The master of personology
590335
Fun, insightful view in the early life of a master of human personology. Hope their is a follow-up on the rest of his life
4892366
Dostoyevsky truly is one of mother Russia's finest psychologists, plumbing the depths of human behavior and emotions. From start to finish this work courses through every turn of our experience. This book will have you peering into the next turn on every page, maintaining the freshness and power of story all throughout. Settle in and let this story refine your view of humanity.
1074542
Paul Solomon is one of the greatest teachers bridging fundamental religion with metaphysical/spiritual studies in the last century.  Grace de Rond, who compiled and edited this book, worked for over 10 years sorting through a mountain of Paul Solomon lectures to organize them in this wonderful book.  Grace has captured Paul's essence as a teacher and lecturer beautifully in this very readable collection.  This book is a must read of any student of metaphysical studies and spiritual growth.
3623773
Professor of psycharity, Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr's book is a brillant look into the ideas and life of two modern icons, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.  Like the title suggests, the author compares the  views and lives of these two men who have, in their own way, contriuted greatly to some of the most common and perplexing issues of all time.
Nicholi takes great pains to remain objective as possible, while admitting his bias.  His objectivity is largely intact as he accurately relates the theories and ideas of each person.  One should not msitake his form of objectivity for impartiality, a claim he does not make.
This book is very engrossing and reads very easily.  The strength of his book is that the author explores how one views the world in relation to how one lives in the world.  The author aviods broad brushing statements because he is largely focusing on these two men and not inducing that everyone falls into these catagories, however, as a guide, he does suggest that normally thier is a relation between ones beliefs and life.  This is a prima facia position because it stands to reason taht ones views would effect ones practices.
Chapters on hap[piness, sex, love and death are completely engrossing and the book picks up the pace as it towards the end.  Further, in the last segenmnets as we read about the last days of Freud and Lewis, we feel for both characters, but we do so differently.  Both have greatly influnced their field of study.  Both reached beyound the cirles of their fields to have a great impact on other fields of study, and both discussed many of the same topics at length; i.e., sex, love, and death.
In the end, however, one feels compassion for Freud and Lewis, but for Freud, the compassion is felt as loss for a man who left this world in a state of exestential agnst and for Lewis, the sense of loss is selfish, for we want more thoughts and ideas from him.  But our compassion reminds the same, for his barriers for love were only opended towards the last years of his life.
In the end, one found "joy" and purpose (Lewis), and the other pain and anguish (Freud).  Both insightfully shared their lives with us.
1837665
Great book written by the master.  The content is fantastic,  getting his true and candid thoughts, but  I was really impresses with the quality of the book itself.  The pages are thick and the photos are very high quality - he gives a ton of examples of ads he liked and ads that he did not like with details on what went wrong.

Very easy and fun to read.  The guy is hyper intelligent.  You can tell he is a master student and his wisdom shines through in this book.
1888804
Koans and stories of the deaths of Masters are scattered throughout the sacred texts of the East.  This book is remarkable in that it brings those many stories together in one place.  By focusing a book on the theme of "death stories", the stories illumine each other, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  The stories reveal a wonderfully refreshing way to think about death (and hence, to think about Life!)  Many are solemn, but some are quite humorous.  In each, we see the presence of someone who embraces all of human experience, who says "Yes!" to all of Life, including death.  Many of the Masters give one final gem of wisdom, summarizing their life's teaching, as their last word.  The many photographs of the Masters are heart-warming.  For anyone ready to think about death and mortality in terms of their spritual meaning, this book is ideal.  Ironically, through looking at how the Masters die, we can implicitly understand their teaching on how to be ever more fully alive.
3728399
This is one of the most difficult of Kohut's books, published posthumously with the assistance of one of the most talented analysts of this period: Arnold Golberg.

The book is a compendium of Kohut's theories and techniques as well as a defense of the innovations he introduced when he wrote "The Analysis" (of the self) and "The Restoration" (of the self, of course).

For anyone who deals with the narcissism of borderline patients, as-if personalities and eating and its disorders I can not think of a better source of enlightment and wisdom than reading: The Analysis, The Restoration, How does (it) cure? and finally, Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst.

