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Knowledge in a Nutshell: Carl Jung: The complete guide to the great psychoanalyst, including the unconscious, archetypes and the self
Carl Jung in a Nutshell explains the key ideas of the founder of analytical psychology in an accessible, easy-to-understand format. It features concepts such as personas, extraversion and introversion and the unconscious, and explains the relevance of Jung's ideas to the modern world. With helpful bullet-point summaries of the key points at the end of each chapter and enlightening diagrams, it provides an essential introduction to this key figure.
240 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 19, 2020
My mother was a Jungian psychologist but I honestly didn't know a lot about Jung before reading this. I found it fascinating to realize how much of our modern psychology and culture comes from Jung, from the Breyer-Miggs personality test (INFP anyone?) to the terms extrovert, introvert and shadow self and much more.
The book reads a lot like a textbook and I'm not sure if it's intended to be one or not. It's not much of a light read but it's a great primer on the man who influenced psychology every bit as much as his friend and mentor, Freud (the book also goes into the many things they disagreed on). I appreciated getting to know the man as much as his theories. There was a lot of really interesting material.
I read a digital ARC of this book for review.
The book reads a lot like a textbook and I'm not sure if it's intended to be one or not. It's not much of a light read but it's a great primer on the man who influenced psychology every bit as much as his friend and mentor, Freud (the book also goes into the many things they disagreed on). I appreciated getting to know the man as much as his theories. There was a lot of really interesting material.
I read a digital ARC of this book for review.
February 27, 2021
Decent intro to Jung. It is a book of basics with some explanations and stories to explain teachings of Jung. Just a shame that Bobroff tried to apply Jung’s teachings to his worldview of today. For example, when discussing the Masculine and the Feminine, Bobroff made it very clear that Masculine had nothing to do with Men and Feminine had nothing to do with women. Rather, both genders have bits of both within them. This makes complete sense. However, Bobroff immediately derails from this logic when inserting his personal political opinions. He immediately mentions the failures of Men to represent the Masculine (after just saying masculine does not mean men) and somehow gets abusive priests, #MeToo, and Climate Change involved in a psychology book in order to put men down. Ridiculous. Even if he’s right, these problems are either (1) unique to men, and therefore irrelevant to this psychology book in anyway or to the “genderless” masculine or (2) a problem of the masculine, in case Bobroff suspiciously and selectively brought up zero failings of women, attributing only good to women and only bad to men. Just leave all of this out of a psychology book or at least be fair in your examples. Made this hard to read since his political views should not be related to Jung. Jung was poorly bastardized by this quack.
May 14, 2020
Carl Jung was the first psychologist that I read as a young person and he greatly expanded my world view. He studied with Freud but believed in a collective unconscious. Many of the terms he coined are not common language like introvert vs extrovert, having a feminine and masculine side to the personality, and synchronicity. His studies were expanded on by Joseph Campbell to include world anthropology studies. This book is an excellent overview of a fascinating man.
May 11, 2024
How intelligent/ wise can one man [C.G. Jung] be? Gary provides an interesting look into the life, works, and subsequent communities inspired by Jung. A good read!
August 18, 2024
Uma obra apropriada para quem, tal como eu, não teve o mínimo de contacto com os trabalhos de C.G. Jung. Um livro breve e acessível, explica os principais conceitos da corrente Junguiana. Começamos por explorar o conceito de persona e sombra, e como os sonhos não só tiveram impacto nos trabalhos de Freud, mas também de Jung. Posteriormente, o livro também apresenta os principais pontos divergentes entre ambos, onde Freud se fixa pela lógica e a racionalidade, Jung aborda uma via mais esotérica, o que exige alguma abertura por parte do leitor para interpretar a perspetiva Junguiana.
Acredito que é uma obra extremamente interesse pelos conceitos únicos de Jung, onde enalteço o conceito de arquétipo.
A leitura desta obra é um excelente primeiro passo no universo junguiano, sendo que ao longo do livro temos sempre um conjunto de sugestões de obras mais atuais e detalhadas.
Aconselho a todo o leitor que se quer desafiar a interpretar o seu interior.
Acredito que é uma obra extremamente interesse pelos conceitos únicos de Jung, onde enalteço o conceito de arquétipo.
A leitura desta obra é um excelente primeiro passo no universo junguiano, sendo que ao longo do livro temos sempre um conjunto de sugestões de obras mais atuais e detalhadas.
Aconselho a todo o leitor que se quer desafiar a interpretar o seu interior.
