The entries in this helpful encyclopedia may be brief, but no one would call them incomplete. From Marsel Proust to the methods of assessing the memory disorders to the different kinds of amnesia, this is the book to consult first, whatever the memory-related issue is. It's written in a concise, clear, and assessible language. In fact, it's just as interesting as any fiction book, in my personal opinion. Definitely something to own.

If this man, Richard A. Noll, truly was a Catholic as he says, I'll eat a bishop's mitre. Along with the book titled "Once A Catholic," this book documents such dubious scholarship and such an incomplete grasp of the Truth of the Roman Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ, it's just astounding. As I say, if this man really was a Catholic, he was colossally uniformed and ignorant. I personally doubt his integrity.

The long and the short of my opinion is this: If you want to read a book that DOES NOT teach the truth about what Catholics believe and if you want to read a book that confirms your personal opinion that all Catholics are going straight to hell and if you want to read a book that is merely another re-hashing of some of the glaring misconceptions that Protestants have about the Catholic faith, then read this book.

But before you do that, you might want to find out what Catholics really believe about salvation, which is this: We are saved by grace through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus. Our lives, then, will be a testimony to that saving grace by the way we live. A person who is truly saved will be bearing the fruit of the Spirit in his life (see Galatians 5, 22-26.) A person who is saved will be running the race in order to win the prize, as Saint Paul said in Philippians, the prize being heaven, of course. No, this isn't the sola fide ("by faith alone" or alternately, "once saved, always saved") doctrine that some Protestant groups espouse, but then the doctrine of sola fide isn't Biblical anyway.

Doesn't it seem odd that I, a person who has never written a book, can do more to explain true Catholic doctrine in less than 1,000 words when Noll and others of his ilk can't even do it in their books? Doesn't that make them seem curiously biased and bigoted and as if they are people who are more concerned with promoting an anti-Catholic agenda than the real Truth of the Church? Think about it BEFORE you spend the money on this book.

I was hoping for a more scholarly approach on this subject, bit I was disappointed to find that it was merely a rehash of usual and familiar anti-Catholic bias. In Noll's case, anti-Catholic "bashing" fits the bill. Noll claims to have once been a dedicated Catholic for 65 years, but he presents a total lack of understanding of even the simplest and most basic Catholic teachings. He claims to have studied the bible extensively yet lists 18 Evangelical/Fundamentalist/pretribulation-rapture "bible scholars" as his main source of inspiration into the understanding of scripture. All but two footnotes are from these "bible scholars," 9 of which are from David Hunt and 6 of those are from Hunt's "A Woman Rides the Beast." The two remaining footnotes are from two supposedly orthodox Catholic sources but are in reality dubious to say the least. Noll's research is careless to sloppy. He constantly quotes facts, scripture and the Catechism out of context. Case in point: He claims Malachi Martin as being a foremost Catholic apologist - he's not - he's a theologian and he's not "foremost." He claims Martin to be largely acknowledged as being a close friend of Pope John Paul II - he's not - he was a "close" friend to Pope Pius VI and has been a thorn in the side of John Paul II. Noll quotes almost every scripture that condemns Old Covenant ceremonial tradition to prove that the Catholic Church is imitating the same. By the same token, he conveniently makes no mention of the three strongest scripture verses (1 Cor 11:2, 2 Thess 2:15, 2 Thess 3:16) that justifies the adherence to the Sacred Tradition that the apostles set forth. Why was this left out? If he has studied scriptures thoroughly, surely he has studied these. Because the Bible does not contradict itself, there isn't any way that one can dismiss the fact that there ARE two types of traditions that are referred to in the Bible. "When Catholics Die" cannot be recommended for anyone. The non-Catholic and the Catholic will not receive a correct understanding of the Catholic faith. Mr. Noll, through his sleight-of-hand and deceptive manipulation of Sacred Scripture, Catechism, Church history, and facts has presented a genuine disservice for both sides. A purchase of the Catholic Catachism would be of more service. The reader can then make up their own mind.

The most moving thing about this book is the author's genuine love for those in the Catholic Church. Over and over again after ponting out the fallacies of that organization he encourages the reader to have faith, search for the truth and find Jesus. The book is scholarly, full of exact quotes and documented facts and only a person who's misplaced faith had been bruised would think otherwise. I would encourage every dedicated Christian to read this book. It will be of enormous help when trying to explain to Catholics about a salvation founded on God's grace and not on works. If you are a Catholic and something doesn't seem right, I would encourage you even more
to read it. This book provides evidence of the truth to an open and searching mind.

somewhat confusing since the author gives equal weight to old, not very often used words and more comtemporay terms. Although erudite at most times, the author has the disturbing habit of getting into very personal insights, which may or may not coincide with the reader. A case in point, he spends almost a full page ranting about the now defunct soviet system of psychiatic treatment, something odd and misplaced in this book.
Anyway the author is a psychologist,not a psychiatrist, and it shows.

