Compass of the Soul: Archetypal Guides to a Fuller Life

by John L. Giannini, John Bebe (Foreword), Mary McCaulley (Preface)

In this groundbreaking work, author John Giannini offers an in-depth and often philosophical and autobiographical exploration of psychological type that seeks to reconcile type and archetype in Jung's original and subsequent works. Developing the larger implications of the functional couplings is one of Giannini's main objectives in Compass of the Soul. He posits that the couplings are the four archetypal modalities through which the Soul perceives and judges the outer and the inner worlds. These couplings, he writes, constitute the four directions of the type mandala, or, borrowing Jung's term, the Compass of the Soul.

Genres: Psychology

597 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[Anita Ashland]

When it comes to personality types, I focus on reading only the works of Jungian analysts. This book is in my top three favorites (next to John Beebe's Energies and Patterns of Psychological Type and James Hillman and Marie von Franz's Lectures on Psychological Type). This book is the most comprehensive of the three and focuses on the archetypes of the type couplings: ST, NF, NT, SF.

Among many other things, I learned from this book how Taoism deeply influenced Jung and his typology. Jung's Psychological Types book was written after his break with Freud, to help him come to terms with the ending of that relationship. Giannini also shows us how Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers developed Jung's typology further and secured Jung's blessing for their project shortly before he died. During WW2 Briggs had a passion to share Jung's typology to a wider audience, in a way that could be more easily understood, to help people in workplaces understand each other's differences. Her daughter Isabel Myers spent three decades developing it and working with psychologists to bring it to the public.

Above all, this book celebrates Jung's type compass and mandela and the view of typology as circular, not linear. Neither Jung nor Briggs & Myers fully developed the concept of archetypes in personality, so this book fills that gap. I will be revisiting this book as a reference quite often, I'm sure.

[Mercedes]

If you read my profile, you'll see I jokingly mention I have a mild book disorder. I'm an avid reader, esp. when interested, a collector of books in many categories. One is Jungian; sorry, I know Jung wouldn't like that. Another is on, type and or temperament, grabbing every book I could find, even the cheesy old paperbacks from decades ago.
My favorite, by Isabel Briggs-Myers book, Gifts Differing. This book, Compass, is an equal treasure, by far the most comprehensive, exploring the history, comparing and contrasting different theories around type, and expands on Jung's actual work in a way that Isabel and her daughter did not. It's a must read if you are a serious student of this work. (JMHO)
The treasure is that Mr. Giannini has done a lot of research for us, and saved us a lot of time and work putting this together. It would have taken us ten years to get through all this material otherwise, and it is somewhat of a scholarly work, but seems also to be presented in a way the layperson could understand. This in not easy to do with such a complicated subject.
He gives us his wise views and theories of it, and at the same time, leaves a tiny part of it all open for us to decide for ourselves what we think about it.
This should probably be in two volumes, Volume 1 & 2. But, what do we have to complain about, two for the price of one?
He writes with the generosity of a truly passionate, and giving spirit. It's a book that could be read again and again.
Well worth the $, to spend some time with this world renowned Jungian Analyst, who studied with Jung's student.