Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth

Rating:
Summary: Buy 100 and read each one!
Review: well, maybe not, but without a doubt "Love and the World" is an immensely significant work in the field of depth psychology. Originally titled "Love and the Soul", Sardello's book takes an experiential look at the connection between the individual and the world. By staying within the realm of experience, Sardello allows the reader to begin the process of psychological research for him or herself. Sardello honors the original direction which Freud and then Jung trailblazed but points to the danger inherent in any exploration of soul which leaves out the world. Yet Sardello's experience of 'World' and his methodology which leads to it is what is truly groundbreaking about this work.

In "Love and the World" the world is not maintained to exist 'out there' independent of the individual, and yet, Sardello avoids any hints of suggesting the relativistic/constructivst conception which denies the possibility of talking objectively about realms such as Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Sardello maintains that to truly speak objectively about soul and the world, we must enter into the creative processes which they are. It is in the creative process that we can find, through sensing the creating activity of our own 'I', the link between ourself and the world. Sardello shows how spiritual psychology demands a distinction between the ego and the 'I'. This distinction has never been articulated in depth psychology and it is for this reason that the world has always been left out. And so after we identify the 'I' as distinct, not separate, from the ego, we can then experience the 'I' as the creative, non personal, yet completely individual, activity through which the world individuates itself and from which fully conscious, world oriented love is born.

How refreshing to read a sophisticated work in the field of psychology that earns that distinction by leaving theories, abstractions and in-bred language systems at the door. Like any truly improvisational art, Sardello is not content to present a system of finished concepts that can be repeated and systemized, but rather, he enters the active images of experience and from there performs language which can deepen the readers own explorations and questions. This is reflected in the poetic style which imbues each sentence of "Love and the World".

So much more could be said. And that's the point. This book does not attempt to finish anything. It's sole objective is to begin creating a new foundation for psychology which is based in active practice and which leads towards capacities for experiencing the creative, soul-filled and spiritual activities which are the world.

ps...my only frustration comes from what was left out of the new edition. In general not much is changed and in fact, some things are tightened up in a helpful manner. However the "Getting Started" section has been rewritten and while the new pages are a wonderful and, I believe, needed introduction to the book, the original "Getting Started" was a masterpiece. In the four or five pages of the original, Sardello wove together in a creativly condensed form all the images which live in the book as a whole. The orignial "Getting Started" also contains a few brilliant paragraphs on 'soul logic' which desribe the necessity for a new methodological approach to psychology. For these reason I would urge anyone who is still hungry after reading "Love and the World" to order the out of print original "Love and the Soul" from bibliofind.com. I hope that someday both pieces can work together in this most outstanding and potentially life changing book. Perhaps, Sardello will post the original words on his websight.