Other Useful Books
A Little Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly. HarperSanFrancisco. This “little” book contains a huge amount of information. As a poet and a master storyteller Bly is ideally suited to delve into what he calls that “long black bag we drag behind us.”
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Karen Armstrong. Ballantine/Random House. This is a history of monotheism, from Babylon to the present—how these religions came into being, how they influenced and shaped one another. It’s an eminently readable book absolutely crammed with well-documented historical information. Now that’s hard to do.
A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present, Howard Zinn. HarperCollins. When you first see the size of this book you think you won’t be able to finish it. Then when you start reading it, you won’t be able to put it down. It should be required reading for every citizen of the USA. What we aren’t told, compared to what we are told, is simply astonishing. And Zinn was fearless—he never pulled his punches.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Elaine Pagels. Vintage/Random House. An examination of how sexuality and the feminine principle came to be so reviled in the development of Western thought. The needle points to St. Augustine, who confused his own obsessive sexual nature with human nature in general, and then came up with the theory of innate depravity or “original sin.”
The Battle for God, A History of Fundamentalism, Karen Armstrong. Ballantine/Random House. Twenty first-century fundamentalism is a knee-jerk reaction against the growth of scientific and secular culture. As new ways of thinking spread, old ways try to cling ever more tightly to their beliefs. And the reason to study it? “History shows that attempts to suppress fundamentalism simply make it more extreme.” Unless we want to regress to warring tribal factions ruled by ruthlessly opinionated madmen, we need to figure out how to deal respectfully with fundamentalists’ fears.
The Case for God, Karen Armstrong. Alfred A. Knopf. You’re seeing a lot of Karen Armstrong’s books on this list because she’s absolutely great: she’s the Joseph Campbell of the 2000s. She does incredible research, manages to turn that research into a broad historical view, has a loving heart, and is a pleasure to read. If you merely used the excellent index at the end of this book as a way to refresh your memory about things like “Now, who was Spinoza?” (or Plato or Plutarch or Kant) or “What was the Romantic Movement?” (or rationalism or the Diaspora or the Protestant Reformation) it would be well worth its $27.95 cover price.
The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler. HarperSanFrancisco. A review of the mounting archaeological evidence which suggests that human beings did not always live in patriarchal, warlike societies, and do not necessarily have to live that way in the future. One can only hope…
Codependent No More; How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself, Melody Beattie, Harper/Hazelden. We can all have some trouble saying what we mean. We all have a codependent within that could use some care.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond. Penguin Group. Diamond (author of Guns, Germs and Steel) makes it clear that whether we ultimately fail or succeed as a society is entirely up to us, by examining the choices made by present and past societies which led to their successes or failures, and offering suggestions for the future.
Confessions of An Economic Hit Man, John Perkins. Berrett-Koehler. A chilling book. Why do so many central and south American countries have such paralyzing economic problems? Because a big business interest sent a smooth talking representative down to say “You guys need a dam (or a bridge or whatever). Let us build it for you!” After which the countries went deeply into debt to a giant corporation for something they really didn’t need which completely destroyed their way of life and left them too broke to provide even the most basic services for their own people. In many cases the money never left the USA. Many Central and South American countries were economically strangled by huge corporations in just this way.
Every Dreamer’s Handbook, A Step-by-step Guide to Understanding and Benefiting from your Dreams, Will Phillips. Kensington Books. Phillips takes the mystery and anxiety out of studying your own dreams, bless his heart. Simple enough for a twelve year old, effective enough for anybody. I heartily recommend this book.
Evil, The Shadow Side of Reality, John Sanford. Crossroad Publishing, New York. Don’t let the title scare you off. This is a very good book. Sanford is an Episcopalian priest as well as an analytical psychologist and a writer, so he examines the ever present problem of evil from several perspectives: psychological, Christian, philosophical, mythological and literary.
Fast Food Nation, The Dark Side of the American Meal, Eric Schlosser. HarperCollins. I think that title says it all.
Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, How to Finally, Really Grow Up, James Hollis. Gotham. This is a great book—I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone past their 35th birthday. Hollis is a realist. Not airy-fairy, never namby-pamby. In a culture which values youth more than wisdom, growing up is hard to do. A little Hollis always helps.
The Flight of the Wild Gander, Explorations in the Mythological Dimensions of Fairy Tales, Legends and Symbols, Joseph Campbell. HarperPerennial. One of Campbell’s most accessible books, containing extremely useful descriptions of what happens to reality if you insist on taking religious metaphors as historical facts. (For instance, if the actual, physical body of Jesus started to ascend toward “heaven” 2000 years ago, even if it went at the speed of light, which is not possible for a physical body, he would still not be out of our galaxy.) The title refers to the wild ganders that often figured as totem spirits for shamans in Northern tribes and as symbols of enlightenment in India. Campbell felt that at this point in human evolution each person has to become their own shaman, has to learn to follow the flight of their own wild gander, in order to soar.
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels. Random House, New York. This book won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award the year it came out, for bringing Christianity’s tumultuous and divisive beginnings to light. The Gnostics were one of the sects the Orthodox Church (which ultimately won the day, getting to decide what went into the Bible and what didn’t) labeled heretical. Equality between men and women, the belief that one could “know” (gnosis = to know) God for oneself without intervention… such beliefs might have made a real difference in the development of Western civilization had they not been totally suppressed by those who gained the most power in the first few centuries after Jesus died.
Good Talk, A Memoir in Conversations, Mira Jacob. One World, New York. This is a gorgeously put together graphic novel about growing up brown in America, written by an East Indian woman married to a white Jewish man. The conversations started when their 5 year old son began to ask questions while Trump’s star was rising. What DO you say to that beautiful little brown face looking up to you for guidance and protection? This book will make you laugh, and it will make you cry.
The Great Transformation, The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, Karen Armstrong. Anchor Books, Random House. From about 900 to 200 BCE (what German philosopher Carl Jaspers called the “Axial Age”), four traditions that continue to shape world thought were born: monotheism in Israel, Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Armstrong beautifully and thoroughly describes each of these developments, and makes it clear that only a return to the core insight of all four traditions—treat others as you wish to be treated—will provide a way forward for humanity.
Healing Dreams, Marc Ian Barasch. Riverhead Books, New York. The author has collected dream experiences from all sorts of cultures, from all over the world. He primarily focuses on “big dreams,” the ones that change your life if you heed them, but there’s also a helpful section on how our shadows affect our dreams. Interesting reading, thought provoking material.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell. Bollingen Series, Princeton. An absolute classic. The publication of this book made Joseph Campbell a star. I will always remember when my son, who was in high school at the time, looked up from reading it and said, “Wow. This is awesome! Joseph Campbell must’ve studied for years to put all this together, and now all I have to do is read this one book!” Exactly.
The Human Shadow, Robert Bly. Live lecture, edited by William Booth, Sound Horizons. This was a lecture given at the Open Center in New York on the subjects covered in his “little” book listed above, and it is without a doubt the single best work ever done by any one individual on the human shadow. It’s dated now, but it’s powerful. Bly uses poetry, music and compassion for his audience to talk kindly yet forcefully about the human shadow. If you can listen to this whole lecture without feeling queasy about something, have someone check your pulse. You might be dead already.
Inner Gold, Understanding Psychological Projection, Robert A. Johnson. Koa Books. We don’t just project evil onto others, we also project our hopes and ideals onto others. That’s what falling in love is. That’s what hero or star worship is. This accessible little book makes understanding projection—seeing traits in others before we’re able to recognize them in ourselves—much easier to understand.
Inner Work, Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, Robert Johnson. HarperSan Francisco. Johnson offers an accessible, four-step approach to dream work that he developed during his practice as an analytical psychologist, and encourages readers to do dream work on their own by proceeding consciously and carefully through these steps. He also offers a four-step procedure for practicing active imagination, with appropriate cautions.
The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz. Shambhala. Analytical and archetypal psychologists analyze classic fairy tales because they’re one of the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious, and as such they offer rich glimpses into basic patterns of human behavior. In this book von Franz describes the steps involved in analyzing a fairy tale, and then uses these steps to discuss a variety of European tales.
Man and His Symbols, edited by Carl Jung. Doubleday Anchor Books. This is an old book and a gorgeous book. Illustrations from art, film, and life on every page make the role that symbols play in our psyches graphically clear. Definitely the easiest of Jung’s books to read, and an interesting book historically too, as most of his life Jung refused to write for the general public, fearing it would only lead to misunderstanding. Then he dreamed in his waning years that he should try to reach the masses and this book—a collaboration between Jung and some of his closest colleagues—was the result. Get the hardback with all the artwork. It’s a collectible item.
The Masks of God: Volume I, Primitive Mythology; Volume II, Oriental Mythology; Volume III, Occidental Mythology; Volume IV, Creative Mythology; Joseph Campbell. Penguin Books. These books are not casual reading. Campbell was a spiritual historian, and in these books he’s giving us the whole spiritual history of humanity as accurately as it could be given at the time he wrote the books. They’re difficult, and they refer to about 50 other books that you’ll have to read to keep up, but they are absolutely worth the effort for anyone curious about the history and the future of the human spirit.
Meeting the Shadow, The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature, Edited by Connie Zweig & Jeremiah Abrams. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. This is a treasure chest of information about the human shadow—it contains 65 different essays on the human shadow by everyone from Carl Jung to Scott Peck. You need this book.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Vintage Books Edition. If there is any spark of the visionary, the artist, the impossible dreamer, or the heroic introvert in your soul, you will love this book. Spoken aloud to Jaffe and/or hand-written in the last 4 years of his life, this is a candid glimpse into the psyche of a truly unique individual—a man who really did follow his own heart, and changed the world thereby.
Mistakes Were Made (but not by me), Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. This is a fascinating and terrifying book. Written by two distinguished social psychologists, it explains how self-justification and our attempts to lessen cognitive dissonance–what happens when two of the things we believe in could not possibly both be true–slide us further and further away from the truth. It explains a lot about the times we live in.
Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell. Penguin Compass. This book contains 12 essays derived from 25 different lectures originally given at the Cooper Union Forum in New York. The results are inspiring, informative comparisons of the world’s major religions. What’s the difference between Mahayana Buddhism and Zen Buddhism? Why do so many world myths feature virgin births? What are those chakra things? etc. Find out by reading this book.
Overthrow, America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, Stephen Kinzer. Times Books, Henry Holt & Co. Absolute proof that the USA’s heroic rhetoric does not always match her clandestine actions. Meticulously documented evidence of the fourteen governments toppled by the USA since 1893. You absolutely have to read this book. Kinzer should have won an award for it. The Tell It Like It Is Award? The Truth In Action Award? Too bad we don’t have such things.
Owning Your Own Shadow, Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, Robert A. Johnson. HarperSanFrancisco. Johnson is an analytical psychologist as well as a prolific and well-read author. Here he emphasizes the necessity of looking beyond opposites, the importance of consciously honoring the shadow, and the value of embracing paradox.
People of the Lie, the Hope for Curing Human Evil, M. Scott Peck. Touchstone. In this book Peck examines what often lies underneath the “nice” in what we refer to as a “nice” person. It’s well worth examining. As Carl Jung once said, “I’d rather be whole than good.”
The Portable Jung, Edited by Joseph Campbell. Penguin Books. Jung’s prolific writings edited into a single volume by Joseph Campbell—each man a visionary and a genius.
The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, Edited by Betty Sue Flowers. Doubleday. If you only read one book by Joseph Campbell, this should be it. (No! Reflections on the Art of Living! No! Myths To Live By! Oh, shoot. Just read several.) And make sure you get the illustrated edition of this one. It contains the entire, famous dialogue between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell that used to appear on public television at fund-raising time. Moyers’ questions slow down Campbell’s brain long enough for the rest of us to keep up, and the stunning illustrations on every page make it a visual delight.
