Why Good People Do Bad Things

Understanding Our Darker Selves

By: James Hollis PhD

Narrated by: Douglas James

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Working with the Shadow is not working with evil, per se. It is working toward the possibility of greater wholeness. We will never experience healing until we can come to love our unlovable places, for they, too, ask love of us. 

How is it that good people do bad things? Why is our personal story and our societal history so bloody, so repetitive, so injurious to self and others? 

How do we make sense of the discrepancies between who we think we are - or who we show to the outside world - versus our everyday behaviors? Why are otherwise ordinary people driven to addictions and compulsions, whether alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, infidelity, or the Internet? Why are interpersonal relationships so often filled with strife?

Exploring Jung’s concept of the Shadow - the unconscious parts of our self that contradict the image of the self we hope to project - Why Good People Do Bad Things guides you through all the ways in which many of our seemingly unexplainable behaviors are manifestations of the Shadow. In addition to its presence in our personal lives, Hollis looks at the larger picture of the Shadow at work in our culture - from organized religion to the suffering and injustice that abounds in our modern world. Accepting and examining the Shadow as part of one’s self, Hollis suggests, is the first step toward wholeness. Revealing a new way of understanding our darker selves, Hollis offers wisdom to help you to acquire a more conscious conduct of your life and bring a new level of awareness to your daily actions and choices.

©2007 James Hollis (P)2018 James Hollis

One of Hollis's Best

This was a really helpful, insightful book! The narrator was excellent in most respects but mispronounced so many words!

Awsome book!

It's a good book for those searching for the roots of their dark side. Chapters: Dark Divinity, Luminous Darkness and Shadow/work were my favorite ones. And the narrator: 5 stars.

excellent work on the human shadow

loved it, been looking for an audiobook on this topic. on my third reread

A must read for all

Narrator was a bit boring but the book is great work. Understanding why we do what we do.

The Best of Hollis

Really a great book that gives a multifaceted view of the shadow as including so called positive and negative parts of ourselves that we r not comfortable with. Highly recommend!

Left views

I respect Mr Hollis as Jungian psychologist andI like his books, but this one is rather upsetting because of the left political views of the author.
That is inappropriate and upsetting since it s not a place for psychologist to delve into politics and do left propaganda though his books.
I suggest Mr Hollis study what left politics has done to East Europe and Russia and take off his rosy naive glasses concerning Left idea.

I suggest to start with” GulagArchioelago”