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(More customer reviews)Let me start to mention that I am not a social scienticst myself; my impression was that Jung is considered as someone who introduced many breakthrough concepts in psychology, but is also being 'hyped'. Therefore I was looking for a few books that would give me a proper (= not too appreciative, but scientifically objective) introducton to Jung and his ideas.
First I read Calvin Halls "A Primer of Jungian Psychology", but I found that book difficult to read. At the end I was unable to summarize Jungs ideas for myself. For me this is always a good test whether or not a book has had any impact on me. A year later I came accross the VSI by Anthony Stevens. Perhaps, reading Hall prepared me, but I found the VSI book very good.
What I like in particular about the VSI book is:
- it seems rather objective to me (i.e. maintaining a somewhat critical undertone)
- it now and then openly acknowledges that Jungs approach was rather non-mainstream, sometimes against-the-stream. Allowing the reader to make up his own mind.
- its division into well organised chapters helps the reader to progress through the book and look up things afterwards.
I also missed a few things:
- Stevens emphasizes Jungs goal to develop a psychology aimed at "personal growth and development". In this context, I would be very interested to see a comparison with the ideas of Viktor Frankl. After all, one cannot discuss existential psychology without mentioning Frankl.
- I would have liked to see more material included about the present day status of Jungs ideas: since I am not a psychologist myself, I wonder to what extent Jungs ideas are still upheld today. Especially all his ideas about dreams: to me this seems difficult to test scientifically.
Summary: easy to read book, after finishing it I have the impression I learned a lot. I recommend it.
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