Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus

By Anthony Storr

Book Overview

How do gurus get their power? Gurus are extraordinary individuals who attract fanatical followers and wield incredible and at times destructive control over them.

In this remarkable study, Anthony Storr, the acclaimed author of Solitude and Music and the Mind, examines why we are so enthralled with these dogmatic figures who satisfy our need for certainty.

Taking as his examples such diverse figures as Jesus, Sigmund Freud, Ignatius Loyola, and David Koresh, Storr traces the typical patterns--often involving psychotic illness--that shape the guru's development, and reveals how certain gurus become monsters while others become spiritual beacons.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684834952
• ISBN13: 9780684834955
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An insightful book

I am a medical student and I have been reading some of Dr Storr's books. This one about Gurus. Obviously having all the great people and especially Jesus Christ criticized, in one book, wouldnt be easy. I think Dr Storr is trying to analyse each one of them from views on their personalities, psychodynamics and bahviours which is how exactly psychiatrists look at everyone in the world in order to be objective, and still in a humane way afterall. To me Dr Storr's writings are insightful and very humane, not only in this book of his.Some readers may find it sad to have their own Guru being criticised. But one relieving point is that you can still appreciate and believe in any man's preachings even you find out that he is not perfect as a person. So yes, if you are not such an ultimate disciple of any of the gurus the author is describing, this book is recommanded.

A Close Look at the Spiritual Gurus

I do not agree with the other reviewer's comments; I think Starr does quite a thorough analysis of the 'gurus', whom he has chosen from a large scope of times and nations. I agree that it is not very scholarly; and furthermore it has a 'conversating' atmosphere to it. But I personally like it that way. It's clear and intelligible. Why make it seem profound, for the sake of looking more important?The book has eleven chapters. Anthony Starr describes a couple of gurus, whom he identifies as people who declare themselves the experts of life. Gurddjieff, Rajneeh, Rudolf Steiner, and the two leading psychologists Jung and Freud are among these. It becomes interesting when there's seemingly different people.Starr has a degree in psychiatry, and he's been a professor at Oxford, a distinguished psychiatrist in the English society, as well as honor members of the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists. To deny his achievements and knowledge, would simply be not right. His writing is flowing. The whole book is like a long story, but definitely not a long and boring story. His writing consists of his presentation of the gurus with references from other writers and his personal comments in between, which I find quite logical. The book changed my view over prophets and beliefs. Now I know the reasons why we have major religions, and why some are the only figures in religion. I now recognise the other gurus. It was also interesting to know about the secrets of Jung's psychological sickness at his late age, in addition to how Freud was driven to become the Freud we know of him. This book is worth reading every single page. It's a good analysis, and a good story.

A sane overview

Don't overlook this book--this is one of the finest overviews of the wide range of gurus in history and what they had in common. Disentangling the psychological influences on the guru and the follower is a very difficult trick, and Storr's illuminating review not only draws very clear pictures of the lives and work of many of these figures, but adds several chapters at the end which beautifully analyze in a dispassionate and tolerant spirit the sense and the absurdity in the ideas of both the gurus and their followers. Since we all have the drives which energize this arena it is a public service to elucidate what is happening with the clarity and perspective that Storr achieves. It should be a enormous help to anybody researching the field and a solace to anybody caught in it and trying to escape confusion. A fascinating topic brightly illuminated.

Feet Of Clay

This book takes a obscure look at some people that we may build ourselves upon in this case are classified as gurus. Jesus is mentioned as a guru because he believed he was son of God and he was crusified for believing is his truth. Ignatius was a guru who thought that the hallucinations the he had were revelations that came from God and were called consolations. what is considered "normal" at an internationnal scale? I think that it's an obstacle set by the different societies of the world andcultures that we live in.