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Jane Fonda
"Make it better" is her mantra. Her autobiography is a great implicit study in Temperament. Jane Fonda has had a quite interesting journey in her life so far. A privileged and mostly ignored daughter of Henry Fonda and her suicidal mother Frances, Jane grew up not knowing herself. This is tragic situation for an Idealist, for she hid her excessive Idealist's guilt and naivety with eating disorders and marrying three times. But, she slowly kept trying to understand herself, as Idealists are wont to do, and finally did after 60 years. One of the most intriguing part of this search was it took the frantic opulent life of Ted Turner, an extremely extroverted, peripatetic Artisan to make Fonda finally need to say *stop* --- "slow down" and then take a good look at herself. It took her almost a lifetime to find her voice and calling: teaching women's issues -- teaching the stuff she actually experienced and conquered -- rather than the political knowledge that she naively tried to pass off as her own, using her fame, and Idealist credulity as an activist in her younger, reluctant-phoney, days. Her explaining of her relationships is especially revealing: one Idealist and two Artisan husbands. She shows some of the pitfalls of the Idealist-Artisan marriage, as well as some of the advantages. Her first husband, Roger Vadim, was the classic erratic Artisan male charmer. The naive American, and young, Fonda was charmed by the sophisticated European for a couple of years. Her second husband, Tom Hayden, a political activist and an Idealist himself, seemed a better match and did last for a longer time. I did not get a very clear sense of why her and Tom's marriage failed. Neither was articulate or interested, but more probably incapable, in pinpointing the essential problem with the marriage. The fact that they are the same type, might have something to do with it. There isn't much information from their accounts to make strong conclusions. On the other hand, her last husband, who she eventually dumped, Ted Turner proved that charming Jane was possible despite them being an odd couple, showing that some Idealists can be charmed by Artisans often. Lastly, she gives us an intriguing glimpse at her father, Henry Fonda -- a greatest generation Idealist born into a very tactiturned midwest upbringing. Henry is a whole another story to be understood regarding Temperament. If the complicated interaction of Temperament and Environment does not intrigue you in Henry's case, it never will. Her autobiography is mostly honest and open, and is an articulate exposing of the interworkings of a Teacher Idealist thoughts and feelings. Moreover, it gives us a panoramic view of both the political and social history of the last 50 years from her personal perspective -- obviously colored from her point of view -- but clearly honest and biased. It is one of the best autobiographies of a female Teacher Idealist I have found. Good work Hanoi Jane. I think she achieved what she wanted to accomplish with this book.
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