Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves, First Edition [Hardcover]

Ph.D. James Hollis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2007

Working with the Shadow is not working with evil, per se. It is working toward the possibility of greater wholeness. We will never experience healing until we can come to love our unlovable places, for they, too, ask love of us.

How is it that good people do bad things? Why is our personal story and our societal history so bloody, so repetitive, so injurious to self and others?

How do we make sense of the discrepancies between who we think we are—or who we show to the outside world—versus our everyday behaviors? Why are otherwise ordinary people driven to addictions and compulsions, whether alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, infidelity, or the Internet? Why are interpersonal relationships so often filled with strife?

Exploring Jung’s concept of the Shadow—the unconscious parts of our self that contradict the image of the self we hope to project--Why Good People Do Bad Things guides you through all the ways in which many of our seemingly unexplainable behaviors are manifestations of the Shadow. In addition to its presence in our personal lives, Hollis looks at the larger picture of the Shadow at work in our culture—from organized religion to the suffering and injustice that abounds in our modern world. Accepting and examining the Shadow as part of one’s self, Hollis suggests, is the first step toward wholeness. Revealing a new way of understanding our darker selves, Hollis offers wisdom to help you to acquire a more conscious conduct of your life and bring a new level of awareness to your daily actions and choices.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Jungian psychologist Hollis turns the whole why-bad-things-happen-to-good-people question around and asks, instead, why good people often do such horrible things. Exploring the notion of the Shadow, Jung's term to describe the hidden aspects of ourselves--the parts that contradict the self we show the rest of the world, the dark side of our personality--Hollis suggests that we can only become whole (and good) by acknowledging our Shadow and accepting that it's OK to have a dark side, as long as we never let it take control of who we are. The prose is a little stodgy, and some readers might find the book feels a little too similar to others in the psychological self-help genre, but finally the similarities are only superficial. The difference between this book and most of the slick self-helpers is that Hollis has some genuinely important, meaningful things to say. A thoughtful book, well worth the concentration involved in reading it. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Nourishing. . . . Like a master chef, James Hollis knows that good food for the soul cannot be ordered to go. (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)

Everyone seems to be obsessing about the monetary cost of the graying of the American population, but there’s very little talk of the soul. James Hollis...has plenty to say about the soul …erudite and cultured but also accessible. (The Portland Tribune)

[James Hollis] is one of our great teachers and healers. (Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet)

[Hollis] speaks to and teaches from the heart. A combination of genuine vision and genuine humanity is a rare and valuable gift... (Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Gotham; 1st edition (February 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592402763
• ISBN-13: 978-1592402762
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #709,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Hollis has a private analytic practice and is the executive director of the Jung Educational Center.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In-depth, thought-provoking, illuminating, February 24, 2007

By 

William Timothy Lukeman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves, First Edition (Hardcover)

The title might lead a casual reader to dismiss this as just one more lightweight self-help book -- but that's not the case, not in the least! As with Hollis' earlier books, it's a psychologically & philosophically rich examination of the human soul, offering no easy answers, no magic solutions, no simplistic aphorisms in place of real insight. If you truly want to understand your life & its choices, then you have to be willing to do some difficult & often painful emotional work. And that's something few of us are eager to do.

Which leads us to the question: do you want to grow, to become more fully conscious, to strive towards wholeness? If so, you'll have to discard protective illusions, stop expecting someone else to solve everything for you, and apply an almost ruthless honesty to yourself. You won't like a lot of what you see in that dark mirror, and you'll try to fend it off, explain it away ... but that's our mistake. If we can acknowledge the part we unconsciously play in our own suffering, we may well learn how to alleviate some of it & live with what remains.

Mind you, Hollis never promises an end to suffering, a wondrous makeover that does away with every ugly scar & thought! He has too much respect for the tragic view of human life to hold up an illusion of perfect happiness, no matter how golden & comforting. He's very clear on this: what we need isn't happiness, but meaning. And to find it, we have to be willing to grapple with the Shadow, all that we fear & despise about ourselves, all that we reject & often project onto others.

I feel that this is one of Hollis' finest books, in that it possesses an extra depth & richness of insight. It made me look at my own life more deeply than I have in the past, and encouraged me to confront many of its uncomfortable & frightening aspects. At the very least, it will make you think long & hard about yourself. At the most, it may set you forth upon a fascinating & revealing journey. Most highly recommended!

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, November 10, 2007

By 

Steve (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves, First Edition (Hardcover)

This is one of the most powerful and life-altering books I have ever read. There are insights on practically every page and the depth of understanding of the human mind that Dr. Hollis brings is extraordinary.
During a period of difficulty in my life which I am still working through, I stumbled upon this book. The title caught my eye but I was anticipating a Dr. Phil-ish over-simplification of human behavior full of soft answers and plenty of upbeat self-affirmations. I was stunned to find how wrong I was. Dr. Hollis examines not only the individual but how the individual creates the society that begets the evils mankind has brought upon himself over the millennia. I found myself stopping and re-reading passages constantly and because of the profundity on nearly every page, it took me quite a while to finish. Reading a chapter was an exhausting endeavor that challenged me with hours of thought-provoking reflection time just to try and wrap my head around the myriad observations that Hollis provides. In my cynicism, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop - the point at which the author wraps up all of these conundrums with one universal solution, naturally his solution that you have to buy the book to discover. Thankfully, there was no such moment. As anyone knows who has taken the time to really look deep into the darkness within, there are no easy answers in life and no slate cleaning cure-alls that make life better and wipe away the misery. Life is hard. Knowing who you are and why you do what you do just might allow you to avoid the mistakes we all seem determined to re-visit. Still, it remains in our hands to decide and throughout each day we are faced with choices. That is the struggle of our life. This book helped me to understand myself, to see why I was making poor choices, to face the ugliness within myself, and to carefully examine the choices I had been making. I am still taking small steps towards a better future for myself but at least now I am doing so without the blinders of denial, the ignorance of reality avoidance, or the false security of self-destructive behaviors.
If you are truly ready for the voyage to the heart of who you are, I can not encourage you enough to pick up this book and read it. It has been a life saver for me. Thanks, Dr. Hollis.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm, explanatory, understanding and forgiving ..., December 24, 2007

By 

Reviewer (female) (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves, First Edition (Hardcover)

I cannot write that this is the finest book of Dr. Hollis, because having read all but two of his books during the last year, I can only write that every single word, which I have read so far from this man, is fine.
I feel blessed and very grateful for having discovered his writings.
His words are like a balm on many of my wounds.
Through the reading of Dr. Hollis' books, I have learned to go beyond mere acceptance of difficult situations in life to a place of forgiveness, which I had not known before.
This and all the other books of Dr. Hollis can help people to transform and to become more gentle-hearted, because they offer explanations for many questions. Not solutions, though. But - at least for me - explanations were what I had been looking for for many years.