Most Popular Books by James Hillman

Examining the three great originators of depth psychology - Freud, Jung, and Adler - these chapters look again at what is really meant by "case history", "active imagination" and "inferiority feelings".

This groundbreaking classic explores the necessity of connections between our life and soul and developing the main lines of the soul-making process.

In this work, acclaimed Jungian James Hillman examines the concepts of myth, insights, eros, body, and the mytheme of female inferiority, as well as the need for the freedom to imagine and to feel psychic reality. By examining these ideas, and the role they have played both in and outside of the therapeutic setting, Hillman mounts a compelling argument that, rather than locking them away in some inner asylum or subjecting them to daily self-treatment, man''s "peculiarities" can become an integral part of a rich and fulfilling daily life. Originally published by Northwestern University Press in 1972, this work had a profound impact on a nation emerging self-aware from the 1960s, as well as on the era''s burgeoning feminist movement. It remains a profound critique of therapy and the psychological viewpoint, and it is one of Hillman''s most important and enduring works.

In his powerful bestseller The Soul''s Code, James Hillman brilliantly illuminated the central importance of character to our spiritual and emotional lives. Now, in this magnificent new book, Hillman completes his exploration of character with a profound and revolutionary reflection on life''s second half. "Character requires the additional years," declares Hillman. "The last years confirm and fulfill character." Far from blunting or dulling the self, the accumulation of experience concentrates the essence of our being, heightening our individual mystery and unique awareness of life. Drawing on his grounding in Jungian psychology, Hillman explains here the archetypes and myths that govern the self''s realignment in our final years. The Force of Character follows an enriching journey through the three stages of aging--lasting, the deepening that comes with longevity; leaving, the preparation for departure; and left, the special legacy we each bestow on our survivors. Along the way the book explores the meanings and often hidden virtues of characteristic physical and emotional changes, such as loss of memory, alterations in sleep patterns, and the mysterious upsurge in erotic imagination. Steeped in the wisdom of a lifetime, radiant with Hillman''s reading in philosophy, poetry, and sacred texts, charged with a piercing clarity, The Force of Character is a book that will change--and affirm--the lives of all who read it.

The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Soul’s Code engages in a wide-ranging dialogue that “bursts with vigorous ideas, tangents, and humor” (Library Journal). This furious, trenchant, and audacious series of interrelated dialogues and letters takes a searing look at not only the legacy of psychotherapy, but also practically every aspect of contemporary living—from sexuality to politics, media, the environment, and life in the city. James Hillman—controversial renegade Jungian psychologist and the man Robert Bly called “the most lively and original psychologist we’ve had in America since William James”—joins with Michael Ventura, cutting-edge columnist for the L.A. Weekly, to shatter many of our current beliefs about our lives, the psyche, and society. Unrestrained, freewheeling, and brilliant, these two intellectual wild men take chances, break rules, and run red lights to strike at the very core of our shibboleths and perceptions. “All sorts of fresh ideas.” —Los Angeles Times “Thought-provoking, fun, and not quite like anything else.” —Library Journal “Range[s] energetically over such subjects as psychotherapy, politics and aesthetics, method acting and postwar ideas of the self, child abuse and inner child theory, romantic love, and America’s tradition of anti-intellectualism . . . Seductive precisely because if offers two live voices actively engaged.” —The Washington Post

A vitally important introduction to the theories of one of the most original thinkers in psychology today, A Blue Fire gathers selected passages from many of Hillman''s seminal essays on archetypal psychology.

Traces the intellectual ancestry of archetypal psychology, assembles its literature, and clarifies the root metaphors governing its practice. Includes a bibliography of relevant publications, as well as a complete checklist of all of James Hillman''s writings to 1992.

First published in 1990. James Hillman is one of the leading figures in archetypal psychology and one of the most creative minds in psychology. This anthology of his writings presents carefully selected, choice passages from many of his seminal essays and work on archetypal psychology. Fundamental themes in Hillman''s thought form the chapters of the book: poetic basis of mind, psychological polytheism, dreams, love, therapy. The book is intended for the reader who wants an overview or introduction to his highly original approach, an approach that draws on mythology, renaissance philosophy, alchemy and critical readings of Jung and Freud.

