Details
Synopsis
Anthony Storr, an Oxford psychologist, explores the psychological anomalies and charismatic similarities among both the great and infamous religious, political, and cult leaders of the past few centuries. Among the "gurus" he profiles are Ignatius of Loyola, Georgei Gurdjieff, Rudolf Steiner, Bhagwan Rajneesh, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung, Lenin, Churchill, and de Gaulle.
| Size | | Length: | 253 pages | | Height: | 9.0 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 10.4 oz |
Industry Reviews
"...this is an immensely exciting book, perhaps the author's best to date....These are deep waters, and Storr offers no glib answers. He demonstrates convincingly that gurus are psychologically different from other men; indeed, they are incapable of relating to others except as disciples or opponents, and that is why the best of them have feet of clay....Anthony Storr is not just a psychiatrist who can write, though no one else in his field can convey complicated ideas with such fluency and wit; he is also that rare beast, a psychiatrist who is conscious of the limited usefulness of his professional skills when confronted by something as resistant to analysis as the human psyche."
Literary Review - Damian Thompson (06/19/1996)
"Throughout 'Feet of Clay', a clear-eyed exercise in debunking rubbish, Storr makes plain that he has rarely met a guru he likes."
Philadelphia Inquirer - Carlin Romano (08/18/1996)
"A fascinating venture...[Storr] offers a highly convincing argument involving not only the distinctive personality of the 'guru' but the very nature of 'sanity' and 'insanity.'"
Civilization - Joyce Carol Oates
"...[A]n extremely useful and for the most part well-crafted introduction to an intriguing and important subject."
Sheppard
"Anthony Storr has a generous mind. He believes that people should make sense; and he gives them the benefit of his confidence. All of the spiritual leaders he studies in this book were, he believes, mistaken in central aspects of their messages...yet he is anxious to understand what good they did, and why they were loved. To a large extent, he succeeds; and by bringing the reader to sympathise with gurus he also makes them a great deal more frightening."
Califia
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