If you're looking for an introduction to the symbolic life lived close to the unconscious, it doesn't get much better or more concise than this. In a question and answer format, you'll find an easily accessible introductory guide to analytical psychology and Jungian dream analysis.

"The Way of the Dream is based on an extraordinary series of films made by Fraser Boa, who collected first-person accounts of dreams in street interviews with ordinary men and women in various parts of the world. He then asked the eminent psychoanalyst Marie-Louise von Franz to interpret these dreams on film, just as she would in a private analytical session. The resulting text is a primer explaining and demonstrating the art and science of dream analysis for the general public. The material covered includes dreams of men, dreams of women, what dreams tell us about ourselves and our relationships, the historical significance of dreams, and dreams about death and dying. Dr. von Franz concludes that one of the healthiest things people can do is pay attention to their dreams: 'Dreams show us how to find meaning in our lives, how to fulfill our own destiny, how to realize the greater potential of life within us.'"

This book was a very interesting, readable, understandable introduction to Jungian psychoanalysis. Reading like the transcript from Boa's documentary film, it introduces von Franz' comments between quotes from everyday people about their own dreams. Fascinating dialogue and question/answer format makes this easily understandable and prompts an appetite to learn more. For everyone who ever had a dream and wondered about its possible meaning, this book is a treat and can set you on a journey of self-discovery that is both fun and challenging.

A very good story of escape from a Germans point of view. Von Werra is obviously a man who likes to expand on his version of events but the authors research into what really took place puts a more credible light on it. I finished the book in 2 days.

Although there are many books about allied escapees from Colditz and other camps, the story of German prisoners in World War Two is rarely heard. This book gives us that opportunity. Von Werra's story is both heroic as it is exciting. Well worth a read.

I always enjoy reading war stories,but detest ones that are fake and just unbelivable.This book while with the author taking you through a documentry at the same time did a great job in keeping the reader going.I obtained my copy from a local market stall for $2.00 last saturday and i finished it by Wednesday in the same week,it just wouldn't let me go. The Authors did justice for Von Werra in presenting an biased view of his exploites,you can feel Von Werra's undying determination,his bottomless energy is awe inspiring. The authors made you feel like you were there digging the tunnel or in the cockpit of the Hurricane hoping the mechanic would hurry up with the Accumulator trolley(used to start the aeroplanes).It was just a pity the book has only 286 pages for i would have kept on reading if it had one thousand.It just drew u in and kept you interested all the way.

Bill Pearce

This book by marie-Luise Von Franz provides valuable insight into the varied uses of a Jungain approach to psychology. Interpreting fairy tales provides us with skills and techniques to help interpret our own fairy tales, that of our dreams and life stories. Useful for all students of Jung and applicable in our own lives if only for the joy of seeking connections and associations in our own experiences. Ideal for dreamers and philosophers as well as beginner Jungians.

If one has "read a little" of Jung's typology but has not ventured yet, or has ventured only partially, into Jung's seminal work Psychological Types, this book by von Franz and Hillman is a very good tutorial to get some of the concepts organized in ones head a little better. The book is divided into two sections. Both sections are transcripts of lectures given at the Jungian institute in Zurich. The first section is by von Franz and covers the Inferior Function. Hillman's half covers the Feeling Function. Although von Franz's section is focused on the development of the psychological type that is one's weaker type (ie: "inferior"), her exposition does cover all of the types. Each of von Franz's lectures is followed by a question and answer section as recorded during the seminars (Hillman's are not). One can say only that von Franz is masterful in her explanations. If one has read any of Jung's own seminars from the 1920's and 30's, von Franz's echo these here. Without overstating it, von Franz truly was closest to Jung in depth of understanding and ability at expression, perhaps better in the latter regard. She was primarilty a "thinking" type and it shows in her thoroughly thought out and well presented arguments. Hillman is another matter. Perhaps it is his disadvantage that his text follows von Franz's, but he does not rise to the same level, at least not for me. He must be a feeling-type as his arguments undulate choppily, taking a sideroad here, a back alley there, a forward lob somewhere else. He uses almost no examples, preferring to "define" as he goes along and seems to expect the reader to nod in agreement. Too much patience is expected of one, I'm afraid, and I didn't finish reading his part. Sorry. Von Franz' section is certainly worth the price alone, however. But feeling-types may prefer Hillman.

Considered a "classic" by Jungians, I found this book to be so filled with Jungian imagery that it was not worth the trouble of wading through it all. The majority of the text is an analysis of The Little Prince, and would be of most value to one who wished to interpret this story.

Almost everything of value regarding the psychological image of the puer is available in the first chapter which is reprinted in Reclaiming the Inner Child by Jeremiah Abrams (ed). Here the reader will find an entire section on Eternal Youth and Narcissism including excellent chapters by Joel Covitz (Narcissism), Alice Miller (The Search for the True Self) and Jeffrey Satinover (The Childhood Self and the Origins of Puer Psychology). This last I especially recommend to anyone interested in the puer.