June 17, 2022
This book was my first about Jungian psychology, so I was expecting some really complicated reading. However, I was surprised to find it a very easy and straightforward book, perfect for any beginner looking for a high level overview and almost high-school-textbook style explanations, including definitions for basic terms at the end of each chapter.
If you are a Jungian analyst looking for new insights in the field, you will likely not like this book - unless you're reading it to your kid as a bedtime story.
If you are a Jungian analyst looking for new insights in the field, you will likely not like this book - unless you're reading it to your kid as a bedtime story.
February 15, 2025
Grande leitura.
Penalizo-me, porque só com 68 anos de idade, conheci as teorias de Carl Jung sobre a psicologia analítica.
Mas nunca é tarde para se aprender a conhecermo-nos melhor. Excelente
Penalizo-me, porque só com 68 anos de idade, conheci as teorias de Carl Jung sobre a psicologia analítica.
Mas nunca é tarde para se aprender a conhecermo-nos melhor. Excelente
May 16, 2022
A great primer on Jung. It's been many years since college pysch, so I had forgotten most of this.
Most profound were Jung's thoughts on the inner being versus our outer "persona" which is the character we construct to be the shiny face to society, that is the person we think we are to be and what others want us to be. This is in contrast to our "shadow" which we fail to accept and which causes great tension between who we say we are and who we really are.
I also enjoyed reading about Jung's thoughts on man becoming enchanted with science and technology and our belief that we can now conquer the world. Man has fallen into an inflated state of awe about ourselves. We believe that we are divine through our technical gadgets as we look for God in our science and technology. Jung greatly feared our inflated unconscious investment in science and technology, recognizing the cultural split of spirit from body and our cultural disease of materialism and possessions. Rather than consciously celebrating nature we compulsively seek more and more possessions and fool ourselves into feeling God like omnipotence in our acquisitions.
As another reviewer pointed out, the author of this book on Jung unfortunately introduces his politics which is most regretful as the book is otherwise fantastic. His politics detracts from his logical points. For example, after setting forth a very strong argument about how man incorrectly perceives himself as omnipotent and the dangers that presumption poses, he then claims, in an argument seemingly unrelated to psychology, that man is now in total control of nature and climate and is driving all changes from what he considers to be "climate norm". The author derails into a topic he is not prepared to enter. He entirely discounts nature's ability to evolve and change on it's own. The author fails to recognize that in the billions of years of the Earth's history the climate is in constant flux. This is not to say man hasn't impacted the environment, indeed he has, and as a lover of nature I am often saddened by what those in the cities and their leaders have done to our wondrous, natural habitat. But I recognize the complexities of climatology and the natural cycles of temperature while the author presupposes man's God-like control over the steering wheel of weather.
When the author addresses psychology, he appropriately notes man's misguided enchantment pretending to be Godlike and omnipotent but in advancement of his political ends, he claims that man is omnipotent and in control of the Earth's climate. While we can probably all agree the climate is changing, the author gives no regard to the natural course of change, solar impacts, etc He strikes it up entirely to man's omnipotence. It seems to me to be an extremely arrogant argument that man controls nature and climate and that the Earth is weakly beholden to our whims. Notwithstanding the fact that the climate has changed countless times over billions of years before man even existed. In fact I write this living on Long Island, an area of land only relatively recently created by global warming and the melting of glaciers which were common in the Mid-Atlantic which then deposited silt and created this piece of land.
If the author truly wanted to take a tangent off into the world of politics he had the opportunity to do so tying it to psychology by noting that much like those who psychologically deflect and project, some of the loudest voices on the climate issue are those who log the most air miles, live in cities detached from nature, build beachside mansions, and otherwise are the largest contributors to man's assault on nature.
Our author posits that man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. The Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There’s been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, then on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away — all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval.
Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time. It is a planet of constant and dynamic change.
The Earth will certainly survive us. Jung was correct, we are not Gods.
The author's politics really only come in at the end of the book and can be easily ignored even though they are terribly inconsistent with the text of the book. Setting aside his clumsy use of politics I still give the book a 5/5 based on the brilliance of Jung and the author's compact presentation. The author should have simply left his personal politics where they belong.
Most profound were Jung's thoughts on the inner being versus our outer "persona" which is the character we construct to be the shiny face to society, that is the person we think we are to be and what others want us to be. This is in contrast to our "shadow" which we fail to accept and which causes great tension between who we say we are and who we really are.
I also enjoyed reading about Jung's thoughts on man becoming enchanted with science and technology and our belief that we can now conquer the world. Man has fallen into an inflated state of awe about ourselves. We believe that we are divine through our technical gadgets as we look for God in our science and technology. Jung greatly feared our inflated unconscious investment in science and technology, recognizing the cultural split of spirit from body and our cultural disease of materialism and possessions. Rather than consciously celebrating nature we compulsively seek more and more possessions and fool ourselves into feeling God like omnipotence in our acquisitions.
