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Book Cover
Book
Author Storr, Anthony.

Title Feet of clay : a study of gurus / Anthony Storr
Published London : HarperCollins, 1996

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  291.61 Sto/Foc  AVAILABLE
Description xvii, 253 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Contents Paranoid enclosures.-- Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff.-- Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.-- Rudolf Steiner.-- Carl Gustav Jung.-- Sigmund Freud.-- The Jesuit and Jesus (Ignatius Loyola).-- Chaos and order.-- Delusion and faith.-- To whom shall we turn?
Summary "There are said to be at least six hundred New Religious Movements in Britain, and many more in other parts of the world. They range from benign, charitable organizations to corrupt, dangerous cults which may end in murder or mass suicide. Since cults have a special appeal to the young, anxious parents have prompted a good deal of research into who joins cults and why. Less has been written about the gurus who institute and lead such movements." "Gurus are extraordinary individuals who cast doubt upon current psychiatric distinctions between sanity and madness. A guru convinces others that he knows - a persuasive capacity which can bring illumination but which may also end in disaster. Anthony Storr's new book is a study of some of the best-known gurus, ranging from monsters such as Jim Jones or David Koresh, to some of the most respected leaders in the western world - Ignatius of Loyola, Jesus himself. It includes both Freud and Jung because, as Storr demonstrates, what ostensibly began as a scientific investigation became, in each case, a secular path to salvation." "Storr shows, with characteristic and humane insight, how all of these have more in common than meets the eye. Why do we classify some of them as legitimate thinkers or spiritual leaders and others as madmen? Storr shows how the apparently mad and the apparently sane are not different in kind but simply appear in different parts of the spectrum of sanity, how behaviour which is regarded as normal and that which is thought eccentric, dangerous or mad are really two sides of the same coin."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliography and index
Subject Authoritarianism -- Religious aspects.
Charisma (Personality trait)
Control (Psychology) -- Religious aspects.
Cults -- Biography.
Gurus -- Biography.
Gurus -- Psychology.
Spiritual biography.
Leadership.
Famous Persons.
Personality.
ISBN 0002555638 (hbk)
0006384234 (paperback)