As a lay person you should feel gratified. As a therapist, you should feel reward it.
3625050
Absolutely Excellent.  The moniker of Master  has been granted too freely of late.  But this piece, not even the greatest of his works, surely shows the title is fitting and deserved.  Well Done!
2606598
This is one of the finest volumes in Oxford's PAST MASTERSX series.  In barely 140 pages, Larry Siedentop deftly conveys the high points of the life of Alexis de Tocqueville (more skilfully, in fact, than Andre Jardin's thorough but ponderous life), and also presents a superbly lucid sketch of Tocqueville's political thought.  He ably explains why Tocqueville should have become interested in America as the harbinger of democratic governance and society for Western Europe.  He also offers an analysis of DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA that should be required reading for anyone attempting to read that great, complex book; one of the best features of his analysis is his explanation of the differing arguments of Volume I (which focuses on the structure of the American political system) and Volume II (which examines the effects of democracy on American society).  Siedentop then elucidates Tocqueville's further work on the concept of democracy, both as politician in the Second French Republic and as investigator of the causes of the French Revolution, both in THE OLD REGIME AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION and in the unfinished sequel.  Siedentop's greatest achievement in this fine book is that he shows how all the elements of Tocqueville's intellectual journey form a coherent whole and inform one another.  An intellectual tour de force that should not be out of print.
-- R.B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School
4641724
Waterfield is truly a master of translation. The notes, as usual for OWC, are in depth and fill in the blanks. As for Polybius himself, it is a wonderful masterpiece. One of the first "universal" historians, Polybius covers the known world during the Punic wars, and the Social wars. It is a very insightful view of the times. Plus, it is where we draw a lot of our Roman military knowledge. Polybius was a hands on historian, having fought in wars, and been in the ranks of politicians. I highly recommend reading this if you are a fan of ancient history. I would also highly recommend all that Robin Waterfield has translated, and noted.
925544
Sublime works of genius interpreted by a Master
1044660
Very well presented publication as befits the life and work of an art master of excellence.
1428793
I think I will need to read it again to have a better digestion of his theory. The part of the Un-master class is really interesting. I wish to attend one someday.
244410
The author has done a masterful job of story telling in this book. You are  presented with a wonderful story of the life of one of outstanding persons  of the Renaissance and one of the outstanding minds of western intellectual  thought. Along the way you alos meet his family and many other people  responsible for an important epoch in the history of the western world.
252779
I had the honor of being a graduate student of Professor Guido Guarino.
Reading the pages of his introduction was like listening to him in person, like the good old days of school.
The translation is simply outstanding.

The only problem: I have not seen Professor Guarino in more than 10 years; and I miss him very much.

Ottavio Balena, Ph. D.
622068
Henning Mankell is a real master of describing the life of a man who is not very friendly and not very good, a man with his strengths and weaknesses, a man who never complains and thinks he has the life he has deserved. A sudden arrival of a woman he once loved and her daughter change his life completely, and he now thinks that 12 years of his lonely life were wasted.
An unexpected change of events, which is not very typical of an excellent crime writer, and the author's understanding of one ageing person's feelings make this book a high quality reading for people who can live the life of the main hero for quite a while and sympathise with him.
A very good book like all the rest of this author.
2088890
This book introduces the fully enlightened master, the great 16th Karmapa, through stories and recollections of his disciples. These stories are precious for their conveyance of the primary method of Vajrayana: reaching enlightenment through confidence in ones teacher and in own mind. The enlightened nature of the great master shines through these very human stories.

While less known today than the Dalai Lamas, the Karmapas are considered to be the kings of yogis of Tibet, and their lineage predates the Dalai Lamas by three centuries. Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193) started the first line of re-incarnating Lamas in Tibet and became known as the first Karmapa.

While bringing the figure of the 16th Karmapa closer to the reader, the book deliberately and consciously omits important aspects of the recent story of the Karmapas. The 16th Karmapa passed away in 1981 in the US. As it happened before in the history of the Karmapa lineage, today there are two candidates for the title of the Karmapa. This is known as the Karmapa controversy. The book keeps referring to Ogyen Trinley as the Karmapa and does not even mention Trinley Thaye Dorje. The readers should inform themselves about the issue and understand that today two people are considered the 17th incarnation of Karmapa.

Trinley Thaye Dorje was found by the late 14th Sharmapa, the second highest Lama of the lineage, and enthroned by him as the 17th incarnation of the Karmapa. The head Lama of the Karma Kagyu lineage was typically (with a few exceptions) alternating between the Karmapas and the Shamarpas with the Karmapas and the Sharmapas recognizing each other. In a strange twist, the other candidate, Ogyen Trinley, is endorsed by the atheist Chinese Communist Party. One may only wonder about the role of the Communist Party in recognition of re-incarnation of the great yogi and meditation master: did the Politburo examine the evidence of his minds transference to the new body according to the teachings of dialectic materialism?

Another serious omission of the book is its blanket silence about the first and the most influential Western students of the 16th Karmapa, Hanna and Ole Nydahl. The Nydahls were very close students of the 16th Karmapa. They spent a few years by Karmapas side in the Himalayas, organized Karmapas visits to Europe, and started in Karmapas name the Diamond Way Buddhism organization, which has about 700 centers and meditation groups throughout the world. Hanna Nydahl died in 2007, but without a doubt, Ole Nydahl could enrich the collection of stories about the 16th Karmapa. Today, Lama Ole Nydahl is an authentic powerful teacher of thousands of western Buddhists. He is respected by Tibetans and despised by the Chinese Communist Party.

Overall, this is a great book if you want to get a feel of the great 16th Karmapa. Unfortunately, the book also seems to be an Orwellian attempt to remove from history both Trinley Thaye Dorje and Lama Ole Nydahl. The book is interesting, but dishonest. For this reason, I cannot rate it higher than 3.