From Powells.com
Sigmund
Freud's most brilliant student, Carl
Jung, adopted the fundamental insights of his teacher, but used them to reach
very different conclusions. Jung's own most innovative student, James
Hillman, followed much the same pattern. Hillman moved from New Jersey to
Switzerland in the fifties to study with the great psychologist. He went on to
become the first Director of Studies at the Jung Institute in Zürich. In
1975 he wrote one of the most innovative and influential works of psychology of
the late twentieth century,
Re-Visioning Psychology, which pioneered a
new school of psychological thought, Archetypal Psychology. Hillman is greatly
indebted to Jung's innovations, yet his ideas stand in marked contrast to those
of his teacher. Jungian thought is fundamentally Germanic. Jung's focus was the
self, his mode holistic. Hillman was drawn to a more Mediterranean mode. He was
most influenced by the Ancient Greeks and the Renaissance Italians. Archetypal
Psychology encourages a mode of living that is fragmented and pantheistic, rather
than single-minded and monotheistic. At its heart is the idea of
soul as
conceived by Plato and such Renaissance Italians as Marsilio Ficino and Giordano
Bruno.
And, in the past few years, the ideas of Archetypal Psychology have begun to
filter into the consciousness of the wider culture. Thomas
Moore's 1992 Care
of the Soul, which is essentially a primer of Hillman's ideas, was one of
the bestselling books of the nineties. And recently, Hillman established a popular
audience of his own. Published in his seventies, The
Soul's Code was Hillman's first international bestseller. This book explores
Hillman's "acorn theory," the idea that we all come into this world
with a unique image (the Greeks called it "daemon," the Romans, "genius")
that determines our fundamental character. This idea is found, in one form or
another, in almost all cultures throughout history. Yet it is strangely
and in Hillman's opinion, dangerously absent from our modern, capitalist
worldview. The Force of Character is a follow-up to The Soul's Code.
In it, Hillman explores the ramifications of his acorn theory for the last period
of life, old age. As always, Hillman's approach to the ideas that shape our
lives ideas such as fate, soul, imagination, and calling is at
once rooted in tradition and revolutionary in the fullest sense of the word.
This book is certainly one of the most erudite and provocative on the subject
in recent memory. Farley, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Provocative...Hillman breathes new life into a venerable concept, and in so doing helps us to rediscover the soulful possibilities of aging." Publishers Weekly
Review
"This is a book that will comfort someone afraid of getting old. Its gentle messages shine through." Los Angeles Times
Review
"As a new and provocative take on a topic many would rather avoid, Hillman's book has some value. But a definitive explanation of aging would require much more rigor." Derek Bickerton, The New York Times Book Review
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-221) and index.
About the Author
James Hillman is a psychologist, scholar, international lecturer, pioneer psychologist, and the author of more than twenty books, including The Soul's Code, Re-Visioning Psychology, Healing Fiction, The Dream and the Underworld, Inter Views, and Suicide and the Soul. A Jungian analyst and originator of post-Jungian "archetypal psychology," he has held teaching positions at Yale University, the University of Chicago, Syracuse University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Dallas, where he cofounded the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. After thirty years of residence in Europe, he now lives in Connecticut.