Product Description
Now in paperback, a penetrating understanding of the discrepancies that lie between our professed values and our frequently destructive actions

How is it that good people do bad things? Why do otherwise ordinary people gamble, drink, embezzle company funds, become addicted to Internet porn, cheat on their spouse, or repeat the same destructive behaviors in relationships, at work, or in their habits? And, on a grander scale, how can we reconcile all of the pain and suffering present in the world?

In Why Good People Do Bad Things, James Hollis offers wisdom to help you acquire a new level of awareness to your daily actions and choices. Exploring the Shadow is important to our growth because it helps us repair inner fractures and explore what forces are working against us, and why. Hollis also looks at the larger picture of the Shadow at work in our culture—in history, religion, organizations, and corporations—in addition to its presence in our personal lives.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)

Helpful and Soulful Reading

In his book, Dr. Hollis shows us ourselves in this powerful book for unless we find the beam in our own eye we will project it onto another. This insightful book, Why Good People Do Bad Things, teaches us many things. I particularly appreciated his line that says, "...feeling is not a choice. Feeling arises from the soul, autonomously; ours is the choice to acknowledge and honor that feeling, or not, without literalizing its meaning." It validated something inside of me.

The author of this book explains the gut searching work that the conscious seeking person must do, therefore, I highly recommend this book for those seeking to become conscious.

Mary Jane Hurley Brant, Author When Every Day Matters
[...]
November 12, 2008

Why Good People Do Bad THinga

Difficult book to read. I was hoping for some easy to follow comments about life, but it was deep and complex.
January 18, 2008

Warm, explanatory, understanding and forgiving ...

I cannot write that this is the finest book of Dr. Hollis, because having read all but two of his books during the last year, I can only write that every single word, which I have read so far from this man, is fine.
I feel blessed and very grateful for having discovered his writings.
His words are like a balm on many of my wounds.
Through the reading of Dr. Hollis' books, I have learned to go beyond mere acceptance of difficult situations in life to a place of forgiveness, which I had not known before.
This and all the other books of Dr. Hollis can help people to transform and to become more gentle-hearted, because they offer explanations for many questions. Not solutions, though. But - at least for me - explanations were what I had been looking for for many years.
December 24, 2007

A must read

This is one of the most powerful and life-altering books I have ever read. There are insights on practically every page and the depth of understanding of the human mind that Dr. Hollis brings is extraordinary.
During a period of difficulty in my life which I am still working through, I stumbled upon this book. The title caught my eye but I was anticipating a Dr. Phil-ish over-simplification of human behavior full of soft answers and plenty of upbeat self-affirmations. I was stunned to find how wrong I was. Dr. Hollis examines not only the individual but how the individual creates the society that begets the evils mankind has brought upon himself over the millennia. I found myself stopping and re-reading passages constantly and because of the profundity on nearly every page, it took me quite a while to finish. Reading a chapter was an exhausting endeavor that challenged me with hours of thought-provoking reflection time just to try and wrap my head around the myriad observations that Hollis provides. In my cynicism, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop - the point at which the author wraps up all of these conundrums with one universal solution, naturally his solution that you have to buy the book to discover. Thankfully, there was no such moment. As anyone knows who has taken the time to really look deep into the darkness within, there are no easy answers in life and no slate cleaning cure-alls that make life better and wipe away the misery. Life is hard. Knowing who you are and why you do what you do just might allow you to avoid the mistakes we all seem determined to re-visit. Still, it remains in our hands to decide and throughout each day we are faced with choices. That is the struggle of our life. This book helped me to understand myself, to see why I was making poor choices, to face the ugliness within myself, and to carefully examine the choices I had been making. I am still taking small steps towards a better future for myself but at least now I am doing so without the blinders of denial, the ignorance of reality avoidance, or the false security of self-destructive behaviors.
If you are truly ready for the voyage to the heart of who you are, I can not encourage you enough to pick up this book and read it. It has been a life saver for me. Thanks, Dr. Hollis.

November 10, 2007

Hollis hits a home-run...AGAIN!

Well Hollis does it again...intrepidly going where no human dares to go and shedding light on much material that most of us would rather not examine.
(Don't mind the previous reviewer's dissatisfaction with the God's Shadow chapter. After all, what does the author of a book about increasing impulse buying in supermarkets know about his own shadow, other than the fact that it's already running his life!!)
September 14, 2007

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