As another reviewer pointed out, the author of this book on Jung unfortunately introduces his politics which is most regretful as the book is otherwise fantastic. His politics detracts from his logical points. For example, after setting forth a very strong argument about how man incorrectly perceives himself as omnipotent and the dangers that presumption poses, he then claims, in an argument seemingly unrelated to psychology, that man is now in total control of nature and climate and is driving all changes from what he considers to be "climate norm". The author derails into a topic he is not prepared to enter. He entirely discounts nature's ability to evolve and change on it's own. The author fails to recognize that in the billions of years of the Earth's history the climate is in constant flux. This is not to say man hasn't impacted the environment, indeed he has, and as a lover of nature I am often saddened by what those in the cities and their leaders have done to our wondrous, natural habitat. But I recognize the complexities of climatology and the natural cycles of temperature while the author presupposes man's God-like control over the steering wheel of weather.
When the author addresses psychology, he appropriately notes man's misguided enchantment pretending to be Godlike and omnipotent but in advancement of his political ends, he claims that man is omnipotent and in control of the Earth's climate. While we can probably all agree the climate is changing, the author gives no regard to the natural course of change, solar impacts, etc He strikes it up entirely to man's omnipotence. It seems to me to be an extremely arrogant argument that man controls nature and climate and that the Earth is weakly beholden to our whims. Notwithstanding the fact that the climate has changed countless times over billions of years before man even existed. In fact I write this living on Long Island, an area of land only relatively recently created by global warming and the melting of glaciers which were common in the Mid-Atlantic which then deposited silt and created this piece of land.
If the author truly wanted to take a tangent off into the world of politics he had the opportunity to do so tying it to psychology by noting that much like those who psychologically deflect and project, some of the loudest voices on the climate issue are those who log the most air miles, live in cities detached from nature, build beachside mansions, and otherwise are the largest contributors to man's assault on nature.
Our author posits that man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. The Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There’s been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, then on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away — all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval.
Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time. It is a planet of constant and dynamic change.
The Earth will certainly survive us. Jung was correct, we are not Gods.
The author's politics really only come in at the end of the book and can be easily ignored even though they are terribly inconsistent with the text of the book. Setting aside his clumsy use of politics I still give the book a 5/5 based on the brilliance of Jung and the author's compact presentation. The author should have simply left his personal politics where they belong.
May 3, 2023
"Carl Jung in a Nutshell" (which I think is a funny image to think about) is many cuts above other "Cliff Notes" types of books. I would have given it 4 1/2 stars, if possible. Author Gary Bobroff, who "has been hooked on Jung ever since he was twelve" has an MA in Jung-oriented counseling psychology and is a Myers-Briggs administrator. I have been interested in Jung ever since I began to experience what Jung identified as synchronicity, 45 or so years ago, and began to explore creation myth and spirituality. Bobroff makes Jung's experiences and philosophies completely clear. The book is very well organized and the layout, with summaries at the end of each chapter, is easy to get through. Some of the photos are a bit odd. My impression is that they were probably chosen by the publisher because they didn't involve payouts copyright holders. I may be wrong, but why else include a photo of a zebra with little explanation? There are numerous photos of Jung, his colleagues, and fellow scholars. The book also lacks a section recommending further reading (and in what order), which I would have appreciated.
This book is an impressive introduction to Carl Jung's thought and work.
This book is an impressive introduction to Carl Jung's thought and work.
February 21, 2022
Tasty--and inexpensive!--overview of the Jung's life and work, written with a view of his influences and impacts. You get the early years of the young visionary, his unusual family, and the singular confidence he developed in the relevance to others of his own psychological experiences. You get the intellectual love affair with Freud and the Abbey Road-style falling-out, as well as the post-breakup blues that led to an internal search for connection, if not solace. The jewel of the book is Bobroff's take on Jung's work on the Shadow side of ourselves--the dispossessed parts, untamed hungers, and even distinct identities---that are the reverse image of the persona that we craft and project onto the screen of our lives, guiding ourselves and others to make us legible.
September 5, 2022
I knew of Carl Jung but had never delved into his philosophy. This is a great overview of his life and contributions to psychology. Well written with each chapter on a specific segment of jung’s relationships to peers, comparing the development of his ideas to others of his time. Best takeaway: Culture generally serves the function of reforming our instincts in favor of moral action, but it can also normalize behavior that serves our lowest instincts and our worst selves. Without conscious reflection [inner work] we’re still worshiping the ancient gods of war and love, but we’re doing it in the form of politics or consumerism.