Schizophrenia And Other Psychotic Disorders appears in its second edition to provide a needed and thorough update to the new research and findings in the mental health field. Over 500 entries, most new or updated for this edition, chart the nature of psychotic disorders, new treatments and theories, and key practitioners working in the field. Chapters provide a quick encyclopedic reference to the topics. A recommended, basic text for any health library collection.

Criticisms of Richard Noll books about Jung have grown steadily in the last years. In fact the only faithful are the born-again christians, which in countless sites in the internet shower praise on him, but on them Noll's so-called scholarly research is wasted, since they have always hated Jung anyway. So Noll is in pretty bad company, and I dont think that the adulatory churchlady lecture circuit was what he was after, but fittingly that serves him well ".. oh...professor Noll ...tell us...was that Jung..linked to..u know..to..well..the...hhmm..Devil? .."

First, unlike many of the arrogant modern academics alive today, I am a person of the old school who believes that we should let the dead rest. This means that we should not go through all their personal letters which their estate deems PRIVATE and then concoct some wild fantasies in order that we may judge them based entirely on this. This book just goes to show that in today's politically correct academic environment ruled by self-righteous PC elites, we can throw around the term anti-Semite against any German thinker we dislike and thereby discredit him. Noll obviously has some sort of partisan agenda and personal animosity towards Jung and he has done a lot to try to discredit the great man. Fortunately it is not paying off.

That said, the book does have some good points. The pictures are nice and it does include a lot of detail about the relationship between many German thinkers of the time. It situates Jung in his historical context and presents a picture of him that contrasts with the fluffy image popular among many of his "followers" today. It astounds me however to see the rudeness of some reviewers who call the ideas circulating in Germany at the time, and Jung's unique form of self-understanding "crazy" or "insane". We can learn a lot from the so-called insane (insanity by the way is a modern myth and an attempt by a degenerate society to get rid of undesirables). And, even if Jung were mentally ill (much evidence suggests he may at times have been), he certainly did not harm anyone, and this does not take away from his discoveries. Jung was not a megalomaniac or a cult leader a la Jim Jones. And, this type of hysterical nonsense is unfortunate. Jung brought light to Freud's abysmal views of human nature, and has been hated by the academic establishment ever since. As such, he is a Prometheus-Christ figure, who dared to challenge the psychoanalytic Freudian movement, which remains second only to the Marxists in their use of abusive ad hominem attacks to discredit.

Jung was not a pagan, but a Christian (of sorts, albeit perhaps unorthodox). And, psychoanalysis in its Jungian form is not a religion or a religious anti-religion, but rather a compliment to traditional orthodox religion. Many disparage Jung because his views will place man at the whim of forces beyond his control (as Jung had posted above his door, "Invoked or uninvoked the Deity is always present!"). These forces used to be called God and the Devil; however, it has become more fashionable in recent times to call them the Unconscious. Nevertheless, the principle remains the same. Jung's discovery of the Collective Unconscious, his regression into deep trance and his meeting with the archetypal forces of the human mind, should not be seen as a sign of madness, but rather as the attempt of a brilliant man to perpetuate his own unique form of self-understanding. In our smug self-satisfied life, we refuse to hear of such things, and we view ourselves as in complete autonomous control of our own destiny. While we are able to use our conscious thoughts as feedback into the unconscious (we are Aristotelian rational animals afterall), this is not exactly the case. One has only to be called out from one's apathetic existence by the presence of tragedy to realize the truth in this, i.e. that control is a myth. And, this is the lesson we can learn from the Jungian Unconscious.

Much more can be learned from the kind of thinking circulating in Germany before the World War. However, if we ignorantly ignore it, for fear that it may be contrary to our modern ideologies then we will miss out. Of course, we must sort the wheat from the chaff, and not engage in racism. But, to blindly regard anything Germanic as necessarily racist or anti-Semitic is a prejudice of the highest order. This is the historical context of Jung and his time.

