Discovering the mind: Volume Three (Discovering the Mind Series)

hard to review this remarkable book.on the one hand, kaufmann writes well and has done good research. on the other hand, kaufmann is overly partisan for freud and against adler jung, and kaufmann is EMOTIONAL.good arguments in favor of freud are mixed with incessant praises of how good freud is, how well freud writes, how honest and noble freud is etc.! - i get it, i get it, raggedy, just get to the actual point, kaufmann!so is this a historical study? or is it a tale with heros and villains? certainly, the latter. Freud, Nietzche and Goethe are the heroes and the rest of the persons are the villains. fair enough, i actually like authors being frank with what they think rather than trying to remain neutral all the time.but there are faults in kaufmann's approach: his good research is remarkably less good in the cases of jung/adler. with jung, for example, kaufmann attacks the idea that jung said that there could be a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. but in fact jung already said this himself - kaufmann is kicking in an open door!kaufmann also profoundly misunderstands jung's concepts of extroversion, arguing that jung was an extrovert(!) because he laughed loudly in social settings and that freud was an introvert because he was shy.

It is interesting how Kaufmann fell victim to his own emotionality in this one. Clearly a Freud apologist, Kaufmann is on a mission to discredit Adler and Jung, and does a shoddy job. Jung already had said that the three 'rival' psychologies (Freudian, Adlerian and his own) were simply manifestations of their own respective psychological profiles. It had to do with one's Attitude towards life, namely Freud glorifying sexual impulse, Adler power drive, and Jung tending to reconcile the opposites in everything. Kaufmann's book reads like a soap opera. It is interesting only from historical point of view, but there is no science here, only whimpering.

no issues

Very engaging. Well worth reading.

Again his approach in this volume is to demonstrate how these individuals (Fraud, Adler, and Jung) came to provide a clearer understanding of human reasoning and basic psychology. With the three considered in this volume I feel that Kaufmann failed to fully develop this theme with Adler and Jung. The book is mainly focused on Fraud and his impact. However, Kaufmann goes into the background of all three.His coverage of Adler and Jung is more of a demonstration of their animosity toward Fraud that became clearly manifest later in their careers. He goes into detail on the reasons and the lasting damage to Fraud’s reputation due to what Kaufmann considers the false and malicious charges against Fraud’s character and teachings. He goes into great detail and a considerable analysis of the reasons and the background leading to these attacks.I had hoped to find a more balanced examination of these three and their impact on western psychology and philosophy. I would recommend to any interested in Fraud and the professional interactions confronting his career and eventual reputation.

This book takes an interesting perspective on three very influential men in the counseling and psychology fields. The author seems to have a bit of an affinity for Freud, and therefore seems slightly protective of his memory; willing to find any inconsistencies the the stories of Adler and Jung to support the integrity of Freud. However, the stories he reports about all of the men and their lives are very enthralling, if not somewhat incomplete. This book provides a good introduction to these men and their work.