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Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
The classic five-volume set, reissued in hardcover by popular demand with a sixth volume - the index compiled by the Gurdjieff Society of Washington, D.C. PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMENTARIES have their own special value that a more polished writing would not have retained, for they are concerned with the immediate processes of applying certain deep ideas in daily life.
2030 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Maurice Nicoll
218 books51 followersMaurice Nicoll (19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953) was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 5, 2025
I read this in the late nineteen eighties. It revolutionized my way of thinking. It gave me an Archimedean fulcrum for Knowing Myself.
Oh, not so much in the direction of either Gurdjieff OR Ouspensky, for that matter.
Just vis-à-vis the very human, very astute, understanding of this one now-unsung master: Maurice Nicoll.
Nicoll hefted the blade and heaved the FIRST Mighty Blow of the Axe to my False Personality!
For when you start thinking about your dreams, hopes and ambitions from BELOW rather than from ABOVE the Surface of your Personality - THEN it all starts making sense.
Long lost pieces of the puzzle meet, and Lock Together again...
This series was SO good, I think I made at least two ‘go-round’s through the books before I went off Questing for the many Other Leads that Nicoll casually lets drop here.
Those were times of percolating changes throughout Western workplaces. The Me-Gen petered out with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Peace was in the air.
Unfortunately, that’s when workplace belt-tightening started, morphing eventually into Leaner, Faster and Better (are such things REMOTELY humanistic? Duh.)...
But there I was. The rest of the world was exploding like little asteroid fragments into deeper and farther outer space...
And Me? I started to feel comfortable again in my Inner Space!
So...
Want to follow where I went?
READ Maurice Nicoll.
Oh, not so much in the direction of either Gurdjieff OR Ouspensky, for that matter.
Just vis-à-vis the very human, very astute, understanding of this one now-unsung master: Maurice Nicoll.
Nicoll hefted the blade and heaved the FIRST Mighty Blow of the Axe to my False Personality!
For when you start thinking about your dreams, hopes and ambitions from BELOW rather than from ABOVE the Surface of your Personality - THEN it all starts making sense.
Long lost pieces of the puzzle meet, and Lock Together again...
This series was SO good, I think I made at least two ‘go-round’s through the books before I went off Questing for the many Other Leads that Nicoll casually lets drop here.
Those were times of percolating changes throughout Western workplaces. The Me-Gen petered out with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Peace was in the air.
Unfortunately, that’s when workplace belt-tightening started, morphing eventually into Leaner, Faster and Better (are such things REMOTELY humanistic? Duh.)...
But there I was. The rest of the world was exploding like little asteroid fragments into deeper and farther outer space...
And Me? I started to feel comfortable again in my Inner Space!
So...
Want to follow where I went?
READ Maurice Nicoll.
December 30, 2017
I will not recommend this book to anyone who is not familiar with what it is about. This is not foundational. It requires not one, but a set of pre-requisites from various streams.
It took me 5 months to complete this mammoth!
*Review coming soon*
It took me 5 months to complete this mammoth!
*Review coming soon*
August 10, 2017
This book is a holistic and synchronizing work for life.The level of detail is really spellbinding .Well.. i am not very good at connecting timelines but it should have been during Gurdjieff's time the electron , neutron discoveries were made but the level of detail in explaining the hydrogen tables and digestive process shows the depth of his knowledge.The commentaries bring science and spirituality very close and that all this was disemminated so many years back makes all other east meets west books primers.
January 12, 2010
These 5 volumes provide much food for thought if you are interested in your spiritual psychology. The information is taken from Nicoll's lectures. As is the case with any spiritual teaching, there are layers here that will reveal themselves to you as you deepen your own understanding. It is not something you read and put away. It is something you keep close for the rest of your life.
As you grow spiritually, you will find that you can pick up any volume, flip to a page and find something that relates to circumstances you are currently struggling with.
These 5 volumes have been on our shelves since 1986. We actually have 3 sets, and two of them are barely hanging together from the wear and tear!
As you grow spiritually, you will find that you can pick up any volume, flip to a page and find something that relates to circumstances you are currently struggling with.
These 5 volumes have been on our shelves since 1986. We actually have 3 sets, and two of them are barely hanging together from the wear and tear!
November 6, 2018
A must read...in depth and practical work with the Gurdjieff system, astute, inspiring and humbling by turns.
September 18, 2012
All the volumes...been reading these for years...you don't just Read these.....
November 9, 2012
a fabulous series. Nicoll is for me the most lucid communicator of Gurdjieff's ideas. Nicoll's other books The Mark, and Living Time, are brilliant as well.
October 13, 2017
Outstanding collection!
January 4, 2018
For me, it will be A Journey of a life time to really get from this amazing teachings from this book.
February 7, 2018
perfect read.............
June 19, 2025
Gurdjieffin dördüncü yol öğretisine dair onun öğrencilerinden biri olan Maurice'in yazdığı açıklayıcı yorumlar. Uyanışı amaçlayan ve çaba gerektiren sistematik bir yol. Oldukça derindir ve okuması zordur. Ama kesinlikle değer.
May 9, 2020
Nicoll explains how, through Ouspensky, man can overcome his mechanical responses and thus become a conscious being. We can say that it is one of the most important sources of the fourth way school.
November 16, 2013
I've been hooked on this series since page one, vol. 1. I'm now finishing up volume 4. So glad to own each volume in hardcover because I'm looking forward to reading them over again and again. I love Nicoll's clear style while delving into hard-to-pin-down ideas in spiritual psychology. And I so appreciate G and O's practical advice on how to help yourself break free from mechanical life at least briefly.
April 20, 2011
What a beautiful book, M Nicoll discusses many topics and WOW, any Author listed I would love to meet, But to have a chance to speak to M. Nicoll on the teachings of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff would be very interesting. I really enjoyed the second view too.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews