Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche

"After reading the back cover, you'd expect this book to be an analysis of the psyche from a Jungian perspective. Well, you will have been fooled. It's actually a Christian sermon, and if you're not a Christian, you may find the book offensive. A few examples:
Page ix: "Nazareth is now holy to us, the birthplace of the Savior;" Who is "us"?
Page 5: "This is our legacy from having eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden." Whose legacy?
Page 70: "If one were to possess it, one would likely announce that he was God, or equally outlandish, that God was dead. Nietzsche came perilously close to this and paid for it with his sanity." So if one questions the existence of God, one risks going insane? The more prosaic - and accurate - explanation is that apparently Nietzsche had untreated syphilis and this is what led to his mental breakdown.
Page 73: " . . . we must stop and honor the divine as the source of all relationship." So if someone doesn't believe in a Christian god, they don't deserve to be in a relationship?
Page 114: "Christ himself is the intersection of the divine and the human. He is the prototype for the reconciliation of opposites and our guide out of the realm of conflict and duality." Whose guide? Is Johnson saying that because one is not a Christian, he or she is doomed to live in conflict for the rest of his or her life?

Don't say I didn't warn you.
"
~ Written on 2008-01-21

"I couldn't quite understand this book maybe because it was too dark. Maybe someday down the road I will re-read this book again and get some understanding out of it but as for today I cannot make heads or tails of it."
~ Written on 2007-08-24

"Most reference books are large. This one, even with all of the information packed inside, is instead, rather small. In doing the work of owning your own shadow, "what is the purpose of my life?" is a question that can be discovered. Paired with Johnson's "Innerwork," readers can learn to be in touch with and find meaning in the deeper regions of the psyche. To be able to map out a life for oneself amidst the rushing pace and excrement of the sewer that can pass for as life can offer hope to readers who want more as we begin excavating the gold in our own shadows."
~ Written on 2007-06-27

"I found this book over simplistic. I don't know who Robert Johnson is writing for but from this book I would guess it was for those with learning difficulties. He repeats his points over and over again, basically I think the actual content of this book could be covered in a 5 pages rather than 118. I guess he does have to spread out the plugs he gives for his other books."
~ Written on 2007-06-26

"I liked the principle that when I grow fast or experience great excitement, some part of me may experience a rebound. It gave a context for looking more fully at some of my patterns. However, the more I live in acceptance of whatever I experience without making an identify for myself out of it, the less this applies. And, the "rebound" is not an unavoidable part of anything good."
~ Written on 2007-06-06