Customer Reviews

C.G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

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I found this book comprehensive and readable in regards to Jung's theories on Synchronicity/Religion - and learned more
about Jung's general concepts of psychology (such as the unconscious and individuation) through this book than many other books I have read on Jung (or even books by Jung himself).

The scholarly presentation of the book by Aziz, who spent many years preparing the work I found outstanding. The introduction of fundamental concepts, leading into other Jungian theories, backed up by examples and other psychological real-world parallels is impressive in the book.

Overall, any serious student of the great psychologist Carl Jung or student of Synchronicity/Dreams I think should waste no time ordering this book! (heh) And even the casual layman who is curious about what Jung meant by "Synchronicity" - Aziz is emminently approachable because of his clear writing style.

This book perhaps may well be the most up-to-date scholarly work on Jung that appears solidly authentic, rational, and clear-headed on Jung's very serious approach to religion - synchronicity - and the "objective" autonomous unconscious.

This book is a must on your shelf if you are a student of Carl Jung, or if you aspire to understand synchronicity. Along with a very clear outline of the theory of synchronicity, Aziz includes many intriguing personal stories about Jung and his experiences with the spirit world, the I-ching, and shamanism, which all help to explain the basics of his theories. These stories make an otherwise very theoretical read quite comprehensible; and you may find it as compelling as we did and very hard to put down. While in graduate school at SSU, we had a chance to teach to undergraduates a semester length class called "Jung and Synchronicity" and we used this book as the required text. The entire class rated it "thumbs up"!

I have heard much about Jung's theory of synchronicity mostly informally. I have even cited it as a theory I subscribe to over the years. This book proved to be a great disappointment by lacking any substance, significant insights, or explanations in the few areas of the book I even bothered to review. That is not to say that a complete cover-to-cover reading would result in the same conclusion, but I find little that would motivate me to explore this book cover-to-cover.