The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and Self [Paperback]

Jean Shinoda Bolen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1982

Shows how synchronicity (the phenomenon of meaningful coincidences) occurs in and enriches ordinary life; provides the key for each individual to interpret the synchronistic events in his or her life; and gives fresh insight into those relationships, dreams, and flashes of perception that touch and transform our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Tao of Psychology is the most useful integration of Eastern religion and Western psychology since Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching and The Secret of the Golden Flower. -- George Wilson, M.D., Northern California, Psychiatric Society Newsletter

Charming and interesting....The Tao of Psychology may dispel the sense of alienation and loneliness and pull the reader to believe there is indeed a linkage between us all. -- Walter E. Barton, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Dartmouth Medical School; Past President, American Psychiatric Association

Dr. Bolen makes the dynamics of Tao and synchronicity come alive. The Tao of Psychology expands horizons for psychotherapy no less than quantum physics does for physicists." -- Joseph B. Wheelwright, M.D., Clinical Professor Emeritus, University of California School of Medicine; Past President, International Association for Analytic Psychology

Scholarly....fascinating. -- OMNI

The Tao of Psychology is a small but real gem. In clear and persuasive language, it attempts to synthesize several of the main strands of non-rational phenomena -- the occult, religious mysticism, parapsychology, to name a few -- and integrate them with popular psychology and Jungian theory in arguing a connection between the inner and outer worlds, between the visible and invisible. -- Minneapolis Tribune

This slender book blends persona, insight and experience, sensitive scholarship and graceful writing. Its transcendent vision is articulated most clearly in the last chapter, "The Message of the Tao Experience: We are Not Alone." -- Marilyn Ferguson, editor, Brain/Mind Bulletin, author, The Aquarian Conspiracy

From the Author

As befitting a book about synchronicity, from its inception this book (and my becoming an author) came about through a series of synchronistic circumstances. which brought me together with my editor. The Tao of Psychology was published in 1979, and went out into the world without publicity or marketing efforts, which was typical for a first-time author, minimal print-run book. Readers then wrote to me of the uncanny timing and coincidences that led them to read it. Whether by word of mouth, or by synchronicity, I am delighted that it is still in print, some twenty years later, and am glad that it now has a Mark Rothko painting on its cover, besides. Synchronistic events in my own life played a significant part in the events that I wrote of in Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Pilgrimage. They also contributed to the writing of Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco; 1st Harper & Row Ed. Publ. 1982 edition (June 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062500813
• ISBN-13: 978-0062500816
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #609,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quantum Physics Meets Eastern Philosophy, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and Self (Paperback)

Quantum physics has defined a basic unit of matter that makes up all things, both organic and inorganic, which is pure energy. The same unit of energy that is a part of your body today may, only days before, have been a part of a bird flying over Beijing or an Ethiopian villager. This "new" knowledge from modern physics sounds very much like the Tao--in Eastern phillosophies, the "unifying principle in the universe to which everything in the world relates." The tao (lowercase) is the life path that is in harmony with the universe, the "path with heart." Jung believed that all people and all animate and inanimate objects are linked through a collective unconscious. Synchronicity, he said, was a connecting principle that manifests through "meaningful coincidences." Bolen proposes that synchronicity is the Tao of psychology; it relates the individual to the totality. She makes good use of anecdotes to explain Jung's layers of consciousness, the Jungian analytical tools of amplification and active imagination, and the difference between causality and synchronicity. Bolen has a gift for making clear Jungian concepts that seem obtuse or hazy in the hands of other writers.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS NO COINCIDENCE, January 12, 2001

By 

BPG (www.theWORDproject.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and Self (Paperback)

Just as synchronicity brings meaningful events together, this book unites some very meaningful topics: coincidences, psychology, Jung, Taoism and the I Ching. Dr Bolen weaves these phenomena together in a highly readable format. If you've ever believed that there is more to coincidences than meets the eye, then reading this book is perhaps the next meaningful coincidence awaiting your life.

5.0 out of 5 stars great, October 15, 2011

By 

saca - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and Self (Paperback)

the book looked as though i had bought it at books a million. no pages were missing. it arrived on time.