Reflections on the Art of Living, A Joseph Campbell Companion, selected and edited by Diane K. Osbon. HarperPerennial. A book to open at random anytime you need comfort or inspiration, compiled from excerpts of a month-long seminar JC taught at Esalen Institute. “Every moment is utterly unique and will not be continued in eternity. This fact gives life its poignancy, and should concentrate your attention on what you are experiencing now. I think that’s washed out a bit by the notion that everyone will be happy later in heaven. You had better be happy here, now. You’d better experience the eternal here and now.”
Romancing the Shadow, A Guide to Soul Work for a Vital, Authentic Life, Connie Zweig & Steve Wolf. Ballantine Wellspring. Paperback. (OR)
Romancing the Shadow, Illuminating the Dark Side of the Soul. Connie Zweig & Steve Wolf, Ballantine Books. Hardcover. The “introduction to shadow-work” in these books is thorough and informative, as is the authors’ explanation of the difference between the over-medicated medical model of psychology and the more introspective analytical approach. Then they delve into numerous case histories illustrating how the human shadow effects life and relationships. Easy to read and extremely helpful.
Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz. Spring Publications. As a student and close friend of Jung’s, von Franz has a unique historical perspective. Plus, her writing is warm-hearted, direct and uncluttered. This book examines how the shadow manifests in civilizations through their fairy tales.
The Shadow in America, Reclaiming the Soul of a Nation, Edited by Jeremiah Abrams. Nataraj. Eight essays by prominent thinkers with a foreward by Thomas Moore and introductions to each essay by Abrams, editor of Meeting the Shadow above. Money, sex, addiction, the way we treat our children, prejudice, our tendency to remain childish ourselves—all worth thinking about.
SHADOW Searching for the Hidden Self; Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, Vol. 1, Anthology. Tarcher/Putnam. This gorgeous book has an introduction by Robert Bly and 24 different stories by authors like Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Sexton, Edgar Allen Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Plus, it’s illustrated on practically every page with full-color-artwork by modern American artists. A beautiful, chilling glimpse into the shadow of the USA by its artists.
The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus the Rest of Us, Marsha Stout. Broadway Books. If the statistics presented in this book are accurate then almost 4% of the population, or 1 in every 25 people, has no conscience—which is the clinical definition of a sociopath. It’s a brain wiring issue. These typically charismatic, high energy people wreck a great deal of damage in the world because the rest of us just can’t imagine hurting others without feeling guilt or shame. Thus we can be easily duped by those who feel no remorse for evil deeds; we can be easily manipulated by those whose only motivation is a desire for power and control.
We, The Psychology of Romantic Love, Robert Johnson. HarperSanFrancisco. Western culture has been confusing romantic love with spiritual longing since the 12th century. So do your part to help humanity evolve: from now on, every time you receive a wedding invitation, give the happy couple 2 books: this one and Why Good People Do Bad Things by James Hollis (listed below). Our never-ending search for fulfillment and ecstasy in our lovers merely burdens them with impossible expectations and leads to disappointment and disillusionment. It is simply not possible—or fair—to throw our longing for wholeness onto another human being. Completeness comes from within.
Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill, Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious, Jeremy Taylor. Warner Books. Taylor is a co-founder of the Association for the Study of Dreams. This book includes techniques for working with groups, for improving dream recall, for working by oneself, and a list of recommended books for further study.
Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves, James Hollis. Gotham Books, Penguin Group. Alas, our good intentions are often thwarted by our bad attitudes. And Hollis is brave enough to look at how unrecognized shadow material affects us culturally as well as personally. Our search for the “Other” as he calls it, for someone who’ll take care of us—or someone to blame—ultimately leads right back to ourselves. The chapter on ‘shadow in relationships’ in this book should be given to anyone thinking about getting married. Hollis is also a very good public speaker, so catch him if he ever comes to your town.