I know very little about Jungian psychology, but this book caught my eye years ago. I started reading it again and it has made me aware of so much WHY about my life and struggles. It is frighteningly accurate in its descriptions of the puer aeternus and the best and worst of that archetype. I don't agree with some of the Jungian conclusions and assumptions, but the descriptive parts of this book are INVALUABLE if you're ready to face them. I'm finally facing them.

O'Doherty has researched his Viennese courts well, and his Mozart and Ben Franklin; the descriptions of Anton Mesmer seem so real, I'm pretty sure I've read them before. Not that it's a criticism to say he cribbed from contemporaneous descriptions; the blending of borrowed reportage with fictional text is actually done pretty well.

However, O'Doherty waxes much too purple for my taste when he lapses into streams of consciousness that seem to turn into whirlpools from which he cannot extricate himself. More unfortunately, while he has done tons of research on the details of say, seventeenth century Viennese table legs, he hasn't read too many diaries from the time. His prose seems awfully Victorian to me. Or pseudo-Victorian. Actually, there were times when it reminded me for all the world of Elinor Glyn.

His problem is that the novel isn't a seventeenth century form, and stream of consciousness, moreover, is a twentieth century construction. Still more incongruously, O'Doherty appears to have his eye on eighteenth century fictive diary prose such as Charlotte Bronte writes in Jane Eyre. However, he can't even separate the first person narrative of early novels from the stream of consciousness that readers today are familiar with. In addition, he uses three-point narration (Mlle. P., her father, and Anton Mesmer) and seems to be trying to do something along the lines of The Moonstone, yet another form that didn't exist in the seventeenth century. O'Doherty has set himself up for massive leaps of invention. Sadly, he never quite does what he sets out to do, and the thing shrivels in the bud.

I'm just addressing his prose style, though. If you can stomach it, then you have the pleasure of the devices he uses to work Mesmer, Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Empress Maria Theresa, and most of the rest of the Hapsburg court, plus the French Revolution into 240 pages. They are actually pretty artful. So if you like that kind of stuff, and aren't fussy about the mode of communication, this might the book for you.

On top of that, there's sex, lots of it, and a blind girl Mesmer is trying to cure, and some neat messages about talent vs. function.

However, if you read for style and rhythm of language as much as plot, this will set your teeth on edge.

This novel may be technically out of print, but you can still buy it in many bookstores...There are probably lots of warehoused copies. Since it's on the Booker shortlist, there's a good chance it'll come back into print. Nonetheless, if you're interested, you ought to grab it while you can.

This is an absorbing little tale of an unorthodox doctor treating a blind, aristocratic young lady who possesses considerable musical talents. It takes place in the Austrian royal court at the time of Mozart's own prodigious childhood.

While there are horrific moments highlighting the destructive effects of ill-conceived parental control, O'Doherty sheds light on the mysterious penchant talented people have for falling into the hands of suppressive creeps. The doctor seems sincere enough, but even he cannot keep his hands off the lovely musician.

Chapters told by different characters, the story is a fine exercise in viewpoint and voice. O'Doherty sets his scenes with amazing conservation of adjectives. The language and syntax alone paints vivid pictures of court settings. This reader really got the impression O'Doherty did his research meticulously.

Now that the author's shortlisted for the Booker, we have good reason to snap up this out-of-print novel!

Although I do have a degree in history, my major interest in this book was as an occultist. When I first got the book, the dryness of the language really turned me off. It felt a bit ponderous. Additionally, the author's unasked for review of Kultov's "the Book of Lilith" seemed to be building up of one's self through the tearing down of another. Upon taking a leadership position within the Temple of Lylyth, I felt I had better review some more history. I had paid for the book, so I figured I may as well read it. I actually got into it, and even quoted a few pages to the Temple's mailing list. The second part is the book's saving grace, as it talks about the psychological aspect of Lilith in modern Jewish people as manifested through dreams. They are quite symbolic, and give a deep, if confusing, look into the minds of other people.

I would recommend this book for the serious student of Lilith over and above any other, due to the fact that it clearly contextualizes Lilith both as a historical and modern phenomenon within the culture that created her. This book is also not feminist, and the images of Lilith that come from out of the minds of men may have more meaning and impact on a male reader than a feminist pro-Lilith description.

Marie Louise von Franz (1915-1998), the luminary disciple of Carl Jung, worked with him for over thirty years and drew great inspiration from the Jungian school, which she has utilized numerously in her books on dream interpretation, fairy tales, and riveting archetypal commentaries. This particular work discusses the problem of the man as Boy, the Eternal Youth, and it uses the very compelling story of the Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery as its primary dirivitive source. I would suggest this text to anyone who may recently have been driven mad by a charming but wildly irresponsible man, filled with dreams but never quite able to deliver on a practical level. Most of us have known this man fairly intimately and have never quite been able to touch on his mercurial behaviours. This book will provide you with the answers. I would suggest the Little Prince as an additional reference for you, because you will never look at it as the work of a naif again, but rather as a riveting tome of denial and self-aggrandizment. Enjoy.