In this book, Noll argues that not only did Jung create a religious movement but that Jung himself believed he was a savior of sorts. The first claim is, of course, completely convincing (and is, I believe, the main focus of Noll's _The Jung Cult_, which I have yet to read); the letter to C. Long which the author quotes late in the book pretty much closes that debate.

On the other hand, I remain unconvinced concerning the nature of Jung's 'revelation' in 1913 and how he saw himself subsequently; i.e., whether he really believed he was the "Aryan Christ". Noll quotes extensively from dozens of documents, and many of them are very suggestive of this, but when actually coming to this point, I feel Noll loses his grip a little; in each case where this is stated, Noll momentarily leaves the historical evidence behind and infers this final point, which is, unfortunately, the basic thesis of the book.

Still, despite that consistent flaw, which pops up about half a dozen times in the book, Noll's thesis that Jung saw himself as a god or savior is compelling, and I suspect that, if and when the Jung estate opens its archives, he will be proved correct. In the meantime, however, I must remain doubtful.

The rest of the book concerns the development of Jung's various theories and is critical of the concept of the 'collective unconscious' while occasionally lauding Jung's contributions to personality typology. In contrast to critics of this book, I see no evidence that Noll has a 'hidden agenda'. In fact, for the most part I think he has been more than fair to Jung and his movement.

Frankly, this was a disappointment. I went back from it with far more sympathy for Jung - and far less for Noll - than I had believed possible; and that in spite of the fact that - after a juvenile pash for Jung more than twenty years ago - I have long since given up on psychoanalysis (and in particular on the doctrine of Archetypes) as a system of knowledge and explanation; and that I was and am not impressed with Jung's private life and his abuse of patient/doctor relationships. The basic problem with this book is the juvenile, unmeditated, unintelligent pseudo-rationalism at its heart. Noll is apparently under the impression that there is something called "the historical Christ" which contradicts the teachings of historical Christianity; and therefore he approves of Freud, in spite of the howlingly obvious elements of pseudo-science, self-justification and superstition, because Freud takes religion to be a disease in need of curing rather than a legitimate way to view the world. Conversely, he opposes Jung because Jung, however distant his view from any orthodox religion, justifies religion as a state of mind. This, of course, is the reason why Jung's success continues in spite of his more than dubious scientific standing; because, however you look at them, in terms of the most basic issues of human thought Freud is a jailer, chaining us to the lowest processes of our bodies and offering us nothing more liberating than sex, and Jung is the man who turns the key and sets us free. I regard neither of them as in any way scientific, reliable or intellectually sound, but I also regard the influence of Jung as infinitely less pestiferous than that of Freud - and I owe this view to Noll's book, because it placed starkly in my face the sheer ugliness of the motives of those who attack Jung and defend Freud.

Reading some of the truly vicious customer reviews below, I cannot help but suspect that most of them were written by Jungian analysts. Having spent several years within the Jungian world (as neither a patient nor an analyst, I hasten to add), I feel that Noll has done the public a great service with his book. While I admire many of Jung's ideas as reflections of an interesting mind, I have seen no evidence of their practical applicability. Even more, I wonder about the damage done to patients by their being applied so narrowly, doggedly, slavishly by Jungian analysts. The Jungian world is filled with mediocrities -- people as unimaginative as Jung, for all his faults, was imaginative -- who band together tightly and congratulate each other endlessly on their genius, their sensitivity, their depth, their soulfulness. Meanwhile, they often seem to be engaged in particularly vicious power games, perhaps because they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge their "shadow" sides. And the patients too often seem to get lost in the shuffle, or actually damaged. Noll's book serves to underline the painful truth that the man these analysts take for a God was in fact not only deeply flawed but little concerned with the truth or otherwise of his theories, and not very interested in his patients'welfare. He has created a model of egotism that all too many Jungians seem to follow, without possessing his genius.

Richard Noll's two books on Jung, THE JUNG CULT and THE ARYAN CHIRST, are the very best books ever published on Jung and his psychology. Read Jung? Of course, read Jung. But do not believe Jung. Read Jung as you would any other major thinker -- Darwin, Freud, Marx -- and discover for yourself what makes sense and what does not. Noll provides a valuable service by showing us how to be a litle more careful aboutswallowing Jung whole -- as Jungian analysts want us to do. Jung does not belong to the Jungian analysts. They are not the experts on Jung. Richard Noll is. Do yourself a favor and read the truth about Jung -- and learn a little something about German culture, 19th century science, and ancient mystery cults along the way. Noll does not disappoint.