The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Jon Platania, "Jung for Beginners"

Started May 1 � Finished May 1, 2002; 155 pages. Posted 02 May 2002

Another book with cartoons used to accentuate the point, this is actually the second that I�ve read on Jung. Don�t ask me why, I just succumb to impulse buys. None of the books on or by Jung I�ve read say anything about this behavior, so I guess I�ll have to figure out my problem on my own.

Anyway, I put off reading this for a long time because I had already read �Introducing Jung� as well as three or four books by Jung himself. What more could I learn?

Well, not much, but actually more than I thought I would. While �Introducing Jung� concentrated more on the ideas behind Jung�s psychological theories, this read more like an extremely dumbed-down biography. So I get to hear more about his wife and his girlfriends, his non-commitment toward any side during the Nazi rise to power, and various anecdotes about people he met or worked with.

Neat. Not what I was looking for, but neat nonetheless.

As a bonus, the art in this one was better. On the downside, the author devotes a lot of valuable space on a rather minor point where Jung dismisses yoga, and it should be mentioned that the author�s bio states he is a yoga instructor).

And this yoga instructor tries too hard to be cute too often, and the result is that he and this book started to get on my nerves.

Maybe I should see somebody about that.


Rating: Worth working in a used bookstore and getting for super cheap.

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