November 17, 2024
I wouldn't consider myself an expert in Jung, but I've read a bit by him, about him, and from others within the movement. It can be overwhelming trying to understand what Jung said and thought and how the movement has continued to develop. Bobroff's book was a succinct, interesting read that covers a significant amount of material.
If you've read Jung and felt confused or if you are new to Jung, this book is a worthy contender for a friendly introduction.
If you've read Jung and felt confused or if you are new to Jung, this book is a worthy contender for a friendly introduction.
July 29, 2020
A good overview of Jungian psychology, which is fascinating and which I knew very little about (aside from introvert and extrovert). It was a lot of information to pack into a relatively small book, and it would've been helpful to have more useful graphics (rather than an endless variety of photographs of Jung and Freud).
February 18, 2022
Apparently this was a well liked overview of Jung's work and life.
I expected to be highly engaged by it as many of the thought leaders in my life reference Jung as a major influence in their lives. Lots of his ideas were interesting, but not very compelling to me. Anyway it felt like it was a bit of a chore to finish.
I expected to be highly engaged by it as many of the thought leaders in my life reference Jung as a major influence in their lives. Lots of his ideas were interesting, but not very compelling to me. Anyway it felt like it was a bit of a chore to finish.
January 15, 2023
An easy to read, broad brush intro to Jung good for the newb, or one that is relatively familiar with Jung. I have read Jung and listened to podcasts by Jungian Psychologists and this was still illuminating.
Something in me is drawn to Jung’s “third way” or “holding the tensions between” two opposing forces on most things to discover a “new” or more holistic way of viewing an issue.
Something in me is drawn to Jung’s “third way” or “holding the tensions between” two opposing forces on most things to discover a “new” or more holistic way of viewing an issue.
June 19, 2024
I thought this was very interesting. A little dense, but I still liked it. Jung is one of the greatest minds in Psychology history. I didn't realize just how much he did in this field. Psychology would not be the same today without his work. I'm very interested to read some of his work, but I'm very intimidated by it.
August 25, 2025
Um livro que aborda a personalidade multi facetada de Jung, a sua perspectiva sobre os conceitos da introversão, da extroversão, do inconsciente colectivo, da Sombra.
Também explora a ideia de Sincronicidade, as mensagens do Universo, o despertar espiritual.
A sua relevância no mundo actual, transversal à música, cinema, literatura, etc
Também explora a ideia de Sincronicidade, as mensagens do Universo, o despertar espiritual.
A sua relevância no mundo actual, transversal à música, cinema, literatura, etc
January 28, 2023
This book is an excellent intro to Jung's work. The author does a great job of simplifying Jung's complex concepts, making them easy to understand. Highly recommend it if you're looking for a Jung 101 and want resources to get deeper into Jungian theories.
March 7, 2025
Very easy to read and good intro to Jung's ideology.
Maybe this is a harsh criticism for a book ABOUT Jung, but I would like to see more of the opinions against Jung and against his psychology as I know the accuracy of his theories are heavily debated.
Maybe this is a harsh criticism for a book ABOUT Jung, but I would like to see more of the opinions against Jung and against his psychology as I know the accuracy of his theories are heavily debated.
July 18, 2020
Great intro to Jung. Highly readable.
April 3, 2021
A wonderfully accessible Jung 101, which was just what I was looking for.
Read
April 4, 2021Nice summary of Jung’s work. Left me wanting to learn more.
February 19, 2023
Ok to było całkiem epickie
September 1, 2023
A good introductory book on Carl Jung's life and main ideas. It also suggests books from other significant Jungian authors.
December 10, 2024
A great "nutshell". Clear and well spoken even to a layman.
June 13, 2025
This is a great intro into the works of Jung. There’s enough depth to the info to keep it interesting, but not so deep that you can get lost in it.
January 6, 2021
Easy to read introduction to Jung. Gives a lot of other reading ventures for more info, references modern sources as well as older sources. Good book 3/5
January 16, 2022
This book is the perfect start to Jung psychology. I have learned so much reading it! It gives you a great foundation to start diving deeper in his works.
July 30, 2024
Será necessário um maior e melhor cuidado numa próxima edição portuguesa. As primeiras páginas são um sacrilégio de tão mal escritas, como não conheço o texto original, não sei se o problema está na escrita de Gary Bobroff ou na revisão de Susana Ladeiro (não há referência a tradutor/a). Mas há uma melhoria no texto a partir do capítulo 2, por isso há que perseverar!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews