Review in CHOICE

Killinger, Barbara. Integrity: Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reason

McGill-Queen's, 2007. 204p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780773532878

Killinger (a clinical psychologist and author of Workaholics: The Respectable Addicts, 1992) uses the concept of integrity as an umbrella to cover a wide range of personal qualities for living a moral, ethical, and spiritual existence. ...

Killinger (a clinical psychologist and author of Workaholics: The Respectable Addicts, 1992) uses the concept of integrity as an umbrella to cover a wide range of personal qualities for living a moral, ethical, and spiritual existence. She divides the book into three sections. In part 1 the author defines integrity and relates the concept to traits such as honesty, sympathy, conscience, empathy, compassion, fairness, self-control, and duty. In part 2 she argues that integrity has been lost in much of contemporary culture and offers reasons why this is so. In part 3 she offers a series of lists that detail ways that people can improve the level of integrity in their own lives and in the lives of those around them. Killinger brings a Jungian approach to aspects of her discussion. The book moves across so much psychological ground that in sometimes reads as a textbook listing of terms and concepts from positive psychology. However, the book certainly provides a broad-ranging, comprehensive exploration of the concept of integrity and a detailed how-to guide for achieving it in one's life. Summing up: Recommended. Lower and upper-division undergraduates, professionals and general readers.

-- R. Levine, California State University, Fresno