Hillman, a Jungian analyst, examines suicide not from the viewpoints of life, society, and mental health, but in relation to death and the soul.

The second volume of the James Hillman Uniform Edition consolidate Hillman''s papers and lectures on the subject of politics, ecology, and urban affairs, such as "Psychoanalysis, Self, and Community," "Culture and the Animal Soul," "Natural Beauty without Nature," "City, Sport, and Violence," and "Where Is The Environment?"

In the boldest expose on the nature of power since Machiavelli, celebrated Jungian therapist James Hillman shows how the artful leader uses each of two dozen kinds of power with finesse and subtlety. Power, we often forget, has many faces, many different expressions. "Empowerment," writes best-selling Jungian analyst James Hillman, "comes from understanding the widest spectrum of possibilities for embracing power." If food means only meat and potatoes, your body suffers from your ignorance. When your idea of food expands, so does your strength. So it is with power. "James Hillman," says Robert Bly, "is the most lively and original psychologist we have had in America since William James." In Kinds Of Power, Hillman addresses himself for the first time to a subject of great interest to business people. He gives much needed substance to the subject by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the rnind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength. Hillman''s "anatomy" of power explores two dozen expressions of power every artful leader must understand and use, including: the language of power, control, influence, resistance, leadership, prestige, authority, exhibitionism, charisma, ambition, reputation, fearsomeness, tyranny, purism, subtle power, growth, and efficiency.

War is a timeless force in the human imagination—and, indeed, in daily life. Engaged in the activity of destruction, its soldiers and its victims discover a paradoxical yet profound sense of existing, of being human. In A Terrible Love of War, James Hillman, one of today’s most respected psychologists, undertakes a groundbreaking examination of the essence of war, its psychological origins and inhuman behaviors. Utilizing reports from many fronts and times, letters from combatants, analyses by military authorities, classic myths, and writings from great thinkers, including Twain, Tolstoy, Kant, Arendt, Foucault, and Levinas, Hillman’s broad sweep and detailed research bring a fundamentally new understanding to humanity’s simultaneous attraction and aversion to war. This is a compelling, necessary book in a violent world.

With Jung’s Red Book as their point of departure, two leading scholars explore issues relevant to our thinking today. In this book of dialogues, James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani reassess psychology, history, and creativity through the lens of Carl Jung’s Red Book. Hillman, the founder of Archetypal Psychology, was one of the most prominent psychologists in America and is widely acknowledged as the most original figure to emerge from Jung’s school. Shamdasani, editor and cotranslator of Jung’s Red Book, is regarded as the leading Jung historian. Hillman and Shamdasani explore a number of the issues in the Red Book—such as our relation with the dead, the figures of our dreams and fantasies, the nature of creative expression, the relation of psychology to art, narrative and storytelling, the significance of depth psychology as a cultural form, the legacy of Christianity, and our relation to the past—and examine the implications these have for our thinking today.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Two groundbreaking essays, "The Thought of the Heart" and "Anima Mundi: The Return of the Soul to the World," by James Hillman that launched Archetypal Psychology and began the renaissance of a psychology that returns psychic reality to the world. Following Marsilio Ficino, who was the first to place the soul in the center of his vision, Hillman argues for a psychology that reflects the world it works in.

Insearch has become one of the few enduring descriptions of Jungian therapy in its relation with religion. This edition, which has been translated into five languages, comes with a new preface by the author.

A reflection on the presence and fading of animals in human lives and consequently in dreams and imaginings, emotions and thoughts. An interweaving of art and psychology, dream and symbol, Jungianism and lore.

In a deepening of the thinking begun in The Myth of Analysis and Re-Visioning Psychology, James Hillman develops the first new view of dreams since Freud and Jung.

Volume 6.1 of the Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman features lectures, occasional writings, scholarly essays, and clinical papers on the subject of mythical figures, including "Athene, Ananke and Abnormal Psychology" (1977), "Dionysus in Jung''s Writings" (1972), "Pink Madness, or Why Does Aphrodite Drive Men Crazy With Pornography?" (1995), "Mars, Wars, Arms, Rams" (1987), and "Moses, Alchemy, Authority" (2001).

Enth.: The inferior function / by Marie-Louise von Franz. The feeling function / by James Hillman.

Since the 1980s James Hillman, the best-selling author and founder of Archetypal Psychology has written and lectured extensively on the presence of animals in our conscious and unconscious lives. Volume 9 of the Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman unites, for the first time, his papers and lectures on the subjects of animals, including "Animal Kingdom in the Human Dream" (1982), "Dream Animals" (1997), "Culture and the Animal Soul" (1994/1997), and "Learning from Animals" (1999).

This book collects all of James Hillman''s papers on the alchemical imagination from 1980 to the present: "Therapeutic Value of alchemical Language"; "Silver and the White Earth I & II"; "Alchemical Blue and the Unio Mentalis"; "Salt: A Chapter in Alchemical Psychology"; "rudiments: Fire. Ovens, Vessels, Fuel, Glass"; "The Imagination of air and the collapse of alchemy"; "The Yellowing of the Work"; "White Supremacy"; "Concerning the Stone - Alchemical Images of the Goal"; "The Azure Vault: Caelum as Experience."

Forty-two chapters comprise Hillman''s writings on the psychology of public affairs: urbanism, environmental aesthetics, citizenship, and politics. The essays and talks divide into four groups: Patient as Citizen; Politics of Beauty; Places of Practice; and Responsive Environmentalism. Edited by Robert J. Leaver and introduced by Gail Thomas.

Edited by Glen Slater, Senex & Puer, Vol. 3 of the Uniform Edition of the Writings of James Hillman, for the first time, collects Hillman''s running encounters with a primary psychological pattern-an archetype that arises alongside the very attempt to fashion psychological perspective. Senex and puer are Latin terms for "old man" and "youth," and personify the poles of tradition, stasis, structure, and authority on one side, and immediacy, wandering, invention and idealism on the other. The senex consolidates, grounds, and disciplines; the puer flashes with insight and thrives on fantasy and creativity. These diverging, conflicting tendencies are ultimately interdependent, forming two faces of the one configuration, each face never far from the other. "Old" and "new" maybe the most direct terms for the pair. They represent two very different ways of entering the world, but are oddly dependent on one another.

A deeper, richer portrait of Oedipus, the most famous figure in all of Greek tragedy and the (unconscious?!) hero of the basic myth of psychoanalysis by two giants in the fields of mythology and psychology: the eminent mythographer Karl Kerényi and the founder of archetypal psychology, James Hillman. Kerényi widens the Oedipus myth''s cultural context by introducing unusual dramatic versions that played in Rome, Paris, Vienna, and London. His authoritative and detailed essays release wonderful insights for even the most casual reader. Hillman takes on Father Freud and his Oedipus complex (i.e., every son wants to kill his father and marry his mother). He inverts the emphasis and asks, Why do fathers kill their sons? Hillman brilliantly proposes that the madness of Oedipus may lie less in his overt crimes than in his-and therapy''s-single-minded focus upon "figuring out" one''s true identity through a remembering of the past. This relentless search for Oedipus to "know himself" is still with us, still blinds us, still tries to turn people in therapy into Oedipus. Yet Hillman also shows us that, in addition to the curse, murder, incest, and disease, the myth of Oedipus contains beauty, blessing, love, and loyalty.

Plato and the Greeks called it "daimon," the Romans "genius," the Christians "guardian angel." Today we use the terms heart, spirit, and soul. To James Hillman, the acknowledged intellectual source for Thomas Moore''s bestselling sensation Care of the Soul, it is the central and guiding force of his utterly compelling "acorn theory"--in which each life is formed by a unique image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny, just as the mighty oak''s destiny is written in the tiny acorn. In this new look at age-old themes, Hillman provides a radical, frequently amusing, and highly accessible path to realization through an extensive array of examples. He urges his readers to discover the "blueprints" particular to their own individual lives, certain that there is more to life than can be explained by genetics or environment. As he says, "We need a fresh way of looking at the importance of our lives." What The Soul''s Code offers is an inspirational, positive approach to life--a way of seeing, and a way of recovering what has been lost of our intrinsic selves.