A Jungian analyst's rambling descriptions of how he employs dreams to dive into the depths of the human soul, especially his own. That Bosnak takes dreaming very seriously is shown in the opening chapters, in which the author is roughing it in the Australian outback in an attempt to trade dreams and dream lore with an enigmatic Aboriginal spirit doctor. Ordinarily, Bosnak conducts a private practice specializing in dreamwork in Cambridge, Mass., and runs workshops in which participants select one person's fresh dream and work on it together. Bosnak describes his dreamwork at two of these workshops in detail, demonstrating the process he has developed for such group explorations. He then gives instructions for performing solitary dreamwork, offering his own work as an example. He describes how he keeps a dream log, tapes the individual pages together, and then, using ruler and pencil, connects similar images, thus identifying recurring themes. The task is then to use these themes to reminisce about the past and later to write about them in various genres—poetry, stories, letters, travelogues, etc. The text includes numerous examples of such writing; an appendix has his log of over 50 dreams he had in one seven-week period during which he probed his feelings about his father's death. Such dreamwork, Bosnak asserts, can lead to a ``transformative confrontation with reality.'' Perhaps so, but don't expect instant success. As a how-to-do-it-yourself book, this is only for the very highly motivated and seriously introspective. For the merely curious, it offers intensive analysis of several people's dreams, a strange trip inside the imagination of a primordial lizard whose dreaming the Aborigines say created the Australian landscape, but finally, rather too much of Bosnak's exposed psyche. Primarily for Jungians.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-31526-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
A short course in Jungian psychology aimed at the Baby Boomer, wherein Jung's basic tenets are embellished with Sufi thought, familiar Buddhist parables, and reflections from Teilhard de Chardin. There are also numerous references from Marion Woodman, a popular and astute Jungian interpreter; Clarissa Pinkola EstÇs (Women Who Run with the Wolves); Betty Edwards (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain), as well as Emily Dickinson, Carlos Castaneda, and Gail Sheehy. If that suggests a pop psychological stew—the Wal-Mart of human potential—no apologies need be made. Brehony, a Jungian psychologist, defines, explains, and connects Jungian concepts such as personal and collective unconscious, persona, shadow, and archetypes into an understandable but not reductive framework. At midlife, she explains, the persona (our public presentation) encounters the shadow, the parts of our selves that have been buried. The ``tension of opposites'' can reach critical mass, but the need to let go of one person to become another is terrifying, precipitating a descent into the caverns of the unconscious. The book continues with chapters offering both analysis and exercise: how midlife involves turning the caterpillar of desire into the butterfly of achievement, how relationships (mother/son, husband/wife) are containers for soft landings in crises. Later chapters, including ``Dreams and Dreamwork'' and ``Creativity,'' are devised with exercises to strengthen various aspects of development, including the importance of dreams, creativity, prayer and meditation, and the physical body. The usefulness of community and neighbors as helpful containers for movement is emphasized. In other chapters are discussions of prayer and meditation, ``mindfulness,'' and creativity, with exercises that include advice as simplistic as ``Listen to each other'' and as curious as ``Don't fight about anything that could blow away in a hurricane.'' A relatively challenging exploration of the aspects of change at midlife, including spiritual and physical growth.
Pub Date: Sept. 24, 1996
ISBN: 1-57322-024-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
A fine addition to the growing literature that refutes the long-held idea that there is such a thing as ``general'' intelligence and that it can be quantified. A professor of psychology and education at Yale and a prolific writer (The Triarchic Mind, not reviewed, etc.), Sternberg strongly and persuasively challenges the usefulness of IQ, SAT, and other tests that, he notes, measure only knowledge that is ``inert'' (i.e., decontextualized and often quickly forgotten). The type of intelligence that helps people succeed in life requires imaginative approaches to problems that are far more ``ill-structured'' than those found in the largely one-dimensional, multiple-choice approach of standardized instruments for quantifying intelligence. Successful intelligence is more multifaceted; it includes elements of creativity, adaptability, practicality, intellectual risk- taking, interpersonal skills, and perseverance. In addition, our standard intelligence tests often are culturally biased and favor those with good test-taking skills. In making his argument, Sternberg also demolishes the Herrnstein/Murray hypothesis in The Bell Curve that much of intelligence is inherited; on the contrary, he notes, intelligence is ``incremental'' (our ability to learn grows with learning itself). With the exception of some repetition and some self-evident assertions in a concluding chapter that delineates 20 aspects of successful intelligence (does it really need stating that ``successfully intelligent people spread themselves neither too thin nor too thick''?), Sternberg writes clearly and gracefully, holding the reader's attention by peppering his theoretical material with interesting anecdotal examples. Like the writings of Howard Gardner and Daniel Goleman, among others, this book will prove helpful to a wide range of readers, from professional educators to mental health professionals, business managers, and parents in appreciating just how multifaceted intelligence is and how it can be better nurtured in each person. (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club altnerate selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-684-81410-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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