs at computer programmers ("I once knew a brilliant computer programmer (hence obviously an introvert)." p.83) and superfluous pulpit-pounding about the degradation of current experimental psychology, this volume makes for a truly lousy read. For all that, it IS informative in a very basic way, and would probably be suitable for people who are not very interested in examining the finepoints of Jung's system. So if you want to impress your next date with a few glancing references to big-words like "Animus", this is the book for you!