A review by mikepage7176
Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche by Robert A. Johnson
2.0
This was my first time consuming anything Jungian, and maybe I'm not used to it, but it's an odd worldview. There are plenty of interesting concepts that might have been sussed out better, but the author's writings just come off as a bizarre stream of consciousness. He's constantly asserting things with no factual or literary basis. Square pegging into quite a few round holes. As an example, he just states the reason for sexual dreams being conflict or unease in life or something. Then just moves on. Doesn't say why, or speak to variations, or why others might say otherwise. It's grating and hard to handle.
There are a few things worthwhile. But I was usually left frustrated since I wanted a bit more. A deeper dive into how to merge the light and dark would have been helpful. Can we go deeper into Faust and the ego and what not? No. What about ceremony makes society healthy? Dunno...
As an aside, I'm a Christian. I found his syncretism annoying. He misreads Scripture so often is distracting, and a speaking to the dark side of the psyche without mentioning things like repentance or redemption just misses the mark for me. You don't rehab the old man, you put him to death.
Some nuggets that may get you contemplative don't do much to bring this up to anything more than a few underlined passages in a dull write up. Thank God it was short.
There are a few things worthwhile. But I was usually left frustrated since I wanted a bit more. A deeper dive into how to merge the light and dark would have been helpful. Can we go deeper into Faust and the ego and what not? No. What about ceremony makes society healthy? Dunno...
As an aside, I'm a Christian. I found his syncretism annoying. He misreads Scripture so often is distracting, and a speaking to the dark side of the psyche without mentioning things like repentance or redemption just misses the mark for me. You don't rehab the old man, you put him to death.
Some nuggets that may get you contemplative don't do much to bring this up to anything more than a few underlined passages in a dull write up. Thank God it was short.