Book Review: Feeling & Personhood: Psychology in Another Key

We may approach the latest book by John Heron, the founder of the Human Potential Resource Group at the University of Surrey, in anticipation of an exciting and eye-opening experience. The subtitle 'Psychology in Another Key' seems to promise a fresh approach to the theory of the person, a promise reinforced by the notes on the (aesthetically pleasing) cover which explain that within we will find "a radical new theory...in which feeling differentiated from emotion, becomes the distinctive feature of personhood. The author explores the applications of his ideas to living and learning, and the text includes numerous experiential exercises". All sounds essential reading for anyone wishing to discover a "challenging alternative to traditional reason-centred and ego-bound psychology". Should we require further exhortation, this is provided by a Professor William R. Torbert of Boston College, Massachusetts: "The book generates and welcomes dialogue. In short, a truly educational book! Will bring the course alive".

The first faint echo of an alarm bell sounds on the opening page of Chapter One where Heron lists himself as his own precursor - a form of self-advertising normally reserved for a preface - and grows louder as the reader attempts to obtain some purchase on a mish-mash of mixed metaphor, failed extended metaphor, jargon and impenetrable obfuscation. Even if we are willing to have a stab at guessing the meaning of terms such as "The world's own utterance' (p.3),' good bedrock quality' (p.4), the grain of direct acquaintance with people' (p.4), or 'Absolute spirit bias' (p.5) which are not explained in the text, we are likely to baulk at the notion that 'the ancient Greeks launched western culture' (p.12), or that "The set of categories" (for evaluating a theory of the person) "needs to extend well over the field and not leave anything out that really needs to be in" (p.5). Some of Heron's use of English might be considered poetic, but such examples sit strangely alongside confusion and inaccuracy on almost every one of the 264 pages, and colloquially-expressed musings such as "Where do ideas come from? Where indeed" (p.3) do little to add to the reader's confidence in the text.

Perhaps part of Heron's answer to his question about the source of his ideas for a theory of the person will instil the lacking confidence:

"...certain outward travels that were also inward journeys; what feel like unseen presences being active in stimulating the flow of thought while I am writing; and for over a year...living on an isolated promontory of land where I had the space, time and opportunity to dialogue with nature, its local creatures, and the planet, the sun, moon and wider universe on its different levels." (p.3).

The exercises are similarly curious. One called 'Compresent rabbit' is mentioned in the first chapter but does not appear in the index. (The lack of an index of exercises may prove an irritant to some). It can be tracked down on page 178 and involves identifying (in the company of a partner) with every nuance of a tame rabbit which is required to be feeding nearby. Heron advises that we may substitute some other creature or plant according to availability. The present writer felt rather more drawn to the next exercise which involved following "the imaginal recreations of" (a small pot plant) "whether it leads". Better yet, and sublime in its specificity, is an exercise which entails the contemplation of "a good-quality reproduction of Temple on a Clear Day in the Mountains', a painting in ink and colour on silk, attributed to Li Ch'eng of the Northern Sung dynasty", (also p.178).

New Ageists looking for a step up the intellectual ladder from Louisa M. Hay may find Feeling and Personhood useful. Others, including (we might suspect) most educationalists, will wonder at the level of clarity of thought and expression. William R. Torbert finds the book "welcomes dialogue"; Heron claims to "dialogue with nature": but this seems to be a dialogue distinct from communication. Readers may have genuinely sought a radical new perspective on feeling and emotion, some may extract it, many will probably find this "psychology in another key' secretly locked within its own language.

Simon Du Plock