Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Here Anthony Stevens examines every stage of Jung's personal and professional development to throw light on his theories of the life cycle, dream symbolism, and the collective unconscious. Jung's life experience made him a profound, stimulating, and immensely influential writer on almost every aspect of human behavior; this lucid and penetrating study makes the ideal introduction to his life and ideas. This new edition contains a preface intended as a rebuttal to the recent attacks on Jung made by Noll and McLynn.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Figures (p. vii)
• Preface (p. ix)
• Acknowledgements (p. xi)
• Part I Jung'S Psychology
• 1 The personal equation (p. 3)
• 2 The unconscious (p. 11)
• 3 Metapsychology: Jung's model of the psyche (p. 27)
• 4 Personal development and the stages of life (p. 54)
• Part II From Birth to Maturity 5 Childhood (p. 77)
• 6 Adolescent transition (p. 117)
• 7 Early maturity (p. 145)
• 8 Mid-life transition (p. 164)
• Part III From Mid-Life to Death 9 Middle age (p. 183)
• 10 Late-life transition (p. 221)
• 11 Late maturity (p. 225)
• 12 Conclusion (p. 255)
• Afterword Jung's Adversary: Richard Noll (p. 275)
• Postscript (p. 293)
• Bibliography (p. 295)
• Index (p. 301)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Carl Jung's mother withdrew into depressive illness; his father, a pastor, lost his faith and suffered feelings of spiritual impotence. These influences, writes Stevens, made Jung ``a lifelong gnostic,'' an introspective quester who was driven to seek out forceful father-figures like Freud. Jung's love-at-first-sight encounter with his future wife, Emma Rauschenbach, was ``a classic case of anima projection.'' Stevens, a Jungian analyst and author of The Roots of War , sees Jung's midlife breakdown, a four-year descent into madness, as an archetypal journey of isolation, initiation and return. Brimming with fresh insights, this Jungian biography of Jung throws sharp light on the inner recesses of his psyche, showing how his personal makeup shaped the therapeutic system he created. Jung's ``psychology was also a cosmology,'' ascribing to the individual's life a divine or cosmic significance. Stevens relates Jung's ideas on individuation and the collective unconscious to this larger perspective. Photos. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Stevens has written a much needed book on Jung, the man and his works. Jung's major ideas are clearly presented, perhaps more clearly than this reviewer has seen them presented elsewhere. Of course, a single book is not a complete reflection of Jung's work; no single book could be. Of more importance, perhaps, are the keen insights that Stevens provides into Jung the man. This text almost allows one to experience Jung's struggles as he may have experienced them himself. It is also very useful in considering Jung's theories and their development as he passed through life with his own unique rite of passage. Less convincing is Stevens's attempt to "biologize" Jung. Stevens's notion that Jung's major concepts could have physiological analogies sometimes works; but for this reviewer, sometimes did not. In any event, the book is strongly recommended for undergraduate library acquisition. -M. W. York, University of New Haven

Booklist Review

Carl Jung once wrote that "even when I am dealing with empirical data, I am necessarily speaking about myself." Stevens agrees and uses Jung's own life circumstances to illustrate Jungian theories of psychological development. Stevens, a Jungian analyst for two decades, is a beacon of clarity in a jungle normally peopled by obfuscators. Thus, the author emphasizes Jung's isolation as an only child for nine years and his consequent close ties to his parents, despite a resentment of his mother's chronic depression and his paternal problems in the wake of his own doubts about Christianity. Stevens' technique of linking Jung's life with his theories could not be used on a more appropriate subject, since Jung was fanatically obsessed with his work. This linkage of life and work, says Stevens, made of Jung "a cartographer of the soul." Bibliography; index. --Allen Weakland