by Gary Gemmill George Kraus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2010
A beautifully rendered, well-organized and supremely effective guide, full of insights for the ages.
Self-help for the wounded soul is reflected by the cosmic mirror.
The work of authors Gemmill and Kraus suggests that our life experiences are a valuable reporting mechanism, a tool by which one may confront personal issues: “The core idea of the cosmic mirror is that we unknowingly populate the world around us with our denied inner attributes and struggles.” Petty squabbles, emotionalism and intense dislike of others offer vital clues to unresolved material in the shadow and aura. The shadow is the dark side of the self, a repository of denied urges and feelings, while the aura holds unexpressed talents and qualities. Whatever is repressed is projected onto others. We may react with hypercriticism or blind devotion, yet the enemy and the hero within us require acknowledgment and expression for full realization of the self, according to Gemmill and Kraus. Outing the shadow and aura can lead to a healthier, more expansive and less polarized view. Denial can lead to downfall, as in the case of Eliot Spitzer, whose “illicit behavior was not unlike the crimes of those he prosecuted when he was the New York State Attorney General.” In addition to enhancing self-understanding, the principles presented by the authors can be applied to relations with parents, coworkers and significant others, as well as our perceptions of those in the public eye, be they politicians, athletes, government officials, royalty or celebrities. The authors masterfully develop their thesis and thoroughly support it with personal stories of workshop participants, the writings of poets and philosophers, Native American wisdom, Japanese folklore, pop culture and the seminal work of Carl Jung. Illustrations, diagrams and a glossary facilitate understanding of psychological terms and concepts. Numerous practical and perceptual exercises aid in revealing the inner you. To thine own self be true, thanks to the cosmic mirror.
A beautifully rendered, well-organized and supremely effective guide, full of insights for the ages.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-1452032832
Page Count: 353
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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